THE HON. C.C. BOWEN AT KALAPOI.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4020, 6 January 1875, Page 2

THE HON. C.C. BOWEN AT KALAPOI.

[By Electric Telegraph.]

(from oub own correspondent.)

On Monday night the Hon. C C. Bowen addressed the electors at Kaiapoi. He was warmly received. He said that he had been desirous to address them at as early a date as possible, in order to explain to them not only his views on the general questions of the day, but also the reasons which had induced him to come forward as a candidate for the suffrages of the electors of Kaiapoi. Those reasons were simply these : When asked to join the Government, he was called to the Legislative Council; but he only accepted this on the understanding that he should be free to offer himself as a candidate for any vacancy in the Lower House which might occur in any constituency or part of the Province in which he was known. (Hear, hear.) He felt that it was only right that he should, instead of taking his ease in the Upper House, be prepared to do battle in the fiercer conflict of the Lower House, as this was the assembly where the greater part of the work of the country was done. Besides this, he felt it was only right that a member of the Government should be in the Lower House, and take his share in work which necessarily devolved upon his colleagues, and, indeed, the whole of the members there.—(Hear, hear). Therefore, when he heard that Mr Studholme intended to resign, he had made up his mind at once to offer himself for a place where he had many friends, and where he trusted he should be supported.—(Hear, hear.) With regard to his connection with the Province, he might say that before he becameßesident Magistrate i of Christchutch he was a member of the Provincial Executive which initiated the first railway and first electric telegraph in the Province.—(Hear, hear.) He had also been connected with the history of the Province from the first, and if returned he should do all he could to represent Kaiapoi and the Colony at large. As long as Kaiapoi stuck to him, he would stick to Kaiapoi.—(Hear, hear.) The present time was one of more peculiar importance than any other, because they were on the eve of a change of system. They had created provinces, eachoneperfectly independent in its mode and form of government, and they thus had established six or seven independent Powers, work'ng in opposite directions. Every province, too, came up year after year to the Colonial Legislature for permission to pledge the credit of the Colony for loans for all kinds of objects, and thus they became, as it were, dependent upon the State. They had a complex and duplex system of Government at work, which was most costly, and, though perhaps in times past it had done its work well, which no one would deny, he thought the characterisiics of the system were bad, and it was, in his opinion, one that could not Ions; exist. Indeed, so soon as the Immigration and Public Works policy wag accepted by the General Assembly, the first nail was driven into the coffin of Provincialism.—(Hear, hear.) He thought that the time had come when they should bring forward a National Policy — a policy which would tend to bring together interests now scattered so widely into one common whole. If they wanted local self-government, here it was for them in the highest form. They would, und^r the proposed system, whether the details were worked out with counties, shires, or in whatever form it resulted, have local self-govern-ment given to them, and he thought that this was what they wanted.—(Hear.) If Lord Dufferin, in a recent speech at Toronto, could heartily congratulate the great Dominion of Canada upon having get rid of local or Provincial prejudices, which were clogging the wheels of progress, and that the heart of the nation was allowed to throb and beat unitedly, how much more should they in JJew Zealand, congratulate themselves upon the establishment of a policy which would make them a nation indeed, united and compact, instead of a nation of divided parishes.—(Hear, hear.) It was, however, no light task which would be imposed upon Parliament at its next session, and perhaps it would not be completed in two. or even three, sessions. The Government, however, had pledged themselves to commence the alteration of the system at the North Island. There was no doubt ultimately that it must extend over the whole Islands, and it would be all the better when it did so.—(Hear, hear.) It was, however, in his opinion better to begin the revolution or change of system at an end where the work was wanted now, and \ not in those cases where the Provinces wer6 doing good work in furthering the public works of the Colony. Otago and Canterbury, the two great Provinces of the Middle Island, were doing this now, and he thought it was better that they should be allowed to carry out to an end what they had so usefully begun. When the Government did him the honour to ask him to join them in this work, he felt that for one who had taken a share in the public affairs of the Colony to weigh nicely personal interests was not right, and he had therefore felt honoured by auch a request. Besides this, he looked upon it that, in the present state of. things, it was much better that the South should be represented fully in the Government. Hence it was very desirable that anotVer Southern member should be added to the Cabinet.— (Hear.) What he wanted was to secure the progress of the Colony, as a whole—to make railways—to open up country for civilisation ; and this, he took it, was far better accomplished by one united self-governing natioD, rather than by the divided and scattered syetem of duplex and complex governments. —(Hear, hear.) There could be no doubt about the matter that this change would have to extend over both islands, and thus have the whole Colony under one system of Government. The North Island Provinces had, financially, come to an end. Not that they had got rid of all their land fund. Far from this, he believed they would have a better one than they now had by-and-bye, as they were spending theirs very fast. But they were coming to the Assembly session after session to scramble for money, and getting it; therefore it'was that he held it was right to begin where the Government proposed ;to';do. At the same | time he said this—that if any man believed solely in his province or parish and ignored the general interests of the Colony, all he could, say was that he had got his head into the provincial bag, and was going to ruinwith his eyes shut. It must be remembered that they in the south—especially in Otago and Canterbury—kad had their work to do under very exceptional circumstances, and there was a goed deal, to be considered in this way. But still there was no disguising the fact that sooner or later an extension of the system how proposed to be introduced, and the abolition of provincialism, would be general throughout all the Colony, and but one form of Government prevail in it. The real question after all to be considered in dealing with this matter was' the allocation of the land revenue. He was not going that evening. into all the intracacies of the scheme, whether it was better-to have shires, counties, or whatever form of Government might be proposed. That, as he had said, was a very.larpe question, and one which, would, take Parliament some time to consider. But, after all, it .really resolved i<self into a question of what was to be done with the Land Revenue. .Of course with regard to anything which, like this, came as it were from Heaven, there could not be any agreement as to the way in which it was to be spent. Now, to look at' this question fairly, they must go back to the pompact of 1856, which had been so ofren spoken of. In earlier days followers of Edward Gibbon Wake field held that land itself was of no value, and that it wns simply the means of communication which were estab Hshed that rendered it valuable. The NewZealand Company^ debt at this time was like' an' incubu's~bn the resources- of the Co-; loriy, and the South refused to pay any share towards it because they had derived no benefit from it whatever. Therefore the mat- ■ ter-came up in Assembly for discussion at the session in Auckland, and arrangements were made that each Province should be allowed to deal absolutely with land within their ownborders ; that they should have power vfco administer laws relating, to them, and also tti'-t the scrip of the New Zealand Company,! which had been left as a legacy on the landj should be allocated in the North Island Pro-' vinces only, and that £186 000 should be allocated for the formation of a land fund for

the purchase of lands from the Natives in the North Island. There -was, of course,' a great disparity in the way in which varies Provinces administered their land laws,fand the price charged for land. In Canterbury alone the land lawa had hot. been subject, to legislative tinkering,/and as it was probable that one land law would, be for the whole Colony, he thought it was quite possible that £2 per acre would bs considered a fair price. —(Hear, hear.) There were, however, a number of circumstances to be taken into consideration under the new system, whether they divided the Colony into shires or counties, or in whatever way they arranged it, he felt that the land revenues would be as fairly distributed as they were now under the territorial system which prevailed. (Cheers.) They would see from the sketch he had given that it was a very largequestion, and one which would occupy the attention of Parliament very largely during the session ; but while this was was the case he hoped that a number of. social questions which affected the well being of the community would not be neglected because this was a large political question to be discussed. Take, for instance, the Marriage Laws. He thought it was only right that these laws, which were so intimately connected with their domestic rel-iti'»ns, should be so codified and consolidated as that everyone should be able to understand them. Take, for instance, again, the Stamp Act, which, unfortunately, came home to them at almost every turn. He felt that this law particularly required codification and simp'ication, because the general public who are so much interested, knew nothing about it, and, indeed, it was a labyrinth even to lawyers. Then again there were offences which were offences on one side of a provincial border and not on the other. There was one point particularly which, a3 a Magisgistrate, as a Visiting Justice, and now as holding~the position of Minister of Justice, | was on his conscience, and that was the condition of the gaols of the Colony. He might say at once that the condition of the gaols of the Colony, despite what had been done to ameloriate the evils existing, were a disgrace to their civilisation. They could not perhaps realise what was meant when it was stated that in tlnir t>aols no means existed for classification of prisoners. It might perhaps, to many, seem strange when first offenders came before Magistrates or Judges they received what might seem to be very light sentences for serious offences. Well, he might say. that Judges and Magistrates who passed those sentences did so with the knowledge that if they passed sentence such as the offence merited it would send the prisoner to herd with hardened and habitual criminals, and he would come out of gaol far worse than he had gone in. This was a matter which rested very heavily upon his conscience, and he should take every means in his power during next session of the Assembly to see that this crying evil was remedied. In their Province much had been done to ameliorate the condition of their gaols, and he might say that His Honour the Superintendent had taken very great interest in the matter, and the erection of the gaol at Addington for female prisoners, and the classification there instituted had been productive of the most beneficial results.—(Hear, hear.) Still there remained a great deal to do throughout all the provinces, and he felt that nothing really could be done nntil long sentenced prisoners were drafted off into central penal establishments. —(Hear, hear.) He hoped next session to see a vote taken for the establishment of this.—(Hear, hear.) Another point npdn which general legislation was required was the education of the peopled In some parts of the Colony this was not attended to as it ought to be, or as the importance of the subject demanded,, and he should like to see a general system introduced. These were a few of the more prominent subjpcts with which he hoped to see the Assembly deal during its next session, notwithstanding the large question which they would have to deal with.—(Hear, hear.) Now he wished to say a word or two on the relations between the constituency and the member representing it. No one more fully recognised the duty which devolved upon a representative to look after and attend to the interests of the district he represented, but he also recognised the fact that he had duties to pertorm to the Colony as a whole, and he thought that perhaps in some cases it would be far better to allow matters to stay in abeyance rather than push them on when it was seen that their advocacy would not be attended with success. Fortunately, he believed Kaiapoi was in the happy position of being without a grievance ; at least he had not heard of one, except from Maoris, who complained that they had not had churches, or hospitals, or schools built; but he could promise them that he would lay the matter before Sir Donald M'Lean, who, from his long experience of the Maori race, would be enabled to go thoroughly into the subject. Personally, he was of opinion, that they should recognise the claims of the former possessors of the ground upon which they now sto >d.—(Heir, hear.) The speaker then alluded to some purely local matters, and answered several questions, to the: evident satisfaction of the numerous audience.

Vofe'S of thanks to Mr Bowen and the Ma3'or (who presided) were carried by acclamation, and the proceedings terminated.