THE MINISTERIAL VISIT.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1511, 18 February 1885, Page 2

THE MINISTERIAL VISIT.

♦— The Premier's Address. On Saturday evening th« Premier delivered an address in the Chnrch of England Sunday School on " Politics Past and Present." The County Chairman presided and briefly introduced the lecturer to the meeting. Mr Stont who was well received opened by saviuy there was a story which he had read for the first time ; when a boy learning French. It was j one of his first lessons, and he hud ; spelled it over so often that he could I nfcver foi'get it. It was a useful story I to tell a political audience because the j moral it conveyed was very applicable to politics. It was this : There was a ' shield erected at a cross-road and coming flue way it appeared to be gold and coming from the opposite direction, silver. Two men approached from opposite directions and looking up at the shield one said it was gold and the other silver, and without going round to examine the opposite side they b«- i gau t© quatrtrl. Now iv politics it was j very much the same, but before we fought we should examine both sides. That night he would invite them to look at the shield from his poi"t of view, and if they should uot after doing so come round to his way of thinking they might at least allow that he was not wholly mistaken. Let them reason together. He appeared before them that night in a twofold capacity. Hist as a member of the Ministry of the day, bound within certain defined limits, and. secondly, as a colonist with certain political ideas which were, perhaps not popular because not sufficiently understood [Mr Stout her* referred briefly to the defeat of the first Stout Government]. He continued. His hearers remembered i the Jast election for Inangaliiw, they '. Imd a hard contest and had defined ] politienl views. Thejr were epposed to < the Atkinson Government then in < »owev, and in this respect were in 1 iccord with popular feeling throughout 1 ;he rest of the Colony, for wheii Par-. < iamont re-nsscmbled after the general I 'lections the Atkinson party did not i inn* her more than a third of the j Souse, and the Government therefore i lf i'cr.fd. The question then arose: 1 iVi.o \ v as to form a Ministry ? The i •osition was peculiar. There were no v

broad party lines, and the House was divided into four distinct parties, with a number of irregulars having n« pref <«ence tor any Mieef them.. It soon became I&hin ,tpt W» wa^frparfible for any one topbtain a par%. Before the elections h# had said that this would be tlje case, and it followed as he had predicted. They were . aware that before Sir Jalina Vogel's candidature lift had said that he was able to work with the speaker tfff ««V«nH IfteV ima^il* (Mr Stout) wratp a letter to the Lyttelton Times on the subject From this it would be seen that himself and Sir Julius Vbgrl went to the House with an understanding that they could work together, and this with a knowledge that it was impossible for the existing parties to carry a majority. He had been accused of intriguing for the Premiership. He had not time to enter into a full explanation of all the circumstances accompanying his first acceptance of that office, but he could assure them he did not intrigue for the position, and further then this, he did not want it. (Applause.) When the subject first arose he offered the Premiership to Sir Julius Yogel, and had expressed a wish to stand out It was the Liberal party who said they would not assent unless he accepted the position [Mr Seddon : hear, hear.] He did not desire the Premiership. (Applause.) He had done the same thing in 1877, when he could have had the office but refused it, and helped the Ministry of that time to carry through their measures. (Applause.) Now what were the measures the first Stout- Vogel Government brought in % It had been represented that the Government had neglected to provide for this district, when the fact was they did provide for this district What was the policy the Government laid down ? It had l>een snid they proposed to spend ten millions on railways, and that the West Coast line wasignoied. Theveryoppositewasthe fact The railways to be constructed out of loan were the Otago Central and that from Nelson to Brunnerton, and .it was because they proposed to do this that they were thrown out of office. There was no doubt about this, in proof of which he would read the remarks of one of the Otago members who worked against them. The speaker alluded to was Mr Gillies, who was reported on pages 87 and 88 of Hansard No. 1, to have said "When I look through the Speech I agree with some hou. members that if there is one thing staring out of the policy of the Government more than another it is the lact that the Government aro prepared to borrow money for the purpose of making a railway from the East Coast to th« W»st Coast. An hon. member. — No. Mr Gillies : They are propared to do that, if it is necessary. An hon. member. — No. by companies. Mr Gillies : Yes through companies ; but they cannot say for a moment that any company will take up the line and wake it, except with pneh concessions as .this House will look upon as equal in every respect to borrowing the money. Ho I sa>\ therefore, that, look upon it in any way you like, it comes to this ; that the Government are pi-epared to borrow money for the purpose of making that line, and for the line to Nelson." Mr Stout continued : So far as the East and West Coast line is con cerned it was to be constructed by private enterprise, but the line from j Nelson to Brunnerton was to be made ! out of loan, and if the meeting looked at tiiAt they would see that so far fr>.m the Government overlooking the interest of this district, quite the opposite was the case, those who opposed the Government proposals being alonu the persons to blame. The extract read would show the meeting how and why the Government wer*. defeated, and if the Ota^o and West Coast memI hers had not left us the Government would of had a majority, and therefore as they Hirl not vote for the Nelson to Brn nisei-ion railway, he could say — "Shake not your gory lycks at me." he did not do it. The Otago and West Coast members who ought to have kept the Government in office deserted it, and they were defeated, and so the opportunity of getting the line made «vaslost, and the nest Government had not the power to do it. This then was how the interests of this district were neglected. (Applause). Coming now to the Grey Government of 1878, what did they propose. They proposed to construct the East and West Coast railway from Amberly to Brunnerton by the Cannibal Gorge, but then, as now, the intention of the Government was frustrated, and they had not got the railway. However, the position of the matter was this, under the Railways Construction Act a syndicate, had taken up the undertaking, and, standing there he was bound to say this ; that it wonld perhaps have been better for the Colony, seeing the enormous wealth to be opened up, if the railway went undertaken as they purposed in the first Speech. But they could not blame the present Government It was not their fault, but the fault of thos« who turned them uut. (Applause). Speaking for himself on the land question he said many people differed from him because they did not think bis views .were sound and right H» was amazed to come here and find that tho people were opposed to the leasing principle. If any class in the country should be desirous Of Seeing the public lands remain in the hand 3 of the Colony it was those here. (Applause) How many of them came from the Old Country and there- . fore knew the evils which had resulted from the alienation of the land, and pet they were asking to have the very ' iamc evil transferred to New, Zealand ' Fie had been amazed to lejaralha^ this < s what they coutfided for [Ji»j. HejJ vaa amaz*d that th«y»honW desire to (

•re anything of the kind. [No| They i ssieV no, yet they were opposed to the ; i he held on the land question, j Soppee* the present Government sold all their mineral lands, the^tiould net : object to it They held that tfc* State had no right to hold the land, tad re- m i garded his views on that question as a ] " fad." He contended that land was not the same as other property. Land was the source of all wealth and was a special class of property. If they bagged their goM ffwontd not ittenMßT but land was always producing. He referred to the speech of a Maori member who said if they went on selling land in the North Island at the present rate very soon there would be nothing left for the Maoris bat the main roads. (Laughter). In like manner he contended that those who argued that land was the same as other property, would soon have nothing left but the main roads. (Applause). He held it was their duty to apply the same pi*inciples to pastoral and agricultural lands that they did to auriferous lands. This led him to another question. He ! believed they were opposed to a land tax, and had seen it stated that they v-ere against a land tax because it amounted to confiscation. What was the property tax, bat confiscation. He proceeded to explain that one man had £5,000 worth of land which was always producing, and another had £5,000 worth of machinery. What did the Proper y Tax Act sny ? That they must pay the same for the machinery as for the land, the owner of the machinery might protest that his machinery was being worked at a loss, or was not working at all, hut that made no difference ; he had to pay the same as the man with the land, whose property was always on the increase, and yet those who defended the Property Tax say this is fair and equitable, and is not eontiscatory in its character. Now with a Land Tax they could go to the owner of the land and i say " yon have a monopoly and you I mnst l»e t-ixed.'* To the struggling farmer whose every day' 3 toil was put into the land, he would say : we shall charge you nothing for yonr improvements bnt upon all your nnimproved land we shall put a tax. Under the Property Tax, however, impiovenjents and every thing else was taxable He held then that the Property Tax was not a fair tax, (Applause). He knew that the majority of those present did | not agree with him in this, and re- . 1 garded him as a Radical, but the day ' 1 would come wheu they would change Ito his \iew. It was said that 'by putting on a land tax the I large fcowua would be allowed to J escape. Thin he argued was absurd, | as the towns would contribute more | j in proportion than the country, and the j ■ I bigger the town the more valuable the I land. Ho next spok**r»f the financial ! measures of the Government. It was j J proposed to raise one million on the j j Ist January of this year, but not till ! j afterwards did they know that they | ' could not rise a further loan till April. 1 j Of that million £700,000 had been ex | ! pended in anticipation, leaving £800, : i 000 only to carry on. It had been ! ' said that the expenditure had bot>n : I occasioned by deficiencies on the j opened lines of railway, but such an j explanation reflected very little credit ! npon the past administration of rail- { way affairs. They recognised that ! ; the work of colonisation mnst be kept j , moving, and therefore they roust bor- i ■ row. He next referred to the question j I of loan conversion, giving Sir Julius j I Yogel credit for b«!ng the first to propose it. He explained what was tn«'ant by conversion of loans. Referring to the mining industry he said they recognised the necessity of looking after the industry of mining and hence their reason for visiting this part of the Colony. But in saying this he hoped they would not expect too much. Much as the goldfields needed help, I other parts of the Colony were equally badly off. In other districts the difficulty with the making and main tenance of roads was not so great, il would be admitted. Here the rainfall was greater, but the agricultural dis tiiots also had difficulties to face thai were unknown here, and whatevei Government was in power the people could not hope to get rid of all those troubles. However it would he the endeavor of the Government to ease off some of the burdens. They fully recognised the necessity of imparting some »ti«nnlus to the mining industry, and if they held this opinion atthe outset it had been since greatly strengthened by what they had seen in their visit to the district (Applause.) There seemed to be many square miles of mineral country between Nelson and the Waitaki and no doubt many rich finds weuld be made over that extensive region. There was also a vast extent of conntry eminently adapted for agriculture, and the valleys were peculiarly adapted for fruit growing. He saw no reason why in this way the district should not produce almost everything it required. He could remember the time in Otago when they got almost everything from Home. They had their oatmeal from Scotland, their hams from England and their butter from Cork. (Laughter). But they had now changed' all that, and produce these things in abundance. He remembered when men said that wheat would never ripen in Otago, but the fallacy of that had been Ipng proved and at present it was impossible to pnt a limit upon the capabilities of the Colony in productions. (Applause). He advised them then to devote as much time as circumstances would permit to the pursuit of agriculture. Mining was a fairly remunerative occnpation, but it was lietter at all times not to carry all our eggs in one basket, f Applause). He could' folly realise tjiatthis district would in tjuoe become the *eet of many thriving industries,

and it therefore behoved those on the spot to take advantage of their opportunities. (Appl*se.)Hewas a poor nan wh» only thought of the present, and ntver cast his- eyes to the fa tor*. Some fua hfcJ beta poked at the Oovernment at cognection with the projected tripioj||be Hinemoa te> Samoa, fat in this matter they were looking to the fnture of New Zealand. He then spoke of annexation and referred to the Pacific question generally Hffnext sprite tfl tlfo question of ttnd holdings. Their duty was to Bee that the Colony was nbf mopped op by speculators. The land laws of the Colony were not literal enough. They were desirous of promoting small fern* associations, and he explained? (fie object the Government had in view in this matter. Th*y could not hop* to effect all they desired in a short time. They wonld have to proceed step by step, and if they conld only get the people to help them they would do something towards the accomplishment of this great rod. They wanted tb* sympathy and assistance of the people, for without it they could do nothing* One measure of reform they carried last session in the Married Woman's Property Protection Act That was a step in the righ t d irection. Then therewas the Workmen's Lien Act introduced by Mr Cadman. Be referred to those measures as showing that they were not neglectful of social reform in this Colony. Their sphere of action was, however, limited: they werepledged to economy, and he thought they would be able to show a good record. They feK this, however, that without the support and sympathy of the people th«y conld ch> nothing. Ministers did not recline on beds of roses, but had a weary time of it long hours, for there was no eight hoars movement for them. (Laughter).. They might differ with a Minister, or with the. Ministry as a whole,, but hehoped they would at least give then* credit for honesty of purpose. (Applause). He spoke of the pleasure it was to him to meet his fellow colonist* face to face, and hoped it would teed to a better understanding between them. He alluded to- Urn danger of allowing sectional differences to mis) into their public matters. They ft* Colonists had a high and responsible duty to pnrformL It was not tb* fatepf a Ministry, or a bridge or a railway that should engross their whole attention. They should never forget that they owed a dnty to the future as well as to the present, aud if they held thi* in view, and forgot all little peddlißg things, New Zealand would i» tim« become a great nation. Mr Stout concluded amidst general applause.