THE GENERAL ELECTION.

Evening Post, Volume LII, Issue 156, 23 November 1896, Page 2

THE GENERAL ELECTION.

♦ DR. NEWMAN AT JOHNSONVILLE. Dr. Newman addressed a well-attended meeting of the electors at dohusonville on Saturday evening, Mr. W. Cook presiding. He prefaced his remarks by referring to the alterations made by the Boundaries Commissioners in the Electoral Districts, and pointed out that a large portion — about twothirds—of his old electorate was now included in what was known as the Otaki electorate, and for which he sought their suffrages as a candidate. THE EDUCATION QUESTION. The first question he would express his ■views upon that evening would be that of education. He held that the education system was the finest thing in the whole of the colony, and should be adhered to. It was the one thing that the country obtained a direct return from for all the taxation heaped upon it. The education vote, therefore, should of ajl things be left intact. A system of night schools should be opened in connection with the present system for tho benefit of those children who were compelled to leave school before passing the sixth standard, or who desired to further improve themselves. (Applause.) THE LIQtTOB TRADE. Begarding the liquor traffio, he was one of those, who had always held that the men and women of the country should rule this matter, and not the publicans and the hotelkeepers. He was prepared to uphold the right of the people to govern the liquor traffio as they pleased. (Hear, hear.) He had always resisted any attempts to take from the people, this Tight, and would always do so. JUVENILE DEPRAVITY. Upon the women question there were two or three things he would like to say. His opponent , had stated that he was not in favour of women's suffrage, but that he would not now attempt to take away from women their present right. This was a very plucky thing to say, for he ventured to think that anyone who attempted to take away from woman the rights she now possessed would stand very little chance of getting into Parliament. He wished to say a few words upon the Juvenile Depravity Bill. He had opposed that Bill as placing a shocking power in the hands of the police. It was a shocking thing to think that a policeman had power to place his hand on any boy or girl out in the streets, rightly 1 or not, at night, and take them before a neighbour, or any one else, to see who they were. It was a most improper thing, and would cast a stigma upon many respectable children. It was a piece of bungling legislation on the part of the Government, an,d the Premier, when he found how it was received, had placed the Bill in a position on' the Order Paper where it would not again come before members. (Applause.) THE MAJTAWATTT RAILWAY COMPANY. . He was in favour of the Government taking over the Wellington Manawatu Railway Company. It would have been a much better thing to do this than to assist banks and that sort of thing. (Applause.) At present, owing to the uncertainty as to the intentions of the Government in regard to the railway, the company could not run the risk of making improvements in the train service, which would result in a temporary loss, when at any time the Government might take the line away from them. A means of getting over this difficulty had been suggested. If the Government would give the company a fixity of tenure for 10 years, or something of that kind, the company could in return put on more trains, and build up a convenient suburban traffic. (Applause.) The result of the bad suburban service now in existence was that people who would have come to reside in the district could not do so, owing to the inconvenient service. A great advantage of the suggestion he had mentioned was that it would not require an}' money from the Government. It simply meant concessions to the company on condition that it put on a better suburban train service. A RECREATION GROUND FOB JOHNSONVTILE. Another matter that he had taken up was the question of a recreation ground for Jolins-onville, which had been brought under hh notice at the previous meeting. There was difficulty in ascertaining the position of the land, as it was native land, but he had hopes of getting it as a recreation ground for Johnsonville. (Applause.) HOMES FOE THE WORKERS. Still another matter was the question of getting land in the suburbs for homes for workmen. He had succeeded after much . trouble in getting the Government to purchase 140 acres at Petone for this purpose, and if this went off well no doubt more would be obtained. This would enable working men to get away from the town to live. In these suburban places they could live much more freely, much more cheaply, much more comfortably, and in more healthy homes than they could get in town. In their spare moments they could work about their property — grow their own vegetables, &c. Negotiations were now being made for the purchase of land at Johnsonville for this purpose. Mr. Drake's property was the land in question. The property had been valued and everything arranged except the price, about which there was some difficult}', but he had little doubt that some compromise would be arrived at, and this land soon placed in the market. (Applause.) THE BANKING FAfiCE. Since he had last addressed them the Banking Enquiry had been held. He thought the Banking Committee one of the mistakes that Government? sometimes made. After all the questions asked— 6ooo in all— what further matters of interest did anybody know about the Banking business than they knew before the enquiry ? Whenever the Committee came to any interesting patch of evidence the Chairman always ruled it out of order. The enquiry had done no good to either the colony or tho Bank, and the position was a very grave and a very serious one. The welfare of the Bank was of very serious importune to the colony. Unfortunately, some years ago Parliament put two millions into the institution on the word of the Premier that it was absolutely necessary, that that was all that would , be required, and that it would be quite safe. They knew the sequel. The Bank wanted more assistance, and another 3$ millions were put in. They did not even now know that more would not be required. This was a. most serious position, and showed how wild and reckless the Government was that heaped this responsibility upon the people of the colony. (Applause.) They knew that they had put this money into the Bank, and the question was how they were to get out of it. As an instance of how things were turning out, there were the properties of the Colonial Bank, which had been purchased at their book values by the Bank of New Zealand. Since the purchase the purchasing bank had been trying to realise on these properties, and what had been the result ? First, there was a property in Canterbury which had been bought for £250. This was sold for £250. That was all right. Then there was a property in Lawrence that had cost the Bank £2559 19s 6d, and which it -now gold for £1000 ; another in Marton cost £265, and was sold for £25 ; one at Nonnanby cost £69 la Id, and was sold for three note*. It was difficult to say in the face of these sort of things whether the purchase of the Colonial Bank would turn out satisfactorily. Having now put all this money into the Bank, the Promier brought in a Bill to safeguard the interests of the people. This sounded rather sar.castio after the money was gone. But the Bill was thrown out. Before one penny was paid int« the Bank the Governmentsnould

have made the fullest enquiry. (Applause.) Now that the colony had assisted the Bank to such an extent he thought the Bank should be encouraged in every way possible, but the majority of the directorate should be elected by the people of the colony. (Applause.) THE COLONY'S FINANCES. Touching upon the finances of the colony, he held that if New Zealand was to borrow money the greatest care should be exercised as to how it was to be spent. Since the present Government had been in office, the publio debt, which was then just under 40 millions, had been increased direct and indireot to 60 millions, and there was very little to show for it. A good deal of the loan just proposed to be raised had been spent before it was borrowed. The Ministers had got the finance of the country into a very great mess. They had annexed all the money they could lay their hands on ; and had created a surplus for which they claimed so much credit, by increasing the taxation in all directions, and by squeezing the people as much as possible. (Applause.) In the face of this, too, tht trade of the colony was not increasing as it should do ; and he asked them if their exports and the trade of the colony should not be makiug better progress. (Applause.) The colony was dozing — its trade waa not increasing and public works were at a standstill. The Government was always boasting of its land settlement, but if they were to give a true return of the position the result would show that the settlement bad not been anything as satisfactory as stated. In this district the actual settlement on the land had been very little indeed— many who had taken up sections had forfeited them, and many more who were on the land wished they could get off it. THE QUESTION AT IS3TTB. The question at stake at the coming elections was whether the people were going to support a Government that bad departed from its pledges and that had never stuck to its policy. The Government was like the man who married six wives, and when charged with the offence pleaded that he wanted a good wife, and he thought that he ought to get one good one out of the six. The Government was always changing its policy in the hope of getting a good one. (Applause). One of the things that the Premier had taken credit for was the Midland Railway business,, but this matter was far from settled yet. The position was very much the same as before. The Government was making the line and taking off so much for land grants, while the company paid the rest. Really the line was being made by the Government at the expense of the Midland Railway Company. Both the Midland Railway Company business and the banking had been mismanaged by Ministers. It was because of this frequent mismanagement that he and many others thought it 'would be a grand thing for the country to have a change of Ministry. (Applause.) It was time to see whether this mismanagement was to continue, or whether they could not get a change and better management. This was the issue now before the country — Whether the country during the next five yearj was to be more wisely and prosperously governed than it had been during the past five years ? (Applause.) questions. At the conclusion of his remarks a very large number of questions were put to the candidate. In answering them, Dr. Newman said he was in favour of the people controlling the liquor traffic, but had voted reduction at the last poll, aud he had no doubt that he would vote reduction again. He had voted against assistance being given to the Bank of New Zealand, because he thought that the fullest enquiry should be made before putting so large a sum of the people's money into the institution. If the Bank was put into a proper position and the people of the colony properly represented upon its Board of Management, he would not be in favour of a Royal Commission of Enquiry being set up if it would injure the Bank. If enquiry was to be held, however, he would certainly favour a Royal Commission in preference to such a farce as occurred last time in connection with the Banking Committee of Enquiry. (Applause.) He would not bo in favour of abolishing the totalisator and legalising sweeps instead of it. He thought that to legalise sweeps would be a dreadful form of demoralisation. They had sufficient means of gambling now. He was in favour of some portions of the Local Government Bill, but could not support the reduced amount of subsidies to local bodies proposed by the Bill. He would strongly oppose anything being taken from the local bodies. It would be a very nice and popular thing to say that all the main roads of the colony should be kept in order out of the Consolidated Fund, but the Consolidated Revenue could not stand the strain. It was certainly very unfair in a district like their own, adjoining a large city, where the residents of the city used the roads so much, that they did not contribute somethingtowards their maintenance. Something might be done in such cases as (his in the direction of setting aside a certain portion of the revenue as a subsidy towards the maintenance of the main roads. He had supported Bills going in the direction of the abolition of grand juries, and in favour of paying common jurors a fair day's pay and expenses. He thought the new system of appointing members of the Upper House for a period of seven years instead of for life should be given a fair trial before making any change in the constitution of that body. He favoured the Referendum, and thought the Elective Executive should be given a trial. (Applause.) Mr. H. Greer moved a vote of thanks and confidence in the candidate. Mr. Chapman, in seconding this, thought that the position of the colony, was such that the people could not afford, to put apprentices into Parliament to represent them. It was time experimental legislation was put a stop to, and tried men, like Dr. Newman, who had well and satisfactorily represented them in the past, returned to guard their interests. (Applause.) The motion was carried unanimously, and the meeting ended.