_SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT IN NEW ZEALAND._
At the end of my last chapter I remarked that we pay dearly enough for
our laws out here, and I will now try and explain my reasons for so
thinking. In my humble opinion, we are altogether over-governed, and
that this is one of the reasons why so many of our enterprises turn
out commercially unsuccessful, and also why we do not make our own
varnish, our own furniture, and do not push many other industries, for
the prosecution of which the colony possesses exceptional advantages.
We seem to be playing at being a big nation--a second Great Britain in
fact--while our entire population does not reach the population of one
of England's first-class towns.
Besides His Excellency the Governor, we have a Premier, styled
an "Honourable," with a salary of £1750 a year, a ministerial
residence, travelling and other allowances; six Cabinet ministers
holding portfolios, receiving each a salary of £1250 a year, a
ministerial residence, travelling and other allowances, and each
styled an Honourable; one minister without portfolio, receiving a
salary of £800 a year; a host of clerks belonging to the different
ministerial departments, with salaries from £800 a year downwards;
an attorney-general, solicitor-general, and several law officers;
a Legislative Council, consisting at present, I believe, of a
Speaker, a Chairman of Committee, Clerk to the Council, and forty-six
members--each member being appointed _for life_, and receiving 200
guineas every Parliamentary session, a free pass on the railways, and
the title "Hon." tacked on before his name.[A]
[Footnote A: The Legislative Council is supposed to correspond with the
House of Lords at home, but is called out here by the irreverent, the
Old Man's Refuge.]
Then we have the House of Representatives, consisting of a Speaker,
Chairman of Committees, Clerk of Committees, Clerk of the House,
Sergeant-at-arms, Clerk of Writs, and ninety members. The M.H.R.'s are
elected for three years, and each receives an honorarium of 200 guineas
a session, a free pass on the railways, and has M.H.R. tacked on after
his name.
It is doubtless a very proud and pleasant thing to be able to say we
have a House of Lords, a Sergeant-at-arms, and all that sort of thing,
but we are paying too dearly for the gratification.
In England, with an army and navy to support, and a National Debt of
about seven hundred millions, the general government costs rather under
fifty shillings per head. Out here, with a public debt of thirty-two
millions, it costs double, though all we possess in the way of army and
navy consists of one general, a few volunteers, and a small steamboat
called the _Hinamoe_ (_i.e._, the sleepy), which, I believe, looks
after the lighthouses, and carries the "Hons." and the "M.H.R.'s" about
when they require change of air.
With regard to New Zealand's debt, it may be remarked that the money
borrowed has not been thrown away on profitless wars, as is often the
case with Government loans,--and that although I fear a good deal of
money has been wasted, still there is something better to show than
soldier's graves and tattered standards. There are telegraph lines,
harbours, lighthouses, and about sixteen hundred and twenty miles of
railway, which return at present a net profit of nearly three per
cent. on their entire cost--over twelve and a half millions--and would
probably return considerably more were the charges reduced so that
farmers, orchardists, and others could profitably utilise them as
carriers. Last year over four millions were expended in governing the
colony, of which about one million was derived from the gross revenue
of the railways, and three millions squeezed somehow or other out
of the colonists. About half this sum of three millions went to pay
interest on the public debt, and half the cost of government. It is
with the latter item that our chance of retrenchment at present lies.
The population of the colony last year numbered about 620,000,
comprised, as nearly as I can ascertain, of 120,000 unmarried men,
women, widows, and widowers, 100,000 married men, 100,000 married
women, and 300,000 children. It is clear that the 120,000 unmarried,
and the 100,000 married men, have between them to pay, directly and
indirectly, the whole sum necessary for the interest on the loans
and the cost of government. The married man, with wife and average
allowance of three children, has of course to contribute a very much
larger share than the single individual, who has only himself or
herself to support, and I will assume that the married man pays three
quarters, and the unmarried one quarter. The former has therefore
(without counting local rates) to contribute about £22, 10s. annually,
half of which sum goes to sustain our expensive game of pretending to
be a big nation.
How can labour be cheap when the above is the case! If the cost of
government were reduced to one half, the married labouring man (and
it is he that fixes the rate of wages) could afford to work for
appreciably less than he now can, the cost of working the railways
would be diminished, and the revenue from them proportionately
increased. A sensible reduction in the price of labour would doubtless
also most beneficially affect the commercial prospects of the colony,
and probably cause the successful development of its many suitable
industries.
Mr. Froude, in his book "Oceana," talks about the possibility of New
Zealand repudiating her debt, and I trust he will not be angry if I say
that the information given him on this point is about as accurate as
the information he received concerning Kauri gum, to the effect that it
was valuable because it made pretty ornaments. There is little fear of
New Zealand repudiating her debt--as I think the figures I have given
show--but I trust before long she will repudiate all the unnecessary
paraphernalia of government that is weighing her down.
The colony may at present, I think, be likened to a goodly fruit tree
full of bud and promise, but suffering from the ravages of host of
caterpillars, which are destroying its blossoms, and with them the
chance of fruit.
A new Government pledged to retrenchment has lately been formed, and I
trust the promises made on the platform will be fulfilled later on in
Parliament.
Since writing the above, the following paragraph _referring to the
late ministry_ appeared among the items of Parliamentary news in the
_Auckland Evening Star_ of December 6, 1887.
"MINISTERIAL RESIDENCES.
"The following rather questionable items appear in the return of
expenditure during the last six months on ministerial residences, and
have created some comment:--
"Tinakori Road House (Sir J. Vogel's): Overhauling lift, £11, 16s.
8d.; gas-fittings for theatrical stages, £2, 9s. 11d.; hire of piano,
tuning and repairing, £10, 4s.; 12 dining-room chairs, at 60s., £36;
pink and gold breakfast set, £3; one spring lounge, £10; hire of
piano, £7, 10s.
"Molesworth Street (Hon. E. Richardson's): Re-covering suite in plush,
£35; knife-cleaning machine, £4, 10s.; hire of piano, £8, 0s. 6d.;
hire of piano repairing, £3, 5s.; three gas fires, £9; one dinner
service, £14, 18s.; garden hose and fitting, £4, 1s. 4d.
"Tinakori Road (east) (Hon. J. A. Tole's): One walnut card table,
£5; two spirit seltzogenes, £5, 2s. 6d.; flower-pots, £1; set best
hangings, £9; one mangle, £8, 10s.; three pairs curtains, £5, 12s.
6d.; one child's bath, £1; packing piano from Christchurch to
Wellington, £1, 10s.; freight, 9s. 8d."