PUBLIC MEETING.

Bruce Herald, Volume II, Issue 52, 6 April 1865, Page 3

PUBLIC MEETING.

On r 'uesd ly evening Messrs. Adams, Clark and Dyer meet their constituents in the School house in compliance with a numerous^ signed requisition for the purpose of discussing some of the chief political topics of the nay- A large n mber of electors were pre -eat. James Smith-, Esq., was voted to the chair and called on Mr James Adam, M.P.C , to address the meeting. Mr Adam said that he supposed the present I meeting resembled the closing of the banks to balance accounts. It was a kind of reckoning between the electors and their constituents, and be was ghid to see so many electors present that evening.- Meetings which brought the electors and their members face to face were often very beneficial to both, and could never do any harm. The requisition presented to him and his colleagues asking them to ' hold that meeting, specified certain subjects for discussion, but with the leave of the meeting he would invert the order in which they were named, and would commence at home with what was termed the arhifr'iry division of road districts. He regarded the division of the district as one of the most beneficial things which could have happened- 1 ■ it. It was impossible to localise assessment too much. The asse.-snient was a voluntary act to make roads, but in a very large district it was impossible to spend the assessment with justice to- all. When the assessment anM expenditure was diffused over a very large district, the money was never judiciously or satisfactorily expended, lie was satisfied that in order to spend the money raised by assessment justly, it must be uniformly diffused, and in a large district this was impossible. Men could not be sapposed to take an inteies inroads with which they had no concern, and some parts of the district were and at the expense of other parts. The evil of large districts had been ielt both iv East and West. Taieri and here. He had always hoped to see the day when Tokomairiro would be divided into several distri ts, and he was glad tint the diy had arrived. The old Tokomairiro road district contained 68,000 acres er 107 square u>il_s,

and as the land was surveyed into square mile blocks, there was about 107 miles of road in the district. Now it was impossible that any six or seven men could attend to such an extent of road. Now the district had been divided into nine portions containing each about 12 square miles,- aud he thought that was quite sufficient for any- road board to manage. He had seen in the local journal a complaint that the district had not been consulted about the division, and he presumed rhat this was what was meant in the requisition by arbitrary division, ne had great doubts as to -the capabiitt} 7 of any public meeting to act'ina deliberative capacity, and he did not think that if a public meeting had been called any good result" would have been' obtained ; for as a rule Tokomairtro 'people- did not like meetings. He remembered once a candidate at an election could not get a proposer and a seconder, and about six months ago his colleagues had been asked to call a meeting similar to the one they were at, but all that came of it was. that they bad to pay the advertisement. Had a meeting been call d a few might have attended, and a few boundaries been decided, but he did not think the division would have been as* we 1 planned as it had been by the officer who had done it, and whose special duty it had been to do it. The Commissioner of lloids, Mr Hardy, had informed him that he had submitted a plan < f tie propos d division to the old, road Trustees, ana nat they had expressed tbenisehes sati>fie.l as far as he could judge. Formerly a road line had been made the boundary between road districts, but' this- had been altered, ash led to-dispires as to whose the boundary road was. Now each district had a road in its centre, so that the land on either side was taxed for its maintenance. Perhaps the ratepayers of the Milton district might complain, of* having the road leading to the bu.-h. and coal pits to keep, but the reason of it was that ir wasehicfly used by tlie rosidents in the district, the people down th river to reach the village ana the village to obtain fenl.- As, however, tlie road was used by all the other districts, perhaps the boards of the other dis ricts might contribute towards it. The next subject v, as the Land Tax. and in speaking of this he would draw a distinction between his position as a member of the Executive and as a member for Tokom driro. If desired, he would unite with his colleagues in demanding in the Council the reasons ior the Provincial Government daring to come into collision with the General irovernuient. He did not think that this would be necessary, however, as he believed that on the meeting of the House the Treasurer would furnish the m inhers with the reasons ol the Government, and it was to the hou-o. not to tile electors directly, that the Gove nm. Nt was reponsible.He believed that the reasons and explanations the Government would _ive would satisfy the most f-'Stidious. '{'he present Government was generally regarded as a v. ry slow one, not ago-ahead body, and something very unnsuaL must have happened to make the a take the step the}' had done. If they ventured on such a decisive step, they must have had something, to justify thenii and he could say that they had«. Those who- had purchased lan a before tlie commencement of the pro lumi'ion would, he thought, deserve the consideration ol the' Comic 1, if that hmse approved- of the ooiicy o' the Government, and- future purchasers* should be paced on tlie same footi ig. 'Tlie' efF ct of the proclamation was limited in time, '•ecau*e the Go- ern-ment did not wi-h to have; the responsibility on their shoulders any longer thin they coohl help, and they purposely limited the period to the meeting of t heCouncil in April. As to the enforcement of!' the Improvement Clause, ho held very decided •opinions. He looked on its enforcement. as m act of spoliation and- robbery, ami he bad several reasons for talcing this vie w. Up to 18J6 ; the land had been sold at L 2 an ;ere. In that year the Land iiegulatioos containing the Improvement Clause were passed, and the pr.ee of the land was red ii.-ed to 10s, subject to the conditions. In 1360 under the fchvperiu tendency of MV Macandrew the four years expired, yet no action was taken.- To havot.ucei action would have been to suspend the- huid- sales, so .nothing was done beyond a sum being^. Jplaeed on the estimates to try the questioiu^^C|io Government did not take any stapts fr^li so, and consequently the public regard jd the Improvement Clause as a dead letter, and in that belief many parties bought -largely, notintending to improve or e.-qvj-jtiag to have to do so. Hal the Government fees ced the ca3athey would no doubt have gained a djeision which would have been of invaluable beaehtto future purchasers. This was not d me, aud. .as no one found fault the General a. id Provincial Governments became responsible for .the popular belief as to the invalidity of the ; conditions, and they wore to blam.j for tha consequences. It was nine years since the .conditions became law, but vary few bought 'largely until the- conditio a 3 were supposed fco be a dead letter. In looj the Government* sh.mld if they did not like to try the ease in ; a Court of law, have advertised that all land; owners who had not complied with the conditions would afterwards improve their land attheir own peril, as the Government still reserved the right of re-entry. This would have? prevented them expending money on laud to; which they had no title, and would have acted as a warning to others; df a private individual holding 500 acres saw his neighbor mak& a mistake in the boundaries^ and take 30 -v.-vas'

of his and fence it, break it up, and build a house on it, and quietly looked on without saying anything or informing him of the mistake, and +1 -on when all was done, quietly claimed '', c ■ sry honest man -would execrate his cone"' ct, et this was what the Government haa ... ne. They had stood by, saying, ■Oh let them go on, they wall, find out their mistake bye and bye. Another, and worse feature was the men now dead had transferred unimproved land, 'and he knew that many men had bought land who were perfectly astonished to discover that it was liable to be confiscated. The Government was responsible for all this, and if the Improvement Clauso was attempted to be enforced, it- was appalling- to think of the innocent who would BUiibr, and the number of disputes and amount of litigation which would arise. The diflicuty could be got over by "the General Government remaining as indifferent to the matter for the next five years as they had been for the last five. Separation came next but on that subject he had not quite made up his mind, and did not like to commit himself . as his decision would be contingent on the proceedings of the Assembly next session. . His whofe nature revolted from sudden ! changes, he had no sympathy with the violent : Separationist, and he had an aversion to the ■ idea of Separation. He had great doubts as ' to the good results which Separation would secure to Otago, whether it was a separation ! of Otago from the rest of New Zealand or of ; the two Islands. He did not ascribe as some ; did all the ills which now beset us to the ' General Government and our connection with i the north. He rather ascribed them to our J own extravagance in 1802-63. As for the | Half-Million Loan, it was nonsense talk- j ing of it, as it was all gone, and LIOO deben- j tuves were now being hawked about at home for L 75., L 12,000 was thus lost iv a lump, and the Province was deeply in debt to the bank, so that as far public works were concerned, the loan might as well be at the bottom of the sea, except that the interest had to be paid. Now the General Government did not ask or require the Province to borrow this sum, but it was thought that our riches would have no end ; the debt was incurred, aud now the reaction had set in. The interest alone L 50,000 per annum would have been considered a large revenue a few years before, and now the i'rovince would find a considerable difficulty in paying that interest. In connection with this he would speak of the proposed alteration of tenure of the pastoral lands. The national debt of Otago at present exceeded that of France by L 3 12s. Gd. per head. France with a population of thirtysix millions, had a debt of four hundred millions, while Otago with a population of forty thousand, had a debt of six hundred and fifty thousand pounds, or about Ll3 12s 6d. per head. If the interest on this was not regularly paid, the creditors could seize on every house, sheep, cattle, or property of any kind in the Province until paid. The interest had to be paid, and paid with the regularity of clockwork, whether they had it or not. There were two ways of raising; the means to pay this, either to tax everything, a kind of general tax, or to tax pastoral lands much more than at present. There were about five millions of acres leased in Otago which at present yielded a revenue of about L 5,000 a year. What was proposed was to re-lease all this land, a certain portion at a fixed term of 7, 10, or 14 years, and a portion subject to sale, giving valuation for improvements, and letting it at 3d. or 6d. an aero. At the former rate a revenue of LB2,ov>o would be secured. This -would save U3 and our credit and would even enable us to borrow again if inclined, which lie hoped we would never be. It would be a reliable and fixed source from whence to pay interest and siuking fund. Wiien Napoleon found France on tiie verge of bankruptcy, he sent for Fould, and if instead of trying to throw the blame of our present difficulties on everybody's shoulders but our own, we would put onr shoulders to the wheel a brilliant prospect was yet open. A dark cloud at present enveloped the Province, but he believed that good would result. The resources of the country were magnificent and rich. There was plenty of the precious metal if we could only take care of it when we got it. Only last week the escort brought down nearly half a ton of gold. If we would only get rid of extravagant ideas, such as Government Buildings to cost LG5,000 and not always try to be better than our neighbors — it we could learn to live within ournieans, then a brilliant -future was still open to us. "Mr. Clark thonght that a great deal of nonsense had been spoken and written about Separation. As for the League it was hard to say what its exact views were. Some wanted the Councils done away with and two central governments substituted, and others .would have Otar.o separated from the other provinces and the -Miperiniendent made into a Governor, the Council into a kind of Assembly. He quite agreed with the idea of d. .ing away with Provincial Councils, for all must acknowledge that they had proved a failure, and he thought that the dav was not far distant when a Genera! Government for each island would be necessary. He scarcely though?, however, that the day had come, for we were not like an old se tied country. We bad large public works, such as roads, to be carried out, and he thong t they could be better managed by a local government tht.u by the subordinates of a ce.urul one. Tie could'uot see iv Separation I

a cure for all the ills .hat afflicted us, and he thought that with inc -eased representation in the Assembly we might obtain justice and go on for some time longer. The Waste Lands Act did not work well. Thousands left the colony because the land regulations were so cumbrous thai they were an impediment to settlement. He would offer every facility for settling down, and was prepared to advorate the doing away with the tax and the giving of crown grants free of conditions as soon as the money for the land was paid. (Applause.) This course would stem the tide of population now flowing from our shores and induce many to settle in our midst. He objected in tolo to conditional crown grants. As to tne Improvement Clause be had heard the decision of the Supreme Court wi'h great satisfaction. (Applause. ) If th re had not been any lawyers in . Of ago no doubt would ever have arisen as to the validity of the conditions. lie considered that common sense, common honesty, bound men to fulfil obligations which they had voluntarily come under (Applause.) The Government had fulfilled their part, of the bargain a.nd the purchasers bad no right to demur to fulfilling theirs. Common j-istice as between man and man demanded that they should he made do so, and that the conditions should be enforced. (Cheers.) lie thought that the government had been very lenient, for the Act No. 2 gave defaulters several options, amongst oti.ers that they should receive Crown Grants on paying an ad itional I'*s. r.u acre. Th s would only raise the price of the land to LI an acre, and as most of those affected were early purchasers and held valuable properties, he did not thi k they had any reason to complain : at least he was sure they would mot part with tlnir land for ten times that isum (Hear, hear.). With regard to the remission of the Land Tax, he had no doubt that the motives of the government were goo": in the matter. They were in a fix for money and their creditors were pressing them, and with empty pockets men would do many things which otherwise they would not. (Laughter ) As the matter would be discussed in the house he did not wish to commit himself to any course regarding it. The al- | teration of Pastoral TVnnrc was. he supposed, that spoken ol in Message No S last Session, in which it was proposed to set aside three million acres as a provincial landed estate, to be leased but not sold, and the rent of^ which would form a permanent revenue. The remainder of the six million of pastoral lands | would be leased for dilli rent periods of 7, 10, or 14 years, aud valuation given for improvements at. the end of the lease. Valuation was also fo be given for planting timber, which was so much wanted, and a ri_ht to purchase ■ 320 acre blocks would exist over the whole of this land. At present runholders bad no security of tenure, but this plan would give itTie thought the first prouo-ition a good one but he objected to the latter, as the purchasii.g of land would not give right of pasturage, and he fared that this would virtually slop Die sale of land. As to the Ho.-ul Oi'tricts, he considered th<-ir division a judicious act and that perhaps on the whole it could not have been nriua ed be ter. Mr. Dyer was happy to see so mrny electors present that night, as on a previous occis-'on he and Mr. Clark had attended for a similar purpose and found only four persons present. Although his colleagues had not done so, he thought that meet ing was as much to learn what the members had done as to learn what they thought on certain subjects, in fact to recive from them an account of their stewardship so he would briefly glance at what he had done in the last session. Believing that even in times of financial difficulty to suspend pubic works was the worst thing a colony could do, and that they should be carried on even by going into debt, he had brought forward a motion affirming the desirability of a railway from Dunedin to the Ciutha, and it _ was carried. A well-known contractor had written to him ofTering to contract lor the construction of such aline and to take government debentures in payment. He believed the good results of a railway would be incalculable, and if work were offered thousands of those who were now ru-hing about the com. try would settle quietly down. A great deal of the money expended onarailway would also come back to us as revenue, for the men employed on such a work would be large consumers. The inferior of the country would also be opened up and money kept at home. Within the last year L27,70;i had been sent out of the Province for flour, wheat, oats, and other things which we ought ourselves to grow, and which we could grow profitably had we a cheap and rapid way of sending them to market At present it was well known that the expense of carriage from England or Melbourne to Dunedin w ashless than from Tokomairiro to i 'unedin. A railway wojild open up the interior and enable the settlers to grow with profit. The next subject he would speak of was his motion to abolish Toll gates, no doubt a held one for a young member to make, lie was convinced that tolls were the most expensive way of collecting a rev- nue to maintain the roads. In England and Scotland they were being abolished. They stopped traffic and pressed heavily on outlying districts. Districts at a distance from a market could note <mpete with tho--e residing n^ar one, as the tolls made all the difference in the profit and they could not. afford to pay a tax on bringing their produce to inarktt. lie had opposed, the opening the ports because, altho'

the minority should generally yield to the majority, the people l%ly to be benefitted by opening the ports were chiefly birds of passage, and he felt it his duty to protect the interests of the bona fide settlers- the real bone ami sinew of the country. He thought opening the ports patting fu :i on the fire to put ie out and did n t wish, in the hope of reducing the p'-ice of meat, to run the chance of loosin - all our cattle. However the ports bad been opened and certainly the price of meat had fallen but he thought the disease had been increased. (Mr. Dyer then avov ed himself a Separationist and reiterated the views which he enunciated at the nomination for Bruce, a report of which aopears elsewhere.) Ile con sidered it quite as just tint t c North Island should be asked to pay the New Zealand Company's debt as that the South should pay for the war. lie thoroughly agreed with the reslut ions passed last session by the Council. As regarded the Improvement Clause, he thou"ht no better means of securing bona fidp settlement could be devised, and that tho =c who bou-ht should have expected the conditions to be enforced; and if the government had been lenient and consented to forego their claims ior a time it was no reason they should forego rhem altogether. It had been tried, he believed, as soon as" possible and he rejoiced at ihe result. The sale of the land was a contract, and he held that all contracts should be carried out. (Applause,) and the Act No. 2 offered those aflecUd lenient ways of getting out of the difficulty. As to the remission of the tax, he thoii.ht'the least said the better. The government had no right to do it under any circumstances, and he would not m any way snm.-ti.iti th ir having clone it. (Hear, heat-; -Vs to the proposed Pastoral Regulations, he approved of them and supposed that the tenure 'h»y would be held under would be similar to that of the M unicipa! lands— that the incoming tenant would pay valuation for improvements 'i e unite approval of encouraging planting ol timber As to the Road Districts, be quite a ..re-d with his colleagues, and thought that if to'l "ates were a 1 oiished each district should have" o maintain a portion of the main road when once made, aud that a license lee should be charged on vcl.ides. The Chairman invited any Elector who •wished to express his views to do so Mr J L. GUlies came ior* art! and said that he'was -'lad to embrace the first opportunity he had had since ceasing to be a member of the Government, and their representative, ol contradicting the many one-sided stones be had heard. Ik- strongly objected to the way tlw old road district had been divined «nu <„dd that the Government had no right to overlook the law. or to act in onpo-.-ion to the I:mv The Road Ordinance provided tba .l! a d.strict wanted to be divided, the d,<triel Trustees should apply to the General woard to the division to the Governm nt ; but here the Government took the initiative, aud the question was not as to whether tlie division was desirable, but as to the arbitrary conduct of the Government m ignoring tke procedure authorised by law, and o^ndmg the ratepayers. The Government h-ul no .i-rht to tiik".- tin- law into their own banns, out they lml done so in this case, and also about vlie'lancl tax, for the Council might as well have been called together i.elore the prochunation was issued as in April- He himself waplactrd in a district where a number of snial, householders in the township counl out-sote the real ratepayers, but he could easily point to other districts where this had ben carefully avoided. It was, however, chiefly to the assumption of authority on the part of the bo vernment that he objected. He was a Separationist, and be strongly objected to the principle on which the contributions towards the General Go vernment by the provinces had been arranged. At the time it was made, it was apparently fair, but tho principle was a wrongone being based on revenue. When made vie Northern Provinces were the largest contributors, and derived the chief benefit. _ iNow the South and Otago in particular, paid tne Greatest portion of the expense and the money was spent in the North. The tables were completely turned since the arrangement was made, and whether Otago contriDuted one shilling or ten in the pound the principle was unfair and unjust— lß months ago the interest on the sum due to Otago was greater than the whole amount contributed by the other provinces. The half mill* >v loan was passed in 1802, and in September, lbo2 the overdrawn account of the Government was L 24,000, and there were lying in tho Treasury unoaid accounts amounting to L«O,vOU. A.% tiiis juncture he had become Treasurer, and he would defy any one to deny, reckless as the "Government had been called, that they durino- their tenure of office had reduced the debt by L 20,000, and they did not stop any pulbic works either, but they did not frit ocr away the money in paying useless officials, and in paying and repaying interests to Jianks. If they had a large departmental expenditure they kept their officers all fully employee It was the departmental expenditure which ruined the Provinces. Each petty Province had to keep up departments each of whici: could just as easily do the work of all ihe Provinces. For instance, Canterbury now had to organise a gold fields department—werethe two Provinces under one Government, part of the existing staff in Otago could havx foilov.-ed the population to the West Coast, It was chiefly of the office machinery that he oke. The Police again was another instance ap p

for he had no doubt but that one force for the whole Island would be much more efficient then the present arrangement. The Marine Engineer afforded another example. He believed in the carrying on of lloads and Bailways. Canterbury, which was in every respect a noorer Province, showed what could, be done by the introduction of British Capital, and how it would enable a Province to carry on even through a general depression of trade. He had foreseen the crisis which had come, and had endeavored, been anxious to introduce foreign capital against the tune Avhen every man would have to make up his narad to retrench, to accept lower prices, and to do everyting on the cheapest scale. Talking of our larco debt was absurd, as we had plenty of security. The debt of Great Britain was L 25 17s. per head, and they had no landed estate there. With regard to the pastoral leases he agreed with fixed tenures, but he would like to know how the rents -were to be arranged, whether an assessment on stock or acreage. He objected to the former, as it would throw the burden on those who really stocked their runs. He knew of runs now on j which you could travel for half a day without ! seeing a hoof, while other places were overI stocked. He hoped care would be taken in arranging the leases to lay down a system on. which the indemnity should be paid in case of a gold field breaking out on the run. It was right that indemnity should be paid, but it should be on some recognised system. He wished to see tlie Improvement Clause enforced. Under Major iiiehardson's Superintendency LlOOi) was voted to test the question but although that gentleman was in favor of trying it no steps had been taken because the Executive of the day opposed it. Self interest had hithertoo prevented the case being tried, but he was glad that the steps initiated some time ago had resusulted in a decision. Mr Gillies then sat down amidst great cheering. Mr Dewe spoke briefly of the hardships which the enforcement of the Improvement Clause would involve on people who purchased from the original owners since the expiration of the four years, and who had since improved their land only to find that they were liable to forfeiture. Some years ago one of our leading Solicitors had stated that the conditions could not be enforced, and acting under that belief men had bought largely. In many cases the Government had taken money for transferring land which they now said there was no title to. In fact, they had taken money for transferring a valueless document which looked very like a swindle. Mr Dewe concluded by advocating statute labor on tlie roads. Some passages at arms then took place between Mr Gillies and Mr Adams, concerning tire policy of the late and present Government. Mr Adams in reply to questions said that the acreage and not the stock would be assessed under the pastoral regulations. No one would take our debentures, and the province was over head aud oars in debt. Mr Gillies asked how it was that the present Executive on assuming office had stated that things were not nearly as bad as they anticipated, and that they could carry through. Mr Adams said they had tried to put on the best face possible out of tenderness, and had not said all they might have said. It was not fair to hang anything on that. The present Government had greatly reduced the departmental expenditure without waiting for the report of the Civil service commission. In the Council last Session no one was so hostile to retrenchment. ;is the members of the late Government. The Executive had the other day redu-ed the expenditure of the Police by L 12,000 a year. The late Government had wasted L' 26.000 on Hell Hill, despite warnings and entreaties. The Land Act No. 2 was suicidal. If the remission of the tax and repeal of the Act did not answer, the p ice of land would have to be reduced. The pastoral alterations would abolish the Hundred system, but not affect those already proclaimed. He did not think that they had courted a dead lock with the General* Government by the Land Tax Prochtmition. Before saying anything as to the Chinese he would like to see a specimen. Mr Lindsay said a few words opposing the railway scheme, after which a heart}' vote of thanks was accotded to the members for their attendance and explanations, and the proceedings terminated with a similar compliment to the Chairman.

(To the Editor of the Bruce Herald) Sir— l see in your last issue a letter written by a Mr. AY- Grey, ot'Wsihola, in which he states that lie " understands" that a Mr. Wilson has spread a report that disease exists among his (.Hr. GreyV) cattle. I must- beg to assert that die only statement of mine which could be con. , s trued into such a ♦• report" was made to Mr. Strain while at Mr. Strain's house and inoccula•>ing his cattle. I did assert that I had seen some diseased cattle near the roadside on my ray iroin the Taieri to th* Tokomairiro. I neither men- • ■>-iu(l any owners' name nor had noticed any b uul in parcicularon the cattle, nor was I aware i.liat time that any person of the name of Grey ived in the district. ("rusting fhat the public will exercise more dis-:-ramm. than Mr Grey did in " wearing the ■ a ,y' as. he has done, I remain, Sir, Yours truly, WM. WILSON", Tokomairiro, ith April, 18(;5. %