MINISTERS AT NEW PLYMOUTH.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5008, 14 February 1878, Page 2

MINISTERS AT NEW PLYMOUTH.

[By Telegraph.] (from our own correspondent.) NEW PLYMOUTH, February 9. [The report of Sir George Grey's speech, in yesterday's issue, left off at a point where he was referring to plurality of voting in county elections — to the injustice of one man having a good many votes while another man had only om vote, though the same amount of money was taken out of the pocket of the one a of the other.] Sir George then went on to say — To his (Sir George Grey's) mind that wa3 most humiliating. It was said to him— " You have no right to act class against class." But he was not setting class against class. Strictly speaking, they were all one class, but if every individual had the same rights with regard to the money he contributed to the public revenue, he

could say that if this system was allowed a rich nation and a p OO r nation, and they would create a poor nation of . that kind that those members of it who rose to comfort and competency would be very small *. indeed. Only lately he had been reading P ?W??i rt T. d 6to Privf Coiuicil .They reported that such ww the state m England of the great masses of the population there that aU the goal they could look to in their old age, after a life of good conduct, was the Union. That was the goal to which they all atl tamed ; the goal which all men ought to v attain was the goal of a comfortable home, " even if xt was a humble one-a comfort! able cottage, if it was a Bmallbne: : He ought to attain to the goal of a'happy bIS ■ ' a-e himself, with/sufficient to eat and drink instead of being buried in £;..< pauper s coffin and a pauper's grave/ - His ■- own firm conviction was that" if they ia ' New Zealand did not insist upon a 'fair i distribution of the public burderis, and^if th %.^ d v?°t 1 - Ilsist on aU the Prizes in political life being offered to every citizen in New Zealand, they who were poor now would leave their children poorer, and their grand-children, poorer still. Ho' would ask them, the people of New Zealand, to remove the fault he had pointed ' out; to see that every man in New Zealand over twenty-one years of age should - haye a vote, and every man one vote r only. Each man one vote, and rib suck odious distinction made between man and man as existed at the present day' He " wonldnow say a few words orithe incfc. j dence of taxation. This was a subject worthy of their consideration. .. Why should not every person in the colony pay to the State in exact proportion to ' i the benefit he derived from the State? f , Why, for instance, should one man with * ' i two or three children, very rich' indeed; . but spending a very small income, ifey exactly the same as a small farmer with ' the same number of children? And why should an enormous amount of the public L: money be spent to give value to that rich man's property? Why, fop instance, should some squatter— they would' take a case in the Middle Island-with two or three hundred thousand sheep, havink ' : pastoral land, raising from the colonf%very large income indeed— say a thousand •• •< a year— and living in Great Britain^ / spend it and pay nothing for the govern- * ment of the colony? They did not aci; that way in England. He lived in New Zealand, but every year he paid a large income tax .at .home for the maintenance ? ?£ ?? J 1 Govern ment, and it was just that he should pay it. Why was the rich squatter in New Zealand, belonging to the colony and drawing thousands from the colony, not to contribute a single sixpence to the expenses of the colony? bupposmg a squatter got his run for ninepence a sheep, and supposing he (Sir G. Grey) could break that large run up into twelve small ones and let them by auction, and got very likely Is or Is 6d a sheep-A .. under such circumstances the twelve small runholders, by the necessity of making their small runs carry as much as possible, would make the land carry twice the number of sheep it did before. All that increased the revenue and' would go to diminish the taxation of the country. Why should not the run be broken up in the way he spoke of ? Out of justice to themselves it was demanded that they should say, "If you get the run well arid ' good, we are very sorry for it that we ' cannot touch it, but we think it a' very wrong law that enables you to impose so * great a charge on us yearly, and we do : •say you shall pay out of the revenue you' lthus derive a fair proportion of the "ex- ' pense of the country." The argument was this, that every man ought to contribute to the revenue exactly in the same . : proportion that he derived any advantage from the protection of the State. A ; farmer in Taranaki paid a considerable sum to the expenses of the colony, while a gentleman drawing ten thousand a year paid nothing at all. It was contrary to sound sense. He hoped, therefore, that the people of New Zealand would insist upon a revision of the system of taxatidfc, At present the Customs duties were charged on many things that operated on everyone of us. They felt, since the new system of taxation had been introduced, that money did not go as far as it did. They should insist on these duties being lightened. After impressing one thing upon them he would not trouble them with any further remarks. There must be one fair land law for the whole colony. No longer must the system be allowed to prevail by which the Governor, sitting in a private room with three or four gentlemen, could make laws ■<<;■ regulating the sale of land in such a manner that those acquainted with a ■'• change of law had an enormous advantage overtheir fellow-men. There musfc be one fair land law, administered justly and openly for the benefit of the entire population. The new land law recently passed gave no control whatever ; to the people of New Zealand over their public lands. Supposing that the land law was so composed that no land could be sold, except by the Ministers of the Crown, or under orders issued by them, the result would be that they would have responsibility, the only security they could have, j ."'■ and it would be one of two kinds. They must either do away with their boards, and give the responsibility to their Minister, or they must have elected Land Boards,. Let them insist on the question of representation — that every man of full age residing in one place for a certain time shall have a vote ; they must insist, too,, on a thorough revision of the land laws, and to determine that the will of the majority in the colony shall prevail oj a these subjects. Many people would s ay, " But the majority is all wrong," but Jfle did not believe a single bit in that. I He firmly believed that whenever a question was submitted to the country, and was talked out and written out and thought out, he believed the will of the majority would be in the right direction. Let them also insist upon their representatives constantly meeting them, that their members might give them tfieir lessons for their line of conduct. It waa the duty of every representative fairly to meet the people. He could do no wrong either to himself or anybody else by attempting to instruct them. If he was worthy to lead them at all, he must be worthy to tell them something which would do them good, and it was his duty as a public man to attempt to do good in that way. Therefore, if he (Sir George Grey) were an elector of New Zealand, he would require that his representative should meet him frgm time to time arid give the reasons for what he did. Every attempt made to excite political ) life throughout the country did good. . When political life failed in a nation, that nation : was in decadence. A nation was always ; at its greatest at the time of the most intense political life — that was the time of a national greatness. Let them look at England. After the reformation, what orators, what statesmen there were — a galaxy of talent such as England never' had before or since ! It was the stir of political life that brought that about. Let them look also at the time of the Reform Bill— Byron, Shelley, Scott, and other men of that period. They might rely that the more they kept active political life in New Zealand, so much the more vapidly would the advancement of the country be. v

Mr Sheehan said lie would not attempt to follow Sir George Grey in his exposition of those broad political principles which woiild be the test of parties in the next session. The prospects of their party never looked darker than they did at the commencement of last session, but as time wore on fresh faces appeared, and finally, with the aid of two of their (Taranaki) representatives, they were able to accomplish the difficult operation of putting in a new Government. ; v They were thankful to the two Taranaki members for the assistance s.o given, because he might say of these two men that they were standing supporters; of tlie party p£

the late Government. They were Messrs Carrington and Kelly. He thought they ■would agree with him that when those gentlemen saw cause to change their side, the time had really come for the altera- * tion to take place. In native matters he had the advantage of Sir George Grey's advice. At the banquet that day he (Mr Sheehan) had mentioned the two leading points in their policy, and he would try to amplify them now. In the first place, he held it to he essential upon all possible occasions to make every reasonable sacrifice to maintain the peace of the country. There were people who would say, because a survey was stopped here or a I theodolite taken there, that under all circumstances the law should be carried out. As a civilised people who were founding a great nation, they could afford to make small sacrifices of that kind for the sake of, maintaining peace. What would be the effect of an outbreak in any part of the North Island 1 The effect of an outbreak, no matter how small, would be the damage of their credit at Home, and the stoppage of their public works. Bearing in mind that their population was increasing so rapidly that in the course of three or four years all chances of war would have ceased, they could afford to be patient. _ It was not a flowr-and-sugar policy, but it was a policy that recognised the important fact that every day of peace we had was so much gain to us. The second feature of his policy was a feeling that animated the breast of every young man born in the colony. The natives were not to be looked upon as a cow that was to be milked, but let them try and raise the natives in the social scale. Let it not simply be the devestment of all the natives had. If they made them a landleas people they would likely make them a depraved people as well. Let them try by means of schools and right training to enter on the old path of progress that the natives had before the war. Make them tillers of the ground, growers of wheat and corn, and in these and other ways get to copy the European models. It was not the intention of the present Government to yield one inch in regard to the question of confiscated land. They took things as they found them. The native people had gone into rebellion with the full knowledge that if they rebelled their land would be confiscated. It was not their

intention to give back the confiscated land to the people from whom it was taken by the authority of the law. While acting in that way, they would give the natives reasonable reserves ; tracts sufficiently large to put their people on, and they wouldr- endeavor to preserve that land against alienation to other persons. He knew that at the present day there . was a number of persons watching for those reserves to be made, and advising the natives to get very large reserves with the quiet intention of mopping up those reserves for themselves. It was no part of the policy of the present Government to prevent the occupation and settlement of the country, if they were . allowed sufficient time to do it in, He thought they would be found to take a broader view of that question than any preceding Government. Up to the present time the Native Lands Act had not been worked in the interests of settlement. It had^ been used for the purpose of putting through large blocks of land which had fallen into the hands of capitalists, and would make in a few years the North Island a vast pastoral district. Now they meant to put a stop to that. That practice was the worst of all, and was unfair to the owners of the land. He had been behind the scenes for years past. The native market had not been a market. A few people who spoke the Maori language had been the only means of communication between the European and the native. The great bulk of persons could not approach them. The remedy would be to allow the Maoris to have their land dealt with in some public way, by tender, or public action. Secondly, suppose the Government were to Zupy a block of sixty thousand es near your settlement would they allow the Government to dispose of that land to a single person 1 You would require the land to be cut up into moderate sections. So the Government thought, native land should be cut up. These were reforms not very easy of accQmplishment. There were so many Europeans with selfish motives who would oppose them. Men of that kind were traitors to both races. They would have to depend on the public for support against those people, and he would tell them the course upon which they had reserved, which would help them to carry out the proposed change. He knew it to be an absolute truth that many of the troubles that had arisen in the past were owing to the fact that many persons s holding native offices had used their position for the purpose of acquiring land for themselves and their friends. That was a system they meant to put down entirely. A circular had been issued to himself and the other officers of the Department that if they had any traffic in native lands while' holding office they would get their discharge. Every officer in the Department now understood that he should not traffic in native lands for himself or his friends. There was this immense benefit in it — there had grown up in the native mind a profound distrust of the Native Lands Court so deep that in many places it would be a work of difficulty to get them to go into the Court again, owing to men in the Court having worked on their own account. But now that they knew the officer could not buy for himself they would go to the Court, he hoped with confidence. Some two months ago he gave instructions for the holding of a Native Lands Court in New Plymouth. He was sorry to find that the Court had not been held yet, but he had communicated with Auckland, and very soon he trusted they would have the Court there

to hear a number of outstanding cases. He would say in conclusion that Tarakaki been to 'him a place of great attraction. He used to read news of their battles with interest, as they now had read European news, He had had, like many other persons, a great misconception of Taranaki. He had thought all it possessed was the mountain, all it imported was soldiers, and all it exported was bad news ; but he^ must say that of every part of the colony he had been in he had seen no place where the people had better reason to be satisfied with their prospects. They had a mine of wealth in their iron-sand, and though as yet their attempts to work it had not been satisfactory, they might depend upon it that ere long some person would solve the mystery, and it would then assuredly become a great source of wealth to them. Taranaki was really what it used to be called in the old days, *"' the garden of the colony." When they came to have a proper harbor, when they would not have that primitive method of communication he had witnessed that day, the time would come when all the greatness of Taranaki would begin. He felt perfectly certain that when they had a harbor into which vessels could enter with some degree of safety, they would have no reason to send emigration agents home to England.