PARLIAMENT OUT OF SESSION.

Evening Post, Volume XXI, Issue 119, 23 May 1881, Page 2

PARLIAMENT OUT OF SESSION.

MESSES. HAEEIS AND HAMLIN. | UNITED PK3SS ASSOCIATION.) Auckland, 2lBt May. Major Harris and Mr. Hamlin addressed a meeting of Franklin electors at Bombay. Major Harris, who was the first to speak, entered into an elaborate statement of the way money was spent in the Sonth and the small portion that came to the North. He referred to the alleged deficiency in the colonial exchequer, and stated that the pnblic credit could be raised or depressed for special purposes, just as the directors of a gold mine frequently did for the purpose of ■ affecting the price of shares. He stated that the system of retrenchment which had been carried out was to be credited to the Opposition, who forced the Government to do it. He condemned the uniform ten per cent, scheme adopted in the reduction of salaries, and the inequality of pay given to the Government officers in the South as compared with those paid in Auckland. Mr. Hamlin made an attack upon the Hall Government for the waste of time caused by useless measures, the folly of Commissions, Ac. He said the Railway Commission was the only one that had done any good. He condemned the long imprisonment of tha natives without trial, also the waste of money caused by keeping the constabulary centred in Taranaki. The property tax was also severely condemned. Several questions were asked of each member, and answered, after which a vote of confidence was passed.