PUBLIC MEETING AT WAIMATE.

Press, Volume XII, Issue 1550, 25 October 1867, Page 3

PUBLIC MEETING AT WAIMATE.

■ :■; On Saturday last a public meeting of the electors of the Waimate district was held at Waimate, according to advertisement, to take into consideration the various clauses of the Troara and Gladstone Road Board Bill, as effecting the interests of the Waimate district. The Chairman (Mr.M. Studholme) having briefly opened the meeting, Mr Buckley rose, and said he supposed it devolved upon him as the Waimate representative in the Provincial Council to. open the ball. He then eomplaraedof the want of courtesy shown to the district by the hurried way in which the meetings had been called, and petitions got up by the Titnaru and Gladstone League. He I?ss very glad to see several of the members of the League- present from Timaru, and requested them to inform the meeting what Ud been done under the Act, and what sfrantagee were likely to accrue from it. He fished particularly to hear how the specific apportionment of the £30,000 worth of debentures had been made, and how it was that out of that £30,000 worth no allocation had been made to the Waimate district. Mr Horton said that he had gone to Wellington as the delegate of the League. He had left Wellington after the Bill had passed its second reading. That the Bill had come from the committee of the House shorn of its fair proportions. The Bill as it stood through the Becond reading stated that 25 per cent, of the land sales and pasturage rune should be paid to the districts, and that the £30,000 worth of debentures should be apportioned 88 follows—£3ooo to the Opihi bridge, £8000 to Timaru harbour works, and the remaining £19,000 to such other bridge works as might te-Nquired in the districts.Mr Euekley then dwelt at some length on tweral clauses of the Bill, contending that the Waimate district would lose more than it *9ul& gain by coming under the Act in question. }&t Cardalo spoke strongly in favour of the Bill, and thought that the present meeting, Is} been called through the influence of Mr Buckley to create- dissenion in the districts. that had petitioned for the Bill. Mr Buckley replied, repudiating any intention to create dissension, and reiterating his pr§»ioa» arguments .that the Bill was adverse tojhe interests of the Waimate district. £r G-. B. Parker was at a loss to understand thii, good could be noweffected.by the meeting. 3&eActhad been passed, and was irrevocable BJrtil next'session. He thought undue ha-te lad been .shown in calling the meeting.. Mj Jolhe, the member for the district, ought to Wβ been invited to attend. He considered that the interests of Waimate were not at variance *ith thoee'of Timaru; on the contrary, they *ere closely connected, Timaru being the port. Mr Tumbull, of Timaru, in a somewhat N% speech, strongly advocated the Bill, that the Waimate district had Pwt cause for congratulation in coming under & Tho Bill was not all they desired, but it *&asmuQh as they could obtain in the last •fcsoa, It was the principle of the Bill ftsj had to loot at. and the fatal blow it gwen to provincialism. The people ™3 a, sacred right over the revenues derived «Mn the knd fund, and hitherto that sacred °&l had- been wantonly and deliberately fcaificed by the Provincial .Governments — earns had been drained from the out-jjtog-districts and recklessly squandered in vhiatchurch. From past experience it w a* evident that there was no chanoe of objustice under Provincial GoTernmemt. Hβ then 'warned the meeting ' against being «J away by Mr who was there aa 7«l»e«Qtati!B of Mr Moorliousc and proTOCttlism. £\£r ; TurnbuU throughout Ms *peeca indulged rather freely in personalities *S*iflst Mr Buckley, accusing him more than "Bte of allowing hie political viewa to be Sueetedby his-personal interests.] Mr Buckley, after briefly commenting on ••i* Personal nature of Mr TurnbuU'e speech, ■TOdenying flatly and indignantly that there *9any grounds for the damaging acousa|jft» Mid insinuations made against him by *5 Xurnbull, moved the following reaolu- «^»:— -That this meeting, having had the Timaru and Gladm oard of . Works Act, is of opinion— \ ) That while they approve generally of c Local Government Act introduced into of Representatives, the Timaru and "Ketone Act now passed is of so deficient a that instead of being a beneßt to »awtnot it will prove disadvantageous to Pe&tereate of the inhabitants." "(2) That specific appropriation of the proof the debentures to be made over by & j!; the important claims of the Waimate JJw hare been completely ignored." "(3) IjbZ,: c me eting also desires to record its the injustice of the Waimate IT -.t bein ß forced to come under the its being optional on the part of (offiru the to join or not." copies of these resolutions be forOoWi a' cbauiaan of this meeting to the i 'teaiJmL^ etery aad his Honour the 3u P er-

The above resolutions having been seconded by Mr Collins, wero put to tho meeting, and carried by 34$ Bgainst 13., Mr G-. B. Parker moved, and Mr Price seconded—"That this meeting thanks Mr Jollie for to our interests at Wellington, and also for his action with Mr Cox in the matter of this Bill." The motion was not carried. On the usual vote of thanks being passed to the chairman, the meeting separated.