The Manawatu Election

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 37, 15 September 1887, Page 2

The Manawatu Election

ME WEST AT FEILDING. | . There was a very large attendance of electors at the Public Hall last evening tahear the address of "Mr. ■!>. G. West, one of the candidates for Manawatu. His Worship the Mayor -was: voted to the chair* j Mr West commenced by expressing his sympathy with those business gentlemen of Feilding who bad suffered' by ' th~e' destructive" fire of the" previous night. (Hear, hear.) He then referred to the defeat of the Govern^ ment on their financial proposals in the last session. The immediate occasion being the great deficit of revenue. This defeat lead to their seeking a 1 dissolution. .Our financial position was not a bad one, and our assets stood high, the sum total being upwards of £2,18,000,000, and the liabilities were £128,000,000, leaving a credit of about £98,000,000. This lie regarded as not a bad state of finance, and taking into consideration all our advantages, we as a colony it might be envied' by the other colonies! It was a mere matter of a year's prosperity to ease the colony of its present depression. The actual ; deficiency of the past year: was £130,000. The great question before us was how this could be met. . He proposed the managing of the business in a much more economical way than heretofore. There had been great extravagance from the top to ■ the bottom of the business of the country. He referred to the Governor's salary, and showed how £3000 might jbe saved in tbldt item alone! It was too expensive a luxury at its present cost, and. the duties of the representative of Her Majesty- could be done at far less 1 expense: Our Ministers salaries and expenses were far too heavy, and a great saving' might be effected here. He advocated the reduction of the hbnararia of the Upper, out not the Lower House, giving as His reason the difference as to wealth and the matter of honor and glory between the two Houses. He was 1 for reducing the number of the Lower House, and showed to what advantage New Zealand stood in respect to Victoria for instance, and contended that we were far in excels in this respect of our requirements. ■ The principal saving in , the Lower House should be _in reducing the- number oi. members rather than their honoraria. He gave particulars of the expenses of the Ministers' houses, and other matters connected with Ministers, which he regarded as luxuries. > As to Defence there was no need of the expensive forts and guns that had been provided, and he looked upon naval defence as the proper way of protecting the country from an invasionr The time was come When the Maoris should contribute; from -their lands equally with the other subjects. He then spoke of the reduction that might be made in Education, and thought, .it .time .that poor -people, should have a voice in making the laws. Education might be carried on at a much: cheaper rate than it had been. ,He .did. not approve of a State nursery, which he characterised the plan of sending children to school at such an early age as at present. His experience was that a child got on far better; and learned faster by not going to school till seven years of age. He quoted the argument that raising the age would tend to shut up or prevent the opening of country schools, and showed how that supposed difficulty might be met. The 6th standard should ; be abolised, as comparatively few availed themselves of it, and he thought it was not required." He approved of higher education, but it was possible to get too much of a good . thing. If children learn things which were afterwards no use to them, their time had been wasted. There. were 1400 who had passed the. 6th standard, and still remained in school at the expense of the State, which he thought was not fair. They had in fact no right to be there, or if so their parents should pay for it. Mr West reitter-; ated his other views on Education and the Universities, expressed in his speech at Falmerston, and his remarks were frequently and warmly applauded. He also reported tfa.e statistics of the expensep of working the Education Department. The expenditure on the* school buildings alone might v6ry welt' be reduced by 15 to to 20 per cent. If elected he should certainly' advocate 'a much better management in this matter, for he could not help saying there had been much mismanagement. He spoke of the Bible injfchools, and he strongly advocated the teaching of morality, but not doctrine. Were this done he fully believed there would never have been any such thing as the Mount Rennie outrage. What we ha I to consider in our financial economy was how to make both ends meet: ' ' He introduced the question of Freetrade v. Protection. There was not a person present who would approve of a policy ; that would shut up an in-dustry-r-a sawmill for instance. :■ The duty levied on American timber some sor 6 years ago was not for the pur- | pose of revenue, but for protecting j the timber interests of the oolpny . They all approved of that, and were therefore in that sense Protectionists. He instanced cases with a view of showing that the argument of Freetrade did not hold good under all circumstances. He advocated the protection of sudh articles as we could produce ourselves, : some of which he enumerated. In support of his argument for a Protective policy, , he gave the respective statistics of deposits in the Savings of Victoria and New South Wales, showing as he contended the advantages to be on the side of Protective Viotoria. ■ - The land laws were referred to; He would ninintain and even extend the system of deferred payment, but without enforced, residence. A man oould often make a living where he could not make a home. He did not want to weary his hearers, but would be

erlad to explain anything by way of answering questions. To Mr P. Thomson, Mr West said the increase of duty should Jbe so assessed as tc encourage colonial productions instead of importing lie same. The result for instance of putting a highjtariff on paper wdttjd soon have tke^effect from the increased cost of inducing capitalists to embark in the manufacture^of paper. Mr Arnott asked if Mr West would he prepared to do auything^for the^nsing population.' Mr West said yes, "by giving them a good education. '/ • ■ . -y Mr M. Keen: Are you in favor' of Home Rule. (Laughter). - To Mr P. Bartholomew, Mr^West replied that if the tariff were put on timber we could still import the timber that j«ra» required, as we had done before. , To Mr. P. Thomson, Mr W^st replied he would not increip^se the taxatapn unless with- a yiewi to 'make fijotb? ends' in^et. The Customs Tax was. the; cheapest collect.' It was altogether the best means of increasing our prosperity. •■.■;,•' v.-f To Mr Noary^i he, replied he should advocate an improvement in, the law relating to felling and ■burning bush. To Mr Bray, he said^ it wouid not be wise to sell the railways, but we should introduce a better and more economical and satisfactory way of workingthem. 'He advocated' their management by a nonpolitical 80ard. ...,,.. , P ; ;- To Mr J. Smith, he replied tiiie members of the Legislative Council were supposed to be well to do men, but it' was desirable that any man should have an opportunity of sitting in the 1 Lower House* and that was his reason for *tsob being in favor of reducing i the henorana of Representatives. .: , : . ; -:> To Mr Lethhndge, ,he said the number of members were reduced .we might naturally take it for granted they would be the very best men" in the "country,: a&i that consequently we need not fear as to their giving way tolog-rollingandbribery. To Mr Gfichard, he replied satisfactorily to a question as to the secrecy of the ballot box mode of election. , „ , ■ To Mr SherwilL he said that if v the school age were raised to seven, it would, while 16werinjg: the amount of capitation, be compensated for by the 6th standard 1 being abolished.' In large towns several teachers were required for teaching tha 6th standard only; and this expense might be saved. Wherever a school was started it should be on secular and neutral lines, /free and compulsory. If a school grew to a sufficient number for a denomination to take it»inanag©Hftent'i I fe might be allowed to do so, and receive' capitation. •■■■■ ■ ; - i* : To Mr Peter Thomson, he said he was not an out and outprotectionist, but only to such an extent as Protection would tend to prosperity. He did not pretend to say that -Victoria's, prosperity was due solerjr to Protection^ 1 •■' ;ii - iiiiJ '■■ ■:~>'---':^-,i»:,. ' To-Mr r Lethbxidge, he explained a statement he had made; with; referenoo to retrenchment io Education. V „.. r ; . , To Mr Sherwjll, he said there was very little to choose between the last and the present Government. 'He would, support thepresont f 3pVearniaent' however 1 in 'thecase of a want of confidence motion. ; To Mr Sandilands,. he replied to a question as tu> the plattoi-m; of the present Government. ; .h . . -i :.:.'•.. ■': . ;i ..v Several other questions were put, some of which 'were unimportant, and others somewhat irrelevant; but to all of which. Mr West made some reply. :v - • :<? ;v ' :;<J Mr Lethbiidge proposed; and-Mr Pirani seconded, a vote of thanks toMrWest,. Mr Pii-aui attempted to support thfe proposition by a speech, but was hooted down by the audjence. Thevote of thanks was carried unanimously amidst applause! '- Mr West proposed ' a hearty vote, of thanks to the Mayor ; for presiding;' ; :I © also thanked the audience for listening to him so attentive' y. He had scarcely expected to have had such a courteous and respectful reception in the midst of Mr Macarthur's supporters: : The-^meeting then broke up with cheers for Mr West,