Indignation Meeting.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 216, 16 August 1883, Page 2

Indignation Meeting.

GHJTYUJYTIJ

the West Coast line. A public meeting was called, when si.mil r resolutions •were passed ; and a deputation waited on the Minister, and the schedule was so altered as to allow of a sum to be expended on the Gorge line. At that time they had thought they had done a uood thing to get this concession, but lie was very much surprised when he saw this year that only £101 bad been put down, and he could think nothing ' ' efee 'than that it had been done merely , to please the electors of ManaWatu, that ■i it could not have been the intention of - thVGowrnment to do more than alter the,.scliedule.\ He did think the Government wonld have placed a. small 5 sum on the Estimates for this work, as 11 'the- construction of the line to the Gorge i would' not have been an ? undertaking, and would have assisted , <i ':, <&b -progress of the other portion by i v I carrying material for its- construction. The estimates showed that £101 had ,7 been voted for this work, but he believed that this wgs a balance of- an old vote, I ; nbt that the Government wanted to keep faith- with them by spending this s-i amount. ■.• It -was very disappointing when they had been led to believe tha' is)i4hß^wdrfc would' be undertaken. The 10 argument: had been used by the Government that it was not wanted till j — tb:r Wißsreoast lfne was m hand.j He-, that before* pick had been Bjfcruck, at ; the Gorge the v West: Coast 3 fail^aywonld be finished. Consequently this/reason for delaying the work had ; ._■;. passed aw«y, and they should; nwke a move now to construct this portion to connect the two lines, so that it would , be. completed when the West Coast line. JJ^»s-oj£i>ejL jffe considered they were quite justified m arguing this way with the Government, as the Hon. W; W, ", had sent, word to sayjthafcthe "'work would' be constructed at no distant date. The West Coast line baa bean ' , l ßfa^Bd, and .then for some unexplained 1 "reason the [.work was stopped. He had . .never - heard , of such a . thing ; if pur Inte)fes^,h«id been properly looked after, l ine rail Way. would have been finished by; . this time ; as it was, bad not the people iJ ' of VfTelltogton, and also of Manawatu iUji Vfcme itd'a determination to construct the Wellington-ufanawattt railway, it would have been no further ahead than when the work was stopped. It may be said that they had concessions granted to tbem, but they were nothing, consisting only of some i earth work. Of some value no doubt, but insignificant when we jconsidbr thatiW^ are taxed for the railways oil the whole colony, and then hav6 to find' 'i^inMs'to^make our own railway. If it s wasfor no other jreason the Government" should do. .this small work which they ,v»ert (teking for. than- that the cpnstrncsion of the Wellington-Manawatu Railway had relieved them of an expenditure of £600,000., 'He, would not throw a I jtone vat,, our present memberj, > as he '(We^^okn^tpn) had attended \ to* lour wishes m toe past, to a certain extent, bat on the present occasion hecbrtainly TO no! studied our interests, and- what , he k*d. done was done by pressure brouglit about by deputations goiog to Wellington two or three times -a year . ly afie Hon. Ut Johnston had not come amongst us the same as any other member, but we had to go and wait on him. i:^Sw Jbad .he ever asked whether there J Was anything requiting his attention. ** IB Hd l iras-41l there when it was jelecl;ion Ume,andwaß "yours sincerelyj" &c, but any other time he did not seem to b , -careior his constituents. He (Mr Lins ion) looked upon a member as a jeervant not'for'him to act the master. Mr 70'rJohriflton should have fought this battle - m the House for the amount necessary ! -idr'ihe work; he would tb^en have acted inbrt like a faithful member/instead of . wiicb he had not askeithe Government for a shilling. The construction of this line had never caused any division m Jieiithis district, and therefore Mr Johnston .^ould^ haye no.Teason for objecting to the "amount being placed on the Estimates Jor, its construction.. However,] let us •^aive another try m pressing the:matter ,pn -|be attention of the .Government, •''ln^'let'Mr 1 Johnston know that,, we (lave passed resolutions with this! object. utt wXL ri t&' least be thought' that the people oi tnis^district are fighting ior jrhat is jusjfc, m trying to get this necesearyj w^qrk dpney .. ( Applause.j) He t l(oulcl move— .l > I ' ■ !.'.'" iia ',■< i;ib*t>tfcw ;constltaency i deeply regrets alter «p.,inany endeavours to obtain Its Wi-^tfr portion of the present vqt?; for railways m tha Horth Island, that on, this '■'■■< r veaVs Estimates no provision is made for Uie construction of the, line connecting ' J ' pilme'wton 3iaWbt vrith'Wbodvillel when last year it Was understood the distribution of the vote for railway works on the Mast&rton line to its junction with the West Coast line was arranged purposely r^-^^e 1 Government' 1 with 1 a view to com- ' nlence operations at this end within a • jeaaonabla time^ - , ; ii. Mr^J. B. Hamilton seconded the leaolotion, which was carried unaniM*ffi ' . , i „ ■■•■' vjfov^loNeil m moving the second 6 Eolation, laid that it, had been dis-^ M tossed at a private meeting 1 , and ;it was 11 Qffc them to say whether the resolution Illmlfe irith their approval. He would £.*■■■. moire *.-*'■' ■'":'■' ■■- ■ ' : '- Wiat m the opinion of this meeting it obvious that the Hon. W. W. Johnston has, during the present eeesion irtSusly ignored ;. the express wu^ies.-of Si constituents, which were set forth at thl a^ual public meeting of electors iSdinthiß Hall, and which a deputation - , Sen appointed was authorised to convey ' -ffiS - A-ao this meetinjr rtigretsthat thrown Mr Joh'niton's inaction, interests €tt^s%f^eht<impbrtanbe are passed over -i.; n h may tend to sever the confidence "~- .fitnfmouiS Placed m Him at the last ffeneria elißCtioni . .- . \ y Vr\ Mr Ferguson jn seconding this resolu- '" "tion flon4?ered;the subject^ was geitmg mO notonout.._. He had always- been, v .^looking forward for/.this;) w^rk to be ytM dSne, !ut nothing'basbeen done as yet , JHefoerJainlj thought that, the £IQI «tated m the papers was a misprint ; he : ' .^So^imagine that the Government ' ' SSSS snch a paltry sum on the.Estimates. Tbere. must be a reason for the Hon. Mr Johnston objecting to this fork. ,.; Height be showing his dis. totereEtednessay leaving Jw own. conitituency out m *c cold as an example " 'ofWßhnpwtiality.- Any othermem---Sr would do what"hecouloVfor his own oontiituency. and would notcare for the le> t of Hew Zealand. The Government v a ?^ieknowledged that the work should u»ii\>%ffo6»i *nd U was too bad to hare to be thereUhat night to hear tbe old story, * -must be done at once ;it JKfdotodelaythe matter longer. " JbMacarthur thought the subject ; waasotlieroughlyihrasb^ ontthatthere '■' r ■ wißTerv littleforhim.to.say^ but he «,-■. nrcLsidexableiuterestintheMana «' ••■"•Sfc *« also^ present a§ a member *™ vi v sSjepuUtion> -W3W* the^eputa-

ally disputed the fact that there had been an alteration made m the schednle which was a proof that he did not think much over the matter. It certainly was a very curious thing for the member for Manawatu to forget a matter of such vital importance to his constituents. He too had thought that the amount stated m the newspapers was a misprint, but he had found it to be perfectly correct. Mr Johnston had not taken the trouble to address his constituents, but they had to go and addres him. He (Mr Macarchur) spent a good many pounds m going to see Mr Johnston on public the subject. The district hadi suffered through Mr Johnston heing its member instead of having gained on. account of him being Minister of Public Works. Mojbr Atkinson was credited with looking pretty carefully after the interests of Taranaki, why could not Mr Johnston look after the Manawatu? When he (Mr Macarthur) waited on Mr Johnston, that gentleman sat down and let him stand ; he considered this was an insult to the district, seeing that he was County Chairman. The Mayor: I also had to stand wbAVMr Johnston sat down. The Mayor: I also had to stand while Mr Johnston sat down. ; Mr Macartb.ur: The Mayor had also been received discourteously. He would take this opportunity of expressing hi 3 indignation personally at the neglect of their representative. They should persevere m their present course until they got Jthe work done. They might quarrel about the junction when they had got a sum placed on the Estimates, sufficient for the work work, but it was not wise to do bo before. Say to the Government, you must make this line and you make the junction where you like. He then moved the following resolution :— That this meeting respectfully requests that 9- sum sufficient to commence the construction of the most important link of railway m the North Island, viz : to connect . Woodville wifch Manawatu. be placed on the supplementary Estimates of this session of Parliament. • Mr Snelson m seconding the resolution, said it had been hinted that Mr Johnston waR not going again to seek election for this district, but that was doubtful. He could not agree with Mr Linton that Mr Johnston had done snvthing worth speaking of for this district. He had wired to Mr Johnston that morning with regard to the roeepting, and had received the following reply: — " Am sorry to hear it— Considering the share I took m passing the* Bill under which a line from Manawatu to Wellington is now being made, the charge of studied neglect, is absurd.— Walter W. Johnston." MiJohnston came to the Manawatu at the election time, and he was not seen again till the next elections, and he had not done us. a bit of good. Mx Venn .would support the resolution/and m. doing so hoped that they would get . a local man to represent them the .next time, as they had had quite enough of an absentee member. Mr Whisker considered that the resolution Wfiuld defeat the object it had m view, and some of the speakers had gone outside the question. They could get the money without passing a resolun tion of that nature. Mr Macarthur said neither he nor Mr Linton believed m Mr Johnston ; they had endeavored to make the best ot a bad bargain. They had ascertained that no one would contest the seat with Mr Johnston so he and Mr Linton told him that if he would do certain things for the district he would be elected without oppositirn, Mr Whisker had referred to the Roads and Bridges Construction Act, he considered that Act had been the means of a large sum of money being spent m this district, and had not much cause to complain. If wo could have got a local man it would have been all right, but sooner than get another outside he thought it was better to haye th^devil we did know than cne we did not Mr Linton : He could not go to Mr Johnston and condemn Mm, but he would go as far as to say that he (Mr Johnston) had nut always Keen neglectful to the district. Mr Whisker again interposed, but was ruled- out of order. Mrßuaeell: Instead of thinking the resolution too sweeping, considered it .was: not sweeping enough, and believed it was Mr Johnston who prevented the West Coast Railway being gone on with. Hehad no doubt that it would have been finished if the Grey Government had remained m office. Mr Johnston had a run on the East Coast which no doubt was the reason of the work not being done long ago. £115,000 had been voted for the Mas* fcerton to Woodville line, he would like to Bee a deputation wait on Mr Johnston and if that was unsuccessful to get up a petition asking him to resign. Mr Perkins agreed with the last speaker. He believed that they would be m the same position next year as they were at present unless some decided step was taken. We should hear the 6ame set phrases indulged m, and a year hence we would occupy exactly the same position as we do now. It was haidly to be expected that Mr Johnston would alter the Estimates now unless a deputation asked him to resign his seat. It was time strong measures were taken to gain their rights and not allow another year to go by. Mr Russell then moved a resolution to the effect that the mayors of Pslmerston and Feilding should be a deputation to wait on the Hon Mr Johnston, but this was afterwards withdrawn. Mr ■ Snelson thought a deputation -would 'be too late to give eflect to the feeling of the meeting. ;- ■■ Mr" Fergusson ; If Mr Johnstson would not do anything.some other members would do it for us. It would be worth while to try,and pass •& resolution asking other members to use their influence. Mr McNeil.' The East Coast members would not assist us. Mr Linton believed ihat Mr Johnston would try and get the amount put on the Estimates, as it was not muoh, if it was only for the sake or credit of his family. Mr Russell : The Government altered the schedule last year for the people of Palmerston^ and they would do it agsin. Mr Snelson said the schedule could not- be altered now as the votes were passed, bat a sum of money could be placed oti the Supplementary Estimates. Mr Russell said he diffe r ed m his view of the matter from Mr Snelson, i and believed that the Estimates could be recast. Mr Snelson thought Mr Russell would find thab he was mistaken.

Mr Linton thought that Una Government would givo the amount asked for, ab they had evidently plenty of money, speinjr that £100 had been voted without being asked for. The Chairman sold that Mr Stevens would assist them, also Mr Wilson, and this course would save a deputation. Mr Linton said they had a member of Parliament belonging to Palnierston id Wellington (Mr Sec don ), he knew he would assist them, as he was a very energetic man. Mr Chos. Walker was surprised that nothing had been said about broken pledges. He thought these broken pledges should have been embodied m a resolution, which he considered would have more effect than anything else. This would stamp any man with Bhame, when it was proved that his word had been .broken. Mr Snelson moved :— That the resolutions be sent to Mr Johnston, with a letter from the Mayor, and that a copy of the two first resold* tions be sent to Messrs Seddon, Stevens, and Wilson, M.H.R's. Mr Linton moved a vote of thanks to the Chairman, and the meeting dis-« persed.