THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1874.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 303, 18 December 1874, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1874.

Tire addresses of the several candi" dates for the vacant office of Provin" ciai Councillor for the Mount Ida district are now all before us. Mr. JSwing and Mr. Loaxy have depended upon the charm of the voice: Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Dillon on the moro subtle influence of the pen. To say that anyono of these addresses is peculiarly striking is untrue, if or, hr.leed, would it be fair perhaps to expect from men such as the local candidates, who have, allowed themselves to be nominated, as it were, straight from ■the pick handle, the polish, readiness, and strength of argument of those whose duty it has been in former times to represent, or attempt to represent, a constituency. Mr. Armstrong depends upon his old tactics of laughing himself in—when; in, to turn round and laugh in.his sleeve at the generous and assis ive risibility _ho has created for his purpose. That is we'l understood. If Mr. Armstrong goes in it is simply because he ■ is. harmless and —not that one in ten of his supporters thinks he is anything but what he describes himself to be in his published address, —a ben in search of her old warm nest - , where, in happier tinted, she wa> v, out to sit asleep, while duiv fori and nourished.

Mr. LVai-y i? -i c-kndidate"ot' very liifforenfc pretensions,' «iud wo shall deal with his dxHre-?,-: ;u f»i.itnc length ; ii», if lie id cWn.d.'thtiie can bu no d'jubt ujx.n wbat l.is letum has* bo<-n bused. vVLtiij, i; it t-l.ujid f.ur be,

under his keeping the constituents complain, they can be told with truth that his conduct in the Council which may have displeased fhein i 3 simply a straightforward carrying out of principles duly declared before election on the Naseby platform, " Tolls are a remnant of barbarism," &c. Now, what does that mean, if not that Mr. Loary would urge.what has so far been successfully resisted, the abolition of toll-bars from the vicinity of JDunedin, so that those who live in. the suburbs to escape the Municipal rates might get a free use of the loads without contributing a farthing. Pushing out the Hill-side, Water of Leith, Walkari, and Anderson's Bay bars, three miles from the city, as Mr. Pish has repeatedly attempted, would mean practi cally a tree gift "of over £SOOO to the , City of Dunedin : that poor city that j receives, so we are told now-a-days, i not a shilling for public works. Now, if it is said that Mr/ Leary did not confine his toll abolition to bar removal, we £nd from last year's receipts at the gates throughout the Province, that the amount .collected on the Oamaru, Duustan, and "Waitaki roads (exclusive of the Water of Leith gate) is only £2394 ; so that, by toll abolition, the district would get its proportionate share of £2394 for the privilege I of using unformed roads, while Dunedin would get o er £SOOO for a free use , of metal bowling greens. Mr. Ewing was not far wrong in saying that money voted for a district was not all gaiu. £IOO jjiven to Goldfields is the precursor to £IOOO given outside—not a satisfactory state of things, although ' it might enable a man to- drive .his wife ou : without being stuck up at a toll-bar. "lioad Boards are capital things, and their powers should be extended." Mr. Leary states what every Groldfields paper has shewn long ago, although he tried to make some capital of it—as producing in three minutes study whathadnot been doneas yet at all—that three-fourths of Goldfields revenue collected is not returned. Now, where does it go ? It does not go to Dunedin, so Mr. Leary tells us. is it possible it goes to Koad Boards ? Subsidies to Boad Boards, when not universally applied to all lands in the Province, means that what of our revenue escapes the City of Dunedin and the Harbor of Dunedin, goes to make roads to the different paddocks of every farmer in. - the agricultural districts. . If it were the ■ main roads that were so subsidised, some fairness would " be discernible. It is not so. Main roads through fanning districts are properly formed, and maintained out of Provincial revenue alone. In addition to this every -farmer gets aid i in making a road to his' Special plot. ! The Crown lands are sacrificed, and bled of their revenue, which should be devoted to making them of value, in i order_to_inereaseltho-value_of.the large freehold estates of" men like MfTM." Holmes, Dr. Webster, and Mr. Menlove, equally, as the small hamlet belonging to the fifty-acre cockatoo on the Taieri Plains.-.- -This is-the system a candidate for the vacant seat forMount Ida declares—-possibly in ignorauce —to be r excellent, but not,of any interest to the electors, though coming within the scope of-his future duties as a representative in the Council of the Province. Nearly £26,000 was lastyear appropriated for these unequal subsidies, which includes a grant from the General Government in itself liberal enough, we would think, as a bonus upon the growth of produce. The llarbor Board, we are told, is the salvation ■ of Provincial revenue. . Mr. Leary says quite truly that revenue has'been wasted annually in answer to clamor; but he did not tell his meeting .what clamor. Was it not Dunedin clamor ? Has Dunedin clamor suddenly ceased ? is it not rather existing with tenfold virulence at the present time ? and is not Mr. Leary "himself a budding offshoot- of the same plant he affects to sneer at? No longer is this to be.' He will be no party to giving up anymore Provincial revenue. The Harbor Board will save that. Tc future, the Board itself must find the ways and means. Confirmatory of this, the remarks of his" Honor were quoted when receiving a deputation from the Board Nothing is given up without a previous satisfaction, and certainly we do" not suppose anyone would seriously believe that a body ofDunedin merchants are going to pay for the Harbor maintenance without receiving full value beforehand. It did not suit Mr. Leary to quote a little earlier in his Honor's speech, where he refers to the very valuable endowment made to the Board of land more valuable than any of similar extent in Dunedin, worth over £200,000, which has been given to the Board, besides the jetty and harbor dues,; worth annually from £4OOO to' £SOOO. With such gifts, would the Board ask the Province- to contribute aa much every year as they had done before. Mr. Leary was quite safe in saying he would be no party to finding funds for , it out of revenue. However, what ! is wanted, and what will yet be ob- j tained, is a defined security of Provin- ' cial estate, as a guarantee to the money-lenders, and this defined security will, if carried, assuredly lock- up a great portion, if not the whole of this district. Not that the working of the land- laws would ' be interfered "with, but that the proceeds would be devoted to deficienced in the payment for works for which it was the defined security. Clearly, the same security cannot be. given twice' for different purposes?, aiid if Btraihtaieri is once iocked up for a reserve, no chance remains of getting it opened up by good road:;; or railways—it being locked as security fur any mad scheme._an unoont rotable and irresponsible Board may initiate, when urged on by Dunedin clamor. fc>uca a loss of our lands,

coupled with unrestricted free selection, would within five years place the freeholds of the present pastoral leases in the hands of their present occupiers, who could, *if requisite, easily borrow for such, purchases, as they themßelveß would have the fixing of the purchasing .price, because their runs could not be sold without their consent. Mr. .Leary's supporters and friends are not ignorant of this. He himself, immersed in business, may be; but his friends, it would appear, do not scruple to make use.of his plastic ambition to secure their own ends, his successful candidature on such a platform as he put forward—honorably and without disguise ■;— would be an affirmation that the cause for which Mr. Bastings sacrificed his position, and Mr. Clarke his seat, has been only " utter bosh."