ADDRESSES TO CONSTITUENTS.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1612, 21 April 1879, Page 3

ADDRESSES TO CONSTITUENTS.

ME McMINN AT TE AWAMUTU. [By Telegraph.] Te Awamutit, April 19.

Mr McMinn addressed the electors of Waipa in Te Awamutu Hall on Friday night. Mr William McKay was chairman. Mr Hammond proposed that the meeting be adjourned to Ohape, Hamilton, as cnh, 4 per cent of the Waipa electors were present The resolution was lost.

Mr McMinn thought Te Awamutu, commercially and geographically, the centre of Waipa. He alluded to the Electoral Bill as not so important as the Government considered. He first supported the Bill because he considered that the Maoris were unfairly represented. Forty thousand Natives had only four members, while the Europeans had a member for every five thousand. To encourage the Natives he voted for the Bill, but when the Land Tax Bill was introduced it throw a fresh complexion on the Maori dual vote, which gave them power to increase taxation. Respecting the land tax, he approved of the object of the tax, giving the country the unearned increment represented by the increased value of the colonial land. He criticised Mr Bowen’s statement in the House that a land tax imposed independent of improvements was calculated to cause rebellion in the colony. He, Mr McMinn, approved of such, advocating a reduction of the limit of exemption from £SOO to £SO. The present limit was too much like a class regulation. Ho voted for the Beer Duty Bill, as the Government required the money; but he was pleased it fell through. After referring to the JointStock Companies Taxation Bill, and the Customs Duties, he alluded in complimentary terms to Mr Whitaker’s Representation Bill, which he contended should have gone into committee side by side with that of the Government, in accordance with the generous offer made by Mr Whitaker, Mr Curtis’s Educational Bill he had promised to support, with a view to meet the wishes of many friends who solicited him. In future he should oppose the Bill, as he was opposed to any change in the present secular system. He approved of triennial Parliaments. If the Government had made the Bill a Ministerial measure it would have been carried. The Sheep Bill was a comprehensive measure. He represented the northern part of the island in the committee framing the Bill, and sent copies to the secretary of the Waikato Association, who neglected to reply or suggest improvement. The Sheep Bill was a purgative, but was not permanent. The speaker highly eulogised the Government for the fair and impartial conduct of public works. Mr Macandrew was entitled to the highest praise. He looked out for the interests of the colony just as in old times he had done of Otago. With Mr Whitaker, he (Mr McMinn) had waited on the Government regarding the Thames-Waikato railway and other public matters, and always found the Government liberally inclined. He approved and supported the Deceased Wife’s Sisters Bill. He and Mr Whitaker wore on the Waste Land Committee together, and found the latter veteran member up to everything. The South tried to filch from the waste land twenty thousand acres for hospital reserves, forty thousand for harbors, &C, In this way the lands worn jeopardised, but Mr Whitaker and himself put their foot on such attempted alienation, lint, lor Mr Whitaker’s exertions an extensive area of country would have been swamped. Mr McMinn concluded by saying that tie did not know what Government proposed doing further, and would not speak in the dark. In reply to Mr John, Mr McMinn said lie approved of encouraging small land-owners, also observing that forty or fifty local matters of business from Waikato engaged his attention at Wellington. Mr Hammond was glad that Mr McMinn showed himself now so ardent a supporter of Sir George Grey. He was astonished to hear Mr McMinn’s opinion on public expenditure. It was his (Mr Hammond’s) opinion that the Government treated the North disgracefully, expending immense sums in the South, but in the North letting out a few small jobs just

at the tail end of the joar, before the lIOUBO met.

Mr McMinn again supported the Government, referring to the extensive contracts between Kaipara and Te Awamutu. With reference to limiting land purchases, he felt that the natural law of supply and demand was the best to regulate it. He disapproved of restriction by the Legislature, In reply to Mr Hungerford, Mr McMinn said ho disapproved of separation. He did not know whether he should vote for the repeal of the Counties Act. Mr Roche proposed a vote of confidence in Mr McMinn, who was returned to support the Grey Ministry, and had done so. Mr Parsons seconded, and the resolution was carried without dissent.