THE SUPERINTENDENCY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 382, 12 March 1863, Page 5

THE SUPERINTENDENCY.

MAJOR RICHARDSON'S CANDIDATURE,

A meeting was held last evening, at the Northeast Valley School, in accordance with an announcement that, " at the request of several electors iv the North-east Valley, Major Richardson will explain his views." There were about 100 persous present. Mr Peter Lindsay was called to the chair. Major Richardson said he thanked thofe who had given him the invitation to attend that meeting; because he felt that it was a duty he owed to the constituency who elected him, and to the constituency who would haye.the opportunity of eltcting himself or his successor, to explain the circuraslances under, which,he appealed as a candidate. .It was well known to those who were most intimate with him, that his determination to retire from the cares and responsibilities of office was a thoroughly premeditated one; and he considered that it was one oi which he need not be ashamed. His health, his private afEiirs, and other considerations, impelled him to this course. He thought the time had arrived when he might retire from those duties and those toils; and when others, youngei a id nure able than himself might take a foremost position, and defend that Ciuse which had ever,. been dear to his. heart. ■He openly enunciated his intention at th 6 Duristan—there could he no mistake about it—it was done c'earlyj-'deeisively; and unequivocally. That intention .was .carried -out so, far that he addressed a letter to the electors, thanking them for the confylence they had put in him, and intimating his intention to retire permanently from public life. At the same time, he considered it his duty to point out a few beacons which he thought experience justified him iv doin^, so that the electors might avoid certain dangers which he saw to exist. That address was being copied, in order to be sent to the press,.when he received without notice a deputation who asked him what were iiU views, and earnestly dissuaded him, so far as he understood, from retiring at the present moment. This, conjoined to the remonstrances of. private friends, who told him that it would be dishonorable to retire from a position in which he had been considered somewhat as a leader—though, perhaps, he had no just right to that title—that he ought not to forsake the cause after conductingit so far—led him to resolve that he would not carry out his intention to retire, should any one come forward for the office of Superintendent whose opinions and sentiments were not, as he considered, fully in accord with the truest interests of the Province. -It was simply a period of hesitancy. .After that, motives were ascribed to him. which he was quite sure any honorable mind would have at once repelled. He fe!t that the time was come when, if he succumbed to this dictation, he was unworthy of the confidence that led to his election, and would have degraded his office, and every office under the Provincial Council. He resolved then, once and for ever, to leave it to the electors to decide whether he was a fit and proper person again to be Superintendent.—(Applause.) This was a true history of past transactions :if tiiere was any point on which there was the slightest doubt, he should consider him who told him so, and who asked for further explanation, to be his truest friend. He stated in hi? address to the electors, that it was not his intention to make a personal canvass. He had many reasons for that course. He was constitutionally, as well as politically, opposed to it. He could not, for the highest honor it was in the power of the Crown to bestow, accept an office, if it was a condition that he was to go through the process of soliciting votes for it. He looked upon the electoral franchise as one of the most important trusts ever handed to freemen in any country. It was their duty to exercise that .trust, not from the influence of, persuasion, or from any other influence; but from;the high-' est of all principles—the duty they, owed to their families and to the State of which they were eon■stituent members. On a former occasion, when he went round the districts, it was known to many that he never asked for a.single vote.. Manyltold him that it.was their intention, to vote for him; but he simply asked them to suspend the expression of their sentiments un,til such time as they were in full possession of the opinions of the candidates. He asked the same now. He asked simply that his hearers would vote where their confidence went, and as their judgment led—(Applause.) He had heard that some of those who were friendly to him, or to the principles he entertained, had pledged themselves to an opposing candidate ; and that the reason they gave was that he (Major Richardson) had not then offered himself. He said, candidly, that he should consider he was insulting any man to give him his vote when his conscience would not allow him todo so. He would now proceed to the questions of the day. Although it had been said that the Land Question was now shelved, and had nothing to do with the Superintendency, he said, and that, too, from a somewhat lengthened experience of official life,that we were now only just breaking ground—that ibis was but the commencement; that the battle had to be fought; that fought it must be; and that though we should be repelled often, and sometimes with considerable injury, if the principles we had advocated were sound in themselves, we must insist upon going on, until those principles became the law of tha country. He looked upon it that the object of all colonisation was to people a desert waste. Nomadic hordes, travelling from part to pait, as the Maorie3 did when formerly in possession, of this colony could never people a country. k To do that required tliat the people should be resident on the land—that they should not only occupy but cnltivate. He looked upon it, therefore, that whatever we might do if we did not create a resident, occupying, and tilling people, we should nave done nothing whatever. That was his first principle as to the object of colonisation. What were the allurements we could offer to emigrants to people this country 1. Firstly, he 'thought, were liberal institutions; secondly, the strong inducement of high wages; and, thirdly, that which was dear to the heart of every man, the_ hope, whether near or remote, that at one time he might be privileged to possess a portion of land which he could call hi 3 own, which might be banded down to his posterity, and on which might be reared generations of his own family. If he knew anything of the true British heart, that was one of its uppermost thoughts. At present, he would not talk about liberal institutions ; that might be necessary on another occasion. But there were two objects which were dearest to his heart—one, land for the people ; the other, a responsible ministry.—(Applause.) Without, land for the people, nothing had been-done ; without a res--ponsible ministry, there was no government whatever. Thefirst thingwe had to ascertain, When we settled downin a country,, for the purpose of advancing its interests, was, what means we had to attain the object in view. The two principal sources fromwhich money was to be derived, were the Customs Revenue and the Land Revenue; and he would make a few observations on each. He had been accused of being overcautious. He confessed that it was rather a fault in which he prided_ himself. He would rather not, whether as an individual or a nation, make haste to be rich. If we advanced slowly, yet sufficiently rapid in proportion to our means, we were doini; that which was was most suited for future growth. The trees most rapid in their growth, did not always give the best timber : the British Constitution was the result of a series of accumulative innovations, but while surrounding nations had yielded to successive shocks, it still stood to. give protection to the people.— (Applause.) On all. hands he heard comparisons between, the colony of Victoria and the Province of Otngo. Wherever he went he heard "Wedo so and so in Victoria." Well and good. If she had thriven it would be a laudable object of ambition to follow in her steps; but the child must be careful how. it attempted to follow in the steps of the grown man. He. would make a. few comparisons between the' statistics of this Province and of Victoria, premising that fhey were from the best sources at' his command, but were simple approximations.. • The population of Victoria was abput 500,000; that of Otago was 35,000. The Customs Revenue of Victoria was L 994,000; that of Otago, £167,000. This showed a vast disproportion the Customs Revenue of Otago being almost double that of Victoria, as compared .with, the number of the population. This was a very important element of consideration. One of the causes .undoubtedly was that there was a goodish quantity of spirits drunk here—(laughter)—that spirits, wine, and ale represented a good round honest amount. (Laughter.) One source ot the difference would be found in the fact that the Chinese, who numbered Eome 35,000 or 40,000 in Victoria, were no great/hands for a glass of toddy, but instead, went in for a bit-of opium. Then the fact that the greater part of our mining population were males/leaving their wives behind them—was another element of disturbance in the comparison; and it waafair tp;conclude that our Customs Revenue would not-remain permanently in excess, per head, of Ihat of Victoria.V. The total area of England, Scotland, and 'W;ales/was 57,000,000 acres, aud. that of ■Victoria -55;OQO,000 > v^Ha that

of Otago was 14,800,000 acres, so that here again we were dwarfed beside the neighboring colony, with which we were so co stantly told to draw comparisons. As to the disposal of land, there was an important point which we must not forgvjt—but which he had noticed that nearly every oiie did forget-that we were not in a position to do with our land as we wished. We were bound down ljy Ordinances, and especially by the Land Sales and Leases Ordinance, which placed it out of the power of the Government to dispose of an acre more of land than was absolutely declared by tho Governor into Huudreds. The power of altering laws he believed legitimately belonged to the Superintendent nnd Provincial Council. They had concurrent power. If any Superintendent was independent of the Ministry, he had simply to withhold his assent to a Bill, and it could not become law. Therefore, he advocated the Provincial Council being represented, in recess, by a responsible Executive. He wished now to refer to the sales of land in Victoria and Otago. In Victoria, there were 31,500,000 acres let under pastoral licenses; in Otago, there were 8,400,000. The revenue derivable from the 31,5,0,100 acres, wos £340,000; but the 8,400,000 acres in Otago only yielded £4,000. He should be sorry to have it supposed that he wished to take any ungenerous advantage of the pastoral interest. He was for fair play to all. The holders of runs came into tho Province and went out into the wilderness; they had gone through very considerable difficulties ; a^d they were fully entitled to everything to which, by law, they had a fair claim. He would v nottouch a single acre of their land, unless it was required for bona fide settlement. If those same 8,000,000 acres used as runs—which belonged to us, or to the the Crown—were let at the same rate as ia Victoria, it would realise not lesa than L 90.000 a year; but the honor of the Government was pledged not to alter the regulation, until the expiry of the present licenses, unless it was rfquired for actual occupation.' Some of the earliest licenses would fall in iv about two yea's. By the estimates for 18G3, laid on the tible of the Parliament of Victoria, the sum to be derived from land sales was put down at L 600,000 ; here, if we received all that we had any just .reasoii- to expect,.it' would amount to 1/120,000.' "In' tither:;,wordsj: (tjie . land, revenue of Victoria was about a million sterling, against? £124,003 in Otago. He believed, that there-were very considerable fallacies about the revenue from gold. People imagined that the Government were receiving -unknown, quantities from that source, and that it must be very difficult to know what to do with it So far as he knew, there was not the slightest difficulty in the matter, and tlu only anxiety of the Government was to have a great deal more to experimentalise upon;, .(".Hear, hear," and laughter) The export and other duties received in Victoria, from gold, was £161,000; in Otago. the total from all sources, wasL66,ooo. What was that? Why our police f jrce alone, Uesupposed cost notless than £sO,oUOayear; and supposing tnat a third or a quarter was struck off, still there was a very large amount to be charged against the gold fields. Then . there was the gaol, with 120 prisoners, the Hospital with about the same number of patients, the hospital at Tuapeka, and other things; so that he verily believed, if a minute calculation was made as to the value of the gold fields, simply as a source of revenue—exclusive of the benefit from population, through the Customs—we should have very little to be thankful for. He would not make any observations with respect to those ungenerous aspersions that had been cast upon him, about his going through the countn, and endeavoring to make election capi-: tal out of his visit to the gold fields. He utterly denounced any such attempts ; and he would sooner forfeit appointment to any office on the face of the earth, than be a party to any such thing.—(Applause.) He owed it to himself to wipe awaj the aspersions that he had done the miners a grievous injury, in that he was one of the means of depriving th6m of a vote for the Superintendent. He candidly confessed —and he should be glad to meet the miners face to face and say it—that he was a. party to the doing it, and his ground was this—that .they should not swamp the constituency of the province. •■ (Loud applause.) When he stood in his place and advocated this change in the representation of the colony, he did so on the ground that the legitimate constituency-should not be swamped by men who were here to-day and away .to-morrow. Mark, he wished to give them everything that he thought they were fairly entitled to :he wished to give themtwo representa ives' in- the Provincial Council, and also two in the .General Assembly; and when their numbers justified it— he did not say such was not the case at present—he would be among the first to advocate fair and equal representation for them in. the Council and the Assembly. There was a point to which the' real friends of the miners might do good by directing their- attention —that was, to see that they had every opportunity, of getting a fair price for the gold which they dug out of the earth. He did not know how that was to be done. It had been under the consideration ot the Government; and no Government was worthy of the confidence of the people that would not dp everything in its power, bo as, by tests and analysations, to put it within the means of the miner to ascertain really what was the value of the article of which •he was about to dispose. It might be remembered that the Government sent 5,000 oz to the International Exhibition, where it attracted considerable attention, and it was subsequently sold. It was from four different fields; and the result of the analysation of each had been received. The highest in value was £3 19s 3d, after all expenses in England for melting, &c.; and the lowest, £3 17s 4d an ounce, Taking the various sources'of revenue which he had enumerated, and striking off £40,000 or £50,000 from our Customs Revenue, as going to the credit of the General Government, the result was this:—We had to operate upon £300,000 as against £2,000,000 in Victoria, so that he was surely justified in saying that we ■were bound to exercise a wise caution, when we were told of, and incited to follow in, the steps of Victoria. (Hear, hear). There were various ways in which Crown Lands were disposed of. There was wiat might be called the low-priced sjstem, which had prevailed in two or three provinces, aa lie believed, to their certain destruction. The price was so low that speculators stepped in aud absorbed nearly the whole of the country, or what was tantamount to it, all those portions which were the key to the country, and having secured the frontage, there was no difficulty iv their getting possession of the back part. :In some . neighboring ' provinces, ■ speculators had bought large tracts-as much as 100,000 acres. Suppose this could be done here at ss. or 2s. b'd. even per acre, the country, instead of being a garden for the habitation of man, would become a desert waste for sheep walks. There was no question whatever about that fact. Another system had been found to work well in Auckland— that of assisted emigration. He was an advocate of that system seme time ago, and was so still to a certain extent. It might be a weakness, but he confessed that he should like to see .coming amongst us some fresh blood from the native country—men who had not been accustomed to the excitement of gold digging, but who would settle down with no desire but to cultivate their own land. He longed to see some of our Victorian friends—fine, noble, stalwart fellows they were—become permanent inhabitants of the Province; but, he did not know how it was, they could not be enticed. They might be by-and-by. But resident occupying population must be had; and he thought that the system of giving land to immigrants, instead of payiDg their passage was a system deserving of consideration and encouragement! Another system was the high-price, or deterrent to speculators. This prevailed in Canterbury, but in a form somewhat difterent to our own, because the whole Province waß thrown open' there, while we could only deal with the small quantity that was declared into Hundreds. He doubted if the Canterbury system had worked well. The cream of that province might be worth L 2 an acre; but he doubted very much whether the skim-milk would be; Ab he understood, when a capitalist wished to invest his thousands, he went to his agent and bought, or made arrangements for, a certain amount of land: and then he got tenants who paid 2s. 3s, 4s, or perhaps 5s an acre, with a purchasing power at the end of (say) five years at L 5 per acre, but, as he understood, without one word being said about improvements. \Vhile the tenant had simply to pay a small rent, all went well;'; but immediately the time arrived when he had to pay the L san acre, dr relinquish' his farm without compensation ■ for improvements, would, come the pinch, the touchstone of the system. That time was not yet. We were invited to follow the same plan here. He said, " No',; we have another and a better one here. Let us wait until the experimeuthas been tried. If it is successful, let us follow it; if not, let us have nothing to do with it." The Victorian system was complicated, but there were in it ti number, of elements which commended themselves very much: to his; mind. Thex'e land could be bought outright at once j and a purchaser of say even 100 acres,-could pay for one-half, and have the'remainder at a rent of iis 6d an acre per yearfor eight years,. That was a feature like our leasing 'system', which -he should like to see introduced. It had ■■ been found to answer well in Victoria, :with the exception that it wanted elements which we poSsessed,l but in an inoperative form —those of compulsory residence, occupation, and If sthey could only compel occupatiou and improvement under pain of forfeiture, which he be-* i lieved was originally intended, he thought that the ■Victorian .Regulations would be as good as they could •possibly have in that colony. But if there was one system which he preferred to another, it was that of Otago. If it had been carried out^-if there; had been a penal clause attached to the improve-: men\ clauses—he looked ujjoji \% q£ the. bss.^!

adapted for the > colonisation of the country. He honored tlie intellect and the kindness of heart ■which devised that system. It had for its basis the benefit of the labouring man—the man who designed to take up country for the nurposSb of cultivating it and making a home. It had this beneficial effect — that if fairly and honestly carried out, it would make the speculator's,and laud jobber's trade of no earthly use. He looked upon it uot only as a system of the highest benefit to the agriculturist, because it gave him good land at a reasonable rate and on reasonable conditions ■ — conditions which it was in his power to fulfil ; but he looked upon it also as a system which was highly conducive to the prosperity of the pastoral interest. He had held that opinion lor many years, and he held it siiil. He would give his reason for thinking that it was ino>t in accordance with the true interests of the pastoral as well as the agricultural class; and he would'leave his hearers to judge whether that reason was valid. If the conditions as to improvements were carried out, the speculator would be debarred from coming into the country. If so, large portions of land, which would otherwise be absorbed by him, would not come into the market. There would be no necessity, therefore,1 for the Government to intrude upon the runholder's licensed property, for the purpose of declaring more country into Hundreds. He held, that to be an unanswerable argument. (Applause.) The system was justly deviled, as all legislation should be, for the best interests of both classes who inhabit the country. It would be known that the Government had had their Unimproved Lands Bill rejected by the General Government; and that they had therefore found it necessary to obey the instructions of ths Previncial CouncJ, arising from a suggestion of their own, and increase the price of rural lands to L 2 an acre. He .candidly confessed that when he forwarded the request to that effect to the General Government, he did it with as much shame— and he must say, as much indignation and pain— as he ever felt in the whole course of his life. He felt pained, and humiliated, and shamed, for this reason—that he felt he was doing an act which would deprive the poor man from settling in the country, and which would have the chilling effect of destroying the prosperity of the Province. It was all very well to talk of £2 an acre, with conditions of improvement, and a tax for the non-fulfilment of those conditions; but he said that there were very few acres at present open which could bear such"a price and conditions, and return something; remunerative for the outlay. Suppose the price raised to L2,which he hoped itmight not be, every acre really worth that sum would be immediately taken up. When the immigrant we had invited came to our shores and asked for the ample quantities of land from which he had been told he could select, we should have to point him to the speculator, whose answer probably would be, " I bought for £2, and you may have it for £3." If the immigrant was not content with this, be must be content with inferior land. It would be Hobson's choice, and avery bad one indeed ! —(Laughter.) We had only about a million and a half of acres of good agricultural land, with about 2i millions of a secondary quality —or probably four millions callable of producing cereal crops or being put under grass.. The value of. this secondary land .depended upon whether '"•. that, of the first class was really occupied. . He* ie'ard a good deal about." position value." But he "said'thatthe talk of "position value" was all nonsense,: without population. Dispose of the million and a half acres of good land to a dozen or so capitalists, if you pleased ; but the secondary land would not, thereby, be improved in value one shadow of a bad farthing.— (Laughter.) It seemed to be a very pieasant occupation with some gentlemen, on whose hands he supposed time hung heavily, to abuse the Government when they had nothing else to do. Personally, he rather liked it.--(Laughter.) It generally showed that things we're going on pretty well—that a nnmber of men who wanted this, that, and the other, and who tried to domineer as much as possible, had not- succeeded.—(Hear, hear.) For himself, he declared that he would yield to.no intimidation nor have any favoritism, cost what it might. If the attackers chose to vote against hiuvon-every possible occasion, they were very welcome to 'doit. He wanted only that: support which was .acconi-. panied by confidence.' This^might. ;bo-.depend(?d: upon -; that ,a goodisli part of vthe . opposition.; ■ tha't> .had., been shown to .- him had; arisen with" those■ —with many honorable exceptions — who f- nad attempted to intimidate the Government, but had not .succeeded.—(Applause.) When he resolved to^stand again for the Superintendency he made a vow to make no promises. That might be considered very startling by some ;who might' ask, " Why did you make such a_ vow 1" • If he made a promise, he should give soraething.which he had noright to give/and no power to fulfil. He was-a; simple-member ofthe Executive—of a responsible Government—and !h'e' would not pledge himself to a single act until that Government- had had the opportunity of being consulted. The honorabla gentleman then proceeded to defend the Government from the charge of having done nothing.. He alluded to the reduction ot the size of the sections of land, especially in the North; and the laying out of twelve townships each with a reserve of 2,000 acres. Nothing would have been easier than for him to have stood .forward and, for an electioneering move, to talk of'the hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on roads and bridges. But the Government had done what they could, and they preferred any aspersions to the knowledge that they had in the slightest degree allowed the Provincial estate to suffer. They . had, it was true, got on the wrong side of the ledger, but the revenue was in avery healthy state ;and instead of being subject to all sorts of insinuations, the public ought rather to be grateful to the Government for having held the reins with a cautious yet skilful hand. He regarded the Province as in a very prosperous condition. The imports for 1862 were more than double those of 1861; the exports were double ; the Customs revenue had increased by more than one-half; and the tonnage of vessels was doubled. But the loan of half a million would require £40,00 i) or £50,000 for interest and sinking fund, which was a serious hem to take-from the £300,000' available • and he thought that instead of encouraging guarantees and schemes for this, thao, and the other, the electors should sit down cautiously, and see that, by present expenditure, they did not entail upon-posterity a debt which the country could not endure. Let them proceed with< as much-vigor.as they liked ; but let them feel secure' of- every step before they took the next. His Honor concluded by again enforcing the importance of responsible government. Several questions were asked and answered, but most of them were unimportant. Mr Birch asked, "Are you in favor of the subsidy for the Panama route V

Major KrcHAKDSON said that he was a member of the committee of the General Aijsmbly on the subject, and voted in favor of it. Bat in the meantime out came the Duke of Newcastle's letter. Seeing that the claim of the Imperial Government, as made in that letter, was just, he was then for withholding thesubsidy. Whatever effect it/might have upon this election, he had: no hesitation in saying, that his ■ persuasion was so strong that 1,30,000 given for the Panama route would be injurious to the Province, that he should be very glad to find that, if the "controversy turned upon that point, he was rejected altogether. Mr Jambs Hunter proposed a resolution declaring Major Richardson a fit and proper person to. fill the office of Superintendent. Mr John Duncan seconded the motion. A teller was appointed, who declared that 67 .hands were held up for the motion, and 2 against it. The result was received with cheeis, and the proceedings terminated with a vote of thanks to the Chairman.