AVON.

Press, Volume XXXVI, Issue 5067, 3 December 1881, Page 2

AVON.

The Avon nomination took place in the Biccarton public school. There was a small attendance. At twelve o'clock the Beturning Officer (Mr F. J. Kimbell) read the writ and called upon the electors to nominate a candidate.

Mr C. C. Bo wen said he had great pleasure in proposing: the Hon. Wm. Bolleston aa a fit and proper person to represent the district in the General Assembly. He did not nee the words " fit and proper person " only in a conventional sense. It was very important for the electors of a district to remember that they returned a representative either to do them credit or discredit; and he thought it would be universally conceded that daring the time Mr Bolleeton had represented Avon he had done credit not only to the district, bnt to the country. It so happened in the case of Mr Bolleeton that the whole constituency of Canterbury had more than once had the opportunity of expressing its opinion abont his public services, and it was very satisfactory for the electors of Avon to be able to say not merely that they were electing the best man they could get, bnt one who hod given general satisfaction as a representative of the people at large. It was not necessary, nor would it be advisable, to make a speech, especially as there was no opposition. He would only say that it was exceedingly satisfactory, as well as convenient, that, at a very bnsy time, a Minister of the Crown Bhould be retnrned so unanimously that practically his election was taken as a matter of course. Aβ there was no opposition he would content himself with saying that, though some might differ from Mr Bolleston on points of policy, men of all shades of opinion in the district were perfectly satisfied that he would use his utmost endeavors to carry out what he conscientiously believed to be right, and would not, under any circumstances, support or countenance a course of action which he considered to be wrong. He had great pleasure in proposing Mr Bolleston as a fit and proper person to represent them in the General Assembly. [Cheers.] Mr Jupp seconded the nomination. There were no other candidates proposed, find the Returning Officer declared the Hon. William Bolleston to be dnly elected member for Avon. Mr Bolleston, in returning thanks, said —I could scarcely expect to have a large audience on the occasion of an uncontented election; but you will allow mc to take this opportunity of expressing my most grateful thanks to this constituency for returning mc for the fifth time as member for the Avon district. It is, as Mr Bowen says, a. matter of great congratulation to mc that the district should not have lost the confidence it has so freely reposed in mc ever since the year ItOS. This confidence is at the present time the more satisfactory to mc because the Government has lately been taking action involving the heaviest responsibility, in respect to which it cannot but be gratifying to it to feel that it has the confidence of the public, and it is to mc especially gratifying that the electors of Avon have at this time unanimously expressed their confidence in the Government. No public man con be insensible to public opinion. I, myself, am far from being insensible to it, and I am rarticulorly grateful for the mark of confidence that has now been bestowed upon mc by the Avon district, lam not, as I have said, going to make a speech on the . present occasion; but it is one of those opportunities of saying a few words which I shall take advantage of. The particular point I wish to bring out to-day is in reference to correspondence from two gentlemen that appears in the "Lyttelton Times" of this morning, and in respect to which I wish the publtc to havo from mc a statement that I think they are entitled to. The first letter I have to allude to is from Mr Stout, lately a Minister of the Crown. In my address to the Avon electors at Popanoi a few days ago I referred to a letter that had been published by Mr Stout, in which he spoke of the action of the Government in respect to the Native difficulty in terms which, I think, as a public man, recently a Minister, be should not have need. In that letter ho stated that there were general rejoicings at the prospect of a Native war, and went on to say that he spoke moTe as a protest than with any hope that any one colonist could aid in preventing the murder of the Maoris. It seemed to mc that expressions such as those ought not to have fallen from Mr Stout—from Mr Stout particularly, because he himself was a Minister of the Crown when in the year 1879 surveyors were sent upon the Native lands—a proceeding which led to very considerable embarrassment and difficulty in the country; and, again, they ought not to have fallen from a man who, having himself hold the position of a Minister, should have recognised thejvery heavy responsibility which the Government was under in taking the action which it did with regard to the Maoris. I am not going to reply to the letter of Mr Stout's which appears to-day, further than to say that co far as it professes to be a statement of facts it contains inaccuracies, which Mr Stout ought to have known better than to circulate. It was his business oe a public man, if he chose to give a narration of what he called facts, to make those facts accurate. It would take too long now for mc to go into a statement of the facts, but I will just call your attention to one only of the inaccuracies of Mr Stout. Hβ says, first of all, " The surveys had been ordered by the continuous Ministry." Now the fact is this, that the surveys were ordered in the year 1577, but they were ordered in connection with a system by which payments were made to wipe out all Native title—a eyetem which went by the name of takoha— and also in connection with the making of sufficient reserves, aa was most distinctly laid down in the instructions that were given at thst time. Snbsequeatly, it i* true, the Grey Ministry withdrew the order for the surveys to continue, and then they committed that grosi blunder which led to the difficulties that afterwerds occurred— the surveying of the land without the reserves bciug made, and without any proposals being before the Natives aa to dealingjviththe apportionment of tue confiscated lands. Then, Mr Slout in his letter of to-dey—which lam Twyaorry to see, because it is an «

coeediugly careless one for a man wlm nnAi * squainted with the facts to bTve wdMon!^ to be ) make a series of sUtomentsTt won .nir^ 08 on >c to deal with at the preset Le Th e^? 0 Lents bear npon their face evidence that .ore or less ridiculous. To B ive yon one iasUncS! Cβ eaye '• It Iβabsurd for Mr Bolleston to cay twTt ias the September speech of To Whitith&t n J Ir Bryce to be recalled." lam not awn™ MNh contained any such tided to Mr Bryce'e recall. The action of the Gol wnment in tiis matter has been ooutinnSi hroughout. Then ha goet, on to speak withrewSS 0 the Printing Office and the relation of his W? ency tho Governor to Ministers, and other matt*™ Thich I think you will recognise it wonldnot be 'v'ffV o ,*, mc t0 *° iQt « thehasting, and T ihall decline to do so. I will only oay that Mr Stoat has written openly, and has stated whathn professes to believe in this matter, but he has (vritten carelessly and recklessly; ao.l if in the tinr suit of troth in other ways—which ho professes tn be very anxious statements are not more iccurate and his investigations more trusu worthy than those he ha.3 given utterance to in his pnblic letters with roirard to thU Native difficulty, then Heaven help his aa.iien.4 1 come now, gentlemen, to the other corremon donee to which I alluded—th.it with the Bishop cf Nelson. Now, he is n. gentleman who, I say poci tively, does not know what he ia talking abont on this Native matter, —simply Joes not know what he is talking about; and, therefore, it is a great ritr that he shoald tnko upon himself to make state, incut*, and to circulate them, which are withoat fonudation, ftud which, I think, it is eutirelv wrotr for a man iv his position to nttor. The correepoc. deuce which appears this luorniug I will snppi.el meat with a telegram which tlio Bishop has not published. It was sent by mo from the South. After I addressed the electors I hi\d to (jo South and I sent a telegram from Temnka on" the 30th November. Whether his Lordship hud received that telegram when he published the others in ft* "Lytteltou Times" this morning, I cannot saj If he had received it, he certainly t-j have published it, as it makes pretty cle r mv opinioa oa the whole corre3p;m.ience. It is as follows:— •■ the Bishop of Nelson, Napier -I have your Lordship's toletfmm ox the 20th inst. The wholo correspondence will bo published on ay r starn to Chri t church to-morrow or Friday. I only to remark that it is not your opposition that I deprecate, nor should I wish to tivoid fair jj. telligent criticism. But uo pnblic man, any more than a private iudividnal, can silently tolerate tfcj slanderous imputation of base motives, Jijj character IB tho property of the public, andbjtis public he must be judged." Iv refereuco to thi« correspondence I felt tliis : I had no desire criticism—far from it. Tho Government of tko day. if it is worth anything-, courts tho freest asj fullest criticism. It has no right to complaint!! its actions beinft condemned. Hostile criticism ft lias no to doproeato. Tho pnblic should be sfc perfect liberty to express their opinions oa the actions of the Government on all occasions. Bat what I do deprecate, and what, I thiali, yoa will agree I am ri ?ht iv depreeafiui?. is tho imnutation of base motives. [Hear, hear.] Is&ythig that the Bishop of Nelson has shown by tha respondonco that ho is lacking iv his moral percmtion of what is right and wrong. It is not, as 1 8a y criticism that I deprecate, bnt it is a stitemeot that amounts to this : that the Government of the day of which I was a momber—and I wm at the time of the action ho speaks of Native Ministeractually took a course of aotion which might ba»s involved bloodshed and war, with a view to in. flnencing the elections thronuhont the conatry. Now, I say that any Government who would do each a thing as that would be utterly nndeecrviss of the coniidence of the public. I will BO t %$ further into this matter now. Tho handsome way iv which the oleotora of Avon have twain placed mc in the position of their member shows that the publio will not concnr in such a view aa tiat entertoinedby the Bishop of Nelson. Gentlemen I will not detain you longer, but will conclndeby thunking yoa very much for the handsome way in which yon have treated mo an yonr member, aufi by expressing a hope that my publ c acliona nay continue to meet with your approval. [Cheers.] A vote of thanks having been passed to tho Beturning Officer, the proceedings terminate*!.