WAIKOUAITI. MR. VOGEL AND HIS CONSTITUENTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 641, 12 March 1864, Page 6

WAIKOUAITI. MR. VOGEL AND HIS CONSTITUENTS.

(from thb daily times correspondent.) Ist March, 1864. Last evening advantage was taken of the visit cf Mr Yogel-rour representative in the Provincial Council» t -to this district, and a meeting was somewhat hastily convened at the Royal Hotel by he electors, . when local and provincial matters were discussed. Our M. P.O. gave an account of hip stewardship, and expressed his views on certain subjects relative to the district. About sixty persons were'present. John Orbell, E«q., J.P. was voted to the chair. Alter a few remarks as to the purpose of the meeting, he introduced Mr Vogel, who said he had not come over to Waikouaiti with the object of addressing hia constituents, but at their desire he had much pleasure in doing so. He would advert to the proceedings of the late gfe-sion of the Council. No doubt they had heard he had taken a prominent position ia some of the debates ; one that many^ persons had characterised as obstructive. But he had only performed what he believed to be his duty, and he hoped his constituents considered that he had done so— (hear, hezr). The financial position of the Prjvince was the -subject in which he had most interested himself. • It was one that demanded urgent attention, for owing to the incompetence of the Treasurer the financial affairs had got into a pretty mess. When the Treasurer came to make his Btateaient, no one in the House could make anything 1 out of it, The estimates were a jumbled masß of items. Several different loans and the current revenue were mixed up together, and the charges placed indiscriminately against them. He deemed it his duty to move that the estimates be reconstructed. The Treasurer said he would not reconstruct them and resigned. He however attempted again to resunieoffice under the shadow of amessagefromthe Superintendent. But the House resisted such sn unconstitutional practice, and a diract vote turned the Government out. The new Treasurer, he believed, had done a great deal to improve matters, and he was given to understand that the whole system of the department was reformed. Still it was not to be supposed that the Province could easily recover the effects of past mismanagement. It was now that these effects were beginning to be felt, and 1 much of the dulness of which they heard so much was the consequence of past financial mismanagement Owing to the unwarrantable delay in negotiating the various loans the Province would lose an immense amount, probably 150,000. Had they been negotiated wh<jn authorised they would have fetched heavy premiums; but now, in consequence of the War, the tightness of the money market, and the large number of New Zealand loans in the market, they would fetch little, if anything, over par. Meanwhile, the delay in eellinjr thtm necessitated a large overdraft, and on this, heavy interest had to-be paid. Again, the lands were being forced into the market at a peculiarly unsuitable time. Every one knew that this was done to obtain money ; the price would be" affected by the dullness of the period, as also by the Bale of large quantities at one time'; tad not only would this cause a direct loss to the Province, but it would affect the value of all properly, and injure the position of many. Again, when Banks have to grant extensive overdrafts to Government they cannot afford to' accommodate their private customer to the extent they otherwise would be able to do, and every individual in the community felt the pressure. Thus the mismanagement of the past had left widely ramified evils behind it. He waa exceedingly Borry to find that the prognostications he had ventured on last session bad so largely proved true. Many who then grumbled with him for occupying the time of the House with financial discussions, would see that there was only too much necessity for them. He would not hold out the cope that all these evils could at once be met, but he had no doubt in the coming sea3ion a comprehensive policy would be adopted which would bear salutary fruit, and tend to the relief of the difficulties under which the Province labored. In the land discussions he had taken a considerable part, but was not with the majority. Strange to say, the views of several gentlemen changed much when they were in the Assembly at Auckland, and the Council would be unable to recognise in the Land Bills as passed the resolutions upon which they were ostensibly founded. The new Land Acts, with the exception of the improvement clauses, embodied substantially the views he had expressed in the Council. He felt certain the improvement clauseß would soon be repealed. Their real operation was to make the Province give a pound an acre bonus to those who spent two pounds an acre in improvements. The province could not aflord to continue this, and then the upset pnee would have to be raised to 12. Meanwhile, whatever the loss to the State, there could be no question, great opportunities were offered to the fortunate inhabitants in the power of freely selecting land at LI an acre, whilst in Canterbury and Southland, the price was L 2. He would now touch upon loral subjects. It was said that the member for Waikouaiti had gained so little the fevor of; the members of the Council, that to spite Mm they would grudge votes for the place He represented. Such however, was not the case. The members of the Council would not sacrifice their duty to their feelings, and attempted no retaliation of the kind. They voted what they considered fair amounts for the roads in and about Waikouaiti. He was sorry the sum voted for the road through the town had not proved sufficient. All was granted that was asked, and doubtless the Council would authorise the necessary expenditure to complete the work. In regard to the Jetty, he believed the Marine Surveyor had been on the spot and had reported the result of his examination. He had not eeeo tha report He presumed the Council would sot hesitate to give effect to whatever recommendation the Engmeerthought it advisable to make. He could tell them little as to the programme of the coming session He believed that noting on the recommendation of a Oimmigsion which had been appointed, the Government would propose the uudertaKing of extensive public works, especially of railways to open up the country. He could only 1 say that £tich a policy would have bis warty support Ho hopetf also that some attention wcrtiW be given to the existing relation! between the Province and merest of the colony. Trhe present system was luinous to Otsgo. For •very pound of general revenue it oontributed ttgot bsck about nine shillings; the rest went to ooloniM, to govern, and to benefit the northern Island. The three millions loin would entail another £80,000 a-year eo»t to Otago, and «oa & swallow up nearly the whole of the tar-

plus revenue now enjoyed by it. If such a condition of affairs were permitted to continue Otago would be ruined by the heavy taxes that would have to be imposed on its inhabitants, He trusted the Council would take the matter up, and insist upon a change in the existing relations between the Province and the North Island. In regard

to the Education question, which he was told was exciting a great deal of local attention, he would not refer to one part of it, the election of the committee. Whilst the Ordinance existed, it must be put in force, and it was the fault of the inhabitants if they did not take the means to elect a committee which commanded their confidence. But he would refer to the Ordinance itself, and he would say that he disapproved of the principle which it embodied. The Ordinance did not do so much, to promote education as to save persons who could afford it, from the expense of educating their children. In fact they were having education pauperised, and legitimate competition in educational pursuits crushed down. Take that place for instance. If it was not for the system employed, would there not be more than one school at Waikouaiti 1 ] would not parents have a choice of schools to j which to Bend their children 1 The present system would perhaps make education general, but the standard would be low. He believpd in the state educating children whose parents could not afford it, but not in saving those who could afford it an expense they ought to be delighted to incur. Instead, therefore, of the local rate system he would advocate the State making a yearly grant out of the revenue, to be carefully expended in the way indicated. After some further remarks on tha same subject, Mr Vogel concluded his address, which lasted about an hour.

Mr Whinam questioned Mr Vogel closely in regard to the Education Ordinance. In reply Mr Vogel said he would move resolutions in the Council embodying his views, and if they were carried it would be for the Government to give effect to them. He could not touch upon the question of the committee, but he repeated he disapproved of the system the Ordinance embodied.

Mr Whinam asked if he were ia favor of the Railways being made by Government or by private entftrprise. Ms Vogeii found a difficulty in answering the question positively, unftl he was in possession of the coinmiTsioiiers' report. He believed that Railways should be made by private enterprise if possible, but was afraid it could not be done here at present, and rather than be without them, he considered the Government should construct them and when finished perhaps dispose of them. It was an old maxim that the " country made the Railways and the Railways made the country." In answer to further questions he stated that borrowed money would be required to pay for their construction, but they must not forget the enhancement in the value of land, and the saving to consumers in the reduction of the price of carriage which followed the construction of Railways.

Mr Whinam moved— " That our member deserves a vote of thanks for his exertions in behalf of Waikouaiti during the late Session of the Provincial Council."

Mr Bates seconded the motion, which was carried amidst much cheering. Mr Voobl returned thanks for the patient hearing they had given him, and was sure that some of the subjects he had touched on were rather dull and must have taxeJ their patience. — He hoped he should never be on worse terms with his constituents than at the present time.

Havine; passed a vote of thanks to the chairman, the meeting separated, apparently highly satisfied with their representative, March 6th, 1864.

Is it nossible to persuade the Chief Postmaster to send us a daily mail instead of a tri-weekly ] the additional expense, we imagine, would be very small, for coaches are continually running daily, and for a very trifling subsidy Cobb and Co. we are sure would undertake the conveyance of the mail. If it answers to run the coaches to Tokomairiro twice a day, it undoubtedly would, if a small bonus was added, pay them to put a daily one on this line. With the present system, letters and newspapers posted on Friday morning do not arrive here until Monday. At Tokomairiro, where the population scarcely exceeds that of this district, a daily communication has been established, and before long we expect to hear of their receiving their despatches from town every morning and evening. We poor Northerners, who, because we take everything as it comes ana are supposed to wait like contented subjects until we are asked if we would like so and so, are quietly put off with a mail three times a week, at a^ distance of only twenty-eight miles from the city. It is true that when the communication was weekly we considered ourselves fortunate to haye it trebled, but as the business and populalation of the place increase we find the necessity of again requesting that arrangements be made for its being daily. There are loud complaints that such distinction is made between the North and South, and the inhabitants are, until Mr Ban alters the system, petitioning the proprietors of tbe newspapers to forward them by the coach on the morning it leaves town instead of posting them, so that we may receive the news of the same day rather than that of the preceding one. Would it not also be very easy to keep the mail bags open until the hour of leaving town. It will scarcely bs believed that a man walks from Dunedin carrying letters and newspapers on the days that the mail does not arrive ; as soon as he reaches here a great rush is made for the news of the day, and papers are disposed of at diggings' prices. If it is necessary to memorialise the Chief Postmaster we will do so, but we conceive it must be obvious to that gentlemen that, an increase of the postal communication with Dunedin is meat important, and, I may add, actually necessary. During the week, Mr Moorhouse has vaccinated three or tcur hundred head of cattle at Cherry Farm, the property of Mr Jones and one or two others ; they seem to be going on favorably, and we hope the result will prove a success, *lany are very sceptical as to the operation being a preventive against the dleease ; everyone has an opinion, some recommending its adoption with imported, and not Provincial bred cattle. Others say that it is better to' do both ; the latter, if we refer to higher authorities, is considered the safest plan, and the only security we have to prevent the disease spreading. However this may be, felne 1083 incur* a very small per centage ; and if the operation is skilfully performed, has always been productive of good. Upon such evidence, I believe few will hesitate to have their cattle done without delay. One of the lots operated upoa by Mr Moorhouse, is a mob reported by Mr , Bosh., to be infected, and owned by Mr Hep-

burn. Since the outbreak of the disease, I have not heard of a single beast dying in this district, but the cause of death has been attributed to the pleuro-pneumonia ; if a beast has even an unnatural looking spot upon its lungs, everyone seems to believe that it must be pleuro, without even a thought that there are other lung diseases which might destroy the animal. There is always a certain mortality among cattle, as in sheep, horses, and all stock. If the number of deaths could be ascertained that have occurred since the appearance of the pleuro-pneumonia in Otago, I do not believe they would exceed the usual quantity in the same space of time. Our enemy (the Tutu) may now commit its ravages with impunity— no one for a moment suspecting losses from this plant. Many do not hesitate to say that half the deaths ropcrted here from the pleuro have been occasioned by other disorders common to cattle ; and, withouc doubt are correct in their statement.

On tho 3rd instant, Wardens for the Hawksbury Hundred were elected. There was some | opposition, which terminated in the election of , Messrs Eennard, Mitchell, and Henderson. A discussion took place as to sheep being allowed to run within the Hundred. The Wardens, immediately upon their appointment objected to a flock being depastured on a portion cf country said to be beyond the boundary — a dispute very easily settled by reference to the map. In a large disttict like this it is certainly very bad policy on the part of the Wardens to quibble over a small piece of land, though it may be on, or even within the limit of the Hundred. The presence of Wardens haa been long desired in this neighborhood for the protection of stock, and we hope that in fulfilling their duties they will cast all personal feelings aside and allow discretion to play a prominent part.

The tides have been unusually high this week, se much so that Mr Smith's store at the Spit has been entirely destroyed, and the one formerly known as Cargill's store has been abandoned. These buildings were erected on the sand and much too near the channel of the river, also at a bend where the current, is always moot strong. Mr Smith's loss is estimated at abouf LIOO.