ELECTION NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8387, 15 October 1890, Page 5

ELECTION NEWS.

The Registration Officer is energetically proceeding with the work of purgiig tho rolls, though it is a Herculean task. About 2000 names have been struck iff, the owners of which cannot bo fovnd, and about as many more will probably have to go. In Newton 400 objections have been furnished by the Town Clerk of the borough, and 150 objections ha'e come in from Eden. The roll stuffing which has taken place displays an ingetuity worthy of a better cause. It is rumoured among the eccentricities are signing Hank forms, the names of electors to be ft led in afterwards, getting put on different rolls under different designations, for property owned by wife ; and one man luw, it is said, located his freehold qualification in tho middle of a public street! . Some of the parties, finding that matters are getting sultry are voluntarily soliciting to be taken | off the roll. Mr. Collins'suggested remedy for the present deplorably corrupt state of the rolls is chat prior to a general election tho rolls should bo cancelled, and that every elector should in person apply for registration, having his claim signed by a Justice of the Peace or tho district postmaster, instead of as at presont lists of two or three hundred names in a batch being put in by professional electioneering agents, of whom nobody knows anything. The bona fide voter would have all the facilities he requires, and roll-stuffing would be made so perilous a game that it would not be worth the candle. The Registration Officer has a good deal of trouble in making objections, owing to tho uncertain >vay in which some of the objectors receive the objections. For instance, he is obliged to comply with the law and the provisions of the Act by setting out the Christiai name, surname, and occupation of the person objected to, and did so in the case of " Mr. Thomas Viret Shepherd, Major of Volunteers, Avenue Road," who was notified of objection to his being on the red for the electorate of Parnell, 011 the grouid of change of residence, and that ho had no freehold qualification. Tho objection was returned to the office of the Registration Officer with this endorsement: — "Opened by mistake. — Thomas Virkt SttruKKi), Lieut.-Colonel H.M. Army Res<rve, New Zealand Militia," and the following memo, on the back of tho objection : —" This cannot be for me, as I earned t'ie rank of Major in Her Majesty's service and am entitled to it for ever."

Mr. H. J. Coutts, late chairman of the Hobson County Council, intends standing for tho Bay of Islands electorate in the Government interest.

The Hon. Mr. Mitchelson, acting Premier, leaves for Wellington on Monday next, and proposes, upon his return to Auckland, to take an early opportunity of addressing the electors of Eden at the various centres.

Our Wellington correspondent telegraphs : —Intelligence has reached here that the re-election of Mr. Eugene O'Connor and Mr. R. Reeves is thought to be pretty certain. It was Said that Mr. Jellicoe would have the Roman Catholic voto as the only candidate who publicly avowed his determination to support Mr. Fyke's Bill or tho principle embodied in it of subsidising " private schools," but there is evidently a split in the Catholic body, if not upon this particular subject at all events as to the candidate whom they will support.

[BY TELEGRAPH. — PRESS ASSOCIATION. 1 Wkllinoton. Tuesday. Dr. Newman addressed the Hutfc electors at Petone this evening, there being a Ian:" attendance, and the candidate was v. received. He advocated a vigorous policy of settlement on the land, also of necessary public works, including the North Island main trunk line. He favoured the imposition of additional property tax on absentees. At the conclusion of his speech he was accorded a vote of thanks.

Tho names of 10 seamen were ordered to be struck off the electoral rolls by tho Resident Magistrate this afternoon, they having failed to attend before the registrar to prove their claims to register as electors. Only one claim was substantiated.

Don-: din, Thursday. The secretary of the Trades and Labour Council denies the truth of the statement that a ticket has yet been adopted for Dunedin city. SPEECH BY MR. BALLANCE. Wan'ganui, Tuesday. The Hon. Mr. Ballance addressed a large meeting of electors last night in the Brunswick schoolroom. The candidate dealt with a number of questions dwelling on the work of tho Opposition last session in successfully opposing the imposition of taxation to the amount of at least £100,000, and reducing tho Estimates by £46,000 per annum. The speaker remarked that no Opposition in any session had ever done better work, and that Mr. Bryce's censure in his address to the Waikato electors was only small earning condemnatory of no one but himself. In explaining the land question, Mr. Ballance told the audience that the available Crown land left in New Zealand did not exceed two million acres, so that, in the present generation, the public estate, unless the present policy was reversed, would have all disappeared. A vote of thanks and confidence was unanimously carried. MR. It. THOMPSON AT WAIPU. Mr. R. Thompson addressed a large meeting of electors at the Library Hall on Saturday night. Mr. D. McLeod was voted to the chair, and in a brief and humourous speech introduced Mr. Thompson to the meeting as the boss of the skinflint patriots. Mr. Thompson declared his intention of coming forward again as a free and independent candidate, pledged to no party or Government. He was proud of being a member of the party bearing tho opprobrious epithet of " Skinflint," as the gentlemen composing that party always paid their way, lived within their means, and desired earnestly to see the Government of the colony carried on in like manner. These gentlemen first reduced their own allowances to the extent of £60 per session, and endeavoured successfully to havo reductions made in the salaries of Government officials all round ; but have not been successful in doing so much in the direction of retrenchment as was at first hoped, because the people of the Southern provincial districts were as anxious as ever to plunge into borrowing and extravagance. The past session has been characterised as being obstructive, and this obstruction at last culminated in the now celebrated Hutchison charges. When he first heard these startling charges made ho was almost dumbfounded, and he felt that the charges should be disproved, or the Government should at once resign. The results of the work of the committee that sat to investigate the charges were anticipated, and, as you are all aware, the matter has been relegated to tho Supreme Court. Tables of accounts had been prepared by the Treasury, which tended to show that the abnormal state of finance complained of had taken place, not during the existence of the present Government, but during the last Government's existence, so tho charges should have been made in 1838 if there were anything in them, He believed the charges would fall to the ground, as he regarded them a an electioneering trick to injure the members of tiie Government during the present contest. Mr. Thompson thon reviewed the efforts of the economists in reducing the Estimates, and referred to the compact entered into by Messrs. Bryce and Ballance, which practically put a stop to further reductions. He believed the colony was in such a position that it would be absolutely necessary to insist on further retrenchment, or else additional taxation would have to bo imposed. Out of an annual revenue of four millions of money only two millions were available for carrying on the services of the colony, the other two millions going to pay interest on borrowed money. The public services must be kept up, and they at present absorb all the money available for the purpose ; and the only way that the cost of the«e services can be reduced is by a thorough re-organisation and reclassification of the civil service. He had always been opposed to the property tax, because the valuations were unfair, especially in the case of large estates. A howl was being raised through the colony for a land tax, and if a land tax were imposed there could be no exemptions allowed. Every acre would have to be taxed, and a great deal more would be

taken out of the small landowner than at present under the property tax, as that tax allows exemption on values below £600. The agitation for a land tax was kept up by the town people for the purpose of getting their warehouses and accumulated, property of every kind free from taxes, and casting a greater share of the burden of taxation on the struggling country settlers. If a tax of 1 per cent, is to be placed on land then let 1 per cent, be placed also on warehouses, bank shares, and accumulated wealth of every kind; and, if this was not done, he warned the country settlers that the same amount of revenue that was now collected from every kind of property would be collected from tha land alone, and the country settler would have to bear a greater share of taxation to the general revenue of the colony than he now did, besides the expense of making country roads and keeping them in repair. He would be in favour of a double tax on all absentee landowners, which would have the immediate effect of bursting up a large number of the big estates. The cream of the country was hold by absentees, and it was valued for property-tax purposes at an average of only 25s per acre. Th«re was at present a conspiracy going on in the towns to force on the land tax, end a vigorous land policy was proposed, but would any sane person settle on the land if it was to be taxed to such an extent that it would be impossible to make a living on it. The most vigorous advocates of this tax take very good care that they will not settle on land while they can make more money in the towns, and enjoy more comfort and greater luxury there. Tho present land laws are of a very liberal character, but unfortunately the administration of them is costing the Government more than it can afford, and is gradually landing it into difficulties. All other parts of the colony are in a much better condition as regards roads and bridges than Auckland. They seemed to be fully thirty years behind the rest of the country, and this question was now staring the northern counties in the face. Don't expect to get any money from the Government out of revenue, for they won't give you any, and the borrowed money is now exhausted, so ratepayers will have to shift for themselves in future, and make their own roads and bridges without assistance from Government. Native lands should be rated for road making and charitable aid purposes. At present natives claimed charitable aid, and in many cases natives having an interest in large blocks of land have obtained aid and treatment in our hospitals, and no payment could be claimed, though they were in a better position to pay than Europeans. This state of affairs must be altered. In the North there were large charitable aid endowments, but the returns all went to the city of Auckland, so this question must be fought out till they got their fair share of these endowments. We shall have to insist on carrying out a patient prudent policy and cease from borrowing for a few years, and we may thus be able to improve tho condition of the colony. The finances of the colony were allowed to drift into a bad condition because many of the members did not care to undergo the drudgery attendant on watching the business of the House. A great responsibility rested with the electors at the present moment for there was a troublesome period ahead, and they should send no man to Parliament who was not prepared to perform his duty faithfully and fearlessly. Measures appertaining to charitable aid, the property tax, civil service and land administration would occupy the attention of the coming Parliament. He concluded by making a brief allusion to the strikes. A great responsibility was resting on the electors at the present moment, for he believed a current of socialism was about to sweep over the whole °-ilony, and it was their duty to make ,'.i •■(Tort, to st'.'iu i f . Mr. Thompson then resumed his seat amidst loud applause. Mr. Hodge asked : When the Naval and Military Land Act was being passed, why did you not see that the militia land claims were included? Mr. Thompson replied: I am not aware that the militia have any legal claims. The land claims that are being settled by that Act are settled on conditions that existed many years ago. The Chairman asked for an explanation of the reports that appeared in the Wellington papers in connection with Mr. Sperrey's death ? Mr. Thompson replied : I have never, in any charges I have made, availed myself of the privilege that protect a member of Parliament., but have always made them on the public platform. After making the speech as Waipu containing the charges referred to, I posted copies of the Northern Advocate, in which a report of the speech appeared, to tho various members of the Government, and shortly afterwards I received a letter from Sir H. Atkinson, calling my attention to the serious charges made against the Property Tax Department, at the same time asking me if I had made such a statement, and if i had not, would I kindly withdraw the charges made? I replied that the report was fairly true, and demanded an inquiry into the charges ; but no action was taken. On my arrival in Wellington I again urged the Government to hold an inquiry, as I was quite prepared to prove my statements to be true. But still no action was taken. I then repeated the charges I had made against the Property Tax Department on the floor of tho House, and challenged an inquiry, and what I did was from a sense of public duty, to expose abuses which I knew to exist, and not for the purposo of injuring any particular civil servant. The Chairman' then asked: Did the Government refuse to allow Mr. Sperrey to enter a legal action against you ? Mr. Thompson replied : * know nothing about that. That is 0.-iy a newspaper statement.

Mr. J. M. McKay proposed, "That a hearty vote of thanks ami confidence bo accorded to Mr. R. Thompson," which was seconded by Mr. Robkrt Campbell, and curried unanimously. Mr. Thompson thanked the meeting, and said he did not desire to hold a seat in Parliament one hour longer than ho could retain the confidence of his constituents. He then proposed a vote of thanks to the chairman of the meeting, and the proceedings terminated. —[Own Correspondent.]

A correspondent, "P," writes as follows A day or two since, reporting on a performance at the Opera House, your critic remarked oil one performer making a really decent. and, as he added, a thing very rarely seen on the stage ! Why we see Jews so delineated it is impossible to understand. We certainly do not so see them off the stf.ge, any more than wo do the proverbial Irishman, with a shillelagh, shoes, and buckles ; or the Scotchman of to-day taking huge pinches of snuff, and talking broad "Ye ken." The grasping charact-r of the Jew we owe to Shy lock as delineated by Shakespere, although readers of ancient history know in reality the man who sought to enforce such a bond was a Christian ! But Shakespere, no doubt, like Dickens in modern times, knew it was as well to place tho odium on the shoulders of those who were the least popular, and of whom ignorance is still so great that it is found profitable to pander to a vitiated taste by delineating tho Jew as always a grasping, unscrupulous money-lender. In actual life we all know the contrary, and that there are far worse money-lenders than the Jews. Another popular mistake is that the Jews are always rich. There never was a greater mistake. Hero and there a few amass great riches the same as we see in other denominations, but the bulk are miserably poor, and the middle class are neither very rich or saving, indeed tho reverse. I am sorry to have to dispel such an illusion. More than 50 per cent, are a prey to grinding poverty, and the average are far removed from prosperity. And then as regards usury or money lending, under restrictive laws the Hebrews at one time had no other means of gaining a livelihood, but they never enjoyed a monopoly of the trade, nor did their expulsion extinguish usury. When the Jews were driven out of London the money lenders doubled the rate of interest. In the present days the worst forms of usury flourish in lands where there are few, if any, Jews. Ireland and India have no Hebrew communities to speak of, but the peasantry in both countries groan under a usury more pitiless than was ever dreamed of by a Hebrew of the Middle Ages. In Spain there are no Jews, while in Sweden and Belgium their number is insignificant, yet it has been found necessary of recent years to enact severe laws against usury in each of these colonies. The popular portrait of the Jew is a gross carricature. The public do not see us as we are, but as the most ignorant and superstitious of their ancestors imagined we , were.