WAIMEA-PICTON N0MINATIONS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXI, Issue 222, 19 September 1887, Page 3

WAIMEA-PICTON NOMINATIONS.

•(From our own Correspondent.) Havelock, Sept. 19. The nomination for the Waimea-Picton electorate took place on Saturday at Havelock. Mr John Allen presided as Returning Officer, and having read the writ he asked the electors to nominate candidates. Mr. Fell, of Picton, nominated Mr A. P. Seymour, and stated that probably the electors present were not so anxious to hear the proposers and -seconders as they were to hear the candidates. He wished first to call attention to the fact that this was a weak district, and he animadverted also on the fact of the Rai Valley road being handed over to the Road Board in an unfinished state, and that, had the same passed through private lands, certain rates would have accrued therefrom. The Midland Railway Company, if they could not get sufficient land outside, might elect to choose some of the Bai Valley land and he would strongly urge whoever might be their representative to jealously watch the progress of events so that the land did not pass into the hands of •absentees. He had known Mr Seymour long and well. His wrongs were our wrongs, •and he asked the electors to put asiele all local jealousies. Mr Timothy G'Sulliyan seconded the •nomination. Mr Joseph A uty Harley, of Nelson, nominated Mr 0. H. Mills, of whom he spoke as a resident of 25 years in the district, one who bad been connected with the Road Boards, Provincial Council, and County Council, and said that no man in the electorate knew more cf its wants. He also passed a high ecomium on the Village Settlement scheme. £fr Arthur Ernost Hyde seconded Mr Mills' nomination. He had known Mr Mills for many years. He had done his duty in every respect and he could speak from his knowledge as Chairman of the Pelorus Road Board. Mc Samuel Fittall, of Richmond, nominated Mr J. Harkness, whom he had known many years, and who had the ring of true metal. No one oould say a word against him , And no one had a better knowledge of the country ; a candidate whose interests were with the people. He was a man possessed of a vast amount of political knowledge and wodld be the first man to see through a Bill. He advised Mr Mills not to count his .chickens before they were batohed, Mr George Rutland, of Pelorus Valley, -seoonded the nomination. Mr Seymour said he presumed there were no more candidates to be proposed, and aa he had spoken in all the different portions of the electorate on F*reetra4e, Protection, and Education, he would not refer to tLem cow. , The financial position was his indictment •against the present Government, He believed New Zealand was becoming awake on the matter of finance, Tho amount of redaotious that could be made would fully amount to ,£?00,OQO and that would be tho line he would edvooate. He would object to the Rai Valley being occupied by a for. ign Syndicate, He had filled many offices tf t-ruet, and one of his chief endeavors would foe >to gain the good will (if eloctcd) of t ho:e who were now opposed to him Mr C. H. Mills said he had the honor lo appear before the electors in answer to a numerously signed requisition. If elected, he would support a Ministry of which Eir Robert Stout was Premier. He would object to any further borrowing, except in any extreme oases. He would give bis full attention to the tariff; was iu favor of the railways being managed by a non-pohtical party; would advocate the building of a railway via, the East Coast; had no Tear of the Rai Valley bein^ jhanded over to a foreign Syndicate, as it was a forest reserve; would be in favor of education, free, secular, and compulsory, and would he in favor of .doing justice as far as possible to a large number of our Roman Catholic •fellow settlers. He had not counted his ohiokens before they were hatched, but believed he would be at the top of the poll. Mr Harkneep said his views were sufficiently well known, and he was not afraid of his opinionp. and he would try to unravel some X)f toe knots of Mr Seymour. Mr Seymour was opposed to tho only true liiheral Gpv-ernment, but Major Atkiqsoa was a true Liberal, and that gentleman characterised suoh a would be independent member As Mr Seymour as an independent

nuisance. In a few years time the question ■ of Liberal and Conservative would have to *" bo dealt with. Mr Seymour, when speaking at Pic'.on, decried tin constitution of the ;° present electorate, and some of Mr S-yniou.'---10 views on rerenchment w<*ro impracticable, 16 suoh as reducing th.-* Survey D pirtment by d £50,000, as how could tbo land beeetcled upe on without (surveys? As to reducing railway r expenditure by £52,000 there could b>* liitle 3 retrenchment there. As to the property and j land tax according to acreage, where was ever - J such a proposition made ? The maximum r J now paid in using the luxuries of life did not I • exceed 15 per cent. Mr Seymour said the I ' J Land Acquisition Bill was unnecessary, but I ' J Gibbon Wakefield thought somewhat differ--1 j ently, as he said as far back as 1854 that the I time would come when the land would be J required. The land was the source of all I wealth. If Mr Mills was not a statesman he I should be a politician, as he had said the paying off the National Debt of England , would be a calamity. Was it a calamity to I pay one's debts ? Mr Harkness did not want I to see the money left in the hands of tbe merchants. He wanted to have works reproductive. If we retained an Upper House it should not be elective but tbe members should be nominated for a certain number of years. Mr Mills was in favor of retaliation pure and I simple which was simply absurd at the i present junoture. All local jealousies should be put aside and the electors had a great duty to perform at the ballot box. On a show of hands being taken it waß i declared in favor of Mr Mills, and a poll was j 1 demanded. * I