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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 59

The Premier at the Provincial Hall

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The Premier at the Provincial Hall.

There was a very large meeting at the Provincial Hall last night, both the floor and the gallery being crowded there being in the latter a large number of ladies. On the motion of Mr J A. Harley, the chair was taken by Mr Haddow, who briefly introduced the Premier.

The hon. Mr Stout on rising was received with [unclear: loud] and continued cheers. He commended by saying that one of the most noted American writers bad said that when two people met and talked togther there were at least six people present. There were A and B; there were A's A and B's A.; and there were B's A. and A's B. Now he thought that much misunderstanding between policians and colonists, and perhaps between politicians and pressmen might, be avoided by their meeting and talking together occasionally. At the request of several of their citizens he had met them that evening, when he had the opportunity of seeing a Nelson audience, and they of seeing him and looking at the political position from his point of view. As they were aware, he had recently been addressing his constituents, and he had since been much amused by the criticisms his speech had evoked. For the first time he had learned that pressmen were thin-skinned, for he certainly had made them very angry, He was not altogether sorry for this as he thought it might do good, and in future perhaps the journalists who criticised would remember that there were other thin-skinned people besides politicians. Not only did he recognise the power of the press, but he admitted its great influence upon the welfare of a democracy, for without it they could have no pure government. On a late occasion he had pointed out the need of journalists being thoroughly equipped for their profession. That profession was one which should not be looked upon as a commission agency, into which business, it was once said, that the man who had broken down in overemployments, and had no credit, usually catered; but journalism should be entered upon only by those who held the profession in high esteem and were keenly alive to its duties and responsibilities. Had New Zealand always had such journalists they would have had better government in the past and better newspapers. In future he would ask the press to remember that if it criticised politicians, it must expect to be criticised in return. He was not on that occasion going to trench upon party politics, but he wished to carry his hearers with him while he talked on what he considered should be their colonial policy, for he thought they ought to he able to lay down some broad lines on which this should be based.

The Present Ministry.

He would first say one word as to the raison d'etre of the present Government. Why did they exist as a Government? Prior to the last session there was a feeling abroad that a change was necessary. Enterprise generally was dead, and in some districts the people had altogether lost hope, and it was felt that the Executive rather deepened than relieved the feeling of despondency, and therfore that there should be a change of Government. Whether this was so or not he would not say, but there was one thing he must say, that it was not good for a democracy to be trained to the belief that there was only one set of men that could govern it. The ancient Greeks knew better than that, for if in their day a man became too powerful or popular he was ostracised from political life and banished from Athens, for they thought that if he became too popular he weakened the Government. They should bear this in mind in this democracy and be careful not to train the young men of the colony to believe that there was but one set of men who could conduct its governmental affairs. He was not going to refer to the past or to any blunders of administration, but would merely say that when the Government took office they did so with a full sense of their responsibilities, and in the hope that the people too would recognise their responsibilities and assist them with their support. Finding that enterprise was so dead, upon what lines was his Government formed? They considered that the first thing to do was to inspire the people with hope, and encourage them to carry on the work of colonists. Their duty in this respect was not yet half accomplished but they had introduced certain measures which had already had the effect of awaking hope and enterprise, and even the people of Nelson had got up an enthusiasm over their railway line which had been dead for years past. They also recognised that too many industries had proved unprofitable, and they recognised it to be their duty so to stimulate enterprise that those who had failed in one might be induced to enter upon another, and thus to lead to the accresion of wealth which meant the promotion of happiness. Nor had they neglected social matters and reforms, and he was glad to say that one important measure, introduced originally by Mr J. C. Richmond, forgiving married women control over their property, had become law. Another very important Act was that giving workmen a lien on their work as security tor their wages. But as he had said before, he did not wish to touch on party politics, but he would say a few words on democracy. A democracy they were and a democracy they must remain, and that they should always keep in view, for even if they had the will they had not the power to make the form of government anything else, the people must rule, and they must rule for the good of the people. But they must not shut their eyes to the

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Besetting Dangers of a Democracy.

There were three dangers which beset every democracy:—(1.) The danger of war. (2.) The danger of the absorption of power into the hands of one man or set of men. (3.) The danger of the wealth, which should belong to the State, being absorbed into the hands of a few. These three dangers had beset every form of government the world had ever seen and they must not suppose that they were free from them, but it was their duty to lay down broad lines of policy, on which the people and statesmen of New Zealand should so conduct their actions as to make this a great nation with a stong and stable democratic Government.

The Danger of War.

This was a question with which Confederation was closely connnected. The day dream of some of the earliest setttlers including Sir George Grey, who had shown great foresight in the matter, was that New Zealand should be a great centre of commerce and enlightenment in the Pacific; that to it should be sent the sons of the chieftains of the various Isles, who should be educated here and carry hence the torch of enlightenment to spread abroad the light of civilisation. It was with this end in view that the British Government had been asked to annex this and that island. Look too at the enormous extent and wealth of the Australian colonies. Was it to be wondered at if they were anxious to know who should be their neighbours? To genuine colonisation by the European Powers he did not object, but to the mere establishment of coal depots here and there it was time to oiler resistance, for we should certainly become involved in European quarrels, and the seat of war would be transferred from Europe to the Pacific. With this terrible danger menacing us how could we be too earnest in our endeavors to avert it? Then again were we to have the convicts of Europe turned out near our shores and free to come to them when their sentences were expired? Whether they believed in the doctrine of evolution or not, all must admit that there was such a thing as heredity in crime, and that the children of the criminal, the drunkard, and the immoral were tainted with the vices of their parents. It was with a view to the prevention of this, and of the annexation of islands to be useful to the annexers merely in time of war that confederation was advocated, and Mr Service, the Premier of Victoria, wad entitled to great credit for the position he took up in the matter, and the steps he took to ascertain the views of the various Australasian colonies.

So the Premiers met and agreed to a draft Bill which was to be submitted for the approval of the Colonial Parliament. This was a question which was very much misunderstood. The provision was that there should be a Federal Council established for Australasia to deal with certain questions specified, and also with others if referred to it by two Colonies. But whatever laws were made by the Federal Council were not to be enforced in any colony until approved by the Legislature of that colony. Unfortunately both the House of Representatives and the Legislative Council did not view the confederation proposals with much favor, apparently being fearful lest New Zealand hould be deprived of some of her power and so the Bill was not passed. Since then some of the European nations had attempted to seize certain of the islands of the Pacific, and this brought him to the recent action of the Government with regard to

Samoa.

This has been recognised as an independent State by England. America, and Germany, but there existed in the country a dread lest Germany should annex it to which the people themselves were very averse. And here he would say that he had no objection to German colonisation. In New Zealand they had gone further than any other foreign nation, and had actually paid the passages of German emigrants to the colony. If Germany desired to colonise Samoa and would give it the power to enter into treaties of amity with us as fellow colonists, and so save us from all embroglios arising out of an Empire war, there could be no objection to her doing so. But Samoa was recognised as an independent State, and therefore ought to have the power to determine to what nation it should be allied. In that country even there were two parties, and, while on the one hand a petition was prepared for presentation to the Queen asking for union with Great Britain, on the other, they heard that a treaty for five years had been forced on the King by two German men of war, giving to Germany vast powers in connection with the government of the country, all this being quite inconsistent with the idea of independence. So the Government thought it was time to interfere in the matter, and they were prepared to send a steamer to ascertain the real feeling in Samoa with regard to annexation, but in order to avoid creating any complications between the Home and German Governments, they cabled to Lord Derby telling him their intentions, and saying that the steamer would sail in a given time unless he desired to stop her. His reply was that he could not permit the steamer being sent, but he had since then despatched a man of war to page break Samoa, thus affirming the proposed, prosecution of enquiry by the colony. This explained the Hinemoa's recent movements. It was the duty of the Government to do all in their power to prevent the interference of any nation with the independence of a State in such close proximity to our shores, and this was what they had done. This position also had reference to the danger he had spoken of, of war and he put it to them whether it was not their duty, and the duty of the Government, who were but their servants, to be so kindled with enthusiasm at the bare possibility of war as to use every effort to prevent it from coming into the neighborhood, and to keep it at a distance until the dawn of that brighter day when some other means would be found of settling national differences than those in vogue now. (Loud cheers.)

The Absorption of Power.

The second danger to a democracy was the absorption of power into the hands of One or a few. Those who had read De Tocqueville and other writers of a similar stamp would know that nothing was more difficult than to fix the limits of central and local authority. This was a problem not yet settled in England, while in France it was still a burning question, and yet people in the colony talked as though all that had to be done was to write a few clauses in a copy book and the whole thing was settled. In France the Central Government had its fingers in everything, and the result was that true liberty was emasculated. The problem had yet to be delat with in New Zealand, and it would be well now to glance back a little at the history of the colony. Here they once had a system of local government, and he said without hesitation that they did wrong in abolishing the provinces, though that it was done with the highest idea of doing what was best he fully believed. But he did not think that abolition was first brought about in 1875. The first nail in the coffin of Provincialism was driven when the New Provinces Act was passed. They had not recognised the fact that for New Zealand a different kind of government was required to that which was adapted for Australia and England. New Zealand was colonised from different centres, and it was a good thing that it should be so for he did not believe in one town dominating and everything else being small. That the mainspring of action in those who passed the New Provinces Act was a desire for the welfare of the colony he willingly conceded and he hoped that he and others would always be averse to asserting that a man must necessarily be a bad one because they differed from him in politics. It was feared that if the Provincial system were continued there would never be any national life in New Zealand, and it was urged that the only way to create that national life was to have one strong Government, but in this he did not believe. There was national life in America in the great civil war, and it had been evoked under the system of State Legislatures; there was national life in Switzerland under the system of cantons, for the [gap — reason: illegible] Swiss thought far more of his country than of his particular canton, and in New Zealand there would have been just as much national life had the provinces continued to exist, but the were abolished, and what was the result? Had the Government been wiser or better since then? Take the last Loan Act and see what the General Government were called upon to do in the matter of roads and bridges. Out of the million and a half authorised there were but £700,000 available for railways, and all the rest was to go for roads and bridges. Nearly £800,000! More than was voted for the purpose by all the Australian colonies put together! How could a little half million of people stand that sort of thing It could not possibly continue, but so long as the General Government borrowed money to be expended by the local bodies there would be no care in the expenditure. They were not to hear of roads and bridges in the General Assembly after the abolition of the provinces except for the purpose of congratulation, but congratulation was scarcely the right word to apply to the tone in which they were spoken of now. This was a great difficulty that had to be met but the papers seemed to think that he ought to have been fully prepared with a remedy, and to have come down with a Bill of some 300 clauses. But the work was a far more serious one than could be undertaken at once. There had been too much demolition, too much abolition, and now they had to begin construction a far more laborious task. There would have to be an aggregation of the various local bodies, which would have to take over much of the work that now was done by the general body, for if they had fourteen, instead of seven Ministers, they could not manage the affairs of the colony and attend to local government as well. (Cheers.) This danger of absorption of power always met them, and it was the same in the days of the provinces, for they, like the General Government, were always endeavoring to get more power. But the people must learn to recognise that without local government there could be no true liberty, and this was one of the first things to be done before they could hope to lay the foundations of a really string democracy. (Loud cheers.)

The Absorption of Wealth.

He now came to the third danger he had mentioned. It met them in America, it met them in England. Look at the social state of affairs in England. There wealth was increasing enormously, from 50 to 60 millions being added from year to year to the capital wealth. In painful contrast to this was the grinding poverty which had been so Vividly pourtrayed in "The Cry of Outcast London." (Hear, hear.) Then in America there were on one side the Vanderbilts and Jay Goulds, and on the other the very detphs of misery, the outcome of poverty. Could a democracy exist under such conditions, with immense wealth in one scale and such terrible poverty in the other? Was this to be the case in New Zealand too. page break and was our government here to end in such a result? Some people said that naturalists would tell you that you had only to look into the rivers, seas, and fields, and the same thing was to be seen there, that it was the law of Nature that there should be the same terrible struggle for existence everywhere, and that it was not to be driven out of humanity. He granted it, but on the other hand he was not a pessimist and he believed that much might be done to remedy it. And to begin with, they must recognise that certain things were given for the benefit of the people as a whole, for instance the air they breathed and the land on which they lived. (Cheers.) It was with this end in view that in 1878 he had advocated a land tax long before Henry George had written a line of his now celebrated work, indeed that author had since written to him for a copy of his speech on that occasion to aid him in his work. The land must be specially dealt with and the people encouraged to get as much out of it as possible. The question was no new one. It had obtained in the early days of Rome, and it had to be faced in England now. How was it to be dealt with? In two ways; when the land was wanted it must be leased in small areas; and there must be a land tax, which should not affect the small farmers, but would touch the large land monopolists. (Cheers.) Unhappily that Act had been rejected, and even now he was in a minority in the House of Representatives on this question, but he warned them not to think that it was settled. Far from it, for every year the question would come up and grow in importance, for the absorption of the land by a few hands must be stopped. (Cheers.) Even in the last session—the "turbulent session" as it had been called—something had been done in the direction by Mr Ballance's Small Farms Settlement regulations, and by the further provision that when runs near settlement were cut up, one man should be allowed one run and no more, thus preventing the mopping up of large estates. This was something, but not nearly enough, and to education they must look further to stop this absorption. The thoroughly well educated man was a thrifty man, and at present there was a great deal too much drinking in the colony. It might be asked what could education do in reference to that? He would reply that the educated man had resources in himself, and could enjoy pleasures which others less fortunate could not obtain. The educated man might have his "fad"—that, he believed, was the journalistic phrase—but that "fad" was a pleasure to him, and so long as it was not a "fad" for drinking whisky, he would probably be a better man for it. He had an object in life, and what a boon that was to a man. What an advantage he had over the man who lived an aimless life. But the class of education he wished to see more encouraged was industrial education. He did not deny the good of a classical education to a man who had time to follow it up or of a literary education, but along with it there should be something else, something that would make their sons and daughters better men and women, by training them to work, and, whatever it might be, to teach them to regard it as the highest kind of work. The carpenter and the bootmaker could be brought to introduce his ideal into his work, and in this respect could education be turned to far letter account. Let every young man be trained not to think that work was drudgery, or that the happiest life was to write a clerkly hand in a bank office, but to believe that the work at the carpenter's bench was of quite as high a class and quite as honorable as life in an office or merchant's room. (Hear, hear.) With this advice he would turn out a far better artificer, for he would believe that into everything he did there might be introduced something that would be a credit to him just as much as the ideas that were formed by the artist whose brush transferred them to his picture. Were every artificer inspired with such a high ideal as this there would be no more slop work, and far more honesty amongst us. In this direction he intended to try to get the present education System altered, and he hoped that those who had to do with the secondary schools would look ahead and see how they could assist in the matter, for he wanted to see some higher ideal among the young people than merely getting a classical education, something that would help to make them all better colonists, for this was one way to stop the absorption of wealth by the few. He wished to see thrift and temperance encouraged in every possible way but he did not believe in Major Atkinson's scheme of national insurance, as he could not approve of a compulsory poll tax in preference to a tax on property. The result of it, if adopted, would be to teach the people to look to the State for help when sick and out of employment. In every State that had a poor law the people were discontented. Once destroy the individuality of the people and teach them to look to the State and not to themselves, and the seeds of dissolution were sown in that State.

Charitable Aid.

The question of how to deal with the poor was a burning one and would have to be faced. The vote for charitable aid last session was £90,000, and that could not last, for it was impossible for the Government to go on paying at that rate. Then what was to be done? Poor they must always have, for some would be maimed in the struggle for life, while there were also weaklings to be cared for, who perhaps owed their state of dependence not to themselves but to their parents. That it was good to have the poor with us he fully believed, for it brought out all our best and kindest and highest feelings, and it taught page break us that we must not live for ourselves alone but for others, and if the poor could depend for aid upon those who had the means it would be better for both, the giver and the receiver, than that they should have to go to the State for a pittance, and he sincerely hoped that they would never see a poor tax in New Zealand. It was sometimes said "Look at that man; there he is rolling in wealth and never gives a shilling to the poor. Why not tax him, and so get hold of some of his money for those who want it?" That was all very well, and he should certainly like to get some of his money, but he believed that he was doing far more injury to himself than if he gave one tenth of his means to the poor. (Cheers and laughter). In everything we did there was a reflex action upon us and in doing good to others we were doing good to ourselves, while the mean and niggardly were laying up treasure where it was doing, and could do, no good to themselves or to anybody else.

Conclusion.

To avoid the absorption of wealth by a few and to lead to its distribution amongst the community they must frame laws which would encourage thrift, encourage home industries, encourage co-operation amongst producers, and promote kindness and self denial. He had talked to them of the three dangers to democracy, and pointed out how they might be avoided, and he would now urge upon them that it was their duty so to avoid them. Among those before him there were many who came out as colonists, and others who were born here. What did they come out for? To make money, they might say, and quite right too. But he hoped that some of the older colonists had a higher aim than that. They had seen the social state of Europe and determined to come to a new land where there were no vested rights, or should he say vested wrongs. They had formed an ideal of a, new social state free from the evils of the older countries, and they had sought to attain that ideal. And the younger ones who were growing up here and to whom we must look for guiding the future policy of the country, what was their ideal? Was it not to see a prosperous colony from which all vice, all crime, and all immorality were stamped out? And this they might do by procuring a better system of education in every way, by promoting kindness of disposition and self-denial in all, by cultivating self respect, and strong individualism—and here was the blot in Major Atkinson's scheme. They must learn to be true to themselves and to respect both themselves and others, He did not believe in a community which would boycott a man because of his belief (loud cheering) but he would strive to create in all the strongest manhood and individualism. That was the way to make good men, and to make good men and good women was to make a great and a good nation. Let them cultivate friendship and good feeling, and justice—justice to the Maori, and justice to the European. If they would guard against the three clangers he had specified let them exercise their political functions with a due sense of their seriousness and importance, not swayed by beer on election days, not actuated by partisan feeling. Let them fully recognise their responsibilities, and remember that in exercising their political rights they were performing a solemn duty, and doing that which affected not only themselves and their families, but the destiny of the nation for perhaps fifty or one hundred years. Let them form this ideal of their responsibilities, and always keep before than the three great dangers against which he had warned them, and determine to do all in their power to avert them, and they would thus be doing their share towards producing a finer social life, and a finer type of manhood than the world had ever seen. (Loud and continued cheering).

Mr. Pitt said that he considered that the citizens of Nelson were under a very great obligation to Mr. Stout for addressing them on this occasion, when with so little time at his disposal he might well have excused himself from doing so. He had commenced by saying that he would not enter the domain of party politics, but in a deeply interesting and instructive speech he had laid before them his own views on questions deeply affecting the welfare of the colony, namely federation, local government, the nationalization of land, and education. No doubt his speech would be criticised throughout the colony, but, as he told his Dunedin constituents, he had devoted so much attention to public affairs, that he could afford to be criticised. To only one word in his speech did he (Mr Pitt) take exception. Mr Stout had said that his Government had tried to kindle enthusiasm throughout the colony, and they had succeeded in doing so even in Nelson. (Laughter.) Perhaps when he knew the people of Nelson better, as he hoped he would, he would recognise that, although it was the fashion to apply to this place the misnomer "Sleepy Hollow." the people here were wideawake enough when occasion required. He would propose a hearty vote of thanks to the Hon. the Premier for his excellent and instructive speech. (Loud cheers.)

Mr. Rout seconded the motion, which was carried by acclamation.

The Hon. Mr. Stout thanked them sincerely for the hearty vote of thanks. He was not aware of the mistake which Mr Pitt had pointed out, but he supposed there might be occasionally a slip of the tongue as well as a slip of the pen (Laughter). He himself never did think Nelson sleepy, and he certainly should not do so after this evening. He wished to express his thanks for the kind reception he had met with, and the close attention bestowed upon his address. He might add that he had been thoroughly pleased not only with their city and its surroundings, but with the country where he had seen the settlers hard at work in their harvest fields and he hoped their reward might be great. He then proposed a vote of thanks to the chairman, which was carried and the meeting broke up.