BRUCE ELECTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 1119, 22 July 1865, Page 10 (Supplement)

BRUCE ELECTION.

NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES. We have been favored.with slips of the JBrttce Herald report of proceedings at the nomination at Tokomairiro on Thursday, from which we are enabled to furnish the following :— The nomination of candidates for the vacant seat in the Assembly for this district took place on Thursday last at noon. John Dewe, E?q., the Returning Officer, having gone through the usual preliminary forms, called on the electors to name candidates. There was a very large number of electors present. Mr J. E. Brown proposed Mr John Cargill, who was seconded by Mr J. Adam, M.U.C. Mr D. M'Master proposed Mr James Macandrcw, and the nomination was seconded by Mr A. Gerrard. Mr J. Jj. Gillies proposed Mr W. J. Dyer, and in doing so,remarked that the return of Mr Macandrew would be anyIhing but a credit to the district, situated as lhat gentleman was towards the Province a statement which evoked a perfect •.atorm of hisses and groans. Mr A. Mollisbn, M.P.C., pro forma, seconded Mr Dyer's nomination. No other candidates being proposed, the ! IReturning Officer called on

Mr Cargill, who said that he coveted the iionor of representing the largest agricultural district in the colony. On most question.", he believed his opinions and those of the electors agreed; but there •was one subject on which there was a divergence of opinion. It was on the subject of the Land Resolutions, introduced into the Council by his friend Mr Dick, but for which it seemed they wished to hold him responsible. He would speak first of the Seat of Government question. He thought the scat of Government was now where it should be, for the promotion of good government in the colony. Too much credit could not be given the Weld Ministry for their persistence in carrying out the resolutions of the Assembly, and removing: the Government, in the face of •no slight difficulties. During the last I;hree years, a great change had come over •society in Otago. Before that it was a statistical fact, that a laboring man, after ibeing three or four years in the colony, became an owner of land. In fact, there was a gradual rising process going on in ■society. Now, this was changed, and there ware external as well as internal reasons for the change. Amongst the external reasons was the war in the North Island, which has caused acomplete derangement of finances, and which absorbed the larger portion of the Customs Revenues of the Then the Provinces, by their ■borrowing so largely, had depressed the debenture market, and bad come into conflict .in the market with the General Government. To whomsoever it was owing, it was cwell known that tne rival attempts at {borrowing made by the colony'and. by the provinces had seriously depreciated, the value of the debentures of both. As long as the war continued,, the state of affairs would only become worse and worse. They i xmst get rid of the war, at least as a war o i 'aggression. From first to last the war jj aa " foeen a great mistake, and as long as the v "wpß remained, the Maori's natural love c Jftgliting would cause the war to continue. • The colony could not afford the expense. The .Home Government had, and properly ha d, tb.e direction of the war, but the colony had to pay the.cost, and as a consequence it' was moat extravagantly conducted—tfrere was a continued conflict of authority, and affairs got into confusion. He; did not wish to blame the troops, for they had been asked to do an impossibility, to osnduct a war for which they were totally unfit. The settlers were able to manage the native difficulty; and should be let do so. On the East Coast the Mooris could not afford to fight,'they had let their lands to Europeans and could not afford to go to war. A great- deal more might be done by peaceful arts than by war. A new system was wanted, and he cordially agreed with that defined in. Mr Weld's ■ memorandum; The Equalisation, of Representation would probably engage the attention of the Assembly at its next sitting. Otago -was not at all fairly represented at present, tout he would not wish to increase the number of members of the ABBembly. Be would rather reduce the

number <?f members in the other Provinces, 80 that the present number of Otago representatives would be a fair proportion for this Province. Toincrease the number of, representatives would be expensive, and it was even now found very difficult to get the small number that were at present reqnired. He considered that the fewer members there were in the Assembly the better. Sneaking of Loans, the condition of Southland was a disgrace to the Colony—a public scandal. People at a distance knew nothing of Provinces; they looked on all New Zealand as bankrupt, because Southland was so, and thus the credit of the Colony Buffered. As regarded Southland, the conduct of the General Government had been blameworthy. They were morally responsible for her debtp, for they had morally guaranteed her loans when they allowed her to contract them, and gave the consent, without which they could not have been raised. He thought that the General Government should cover with their debentures all existing Provincial Loans; and that hereafter the General Government alone should borrow and allocate the money amongst the Provinces. Money would .thus-be'Jar more easily and favorably raised. He would prefer allocating a portion of the land revenue as security, rather than hypothecating a portion of the land iteclf. The L 400,000 Loan was called, when contracted, merely a forestalling of land revenue; and now it j should be met out of the land revenue. ! He would go on to speak of the land question.—(After alluding to the various land lawa, from those of the New Zealand Company to those at present in force, Mr Cargill proceeded.)— The resolutions passed last Sessioa of Council mi^ht be looked at as a matter of policy. They were in great straits for want of money, | and a small sum now was much better than a larger sum a few years hence. The debt of the Province at the present moment involved an annual expenditure of L 50,000. One of the sources of revenue was the pastoral land. There was a very large quantity of stock, on the pastoral lands; do what they would, this stock had to be considered in legislating about the pastoral lands. The present occupiers ol' the runs would not be entitled to any exclusive privileges, except a* a kind of price for giving up their present leases and at once contributing to the revenne. It had to be considered whether it was desirable to retain or to get rid of the present occupiers of runs. He was thoroughly of opinion that it was desirable to keep them in the country; He h.ld the land resolutions of the last Council to be on the whole good, and a fair settlement of a difficult question, but he was strongly opposed to giving any privileges to runholders unless they at once came under the resolutions. This would have to be attended to in the Assembly. He believed Separation to be one of the greatest evils which could happen to the Colony. There were no antagonistic interests between the two Islands. The Province was not in a position to borrow money for railways. In fnct, he thought that the introduction of foreign capital was one of the greatest benefits that could be derived from railways. In reply to questions, Mr Cargill said he thought there would be plenty of runs in the market, and could be easily got at under the auction system. Any purchaser who could give a higher price than the present occupier must have the sheep to put on the run. If not, mere speculators would bid on chance. He thought the existing estimate of runs quite wrong. Mr James Macandrew said that he might be pardoned if he said a few words oi a personal nature. He did not think that the remarks made by Mr Gillies tended to edification, nor did he admire the taste which prompted them. (Great cheers.) It might not be agreeable if the antecedents of every one were strictly inquired into, but he deprecated such an inquiry. If, however, he was to be so strictly sifted, it would be as well if the antecedents of other people were as strictly looked into. Mr Adam also had spoken at him, if not to him, but he could assure them that all that gentleman had said about position in the colony was mere bunkum and prunella. His position now was a changed one to what it once was; but if he went to the Assembly, he knew, for he had been there before, bis position as a private individual, would be but little looked at. His vote alone would be considered as the vote. of the member for Bruce, and his brains, if he had any, would also have their influence. He could assure the electors that the members of Assembly were men of a very different I stamp to the majority of those of the Provincial Council. For the last sixteen years his principle, the principle to which he had always striven to give effect, was Erogress: to secure the greatest possible j appiness to the greatest possible number, j He had been consistently animated by an j ambition to be an instrument forming the institutions of his adopted home—to in- ' fluence the destiny of that colony which, if not separated, was destined, be believed, to attain a high position: to become a great maritime state, if not a seat of empire. It had been his earnest aim to assist in devising a policy conducive to the development of the capabilities of New Zealand; capabilities which would not be exhausted till the colony was filled by millions of families enjoying all the elements of health and enjoyment which the colony so freely afforded. It was to this object that all their legislation should tend, and to succeed they would have to { cherish a sound public opinion. One of' the most serious evils from which the colony had lately suffered was the want of a sound public opinion. Political indifference had been too much the order of ■the day, and seats in the Parliament of the Colony had too often gone a begging. But he hoped the present election was the commencement of a new epoch, what Mr Grant would call a movement of the dry bones coming to life. In the younger days of the Province the settlers took far more interest in politics than they had lately. Since the discovery of the gold fields, they had all been too busy in the acquisition of wealth. He could not say that he had, but most of them had. Their representatives had not been properly amenable to public opinion, and it was in a; great measure owing to this that they had a Colonial debt of four . million?, and nothing so show for it, and a Provincial debt of L 600,000 with very little to show for it. In speaking of the native difficulty, they would remember that the war was primarily caused by the votes of the representatives of the Middle Island. He cordially supported the proposal of withdrawing the troops and managing the natives by the settlers. On thia subject he agreed with most of what Mr Cargill had said. Hethoughtthe land resolutions the most important subject on which the Council had yet been called to legislate upon, and he thought it had been too lightly treated. The great fault of the land laws of the Province was that they had no stability, and the progreßß of

the Province was retarded by their want of i. L ty' The land-a^jMlpn should be settled on a permanent basis, and the public mind should be afforded an opportunity of expression before final settlement took place. It was a hustings question, and should be made so. In the Council he had moved an amendment, which, if carried, would have .postponed the consideration-of the land question until the public could hayi; expressed an opinion regarding it. He demurred to the General Assembly dealing with the principle of the land resolutions. According to the Constitution, they had the right to deal with it; but the Assembly had said to the Councils in the various Provinces: you are the best judges of what is most suitable for your Province, and we will give legal effect to it. This was a great privilege, and they should be very chary of parting with it. If he was elected he would demurr to the Assembly saying anything but yea or nay to the resolutions. The Council was the arena in which the details of the Land scheme should be fought, and be would ask the Assembly to send back the resolutions to the Council for ventilation. The simplification of the laws was another important subject. At present the state of affiirs was perfectly appalling; every man, woman, and child was paying about L5 a year lor law. The temple of justice had such a toll at the portal that it was impossible for a poor man to enter it. In fact, without money it was impossible to get justice. He believed there were as many laws in New Zealand as months in a man's life, and yet in theory every one was supposed to be acquainted with the laws. He would like to see all the Ordinances put into the fire, and a thorough good lawyer got from home, paid LSOOO a year and made independent of the profession, to draw up intelligible laws. He would very much like to see distillation legalised, and, if the Government did not, be would be prepared to introduce a bill himself for that purpose. The laws as to transfer of land required amendment. There was a useful measure on that subject passed, but it had never been put into force, probably because it would trespass on the lawyer's pockets if it wa«r. He knew of a case where a 'man wished to borrow L4O on some land, and it cost him LIS, and it would cost him L 6 more to release it. This, too, on land with a clear crown grant to part, and a title without the grant to the rest of the land. The tariff was absurd, arbitrary, and an abomination. Years ago it might have been possible altogether to abolish customs duties, and he had tried to do so. Now, he feared, it was no longer possible to do so. He was opposed to Separation ; what was wanted was redress of grievances; if this could not be had, Separation might be a necessit} 7; but he would consider;the dismemberment of the colony perfect folly. Instead of Separation, he would like to welcome Southland back to its mother's bosom, and perhap3 the Assembly might be willing to accede to such a thing, even if proposed by the member for Bruce. As to representation, he did not like Mr Cargill's plan. He rather wished to see the fize of the various electoral districts lessened, and the number of members increased. Bruce, for instance, might be divided into three districts, each with one or two members. Lately, Otago was furnishing half the revenue of the whole colony, and possessed only about a fifth of the representation. In the present election he hoped the electors would act as earnest men performing a most important duty as citizens of a free country. The present election of a member of Assembly was even a more important matter than the choice of a Superintendent; for, if he was not misinformed, an attempt would be made by Mr Fitzgerald to deprive the electors of the right of electing that officer. Such an attempt had once been made, and was nearly successful ; next time it might be so, and then the Superintendent would just be a nominee —the creature of the men who for the time might be in the Ministry. To the old settlers around him he need scarcely speak of the associations connected with nomineeism. He held that it was necessary, in order to maintain the integrity of the colony, that the seat of Government should remain at Wellington

In reply to questions, Mr Macandrew said he was not in favor of doing away with Provincial Governments, although he believed such would be the ultimate result. He would gradually deprive them of legislative powers, and make them administrative bodies. He would like to see the Province have the entire administration of its funds—even of the Customs and Post Office; but one legislative body was enough. Even Customs and Post Office officers should be paid by the Province, and be amenable to the Province. He was opposed to ail taxation, and especially to the postage on newspapers. He would be in favor of selling the fee simple of the runs at once. This should realise about three millions of money; with this all debts might be paid off, and the balance invested in General Government debentures. He did not believe in the land tax, but he was a great believer in Hundreds. He was opposed to the Education rate. As to the Panama line, the Wellington people had secured that, and they deserved it for the energy they had displayed about it. It would not be fair now to deprive them of it, bat he would not object to subsidise another line, to benefit Otago. As to railways, he would be willing to give 8 per cent, on the cost of bringing one to every man's door, if they could get anyone to make it. He was not. averse to the introduction of Chinese. Mr Macandrew then sat down amidst great cheering.

Mr Dyer said he had no intention of contesting the election, but he had been proposed in order to be able to make an explanation. At a public meeting on a Saturday, he had been asked to come forward, and had consented, if no one else holding the same views could be got; but he could only do so at great personal inconvenience. On Monday morning a gentleman came to him, and asked him if he held the same mind. He said he did; and the other asked him to retire in his favor. He replied, _he could not do so, for he was not standing —to go to those .who were anxious to support him, and if they were willing to support the other, he would not come forward. Mr Gillies had spoken of a numerously-signed requisition. It bad never reached him, or he would have replied to it. There was some underhand work, and he had never got the requisition, although he knew it had reached Tokomainro. He hoped this would explain his position; and thanking those who would have supported him, he would retire. He also begged to thank Mr Gillies for the handsome terms in which he had spoken of his services in the Council; and he hope that on some future occasion they might find him as useful and as anxious to be of use W the Parliament

of the Colony as be hoped he had been in that of'he Province. (Cheers.) - Mr Dyer having retired, a show of hands was taken for the other two candidates. For Mr Cargill there were seven, for Mr Macandrew, after counting between thirty and forty, the Returning Officer stopped, and declared the show of hands in favor of Mr Macandrew. Mr Cargill demanded a poll, which was fixed to take place at the different polling places on Wednesday, 26th instant. The result of the election is to be declared at the Court House, Tokomairirp, on Saturday, 30th instant, at noon. A vote of thanks to the Returning Officer ended the proceedings.

TOKOMAIEIBO.

After the nomination on Thursday, we had a visit from Mr Dick, who held a meeting in the Court House, and explained his views in a very candid and straightforward way. Mr E. M'Glashan had a meeting also, at a later hour, and both meetings were well attended, and the speakers attentively listened to, and pretty well cross •questioned. Mr H. Clark, M.P.C., occupied the chair at Mr Dick's meeting, and Mr W. J. Dyer, M.P.C., filled the same position, at Mr M'Glashan's meeting. ■On Wednesday evening, Mr Macandrew had a meeting at the Waihola, where he was most enthusiastically received, and a Vote of confidence, pledging the meeting to support him, was unanimously passed.