MB. WHITAKER AT MOUNT ALBERT.

Auckland Star, Volume X, Issue 2927, 1 September 1879, Page 2

MB. WHITAKER AT MOUNT ALBERT.

Mr Wliitaker addressed the Eden electors at Momiugside scnooi-room on Saturday evening*, Mr A. K. Taylor iv t^e c^air. Mr Whitaker touched \ipou many of tho. subjects doaty with in his four previous p,ddrps_se? t which, had been fully reported aud widely circulated iv the electorate. He i^aid l\e would furnish auy further lufoimatian asked for. Lie observed that the Land Tux had not been put on iv the form or shape that he would like to have seen. His own feeling was that the main roads having been to a certain extent neglected the proceeds should ho divided to the extent necessary n.niou.g Counties aud Iload Hoards for th« purpose of repairing and maintaining these ro<jds. At present, when the tax was collected, it went into what Mr Macaudrew called the maelstrom of linnuce. But up to the present time it was not probable that niuan of it would go there or anywhore else. The Treasurer estimated that ho would get £50,000 from it up to the Ist of July last, bu,t the matter had been so mismanaged and bungled in one way or ot her that* taey had not received that £50,000 ox anything. AYith reference to the quesl^pu'put the other night about turnpikes fie said ■ the first toll-bars were pu.t up in 1863. He was not Superintemleni until 1866, so that he had nothing whatever to do with raising a Bum of nio^.ey in this form. But as roads must be main-

tamed and kept in repair, he riid recommend some legislation on the subject, and a new Act expressly provided that all funds raised , from such a source should be expended upon those roads where the toll-bars were erected. (Cheeis.) There was nothing to prevent their abolition, but it would be necessity, before doing so, to provide funds for the maintenance and repair of those roruls. Representation according to populal • v would give the North fewer members. A i equitable basis would be to divide the toii.l population of the Colony by the number vi members to be returned. This would not give complete accuracy, but near enough for all practical purpos«i,as to make convenient boundaries would interfere with making the divisions , exact. The plan would work thus : Suppose on the division it was found that there ought to be one representative for .., 5,000 electors—allow a margin of, say, 500, so that no district should contain more ..-.. than 5,500 nor less than- 4,500* There could be uo doubt that the present inequalities of the representation ought to be removed. Why should Newton, for instance, with GBOO of population, have only one member—the same number that Onehunga had with a population of only 2000. -The°queßtious that would arise in Parliament on this subject were, in the main, matters of detail. There appeared to be no desire of oifering any opposition to the principle of the Government Bill. He had consistently advocated the principle for a great many years, and would give all the assistance in hi 3 power to Government towardsmaking the representation thoroughly fair.and equal. He waa also in agreement • ...., with' the Government on the question otj manhood suffrage. The only proposal he objected to was the dual vote to the Maori's. leWad Aisted that, and.'wouid resist in the future* (Hear hear.) It appeared to him -. treasonable that Europeans should have ~ A kily one vote while the Maoris had two.i ™ &c Maoris on the Wast Coast had, it* " i ppeared, come to a very sensible resolution. * 4. they said that, although on the register,'' T they would not interfere iv the ejection of Europeans, they would stick to their own representative. He (Mr Whitikei) ■ ■-— also agreed to tuejiropoaition. that there - .., should be a new Parliament once every " / threo years. These were the three cardinal t points of a Liberal policy, and he was f ready to agree with the Govern, men't in passing the measures through A Parliament that would secure these objects., <. He would go to Parliament, if returned, toj \'*! i defend and preserve the system of education1 i.. . at present in full operation. He could, J, assure thtf electors the system wan not free ♦;' from danger. The Roman Catholics of Kaiapoi, the district represented by Mr /' "; Uoweu, who was Minister of Education, and brought in the Act, had determined "to raise the block" against him. The "J" -- Catholics were in considerable numbers, f'~ aud were opposed to secular education, and %., might succeed in their object. Mr Macassey, a lawyer of ability, appeared to be- ._ supported by a block vote of the Catholics of Dunedin. There were a great many ■■ ' . persons anxious that the Bible should:- "•' be read in schools. It would- be ! a great public misfortune if the present Act' were to be interfered with, so as to be made unworkable or nugatory. A gentleraau of considerable inflnence had said to him that it was a pity some com-: i promise was not arrived at; But he (Mr.; -.7, Whitaker) could not see any ground of compromise. He did not depreciate or disparage : ' ■ religion, far from it;1 but the State could not support any religious education in the public schools. Ihuse who had charge of ; :~ iV ... the religious instruction of cliililreu sbpnl(l .. , devise the effective teaching of religion. (Hear, hear.) This they ought to do in the interest of their several denomination's. During the present elections a great deal had been said about Crown Lauds. He (Mr Whitaker) was iv the late Government only thirteen or fourteen months. A bill waa brought in by the late Government. As Attorney-General he had the revision of that bill, it appeared to him to be a fair aud reasonable proposal. It worked well; there were no complaints in respect to it. It provided for public sale of rural lands in parcels of not more than 320 acres (rural land) or less than twenty acres, Tha land could be paid for on defen ed payments, extending over ten years, if necessary. It enabled people with small means to procure a piece of land. Ho held that every prosperous village that might rise up in thecountry promoted the strength and progress of the whole colony, aud conferred a real benefit upon the whole country. (Cheers ) He had long thought of native affairs. He believed that the natives were interfered with too much. It the King natives had been let alone from the beginning there would have been a nearer approach to the settlement of the native difficulty at the present time. The Government was supposed to be specially competent to deal with this difficulty. Butthe difficulty miahtbethe better appreciated irom the fact that the Government h.qd been two years in power, and had made little or no progress iv this respect. On the contrary, a difficulty had arisen on the West Coast, and only that morning they had received wretched intelligence through the newspapers of an attack on. Europeans at Ohinemuri. It was, of course-, possible that these tilings had been festering for some time. He would not accuse the Government of having done anything wrong or wilful. There seemed to be an absence of caution iv the matter of sending surveyors on ground without estimating the risk. But a Native war waa to be averted if possible. It would cost a great sacrifice of life aud. a gjeat amount of money; it would thjaw the colony back for years ; it would operate injuriously in various ways-. He would bo one to do all in his power to preserve the peace, and ta prevent such a calamity as would be consequent upon another native w»t. The Europeans were increasing 1$ number while the number of native* were growing less, and every day gained from any disturbance wi^h, the natives was in favour of permanent peace. (Hear.) Looking to the fact that x,he colony was about to borrow more money, a war might prevent the Government getting the money altogether, or have Hie erlect of making the colony pay a very much higher interest for it. As to native land purchase, that matter had got into a very unsatisfactory position. The preemptive system ought not to have been abolished. The change which followed gave rise to a great number of evils. He agreed entirely with the proposition that if -. :; land was to be bought at all the cud in view should be the settlement of the people on the land, who would occupy and cultivate it. He had been accused of lacing concerned in the purchase ofkttge areas of land. The fact ■ :. was, he ha,d not purchased native land foi himself nor was he desirous of purchasing. There wer,e.sonie|lo,ooo,ooQ acres of laud . still in the bauds of natives—Mr Sheehan said S.ooo,ooo—and it was desirable that as mnch land should be acquired for the pnr- ■ " puse of settlement as possible. The people 111 the South had the full beneiit of all the lauds in that part of the colony. A small proportion only of the land of the North slaud was available. Hence the South Island had progressed rapidly, while the i North Island had been reduced to a condition of stagnation. He would assist in everj possible way iv securiug the settlement of the country. Those who raised an outcry against capital should remember that labour could not prosper by itself. Neither could capital prosper by itself—it must have labour to- assist it. Both must go hand-ioJuvnd if tho country waa to prosper, it might sometimes happen that th,ere would be too much capital and too little labour, nnd if capital came into the country labour must some, otherwise the capital would go away. The prosperity of all classes depended upon the beneficial employment of capital and labour together. (Cheers.) Mr Whitrikev riven answered a number of questions, most of which had. been dealt with, in previous speeches. As to the plu.ra.lty of voting, he .said that ascoding to the amount of rates a siau. pid did not seem an unfair thing. But if subsidies — that is public money—j ■ were paid, there ought to, be somamodification, so long as. public money was paid to those Hoards. It is not true that lie delayed the completion. ' of tho Kaipara raftway. The work was delayed through the dissent of the people contesting t'ov different routes. Mr Lamb wanted one lino, Mr Chamberlin another, le helped to get the money for it. He contended that Mr Tole, as a Cailiolic, must be opposed to the Education Act. He could ot say whether in oilico he set apart any reserves for education Had notice of the* question been g\venhe .would have answered! it. Had au education question came up while- : he was iv oilice it is probable ho did so. It 3& not tuie that ho acquired S,OOO acres of land aud put them in the name of his son. As to immigrants, and where they were sent, he was not responsible for everything that ,",',•> was done iv that respect. So far as he 1 could exercise his influence ttwas in favour ■ of sending immigrauts where labour was • wanted. It would have been a grievous thing to glut a n\»i;ket where labour was aot; required, so as, $0. bring down wages to> the-. ■/■''.'-. lowest possible point. (Cheers.) He did • / not wtvft^ to. take oilice if returned. He. hadl ; had (jnough of it. But if he t\¥>ught "J3 'aljjiag otlice. would be useful to the pro- , ... ■ • vinco, he would make any sacrifice to he .of.' - ■;,.' use. Astounionof A\icklandmenibers--wlicu - ever there is a peculiarly Auckland question, such as roa.ds or public works for Auck-- . : , land, the Auckland members have always , been united. And they always would neon sueh1- matters. It was not iv all cases; desirable thatthe Auckland members should; bo united on general questions. Theelections ju parts of the colony- appeared to be going-: „,

against Sir George Grey. Suppose he was put out, that a new Government came iv, and you sent down an Auckland "eighteen to oppoae the new t Governnient—what would bo the oonseqiienee if yoii had no one to go into the Government? Everything .would go against you. Mr Ewington proposed a vote of thanks to Mr Whitaker for his address, audXtated Mr Tole had got paid for his serviced; We wanted men now to represent as who could bring the colony out of difficulties. Men were coming daily to him for employment of some kind, and. nothing in the country for them to do. One of the foundries was now shut up for want of work; aud he hoped they would all support. Mr Whitaker. Mr W. J. Suiter seconded the vote of thanks, and spoke warmly in'favour of Mr Tole, amid cheers. He hoped, the people would not infer from Mr kwington's'remarks that Mr Whitaker gave his,.services gratis. Alluding to the foundry being closed up, he said it was the fault of the previous Governments who were now in opposition. - The coast of New Zealand abounded with a large quantity of iron and steel, and why did the Government not utilise this instead of importing all the railway material from Home, and use up the labour and keep the money in the country ? He hoped that this contest wuiiid be carried out in a friendly spirit, but was sorry that a person canvassing for Mr Whitaker was resorting to means not creditable in religous matters to turn the feeliug in favour of Mr Whitaker. While a Protestant himself, and opposed to the teachings of the Romish Clrareh, ho deprecated the means alluded to otgainingsuppoit. He hoped Mr Whitaker had known nothing of this scandalous act, aud now drew his attention to it. He concluded by seconding a vote of thanks. .>«* The meeting concluded with three cheers for Sir George Grey aud cheers for the candidate.