THE SUPERINTENDENCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 1123, 27 July 1865, Page 5

THE SUPERINTENDENCE.

MB. M'QLASHAN AT POUT CHALMERS. Yesterday evening, Mr M'Glaablan addressed the electors of Port Chalmers in the large room of Dodson'a Provincial Hotel. The meeting, which was numerously attended, waa presided over by Mr Jas. Mallach. Mr M'Glashan, in the course of his address, after expressing his gratification at the numerous meeting, and hia hope of its indicating success at the poll, said that one of the chief things, ii not the chief thing, for present provincial consideration was the question of revenue and expenditure. Hitherto, the latter had very greatly exceeded the former, and had brought the province to a very serious position. To that present position, and to the general question, he would, if elected, give his serious attention ; and, although the Superintendent had not now equal powers to what was once possessed, he would give as much effect as he could to his views, which on this subject would be in favor of retrenchment by an amalgamation, in the first place, of government department. He thought the land department might be united with the money department, the gold fields department with that of the gold fields survey, and so on. Some absolutely useless offices, such as the Commissioner of Roads Deviations, invented by a recent Government, he would transfer to the Executive. He would not reduce salaries to such an extreme as to deprive the Government of efficient officers, and the officers of comfortable livings, but he thought there were many more officers than were necessary—in the land office for one. On the Land Question, he had always been in favor of the Provincial lands being occupied at a moderate price. When land was saleable, a3 was the case, at 10* in other parts of New Zealand, he had held it vain to expect men to come to CHago to settle at L 2 per acre, and he still held that, by reducing the price, that class of settlers who had capital in the labor of themselves and their families, would be introduced to tTie country, and contribute more speedily to their own and the common welfare. He looked upon the tax as an equal bugbear to the exorbitantly high price now asked for what was the inferior land of the Province, and attributed the present anomalous absence of purchasers to these two causes, and the uncertainty of legislation on the subject. As to immigration, he was in favor of assisting the arrival of farm laborers for the present, that being the description of labor wanted, while skilled mechanics were in excess of the demand. The education system of the province he considered to work badly and expensively, and he would rather favor a charge upon the general revenue than the existing direct and obnoxious tax Many industrial enterprises he would be inclined to encourage by bonuses and by some advisable form of protection, as was now being done in Melbourne. (A Voice : What of flax?) (Laughter.) Unfortunately he had advanced money to experimentalists in the manufacture of flax, who assured him of their success, but he had sinse seen nothing of the money invested. The expense was so great that he had little hopes of its being made available for ropemaklng, though there was much likelihood of its being made available for the manufacture of paper. The formation of railways, by British capitalists, who might be afforded such concessions as were usual iv North and South America, he considered not only a most important, but also a very feasible object, and a Port Chalmers and Dunedin railway he held to be an essential link of the system, the possibility of large ships proceeding to Dunedin being very slight so long as the dredge lay useless as at present, or even if put to its intended work. When lately at the Molyneux, he had been asked if he would be in favor of a bonus by which they might get back the steamer Tuapeka, and have a connecting steamer outside, and, though in such a matter a Superintendent must be guided by the Executive and Council, he favored liberal encouragement of such means as these, and railways, so as to bring the producer as near to his market 88 possible. A patent slip at Port Chalmers he -had long ago proposed to the agent of the Intercolonial Company, who favored the project, but by the supineness of past Governments, this highly important work had been neglected, and the chance of making Port Chalmers the terminus of the Panama route had probably been for ever lost. He still favored the project, and a guarantee on its cost. In conclusion, he made some humorous reference to the desire of his opponent, Mr Dick, to be captain of the ship because he previously held the position of mate; considering a mate to whom shipwreck wa3 due to be scarcely the choice when another hand was on the deck who might probably avert the worst consequences of the disaster. In answers to a long series of questions, Mr M'Glashan said, although he might be incompetent to alter the land laws, he would at least give effect to his views, in a message to the House. He thought Port Chalmers, by having a municipality, might be able to have its town belt made available for brick-makiug or other practical purposes, which might be advisable, or for which it was adapted. If it was the case that Port Chalmers was deprived of a proportion of its municipal estate, he thought it but right that it should recover its legitimate proportion' of the original, or have an equivalent. On the questions of Provincial Governments he gave opinions similar to those he had already expressed. The self-election of members of District School Committees, on occasions of committees resigning, was an evil with others under the Ordinance which he would desire to see redressed. Any clause in the Cemeteries Ordinance, which prevented the poor man, or the holder of the cheaper ground, from raising a tablet or stone to the memory of the dead, he considered most invidious and objectionable. He would give his consideration to an appeal for a sum for the protection of the beach at Port Chalmers, and preventing of destruction to the bay by unprotected

AT THE ROOMS OF

earthworks. He would see also to the propriety of a slip or gridiron for the safety of watermen's property. He did not, under present circumstances, advise substantial assistance to the Volunteers, unless there happened to be a call for active service. He entered at some length into tbe design and present position of the estate held for educational purposes, and explained that a Bill was about to be introduced into the Assembly, renewing the trust, and giving a proportion of a third for educational purposes. He explained his views on protecting native industries by quoting the case of a Dunedin tobacco manufacturer, who, by an anomaly in the tariff, by which tobacco in the leaf and its manufactured state, paid the same' duty, had to relinquish an enterprise which might have employed a considerable number of men. He was a Free-trader, but believed that local circumstances might justify a departure from old country rules, though in such an instance old country rules were right and ours were wrong. Mr H.Dench, seconded by Mr J. Thomson, sen., proposed—" That Mr M'Glashan was a fit and proper person lor election as Superintendent." Mr A. J. Ritchie, seconded by Mr D. Kilgour, proposed the contrary. On a show of hands being taken, it was considerably in favor oi the motion, and this being declared, the proceedings were terminated by a vote of thanks to the Chairman.