TE AROHA ELECTION

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 142, 17 June 1891, Page 2

TE AROHA ELECTION

ADDRESS BY SIS W. BULLER

Last evening Sir Walter Buller, candidate for the Aroha electorate, addressed a large meeting of electors in the Public Hall, To Aroha, Air Hirst presiding. He had an excellent reception. Sir Walter first answered certain objections that had baen made to his candidature, and repudiated the notion (hat iie was in any sense a> stranger to Auckland, for he was born and reared in the province. He held that whafe tho electors wanted was a man of sound common sense and of known capacity, honestly determined to do hie best for the district, and possessing not only the courage of his opinions, but the ability to urge his views in the House. Hβ submitted that the same qualities of energy, industry, and application that; had brought him success in hie,, ought fco males him a good representative. He then, proceeded to give a confession of his political faith, stating in tho first place that he was in sympathy with the prevent) Government, and partiauln , with the i'rernier, whom he had rkrovrin ■Jγ live and twenty years, and that ifolect . he would give Ministers a loyal bub hscispendenb support. Hα said he considered the settlement of our waste lands tha nioab important of all public questions ab the present time. He would make the land laws even more liberal than they now were, in order to attract and fix population. One of the chief inducements to emigrate to a distanb colony was the prospect of being- one day able to acquire a freehold, however smalJ. Passing on to the subject of native he elated his views very fully. He vras, and always had been, of opinion that a fatal mistake was made when the Legislature surrendered to the Maoris the Crown's right of preemption, which had been secured inviolably by tho Treaty of Waitangi. Under that pre-emption the Crown had a monopoly, and could practically &cquiro the land afc its own price. And there was no abstract injustice to the Maoris in this, seeing thtit the value given to native reserves by .the settlement of the adjoining lands was in itself ample payment. Ifo did nob sympathise with the cry for abolishing the Native Office. 3o long as wo have settled in this country some 40,000 people speaking a different language from our;j— living in a communal state —having objects and aim 3 distinct from our own, and reauiring in some respects eJicej'.fcional treatment, there must be some machinery of government for their special benefit, In regard to taxation, what ho favoured was a land and income tax, the two boing worked together and dovetailing into each other. He was in favour of reasonable exemptions—say up to £500 in value, and on incomes up fco £350 —and ho would avoid as far eta possible taxing improvements, on the principle of protecting the thrift and industry of the people. Hβ believed thab by tliio means they should s;eh a perfectly fair incidence of taxation. Tha railways should ba regarded aa the carrying service of the State and made as free

ass possible from oppressive fares and rate?. He praised the Government for their work of retrenchment, would not reduce the education vote, declared himself in favour of Australasian federation, and thought that more attention should be given to the raining industry.

In concluding he appealed to the Young New Zealand party to come forward and take an active part in politics.

On tho motion of Mr W. A. Murray, of Piako, the speaker was accorded a vote of thanks.