UNKNOWN

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVI, Issue 3960, 2 May 1870, Page 6

UNKNOWN

>v; "ox addressed a crowded mceimj at the fiieatre, Dunedm. on April 27. He said it a. u twenty years since he first visited D;ir,.-dm, when it was but a bare tract of la id in company with Captain Oaigdl, and then d rci.ssed the prospects of Ofcngo, which at tl at time seemed dreary and ro.roto enough. The\- discussed the best meai.s by which they could expend the small sums of money entrusted to them for the advancement ot the country. Then there was a little com- j inunity of" 2,000 souls engaged in making houses, none of whom, he thought, had gone beyond Green Island Bush, and one who had gone beyond Taieri was looked on as a madman. With regard to the present position of the General Government in reference to one or two great political problems, he wished to say that the proprietors of the leading Otago journal had not presented a clear and cheerful picture of the past year in reference to tlie wax*. Perhaps he had no right to complain of the course taken by that journal, if it found a pecuniary advantage in making it a roeie party organ, instead of holding an even balance between the two sides, and conveying truthful information. If such a course was consistent with the sentiments of tho-33 yho conducted the press hpre, lie had no right to, and did not, compl un ; but he had a right to state the facts of the case, and to correct the false impressions that had been created by the perusal of the articles he alluded to. From that journal, which he was informed was practically the only one having a large general circulation in the province, they received information of what was going on in the .North Island regarding the war ; and, he was sorry to say, those articles did not convey coirect mfoimation. Many of its sr>»d:! •» ' esp-Ontlonts weie men opposed to the present Government ; some of them had held high ofhoe under the present Government, and were now its most maliynant opponents, and did not ke&itateto make statements regarding the war that totally misled the community he addressed. There was not much difficulty, in small places such as Wellington and Hawke's Bay, in knowing who these correspondents generally wt.ro. Most of them h.-ul been servants dismissed by the present Government, and they had left no stone unturned to pay them off. Mr. Fox then shortly le viewed the origin and cause of the war. Mr. Stafford had said in his speech at Tunira — a speech containing nothing, as the press had said — that they (the present Government) had only followed the policy of the late Government with respect to the war. The great difference between Mr. Stafford's course and theirs was indicated by an article which had been published in one of the Northern newspapers, but was known to be written by a member of the Ministry, which said :—: — "Think God we are in for a gieat war ;" and in 1868 Mr. .Richmond said at Taranaki that "the proper mode of dealing with the insunection was to go on to its heads,," meaning to provoke a general war m the North Island. That t\as the idea of the Stafford Ministry, and a devastatmg war was the effect. Such was the state of affairs when they (Fox Ministry) took the administration. * Their policy had been, as far as possible, defensive, and they took up arms only when attacked, or in defence ot allies whom they were bound to protect. When they took office, Whitmore was nearly involving the whole country m war. The forces were mutinous and demoralised, and yet he was about to attack the whole of the King party, and thus plunge the whole of the country into disaster. They, however, thought it best to avoid such a catastrophe, and fall back in defence. The effect was that in a short time the\ had overtures from the King party, showing that, if they abstained from aggressive measure.!, there was greatbope that peace could be settled in the country, and that hope Lad to a laigo extent been leali&ed. They had made no blow of aggression : all their operations had been directed to the capture of Te Kooti, whom they weie obliged to attack in defence of their allies at Taupo. From the commencement of the war the3 r had not h.id a single disaster, and Te Kooti had been driven into wilds, where it wos impossible to follow without a risk of pi ovo king the King party. An important chief of the Whanganui tribe, Topia, had offered to follow up Te Koofci until iie destroyed him ; they had closed with the offer, and Topia had since showed himself one of their staunches!; allies. The event could not have taken place under the Staffoid administiatiou and Whitmore, who constantly depreciated native services. From this time Topia, Kemp, and Eopata had driven Te Kooti headlong from his pa, and utterly broken up, not only his party, but the whole of the l T rewera savages ; and he believed they would not see the sword drawn again in New Zealand in connection with a war of any magnitude. The statements made } y the Hawke's Bay and Wellington coi respondents of the paper he had alluded, to, to the effect that the prisoners taken were only old w omen and cripples, wei-e absolutely untiue. Only one hour since be leceived a telegiam fiom Mr. Gisborne, stating that all the prisonera were lighting men, mostly young and stalwart. He admitted that many women had been taken, but contended that that was advantageous. He believed thai the loss of 150 women was a blow from wh.ch Te Kooti would never recover, and that his prestige was thereby gone for e^ er. He claimed, .as a great success for the present Government that, if they had not captured Te KootJ, they had killed and captured men of equal rank, and who were equally dangerovs. They had done more in allaying the irritation of th » natives, and in making friends of those who had fought against them. During Mr. Stafford's Ministry, and under Whitinove's command, the Avhole country between Patea and Waitotara was denuded of inhabitants, who now, to a great extent, Aveie reinstated. He complained that many of the incidents in connection with the conduct of the war had been kept back by the public journals. They have not been given publicity to like many of the things calculated to injurej ure the present Government. This was a fact not to be disputed. It mi^ht have occurred through their not having a trumpeter, as the Stafford Government had in Colonel Whitmore. Their man was McDonnell, an officer who if he could nob use his pen, could use hu sword — who had fought more than twenty hard battles, and had only been once beaten. It was impossible, in the short time allotted to him, to go into the details of the war, but to two or three points he would refer. No one resetted more the expeiibc of war, oi wouU be more willing to see the Middle Island relieved of the burden it entailed ; and as a Northern member, he might express )ui gratitude for the forbearance exhibited, and for the money they might have expended on railways and other works. It was right, politically, for them to pay a share of thj expenses, for they were all members of one community ; but he was grateful to them all for their generosity as to expenditure, which might have been, as he before said, , spent amongst themselves. He was gl id to tell them that the stories told lately wiuh reference to the military expenditure were falsehoods. He had seen an ar'icle stating that the Government was spending at the rate of £540,000 per anmim on war, and that they were going to add a milbo.i to the national debt. Now, the real expendit'iie amounted only to £193,630,— in fact, up to the 30th June, they might calculate on i.250,000 as the expenditure tor war and police. Were these misstafcements fair? (" No.") When they took office tlie expendi ture was i' 45,000 or £48,000 a month anu increasing every day; and yet at that fine Mr. Stafford spoke as if the war were iust beginning, and stated that Le intended to raise a general war loan on the revenue, and £500,000 to enable him to carry on operations. Now, they had no war loan, nor di 1 they intend to have one. He trusted they * 'c satisfied the Government had avoided ti in expenditure, and were little, if any, ii xcess of tho sum voted. *30,0C0 had j b- ?n voted for roads, of winch £10,0(0 only mjs spent, ler.vmg £20,000 to the good. 11 ey had made a large amount of roads fhrough troubled districts ; and the dangeroug road Between Whanganui and Taranaki v«s now so safe that Cobbs coaches werreyaliuly ruunjnp through/ % gf w*3 gl*4

to say the £20,000 was not expended, and hoped that at least i.15.000 would be unexpended at tlic cloc3 of the year. He could not, however, pledge himself tj figures, and there might be small sums, which Government was unacquainted with, buthe did not expert more than a, few thousand in exce.ss of the sum mentioned. With icgaul to the Constabulary, he said Otago had lent them a man thiough whom they had been able to effect a great saving. At the time | when he took over the force it consisted of 1,457, a large number of whom he had to dis- | miss, leaving only 570. [Mr. Fox hoi o lead Mr. r»r«uii£«in's report, .showing that the I Government reorganised the Armed Con- , stabalaiy system.] The force ha 1 been employe I in ordinary duties and miking roa.ls, building and repairing redoubts, bridges, and ' telegiaphs. The main lme of load und telegiaph line from Napier to Taupo had, during the last eight months, been begun, and was now approaching completion, and Taupo and the chain of posta along the reweia country were permanent stations. Centralism and provincialism had been the great question for the last tv.o years, an A gi-ext division existed between, tho General and Provincial Governments, one acting as a tcdeial, the other as a local Government. When Mr. rftpftbnl came into office lie was | an oat antl-out provincialiat, as shown by his going in with Dr. Featheraton. Then he took°unto himself Richmond and Hall, both Centralists. He uas glad, to sec, fiom Mr. Stafford's address at Timaru, that he wa3 so moderate in his views on this matter. H<* (Mr. JFox) had always been an advocate ot provmculi&in, and all he wanted was good government ; but befoie he threw ovei board provincialism, he wanted to see something betfc r. He had been told, by a man who inaur,ui afced the Westland county, that he was sick of the county system. Let those, therefore, who opposed provinciilidin, show something better. They had nol yet done it, although, they tried three year& ago, when Auckland was down on its luck as a piovinee ; but the moment gold was found, provincial institutions became again popular, and the greater thoprospenty the more they would b-tome attached to institutions under which they wore placed. The mind of the present JI mis. try was not engrossed with topics of that sort. If they had at the head ox affairs an airogant man, who was opposed to provincialism, there would be no peace ; but otherwise the colony, if coloivy it were, which he doubted, would go ahead like the United States had do.ie, and become the Queen of the South Seas. Tho desire of the Government was to promote the interests of all the provinces, and he believed that, as they gob rid of thjir rniseiablo war, they would be able to create road-* and railways throughout the country ; and he trusted the Provincial Governments would not hesitate to go ahead with them ; and provinces not having land revenues would be able to do the same by means of a loan. Immigration would do much good ; and if OUgo vas better off now than when shu had only 2,009 inhabitants, she would be still better o^ with a million. He begged to thank them for their patient hearing, and hoped they would be able, before they died, to guide the affans of the country so as to soe it flourishing and prosperous to their utmost desires. — Mr. moved a vote of thanks, which was earned with cheers.