GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 413, 8 October 1875, Page 2

GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, {From a correspondent of the Press.) Wednesday, October 6. The House resumed at 7.80. CUSTOMS DUTIES REPEAL BILL. Sir George Grey moved the second reading of the Certain Customs Duties Repeal Bill, and said he proposed to take off those duties which pressed on the rich and poor alike. He would first take the tax off tea, which formed the principal article of consumption in every house in the colony. He asked that the 6d per pound levied on tea should be removed, and that the incidental charges springing from that duty should also be removed from the consumer. The incidental charges were interest upon duty which had to be paid by the consumer, the cost of loading goods and interest thereon, which also had to be paid by the consumer. What he asked therefore was that the duty, amounting to about £60,000 a year nominally, but in reality amounting to about £90,000, should be removed from the people of New Zealand. He asked that a similar course should be pursued with regard to coffee. The sacrifice in this case would be something like £7OOO a year. He then came to a still more important article, viz, sugar, the duty upon which was nominally Id per lb. He believed if the duty were taken off sugar, together with the incidental charges to which he had referred, New Zealand, abounding as it did in fruit, and capable of growing anything, would develope an extensive and valuable trade in the exportation of preserves. He proposed also to take the duty off flour ; the duty levied upon which amounted to a very large sum. He had named that article in the schedule, because he was desirous that every article of general consumption should be freed from taxation. If he should be forced by necessity, he should make concession in respect of one of those articles in order to obtain the others, but he did hope the House would agree to the Bill passing in the form he now proposed. To remit the duties on tea, sugar, coffee, and flour, would only involve a loss to the revenue of £IBO,OOO a year, while the people would be relieved of taxation to the extent of £250,000 a year. Within the next two years there would be considerable pressure from taxation, and considerable diminution in our expenditure, and he believed a crisis would come which would affect every family and every person in the colony; provision to meet which should be made in these days of prosperity. To do so was wise and just, and he regretted the Government had not done so on their own motion. If the Government were not prepared to adopt the Bill, he hoped they would meet him halfway, or if they insisted on the retention of the duties as now levied, they would propose to levy a tax of one halfpenny per lb on wool, relieving the people from their present burdens to some extent,

By passing the Bill the House would be taking the first great step towards retrieving our position, aad marching on in that course in financial and administrative reform, which whether the Government choose or not, must be a course which within a few months the next Parliament would assuredly follow as its guiding star. The Colonial Treasurer said he took it for granted that the member for Auckland City West had brought in the Bill as the leader of the Opposition, and not as a free lance, and such being the case he assumed that that hou gentleman knew that no Government could accept at the hands of the Opposition a Bill reducing the revenues of the country ; wherefore he concluded the hon gentleman either did not wish the Bill to pass, or wished it to assume the form of a want of confidence motion. The hon gentleman had frequented asserted, and he hoped on Friday he would attempt to prove it, that there was a deficit of a quarter of a million, and that it was absolutely impossible for the country to meet the public creditor, yet he came down with a proposal to sweep away £176,000 of revenue at one stroke of the pen. He (the Treasurer) would never be found contending that one class should be taxed and another exempted, or telling the poor man that he was oppressively taxed when he knew he was not. Nor would he be a party to protecting the rich man, but if the hon gentleman went into figures he would see that persons of property were now paying taxes. It was according to the spending power that the individual produced to the State. No doubt he would be told that the system of public works had increased the value of land throughout the colony to an enormous extent, wherefore there should be some special tax on the land holder. In theory, he admitted it was perfectly reasonable and right that if works carried on by the State enormously increased the value of land, the State should get something out of the land ; but he would ask the member for Auckland West if he had considered how that was to be done. It was absolutely impossible, since the hon member had given notice of his intention to bring down a Bill, to obtain accurate information from the various parts of the colony, but he had obtained from Wellington the income and expenditure of three classes of the laboring community and the duty on that expenditure. This has been compiled after conversations with the men themselves and examinations of their tradesmen’s books, so that it might be taken as tolerably correct. The first case was that of a common laborer with a wife and three children. He had £lO5 a year, making 7s per day and overtime, and the total sum he contributed to the revenue, including tobacco, was 16s 3d per head per year, so that his income was £lO5 per year, and taxes only £4 1s 2d. In the second case a man received 8s per day, but he did not get regular work, being employed only about 260 days in the year, and his income amounted to £lO4. Only this man was rather more free in his expenditure, spending more on dutiable articles. He had two children and a wife, and his contribution to the revenue amounted to £5 Is 6d. or 18s 8d per head. The third case was that of an artisan with a family of four. He earned £165 per year, and contributed to the revenue £6 9s 9d. The class of men he had referred to numbered about 90,000, or a quarter of the entire population, so that the total revenue raised from this source was under £900,000 a year. Therefore, the balance of revenue was raised by the remaining three quarters of the population. The practical effect of the Bill would not be to benefit the poor especially, as a large portion of those people were domestic servants, whose taxes were paid by their employers. It would destroy one of the most important trades in the colony, and the hon gentleman had brought it up in such a form as left the Government no alternative but to reject it absolutely. After a considerable debate, in which Messrs O’Conor, Reynolds, Wakefield, Hunter, Andrew, Shephard, McGlashan. Bunny, and Gibbs took part, the motion was negatived by 41 against 15. WESTLAND WASTE LANDS BILL. In committee on the Westland Waste Lands Act Amendment Bill, clause B, extending the duration of leases to fourteen years, was struck out by 21 against 15. Clauses 4 and 5 were consequently abandoned, and the Bill as amended was reported to the House, (Press Telegraph Agency ,) Thursday, October 7. The Speaker took the chair at 2.30. THE SAND GLASS. Mr Macandrew called attention to the fact that the sand glass wanted adjustment, as it varied from one to two minutes, according to which side was uppermost, and it had been the means df shutting him out from an important division. FINANCE COMMITTEE. Mr Wood asked for further power to be given to the finance committee to prosecute further inquiries into the banking arrangements of the Government. OHINEMURI MINERS. In reply to Mr O’Neill, Hon E. Richardson said the Government intended to give effect to the recommendation of the Ohinemuri miners’ rights committee in reference to the sum of £l5O to be paid to Adam Porter. GOLDFIELDS ACT AMENDMENT. Upon the House proceeding to consider the message from the Legislative Council regarding the Goldfields Act Amendment (No 1) Bill, The Treasurer regretted they could not agree with the amendments of the Legislative Council, and he proposed that the House would not agree with the recommendation of the Council, He wished that the Bill should be allowed to drop, and he would then ask the permission of the House to introduce a Bill identical with the one dropped, and after passing it through all its stages to send it to the other House. The Bill was of great importance to the colony, and he did not wish to see it shelved. EMPLOYMENT OF FEMALES ACT. Upon the motion to go into committee on the Employment of Females Act Amendment Bill, Mr Bradshaw protested against the principle introduced of allowing women and children to work in factories so early as six in the morning, an hour at which very few men went to work. Considering the pressure of work, and the late period of the session, he would not detain the House, but merely move that the Bill be read that day six months. Mr Reid supported the Bill. He failed to see what injury could result from children and females having to go to work at six in the morning. The great desideratum in workshops and factories was that ample

cubic space should be provided, so that the workers might have a healthy atmosphere. The hon gentleman read a petition from the operatives at Mosgiel in favor of the Bill. Mr Rolleston supported the amend ment.

Mr Stafford considered the Bill an evasion of the laws found to be necessary at home. In some cases it was the duty o' - the Government to interfere with the liberty of the subjects, especially in the case of women and children. He would support the member for Waikaia’s amendment.

Mr Pearce, though he voted against the second reading, hoped the Bill would go into committee.

Hon 0. 0. Bowen opposed the Bill. Hon Mr Reynolds pointed out that the best course for the member for Waikaia to pursue would be to introduce a Bill to test the question by restricting any women employees from laboring longer than the hours in his Bill. Mr Carrington called attention to the fact that telegraph boys, twelve years of age, were employed from eleven in the day until eleven and twelve at night. A division was taken, and the Bill ordered to be committed by 25 against 22. In committee on the second clause, Mr Reid sought to amend the clause so as to enable women to work ten hours a day. In the event of the House refusing, he said that he would ask that the working time should be extended from six in the evening till nine.

The first amendment was put and negatived, the words “ not exceeding eight hours on the whole” being retained.

Mr Bradshaw then moved that no females be employed before eight in the morning, instead of six as in the Bill. The amendment was negatived by 21 to 19, and another division took place as to whether women and children should be allowed to work up till six or nine in the evening, Mr Bradshaw being in favour of the former, and Mr Reid of the latter. Mr Reid was defeated on the voices, and the working hours are to be from six till six. Sir Cracroft Wilson moved the introduction of a new clause, the effect of which was- to be that women employed in any retail shop where goods are exposed tor sale, should not come under the operation of the previous Act regarding female workers. Messrs Bradshaw and Webb considered this would practically repeal the Act. Mr Pearce said if instead of the word females ” the words “ saleswoman and milliners” were substituted he would support the clause. The word saleswoman was retained, and the word milliner rejected, on the motion of the Hon C. C. Bowen, bills passed. Dunedin Borrowing Powers Extension, and Westland Waste Lands Act Amendment Bills. The House rose at 6,30.