THE HON. MR FOX AT DUNEDIN.

Marlborough Express, Volume V, Issue 229, 7 May 1870, Page 7

THE HON. MR FOX AT DUNEDIN.

(From the Independent's telegram.) OTAGO, PAST AND PRESENT. Mr Fox addressed a crowded meeting at the Theatre on the 27th. He said he had, with feelings of diffidence, assented to the request to address an Otago constituency, because he was not their representative, and because it might seeem presumptions to come before them, personally unknown to them, and give his views to them on the political questions of the day.. He. however, felt that to a certain extent he was a representative of all constituencies in New Zealand, and he had a feeling of satisfaction in addressing an Otago audience, because his recollection of the province, and of the City of Dunedin, dated back to a period antecendent to what most of them could remember. It was twenty years since he first visited Dunedin, when it was but a bare tract of land, in company with Captain Cargill, and discussed the prospects of Otago, which at that time seemed dreary and remote enough. They discussed the best means by which they could expend the small sums of money entrusted to them for the advancement of the country. I'hen there was a little community of 2000 souls engaged in making house, none of whom, he thought, had gone beyond Green Island Bush, and one who had gone beyond Taeiri was looked on as a madman Twenty-one years after, he returned amazed at what he saw, and astonished at the progress of the city—streets' extending two or ihree miles, macadamised roads extending two or three hundred miles into the country the spread of agriculture, the goldfields, and public works and institutions ; anti he felt proud at having been connected years ago with a people who had attained such prosperity. UNTRUTHFULNESS OF ITS PRESS. With regard to the present position of the General Government in reference to one or two great political problems, he wished to say that the proprietors of the leading Otago journal had not presented a clear and cheerful picture of the past year in reference to the war. Perhaps he had no right to complain of the course taken by that journal, if it found a pecuniary advantage in making it a mere party organ, instead of holding an even balance between the two sides and conveying truthful information. If such a course was consistent with the sentiments of those who conducted the press here, he hud no right to, and did not complain; but be had a right to stale the facts of the case and to correct the false impressions that bad been created by the perusal of the articles he alluded to. From that journal, which he was informed was practically the only one having a large general circulation in the province, they received Information of what was going on in the North Island regarding the war, and, he was sorry to say, those articles did not convey correct information. Many of its special correspondents were men opposed to the present government; some of them had held high office under the present Government, and were now its most malignant opponents, and did not hesitate to make statements regarding the war that totally misled the community he addressed. There was not much difficulty, in small places such as Wellington and Hawke’s Bay, in knowing who those correspondents generally were. Most of them had been servants dismissed by the present Government, and they had left no stone unturned to pay them off. ACCOUNT OF THE WAR. He would give them a short account of the war during the past twelve months. Mr Fox then shortly reviewed the origin and cause of the war, and went on to say that after the hostilities under General Cameron bad ceased, the Government of that day stood in a position of being able to settle for ever all the difficulties of the Native question, and of putting an end, by friendly means, to all hostile inclinations But they did not do so—they drove from them Mr- M‘Lean and drifted into a new war, and the escape of the Chatham Island prisoners was followed by a war on the East Coast. Mr. Stafford had said in his speech at Timaru—a speech containing nothing—as the press had said, that they (the present Government) had only followed the policy of the late Government with respect to the war. The great difference between Mr. Stafford’s course and theirs was indicated by an article which had been published in one of the Northern newspapers, but was known to be written by a member of the Ministry, which said ;—" Thank God we are in for a great war ;” and in 1868, Mr Richmond said at Taranaki that “ the proper mode of dealing with the insurrection was to go bu to its beads," meaning to provoke a

general war in the North Island* That was the idea of the Stafford Ministry, and a devastating war was the effect. POLICY OF THE MINISTRY. Such was the state of affairs when they (Fox Ministry) took the administration. Their policy had been, as far as possible, defensive, and they took up arms only when attacked or in defence of allies whom we were bound to protect. When they took office, Whitmore was nearly involving the whole country in war. The forces were mutinous and demoralised; and yet he was about to attack the whole of the King party, and thus plunge the whole of the country into disaster. They, however, thought it best to avoid such a catastrophe, and fell hack in defence. The effect was that in a short time they had overtures from the King party, shewing that if they abstained from aggressive measures, there was great hope that peace could be settled in the country ; and that hope bad to a large extent been realised. They had made no blow of aggression ; all their operations had been directed to the capture of Te Kooli, whom they were obliged to attack in defence of their allies at Taupo. From the commencement of the war they had not had a single disaster, and Te Kooti had been driven into wilds where it was impossible to follow without provoking the King party. An important chief of the Wanganui tribe. Topia, had offered to follow up Te Kooti until he destroyed him; they had closed with the offer, and Topia had since shown himself one of their staunchest allies. That event could not have taken place under the Stafford administration, and Whitmore, who constantly depreciated native services. From this lime Topia, Kemp, and Ropata had driven Te Kooti headlong from his pa, and utterly broken up, not only his party, hut the whole of the Uriwera savages; and he believed they would not see the sword drawn again in New Zealand in connection with a war of any magnitude. The statements made by the Hawke’s Bay and Wellington correspondents of the paper he had alluded to, to the effect that the prisoners taken were only old women and cripples, were abso lutely untrue. Only one hour since he received a telegram from Mr Gisborne, stating that all the prisoners were fighting men, mostly strong and stalwart. He admitted that many women had been taken, but contended that that was advantageous. He believed that the loss of 150 women was a blow from which Te Kooti would never recover, and that his prestige was thereby gone for ever. He claimed, as a great success for the present Government, that if they had not captured Te Kooti, they had killed and captured men of equal rank, and who were equally dangerous. They had done more in allaying the irritation of the natives, and in making friends of those who had fought against them. Daring Mr Stafford’s Ministry, and under Whitmore’s command, the whole conn try between Fatea and Waitotara was denuded of inhabitants, who now, to a great extent were reinstated. He complained that many of the incidents in connection with the conduct of the war had been kept back by the public journals. They have not been given publicity to like many of the things calculated to injure the present Government. ' This was a fact not to be disputed. It might have occurred through their not having a trumpeter, as the Stafford Government had in Colonel Whitmore. Their man was M'Donnell, an officer who, if he could not use his pen, could use his sword—who had fought more than twenty hard battles, and had only been once beaten. It was impossible, in the short time allotted to him, to go into the details of the war, but to two or three points he would refer. No one regretted more the expense of war, or would be more willing to see the Middle Island relieved of the burden it entailed ; and as a Northern member, he might express his gratitude for the forbearance exhibited, and for the money they might have expended on railways and other works. It was right, politically, for them to pay a share of the expenses, for they were all members of one community; but he was grateful to them all for their generosity as to expenditure, which might have been, as he before said, spent amongst themselves. COST OF THE WAR. He was glad to tell them that the stories told lately with reference to the military expenditure were falsehoods. He had seen an article slating that the Government was spending at. the rate of £540,000 per annum on war, and that they were sroing to add a million to the national debt. Now, the real expenditure amounted only to £193,630, in fact, up to the 30th June, they might calculate on 250,000 as the expenditure for war and police. Were these misstatements fair ? (“No.”)' When

they took office the expenditure wad £45,000 or 46,000 a month, and increasing every day ; and yet at that time Mr Stafford spoke as if the war were just beginning, and stated that he intended to raise a general v/ar loan on the revenue, and £500,000 to enable him to carry on operations. Now they had no war loan, not' did they intend to have one. He trusted they wete satisfied the Government hud avoided useless expenditure, and were! little, if any, in excess of the sum voted. WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED. £30,000 bad been voted for roads, of which £IO,OOO only was spent, leaving* 20.000 to the good. They had made a large amount of roads through troubled districts; and the dangerous road between Wanganui and Taranaki was now so safe that Cobb’s coaches were regularly running through it. He was glad to say the £20,000 was not expended, and hoped that at least £15.000 would be unexpended at the close of the year. He could not, however, pledge himself to figures, and there might be small sums which Government was acquainted with, but he did not expect more than a few thousands in excess of the sum mentioned. With regard to the Constabulary, he said Otago had lent them a man through whom they had been able to effect a great saving; at the time when he took over the force it consisted of 1457, a large number of whom he had to dismiss, leaving only 570. [Read Branigan’s report shewing that the Government reorganised the Armed Constabulary system.] A depot was established at Wellington, whence recruits were sent to serve a period of probation, and after careful training and drilling were sent to their respective districts. The North island had been formed into police districts under competent officers. The present force consists of steady, reliable, and fairly intelligent men, to whom the force as remodelled holds out a career of permanent employment and the hope of raising themselves by merit to the highest rank in the service. Meanwhile the-force had been employed in ordinary duties and making roads, building and repairing redoubts, bridges and telegraphs ; the main line of road and telegraph line from Napier to Taupo had during the last eight months been begun and was now approaching completion, and Taupo and the chain of posts along the Uriwera country were permanent stations. CENTRALISM AND PROVINCIALISM. Centralism and Provincialism had been the great question for the last two years, and great division existed between the General and Provincial Governments, one acting as a federal, the otherjas a local Government. When Mr Stafford came into office he was an out-an-out provincialist, as shown by his going in with Dr Featherston. Then he took unto himself Richmond and Hall, both centralists. He was glad to see, from Mr Stafford’s address at Timaru, that he was so moderate in bis views on this matter. He (Mr Fox) had always been an advocate of provincialism, and all he wanted was good government; but. before he threw overboard provincialism he wanted to see something better. He bad been told by a man who inaugurated the Westland County, that he was sick of the County system. Let those, therefore, taka opposed provincialism show something better. They had not yet done it, although they tried three years ago, when Auckland was down on its luck as a province; but the moment gold was found, provincial institutions became again popular; and the greater the prosperity, the more they would become attached to the institutions under which they were placed. The mind of the present Ministry was not engrossed with topics of that sort. If they had at the head of affairs an arrogant man, who was opposed to provincialism, there would be no peace; but otherwise, the Colony—if Colony it were, which he doubted—would go ahead like the United States had done, and become the Queen of the South Seas. The desire of the Government was to promote the interests of all the Provinces ; and he believed that as they got rid of their miserable war, they would be able to create roads and railways throughout the country ; and he trusted the Provincial Governments would not hesitate to go ahead with them ; and Provinces not having land revenues would be able to do the same by means of a loan. Immigration would do much good ; and if Otago was better off now than when she had only 2.000 inhabitants, she would be still belter off with a million. He begged to thank them for their patient hearing, and hoped they would be able, before they died, to guide the affairs of the country so as to see it flourishing and prosperous to their utmost desires. Mr Reynolds moved a vote of thanks, which was curried with cheers.