POLITICAL.

Northern Advocate, 2 July 1887, Page 3

POLITICAL.

Me Axdebton on Wednesday last decided to retire from the political arena. He delivered an address to about 70 people in the Kamo Hall on Tuesday evening, but as he has now retired from the field : itis needless to give a report of his political ideas. MEETING IN WIIANOABEI. According to advertisement, a monster meeting was held in tho Public Hall at one Jo'clock ou Wednesday. There was a crowded at.tendance of electors. Mr James Harrison was voted _to the chair, aud opened proceedings- by stating that this meeting was tho effect of a resolution passed at the meeting held a -fortnight ago. They were now face to face with another election, ond it was for them to decide upon the most fitting person to represent them in Parliament. It was no uso for them to think that they could send a man to Wellington to borrow a lot of money for the district. Yogel and Co. had emptied fhe treasury long ago, so it would be unless to send a roan to try to g& money fpr Marsden. -W«B-_^p'uld- send a man who would stop any attempt at further taxation. Jlr Harrison then read the following telegram from Mr Dargaville, handed to him by Mr J. M. McKay :—" Please plac* the following in the hands of the Chairman of the political meeting on Wednesday evening to be read to ,the meeting, ■••' Gentlemen. Eight years ago-I offered you my services and you elected Capt. Colbeck instead. I believe that hadl been your memjjorall those years the railway would have>6(_i as far north as Whangarei by this tine, and I could have served the electors in a other ways. I nowJagain ask you to ■" elect me, and if -you do, I'willyield you faithful service.'— J. M. DAKG^miE.V - As he had been requested, ho read the telegram, and doubtless someone Vould touch on it during the meeting. He called on Mr Killen to move the first resolution. Mr Kixlen moved, "That it is the opinion, of this meeting that the candidate for the representation of this electorate should be a man opnosed to the present Government, and who will do his utmost to aid all efforts to reduce administrative expenditure." _I_ub said it was quite useless to attempt to borrow any more money, the treasury waa already empty, aid tbe condition of thetreasiry was due to those who had charge of it, naively the present Government. Whoever they sent to represent them in Parliament should be W, direct opposition to the present 3ovei-unCt_;... Not only should the Government b. turned out, but t&»y shoultt never be alleged to return (cheers), lie did not refer to indivAhial members, but to the Government ac a >*-ho!o. Scarcely tlirce men in the present GnveruTuent held the same . __uws, and they all tne w that " » house divided agVlnst itself coufd ;ot stand." They had nofc-J wi ii-^.*- . t-.> .•*-_!& *\ -.'.■ - ••55. 4 =J n jy> hu y h. d alw. ai.tjfneo . fk.nfi selves, they, had sunk their own principle*. We want p, Government who lcnowwhut to &>,' and then do it. The prw^itJ-wvemrncnt'^-ure so— weak, that they -"cannot carry their own views. All they have succeeded in tloiug successfully was squandering the country's money. Mr Killen then "spoke on- the finance of the colony. He said that the Govornment have-grossly mismanaged their business-- j riiey took great praise to themselvse in having passed the Charitable? Aid Boards Act, an act which should not^bo.needed (applause). Government should work for the country, and givo evory man a chance of earn-ing-a living, and then We should want no such hoards. We don't want political speculators and political cheats to represent us. We don't want a net- work of railways in the North here, it would bo simply imposing a further tax .^ upon us. A railway is not needed here yet. \ "Public works which ore needed should be --* carried out, and not only for a few individuals ; wo should look forward to the generation to come. Wo did not want to hand down a load of debt to our children, which we have now every prospect of doing, owing to the un- ■ principled gambling of those at the head of affairs. The salaries of the Governor and the Ministers should be at once cut down (cheers), their salaraios are enormous, and are increasing yearly by leaps and bounds. We must send a mmi to Parliament pledged to cut down this useless expenditure. We must make our expenditure less than our income, and now is the time to turn the tide, and do away with tho present rotten Government (applause). He would not detain them longer, but move the resolution as stated above. Mr P. S. Bbown had much pleasure in seconded the proposition. He agreed with the remarks of Mr Killen. The present Government evidently intend to have a scrmable for the loaves and fishes. Who was to blame for the state the colony had got into ? They had only themselves to blame for supporting them. Men are very fallable as regards money. Men foing to Wellington get very demoralized, [ow often was it that we found a man going over to the other side, and what was the reason? It was £s. d. that did it. He objected to Sir Julius Yogel being at the head of affairs, and to Stout, who went to Wellington a democrat, and got| demoralised. He accepted knighthood recently, a sure sign that he had no principles, and nev. _r had. What we want is a Government to reduce the expenditure of administration. The Govern, ment shoe is now so tight that it pinches everybody, and unless we are careful, it will pinch us more yet. The battle cry must be retrenchment. We must not only cut down our neighbours, but ourselves too. It is no use to cry down other peoples expenditure, and then to ask a loan for ourselves, we must begin at home. The man who goes to Wellington will not be able to get us any money. The man who goes to reliove us of tfie burden now on our shoulders is tho man we want. The salaries of the Governor and Ministers should be at once cut down. Men now go to Parliament for what they can get and it pays them. Tho civil service should also be cut down. He compared the civil service of this colony to a largo octopus, sucking the life blood from the colony. He feared he was occupying too much of their time (cries of "go on"). He then touched on education. They could not afford to educate their children on the highest standard and go into debt for it. He held that one university was quite sufficient for the requirements of the colony. With regard to taxation he thought everyone should pay according to his income. To tax tba, sugar, etc., was only ruining the working man. It simply piled the taxation on to the masses. Revenues should bo derived from land and income tax (cheers). The resolution was put and carried with only one dissentient. Mr Finlayson Smith then moved the second resolution, " That this meeting having adopted the platform as embodied in the resolution passed, asks Mr Thompson, Chairman of the Whangarei County Council to come forward as a candidate and contest the seat against all comers, and solicits the co-operation of the electors to secure his return." He said thai unless they got in a local man they wb. ill get in a profligate. We should get in a man whoso business abilities, we known. A stop should at onco be put to , the expenditure on public works. The interest on our debt is already enormous. In a great and rich country like America, universities are not endowed by tho country, and yet we have several of them draining our pockets. And after all they are only examining bodies, thoy are not universities. All we want now-a-days are good primary schools. Mr Smith went on to say he had known Mr Thompson for a number of^eiars, having tat a long time. with him on the Council. Ho was'a strict business man, and undoubtedly the best man. that could come forward. lie would now move the proposition as read. Mr Smeaton seconded. Ho believed the right man to ask to stnud was Mr Thompson. He believed this for several reasons. They

must contrive to get in a local man to represent them. Now tho most likely local man they could get in was Mr Thompson. Another reason, and one which was particularly essential just now, was because he was a "closefisted gentleman. We want "close-fisted" gentleman just now. The colony stinks of corruption in the same way as the Government do. The members of the House go for the sake of the money. We want someone who will insist upon seeing the expenditure lessened. The colony is just on tho verge of bankruptcy. We have had the money and the Government have squandered it. Now we must get in a good government. The Government is composed of parasites. He did not believe one in ten got a really honest living, (applause). Asa business man he believed Mr Thompson to be the best man who could represent them. Unless they used co-operation they could not return him. Other men had got parasites who would work for them. What we require now is new blood, and new blood we must have. It was now their duty to return a local man and one worthy of their support. Mr Elliot rose to speak, *but was greeted with cries of " He's a civil servant, we don't want to hear him." " He's a parasite." When order was restored, Mr Elliot simply stated that before they recorded a vote, they ought to hear Mr Thompson's views. Mr Clement asked the chairman what gentleman it was who waited on Mr Thompson on some date between the last meeting and this one?* Mr Bbyant said it didn't matter who asked him. He had been asked and that' was sufficient. The chairman said he was unable to answer the question. Mr Clement moved " That Mr Thompson address the meeting at once so that we may have our ideas on him." Mr Kirwin seconded. Mr Thompson said he was quite willing to address them if they wished it. At the same time he would have liked a desire from them to stand before he addressed them. On taking a show of hands they were equally divided. Here a man named Kirwin caused a considerable disturbance. He called out" lf he is not going to address us, what did what did we come here for," for nothing ? - The Chairman proceeded to put Mr Smith's original motion. . Mr Geice proposed as an amendment that the words after "all comers " be struck out. Mr Clement seconded ; he didn't think it fair to pledge themselves to any man until they had heard his veiws. Mr Killen explained that the resolution did uot desire any pledge. Here Kirwin interrupted by calling out " Was this meeting called to put up MiJThompsou, and no one elseP (Cries of No.) We don't want Thompson, and we won't have him. We want a better man. We didn't come here from the gumfields to be made fools of. (Cries of "Put him out," "Throw him out.") The chairman called on Constable Gordon to remove the man, bnt on being persuaded by his friends to keep quiet he was allowed to remain. Mr Cabteb said that as a largo portion of the [ meeting desired it, Mr Thompson should address : them. Mr Thompson who was cheered, came forward and complied with the request. He said that he had been asked by several neighbours to put up for the Marsden seat. He had no wish to do so himself if any good local man would come out. He had waited upon several local men himself, but they had all declined to stand. As. he had been asked, he had consented, as no one else had been prevailed upon to come forward. He agreed entirely with tho remarks of Mr Killen and Mr Brown that day. Ho considered the members of the present Government were big frauds. He referred to the Midland railway in the South Island as a hugh fraud. It had cost the Colony three millions, and there was no prospect of the railWay paying more than 2 per cent for years to come. He then referred to Sir Julius Yogel, and exposed some of his dodges, schemes., and bribery indulged in - . He referred to the Rotorua Railway as a white elephant. They had also the^a^p^haM scandal. Owing to these the Colony to. the other. -~He held tha? 1 the Village Settlement Scheme was nd good, it only placed pooplo on tho land to starve; Men were put on the worst land where they could not possibly get a living. Ho was entirely opposed to the present government. It was quite impossible to get a worse class of men. As long as Sir Julius Yogel was in parliament there would Bo nothing but roguery. He then touched on retrenchment/ It was a most serious matter and must at once be gone into. The Governor's salary shonld be cut. down, the honorarium of the Upper House abolished, alscr ono third bf tho staff in the big building at Wellington. It was a most unpleasant task to perform, but they must do it The old members would not do it. If retrenchment was to be carried out, it must be by new blood (applause). With regard to education, he thought that the system had reached far too large proportions. He didn't see why wealthy people should have their sons educated at tho expence of the Colony. If they wanted to educate their children, they should havo to pay for them. He then referred to the Native lands department. When Mr Bryce had been in office, he had succeeded in nearly abolishing the department, but under the present Government the expenses had been more than doubled. The sooner the department was abolished the better for tho Colony (applause). There were now nine Waste Land Boards in the colony, whereas one would be sufficient. They only kept a large staff of useless servants naid for by us. The County Councils should be made the mediums for putting people on the land. It is cruelty for the Government to put people on the land where it is impossible to earn a living. He had been informed on the best authority that most of the land at Hukerenui was of the very worst description, and it was absurd to take people from the towns and place them on land to starve. Under such circumstances the people so placed would become a permanent charge on ns under the Charitable Aid Act. The principle of the Tillage Settlement Scheme was good enough, if people were put on the right kind of land: Mr Thompson concluded a very able address by saying :— " In coming forward as your member. I have no wish to run against a local man ; if you have any candidate who will represent us bettei than myself, bring him forward and I will retire. If you decide upon sending me, I promise to cut down the expenditure. At present half the money of the Colony goes to civil servants. I seek no profit by the thing. If lam returned I promise to cut down the . expenditure and -bring it within the income of Colony." Mr Thompson was applauded as he sat down, and Mr Harrison rather peremptorily left the chair. .".-'• Mr Clement and Mr Bryant each rose to move a vote of thanks to Mr Thompson, but Mr Harrison stated that he had already left the chair. The meeting then dispersed.