MR. O'RORKE AT ONEHUNGA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4407, 29 December 1875, Page 3

MR. O'RORKE AT ONEHUNGA.

Me. Gkorgjj Maukice O'Rorke, late sitting member for this district, met the electorate in the Choral Hall, Princes-street, _ on Monday night, and addressed the constituents.— On the motion o£ Mr. Codlin, Mr. J. D. Jackson was called to the chair.—The Chairman opened the proceedings with the usual : prefatory speech, and introduced Mr. O'Rorke, who, he said, had borne the brunt and heat o£ the struggle to preserve the rights and privileges of the electors; and he, as well as those with whom he acted, was successful in giving efifeel to the desire of the public, that the proposal made by the Ministers of the day should be submitted to the people befc re it becrme l.i".v. This was the main object. o£ the contest in which Mr. O'Rorke, ably following in the footsteps of Sir George Grey—(cheers)—and the other patriotic members of Auckland, was engaged. Mr. O'Rorke, upon coming forward to address the electors, was received with cheers. He said: Gentlemen, Electors of Onehunga, I hope I have not put you to much inconvenience by calling you here to-night. Although I have not been in any way moved by the electors to convene this meeting, yet, seeing that meetings are being held in all the electorates of the city and suburbs round about, I thought it my duty to afford you an opportunity of assembling to discuss, as you thought proper, the political events now impending oyer the colony and province. (Hear.) I may state, at the same time, that I have not called you so much for the purpose of soliciting your vote, as to render an account to you of what occurred in the last session of the General Assembly, and of my own political conduct while sitting as your representative. Once more the task of electing, out of the general body of electors, a person to whom you Bhould entrust the guardianship of your rights and privileges in the ensuing Parliament has devolved upon you. For your representatives have, in consequence of the recent dissolution, been, so to speak, melted down into the general mass. It is for you to say which one of yourselves you will elect from the general mass, and confer upon him the distinguished honour of being your representative. Having held that position for sixteen years, as the general tenor of my political conduct is known to you, I will refer to a few matters, although I am somewhat loath to trespass on your ' time, which I think are of importance, to be understood by the constituenay now upon the eve of a general election. In offering myself again as a candidate for your suffrages, the thought did at the same time occur to me that possibly the time was come when the electors mfght desire to have some new blood to engage in their political contests, and I assure you that if I receive any intimation to that effect, I will make room for a younger and abler man than I can ever hope to be, and will assist him by every means in my power to act for the benefit of the electors of Onehunga, and for the people generally. Beyond my earnest devotion to what I conceive to be your interests, and some local knowledge of what I consider to be your wants, I do not make very much pretensions as a member of Parliament. I have • already intimated to you, by means of the address which I have published in the newspapers the general line of policy which I would like to see carried out with respect to this province. At the present moment great constitutional changes are looming Before us, and as the chairman has stated, the whole community of Auckland ought to be grateful to Sir George Grey (loud cheers) to whose energy and succcsful exertions it is in the greatest measure owing that you shall have a voice, before these changes are brought to bear upon you, to express an opinion, and say whether these changes should or should not take place. (Renewed cheering.) I have asked you here to justify the course of conduct we pursued, I being, as you know, one of the supporters of Sir George Grey. Now, if any gentleman in the whole of this colony is entitled to the respect and thanks of the community at large, that gentleman is he who fills the office of your Superintendent. He has pre-eminent claims upon your gratitude. For we find that he has been willing to abandon the ease and leisure which he had so well earned by distinguished service to the Crown—to descend from the pedestal of renown and honor upon which a grateful country had placed him as exGovernor of several of the most important colonies belonging to Her Majesty, coming forth again to public life solely from a sense of duty, without having any interest of his own to serve, but with great self-sacrifice, and the surrender of his personal comfort, in order that he might preserve the rights and promote the interests of the people at large. (Cheers.) I know that there is a very strong and powerful party throughout the colony who presume to scoff at yo"ur Superintendent, and speak of him as having stirred up the dregs of the democracy for no other reason than that he has had the courage and the disinterestedness to stand up for the rights of the people, —(loud cheers) —and because he propounds and enlarges apon the doctrine that Provincial .Institutions should not be lightly abolis'aed. That was no whim of his, but en the contrary, it will be for me to shew you presently that it is the doctrine which has fallen from the lips of the greatest living statesmen, men who were illustrious for their wisdom and ability, and filled the highest place for many years in the Councils of Great Britain. It may seem, to some extent, idle for me to repeat what is familiar to most men at all acquainted with the history of the constitutional question, or to go back to what was said m the Imperial Parliament, when the question of a Constitution for New Zealand was under diseassion. At that time there was no more eminent statesman within the walls of Parliament than the distinguished person whose words I am abouj to cite. That person was no less than the Right Hon. William Ewart Gladstone. (Cheers.) I will now read to yoa what he said in vindication of the very principles for holding which Sir George Grey has been sneered at by men who will certainly never be fit to take his place, whether in Parliament or out. When the free Constitution, under which we have lived, was first proposed, the leading men of that day bore a part in the discussion of its principles. One gentleman whose name was mixed up with the New Zealand Company ; and possibly it may have been because he was connected in some way with that company that he opposed the principle advocated that to the people should be directly given the choico of the Government under which they were to live spoke in terms condemnatory of the measure. To his argument Mr. Gladstone replied in effect as follows :—"Notwithstanding my respect for Sir William Moleworth's authority and my general conI currence in his policy, I think the recognii tion of these local settlements one of the ! most eicellent features of the bill." Mr. Gladstone proceeded to congratulate the Government of the day for having departed from the modem traditions of the Colonial Office, and as lie said " granted a considerable share of power to those small communities of working out their future independence." Here are the very words of that eminent statesman. That was the opinion of the gentleman who has since that time filled with such distinction the office of Premier of the United Kingdom. If he had any fault to find, it was that the measure was not liberal enough. There was no feature of that constitution upon which he commented at greater length, or with greater earnestness, than the proEriety of the Superintendent of the province eing an elected officer, and not merely a nominee. At the commencement of the observations which I had to address to you I gave the best reason I could for its being so, namely, that by this means you are enabled to exercise political control. Your opinions will have practical effect upon the conduct of those into whose hands you have entrusted your political interests, and those who have conferred upon them the honor of being your representative shall be brought to account for misdoißg if they deserve it. (Cheers.) Then wSth retard to the Legislative Council. Speaking of tnis body being composed of nominees of the Crown, he said in this important particular the plan of the Government

differs, and, he says, greatly degenerates from the plan of Lord Grey, which §lan _ was the proposal of our present uperintendent, Sir George Grey. Lord Grey's intention was, that the Legislative Council . should be composed of persons elected by the district Legislatures. It is quite plain, whence that hint was derived : it was from the United States of America ; and in going to the Constitution of the United States to draw hints and suggestions for the improvement o£ our colonial institutions, he resorted to the very beat fountain of instruction founded on experience : and if there be one thing in the Constitution of tho United States of America which more than others entitles the great authors of that astonishing work to the gratitude of their countrymen, and to fame as wide and lasting as the world, it is the system which they have devised for the election of the Senate. Against the creation of an Upper Chamber by the nomination of tho executive, Mr. Gladstone says the bill ought not to make any such provision, but the Legislative Council ought to be elective. It has been argued that the tenure of Parliament is too long, and if the question should be brought forward, I would not object to your member being obliged to account trien nially instead of every five years as now. In the address I have published I have stated candidly my views. I think it is right to be candid in such matters. I there stated that it it should be the opinion of the country at large that the system of Provincialism whieb. lias obtained in this island should cease to exist, I for one would bow to the decision of the people. But I have at the same time thought that failing such a system that it is by no means impossible that it might exist under another and even more practical form. I think that the 80,000 people who are inhabitants of the province, not to speak of the large body of natives who live in it, are entitled to have a distinct Government for themselves. I do not think if the circumstances of this province, with its large population and with the wrongs it has suffered, were properly represented to Her Majesty and the Imperial Government, notwithstanding the difficulties alleged that she or the Imperial Government would withhold those privileges which she was not slow to communicate to the great colony of Victoria for instance—which she was not slow to concede to the important colony of Queensland, and, before that, to the colony of South Australia. I do not believe she would withhold that which on a more recent occasion she has conceded to a community much less in number of inhabitants than the province of Auck« land, Fiji, to which place she had appointed a Governor and appointed British services, naval and military, to be his safeguard in performing the duties of his office. I feel persuaded, and I am sure you will agree with me, that there is no man who could represent the case of this province to greater advantage than Sir George Grey. I cannot but believe that if our whole truth and circumstances were laid before Her Majesty, the wrongs under which this province has so long groaned would find redress. I do not wish to weary yon by detailing those financial wrongs which have been inflicted upon Auckland. You all know that a large sum in the form of taxation, ranging from a quarter of a million to £310,000 is every year swept away down to "Wellington, a .mere pittance being left to the Province of Auckland for the purpose of carrying out tho most necessary works. These, and other facts, if properly represented to the Queen, and the Queen's Government, would not impossibly lead to the election of this province into a separate colony. Or the question might be dealt with in another way. Not by any general law, but as a matter of compromise between this province and the two strong and independent provinces of Otago and Canterbuiy. They have a plethora of wealth, while this province is starved of all means for public purposes. I believe, if these three provinces were to come to an understanding, they would be able to contrive a plan by which the taxation raised within their respective boundaries could be appropriated for local purposes, providing at the same time a sum towards the maintenance of the general departments of the Colonial Government. A scheme of that kind, if carefully drawn up and matured, might meet tho difficulty in which we are placed at present. I believe that Provincial Government means, if it means anything at all, means a Government that should be worthy of the respect of those over whom it held authority, and not a Government in an impecunious and em' barrassed state. But, gentlemen, I will not anticipate that there is any one among you desirous of those sudden changes which have been so suddenly cast beforo the public of this colony. I believe there is rather a conservative tendency among us, and that you would not be willing to forego or yield up the privileges you at present enjoy in your institutions without knowing something of what is to take Aheir placa. Daring the recent session of the General Assembly, although Sir George Grsy, for the most part, dealt with questions almost purely political, ho did introduce one matter which comes home to us all and to the attention of the House of Representatives and the country. Although the proposition he made hardly obtained anything more than a sneer from the powers that were, yet I think, upon reflection, the proposition was one which commends itself to the public. It was a proposal altogether outside politics,— with which politics had very little if anything to do, and it was brought forward in the interest, and for the welfare of the people. It was a resolution in effect, that certain duties charged upon daily necessaries of life should reduced, and if there was any need of mv ey that would thereby be lost to the Government, a duty should be imposed on an article that could very wall bear it. The reductions proposed by Sir George Grey were in respect to tea, coffee, and such articles, which yield a duty of between £70,000 and £SO.OOO ta the revenue. He was desirous that these duties should be remitted, and that in lieu of the £SO,OOO or £100,000, as the case might be, a duty, if it were needed, should be placed upon wool. The small sum of a halfpenny a-pound weight on wool would yield as much money as would more than meet the deficieflcy. When the Colonial Treasurer replied to that proposal, I think the language he used was not such a3 should have been used towards a gentleman who had filled the high office of Her Majesty's Representative as Governor of the colony of New Zealand as well as other colonies. But that is perhaps one of those matters which time will put to rights. While I do not attribute any direct gam to be derived from the proposal, yet its indirect influence would be considerable, as it results in your having a free port, into which things might be brought duty free. That would of course have a positive and absolute effect upon the trade and province of Auckland. (Cheers.) There is another topic which was discussed in Wellington. I refer to those transactions in connection with the purchase of native land. I do not propose to involve myself in the entanglements or the mud that is stirred up at the mention of many of those transaction?. But I cannot help quoting to you some evidence that was given to a committee of inquiry appointed in the last session of the Provincial Council I think that nothing was more natural, and no tribunal was more appropriate to inquire into abuses connected with the expenditure of money voted for the purpose of providing a landed estate for the province of Auckland. That committee was appointed at the instance of Sir George Grey, and it proceeded to investigate, as it had an •undoubted right to do, tho manner in which the persons appointed by the Government conducted those purchases. Surely, if there Tyere anything the Provincial Government had a right to, it was a right to inquire intothe disposal of money set apart for such a. purpose, so that in course of time there might be no out-balancing of land revenue, and that the just complaints of the province in this respect should be removed, as regards this matter of land. It was rumoured broadly and emphatically that the offioers. appointed were not acting fairly, for the public at large in the way they were carrying out these purchases. My hon. friend therel (For coiUinvatien of new* kc Su&baxr& J

(Mr. Lundon) was called on to give evidence on this subject, and he did give important information as to the way these purchases •were made. While the committee were investigating this siibjeet with all patience, •without any heat and -without extreme desire to inculpate either the General Government or its officers, suddenly the ■whole proceedings -were brought to a standstill by a telegram received from the then as now Premier of the colony, a gentleman who had himself been for a long time a member of the Provincial Council of the province of Auckland, who was thoroughly conversant with its mode of doing business and its j ower. To the amazement of the Committee, of the whole Couucil, and myself, an order was given that the officers of the General Government should refuse to give any evidence upon pain of instant dismissal. If I had been absent in another colony at the time, aud upon my return to Auckland heard it, I should not have bslieved that the Government would screen any alleged wrongdoing of their officers. But here is the evidence o£ Major Green, aud the telegram •which he i-eccived from Dr. Pollen, so that there can be no question whatever as to the .cts : "Native Land Purchase Committee. — j.iajor Green's evidence:--I am instructed by the General Government— the Colonial Secretary, Dr. Pollen—to attend this lneet- ; '\a and refuse to give any information. I t bound to obey these instructions under pain of instant dismissal." The telegram of Dr. Pollen was as follows : —"The place for -nquiry into the land purchase transactions of the Colonial Government is the General Assembly and net the Provincial Council of Auckland. Attend the committee nd refus? to give any information, your authority being this telegram. Advise other officers accordingly.—D. Pollen'." This in the teeth of Privileges Act. Result: Tairua and Ohiuemuri reports and Indemnity Act. I could never have believed that the General Government svould be anxious to keep the door shut upon the misconduct of their officers. The scandals of Ohinemuri and Tairua were the outcome of this behaviour. It has been said that one thing which must ever prevent the erection of the province of Auckland into a separate colony is the large amount of our indebtedness as a colony. It is true that we are indebted to the extent of some £20,000,000, but it did not require any extraordinary skill in accounts to say how much of that amount should be equitably charged against each province. That difficulty was raised by those who did not wish to see the difficulty solved. Some time ago, when my hon. friend Mr. Swanson insisted upon the abolition of the pension list, it was insisted that ■"■he difficulty would be very great of computing the sums to which officers would be entitled under another system. But they Lent for an actuary to one of the neighbour, ing colonies, and these questions were computed now ivith greatest accuracy, and the apportionments tixed with the nicest certainty. There is another matter upon which I wish to make a remark or two. I had hoped that the members for the province ef Auckland would go down to Wellington an united body—a firm and compact pVHnx—to assert the claims of their pro\ nee in the Assembly. I, for one, "hall never make any claim which, in my jadgment, should be unfair or unjust, but I do not despair of some compromise to be arrived at between the other great provinces—Canterbury, Otago, aud ourselves. From the Colonial Government, backed as it is by a number of little petty provinces, I do not expect to get that justice which Auckland is entitled to. What was it that .plunged the celonyinto the present political crisis'? I did not expect that the old question of the seat of Government would have been once more ripped up. These resolutions contained everything that was possible to aggravate and inflame this old sore, although it was done by a gentlemen who then represented a portion of the city of Auckland. As if that did not sufficiently rankle in the mind of the people by being proposed in defiance of every principle of justice, the same thing was propounded A he other day by another gentleman connected with Auckland. I was aware ' that Dr. Pollen aided and abetted the removal of the seat of Government in 1863-4, but I was not prepared to hear him blurt it out again in the face of the whole community. Here are his words : Dr. Pollen on second reading of the Abolition Bill— " Longstanding, chronic dissatisfaction with the position of the seat of Government at Auckland blazed out, so to say, in the session of the Assembly which was held in Auckland •:n1563." Or, Dr. Pollen (loquitur)—" HowcVer much I should desire still to see her wear the diadem of the metropolitan city, I am bound to say that I think now as I did then (i.e., in ISG3), that she was rightly called upon to sacrifice what was fondly called her birthright, in the interests of the whole colony of Xew Zealand. I was the only one of those members of the Assembly living in Auckland, or representing it in any way, who favoured the removal of the seat of Government. I have personally incurred a good deal of obloquy on that account, but I thought then I was right, and witli the experience I have had since, as far as the public interests of the colony are concerned, I still believe it. The seat of Government is here in Wellington, and it is rightly here." x" did not expect to hear the Premier of the Colony, and a gentleman connected With Auckland, again trumpet forth the conduct he had taken a part in. Gentlemen, it is well known that the Press is a great power. I know that I may, have the vials of the Press wrath poured out upon me lor what lam about to state. It is true that a portion of the Press "were faithful among the faithful found," but there was another section of the Press which endeavoured to force those obnoxious measures, so much complained of, through Parliament without the wishes of the people being eorsuited. One gentleman who conducts a , paper in Nelson, another who conducts the Government organ in Wellington known as the New Zealand Times, and a third who conducted a Government paper in Duuedin, ' all did their best to pass this measure m spite of the people's wishes ; and it would appear that they must have been actmg against their consciences, when we knowthat since the dissolution, and now that every constituency is looking out for a suitable representative, two at least ol these gentlemen have not had the face to offer themselves for acceptance to any electorate in the whole colony. (Cheers.) I do not propose to detain you any longer. I will answer any questions you may please to put to me, and I willingly submit myeelf to your decision. In the event of a poll being necessary, I shall have a»c- :• - opportunity of addressing you upon theua..; '. when you may, if you please, aupplemeu- ■ 'T approval of any remarks I have made to-night. Mr. O'Rorke resumed Ms seat amid loud cheering. Several questions were satisfactorily anfiwered. ~ Mr COD7.IN moved, seconded by Mr. Armstrong, " That this meeting cordially thank ' Mr. O'Rorke, and is glad of this opportunity of shewing its approval of hia past conduct as representative of Onehunga, by pledging itself to support him in the coming election. —The resolution was carried unanimously, and with enthusiasm, ~.,,+„ Mr. O'Rorke moved a vote of thanks to the chairman, and the meeting separated.