THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ELECTION.

Otago Witness, Issue 1162, 7 March 1874, Page 2

THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ELECTION.

The nomination of candidates for the seat in the Provincial Council rendered vacant by the i resignation of Mr J . Bathgate, took place at noon . on Moudny, in the presence of aboufcjone hundred 1 electors. At the hour appointed, the Beturning- . Officer, Mr W. P. Street, appeared on the terl race in front of the Provincial Government Buildings, in "Water street, and read the writ [ afterwards calling for nominations. [ Mr C. 11. Chapman was proposed by Mr E. J. ; Sanders, seconded by Mr J. M'Giegor. Mr Barnard Isaac was proposed by Mr W. . M'Laren, beconded.by Mr D. Sampson. i Mr C. S. Reeves wis proposed by Mr G. F. ' Reid, seconded by Mr \V. Gieig. ' Mr E. B. Ciirqill w,is proposed by Mr James Robin, seconded by Mr J. Mollisou. The Retuining-Offieer then read the nominations, and called upon the candidates to address ■ electors present. Each candidate made a short speech, and the form of taking a show of hands was then gone through. TJin Returmng-Ofiiccr's record showed that oo hands were held up for Mr O.irgill, V.) for Mr Reeves, smd i eacli for Messrs Chapman a - id Isine. Mr Isaac formally demanded ;i poll, and the Retuining-Officpr announced that one would be taken on Friday, the (sth iiibtaut. This ended the pioceeding.s. MB U. It. CHAPMAN'S MEETING. Mr C. 11. Chapman addressed the electors at the Masonic Hall last night. There were about 250 persons present, and His Worship the Mayor was called upon to occupy the choir. Mr C. 11. Chapman was received with applause. He said they were no doubt all well aware of the purpose for which they had been called together — to hear an address from him with regard to his political views upon Ins seeking a position as a member of the Provincial Council, in coming forward he suffered from several disadvantages that his opponents wore free from. This was his first appearance, and consequently he was not so well known, and his opinions were not so well known as his opponents'. He was no doubt young, but lie h.ul a very good idea in regard to the political afhihs of Ihc Province, and he had taken a good deal of interest in thnni for tho last fow months. They would have observed by his card that lie came before them as an intlopendent member— that was, he was not backed up by any political clique or party. Two of the candidates who had been nominated that day were, from his idea of them, party candidates'. They wished to go into tho Council to fisdit certain persons they called their opponents. One of tlu so gentlemen was backed up principally by the Hi|uattt:is, and could not from that reason be called an independent candidate. He was the only independent candidate befoie them — the true representative of the people.— (Laughter nnd applause.) There was uothing particular to speak of now, with regard topolifcioalaffairs. There were .several parties who were fighting for billets, and one was the Reid party, aud the other the Maciudiew party. The Jleid party got beaten sonic time ago by a Liige majority, and after this fin K.vocutive was fornu'il from the two parties. This Executive was now in office To all appearance 1 it was now getting on very well, and tho Province appeared to bo prospeiiug in its hands. He did not believe in croakers. Ho belonged to what were called the progressionists. Ho did not boliove in kouping in the sa:no grooves ; he belioved in looking to what ohhur nations wore doing, aud taking an example from them, He believed in tho —(interruptions)— great Vogel Hchomo of public works and immigration ; but ho did not entirolv agree Avith it ; ib was oyordone in pom* parfcioulwb. The railways were good. for

opening up the country ; but they were going a little too far with them now. They were conI struoting lines which could not possibly pay interest upon the money borrowed. Many of these lines would, no doubt, pay- such, for instance, as the Clutha Line and the Northern Line. Still, there were others which had, he might say, no terminus, and he could not see how thpy would pay. The Government was not to blame for this ; he believed the people themselves were to blame for it. — (Interruptions and laughter.) The Chairman : Well, gentlemen, if you would really allow Mr Chapman to get on with his subject. It is the first time he hns been on the platform, and 1 think we ought to give him a, little indulgence. — (Laughter.) Mr Chapman : Perhaps it serves the purposes well of a few disappointed politicians to say that the Government was to blame in this matter, but he would say that the Government was not to blame, but the force which was brought to bear on them from many districts, and which they could not resist. He should now go on;o immigration. The immigration scheme for n time was not carried out well, but latterly it was looking up. In fact, since Mr Vogel himself put his shoulder to the wheel— (interruptions and laughter)— the immigration scheme had been progressing and looking better, and immigrants had been coming in in greater numbers, than before. He had no doubt that were Mr Yogel Immigration Agei:t fit home, he would cause immigrants to come hero in such numbers that we would not know what to do with them. Ho should now refer to the land laws, and especially to the selling of land in large blocks. This matter had caused a great deal of discussion in our Provincial Council for some time past. He did not believe in the sale of land in large blocks, and was always opposed to it. The selling of land in large blocks caused a loss to the State, us jit was so sold at too low a price. In fact, from calculations he hnd made he had found that by selling land in large blocks at least £2 12s an acre was lost to the State. By selling it in large blocks there was got the price of only 18s per acre, whereas if sold in small areas, it would bring £3 10s. He believed in submitting the land to competition, and not letting the laud monopolist come in and get an unfair way in a block of 10,000 or 20,000 acres, as had been done lately. The experiment of selling laud oil deferred payments had been working very well ; he believed it was only a trial, and to all appearances worked well. But he believed if much more land were open for sale it would be picked up as eagerly as it had been lately. The present Waste Lands Board had put a stop very much to the selling of land in large blocks, ns they were entirely against such sales. Some might say, " What about the Marewhenua block ''." but he would say that the Waste Lands Board could hardly get out of that difficulty. The action of the Executive with the Hon. Mr Campbell in regard to the sale of this block of land - (interruption) — was such that the Board could scarcely get out of the sale without making themselves liable to an action at law. — (Interruption.) Hather than go to law and risk the consequences they thought it better to lot Mr Campbell have the laud, and say uo move about it. They had hcaul a great denl said about this matter, but all that had been s.u'd came to nothing. From the land laws lie would now proceed to a matter which came nearer to them as citizens of Dimedin. namely- -the tolls. He thought that all the toll-bars should be removed to si distance of two miles farther from the city at least.— (Confusion and laughter.) He had been in all the I principal towns of the Colony, and in none of them except Dunedin had ho seen a toll-bar at the town boundary. He thought some nioie equitahlo mode of raising money could be devised for the maintenance of roads than placing a toll on pas^ei s-by. With regard to the Town Belt, he should be in favour of getting a vote of .several thousand pounds from the Goveinment, with the object of impioving the Bolt. He thought it was a disgrace to a city like Dunedin, the first city in New Zealand, to have the Belt surrounding it in the disgraceful st.ite in which it was in at present. In fact, it was nothing more than a —(confusion)— nothing more than a walk for hoids of wild c.ittle. As to the Harbour improvement : This was a matter which was likely to come before thp Provincial Council at the next session. Ho would he in favour of some sort of work being carried out towards the improvement of the Harbour, say the dredging of a channel to Dunedin, to allow of vessels of largo tonnage to coma up to the city; at the sametime they should not forgot that such an undertaking as that was would cost a vast amount of money. It might, in the first place, cost £200,000, or £300,000, to construct a channel, and in the next, an enormous sum would have to be laid out annunlly to kepp it open. Now the question was, would it pay to carry out such, un improvement ? and before advocating any decisive step in the matter, he should like to see the report which was now being prepared by a Committee on the subject. Me should like to see the Harbour placed in the hands of a Trust— he thought it could be managed much better by a Trust than by the Government. Ho now c.uno to the vexed question of the High School. He was not in favour of doing away with it as some peoplo had from time to time boon proposing. He would rather be in favour of altering the management. There was uo doubt something wrong in regard to the school somewhere ; he thought a great deal of that arose with the people, themselves. He wits not in favour of having it removed to the Rectory as hud boon proposed, and he was one of those who a few months ago took a decided stand against the removal. He thought oven if the school were abolished, there should still bo some school intermediate between tho district schools and the University. Ho thought it would be unwise to do away with the High School entirely. He was now coming to a subject which would before long — (interruption)- show itself of far more importance than it did at the present time. He referred to tho destruction of the forests all over the Province. - (Laughter ) They very seldom heard of this destruction of tho forests, nud tho only occasion they honvrt of it \vi\s when there wns dome destructive fiie. But ho would sny that theso forests wero destroyed wholesale from diiy to day by sawyors, wood- cutters, settlersj iuul destructive fives caused by cnreleshnesa— (interruption, noises of various sorts, iticiuding un imitation of cocks crowing.) As things wore now, forests were opun to the destructive Inmd. - (Laughter aud confusion,) The Chairman : Allow Mr Chapman to go on. I think ho has douo very well. — (Great con« \ision.) At this juncture pome dogs in the ball were en«

couraged to bark, and a regulatftdog-fight was got up. Tho audience all rose and turned in the direction of the fighting dogs. The Chairman, who had left the chair and come to the front of the stage, when he made his appeal for order, stood there still, mute, and apparently amazed at what was going on ; and the candidate, from whom attention was diverted for a time, innocently asked him " What's up?" Finally, attention having beeu diverted from the dogs to the plattorm,

The Chairman : What you have heard from Mr Chapman has been very interesting indeed. — (Great laughter.) He may be able to finish his speech by you asking him questions. JYlr Chapman, who was encouraged by cries to go on : He could not see the occasion for all this great row. — {Order, outer ; speak up.) Here a little scene occurred. Mr Bayliss, who occupied the chair on the platform, got a second chair up, and began to call on some one behind the scenes to come up and occupy it. Mr (JHAi'MAN : I have not much moro to say. —(Confusion.) The Chairman : It would be well for you to hear Mr Chapman. Those taking part in political matters should see our young men and the vising generation come out. Mr Chapman : The preservation or destruction of the forests was a question which did not appear to interest them much, but it was one which before many years it would bo to their interest to hear. But at the present time he should pass it over, at the pi esent time they hud jio laws in force for the preservation of their forests.— -(A Voick : Yes, we have.) We h.id laws for tho preservation of wild ducks and wild animals, while they had uo laws for preserving their foiests. Wild ducks multiplied rapidly in the course of a few yeais, but it took tens, and perhaps hundreds, of years to bring forests mto existence. They must either pioteot these forests, or if they did not protect them some means must be devised whereby new forests would be planted. — (Interruption.) As to the City Council borrowing, he believed a discussion arose in ithe City Council | the other day with regard to extending the City Council's borrowing powers, in order to allow of the carrying out of works in the city. Now he was in favour of allowing the City Council to extend its borrowing powers.— (Disturbance.— Mr John JJajines, in au emphatic tone : Order.) Ha should be in favour ot allowing the Corporation to borrow £1.80, 000 for the purposes of drainage and the purchase of the Water Woiks, tho making and grading of the streets to the permanent level, and for the purpose of improving the Town Belt.

At this stage an interruption occurred, and Mr Chapman stated it was liis intention to make himself as shoit as possible. Mr Chapman then went on to refer to the franchise, which he thought should be altered and extended. The Constitution was twenty-two years old, and was found to be defective. — (A Voice : You're getting mixed tip. ) —He was in favour of having the franchise extended to unniarried females. — (Uproarious laughter.) Although he did uot agree with women's rights, he was in favour of having the privilege of the franchise extended to them.

A Voick : Question,

Are 'you in favour of establishing State soap woi ks V - It would be unfair to the present soap manufacturers to do so. — (Laughter, i Are you in favour of fencing in the Town Bolt, for the protection of young women ?—lt? — It is a matter which it would be impossible to do.

Mr Sheuwin : I would like to ask, after Mr Chapman's lucid statement of what he has done in the past, and will do in tho future, whether he willgivo us his ideas on the domestic policy of the ancient Peruvians?— (Laughter.)— lt is a question which is entirely beyond my comprehension.- (Great laughter.)

Would you be in favour of tho compulsory introduction of earth closets ? —That is entirely a question for the City Council. Are you id favour of earthquakes ?— The candidate did not reply. Mr M'Gregoh, Princes street, rose to move a vote of confidence in Mr Chapman. Mr Chapman was but a youngster yet, aud if he did not roll out his words with the volubility that some of them could, yet he was capable of thinking. Mr M'Gregor, great confusion ensuing, was obliged to desist speaking. The motion found no seconder.

The Chairman would second the motion. He then put the motiou. A couple of hands were held up for and a couple against, and the Chairman, amidst much laughter, remarked, " I think the motion has got it." Mr Chapman returned thanks for the large attendance. They had been trying to interrupt him, but they were not aware that when they interrupted him they were only causing him to have more confidence in himself. At the same time, he hoped that they, on Friday next, would place him at the head of the poll, or, at any rate, in such a position that he should have some pleasure in coming: before them again. — (Laughter. ) Ho then moved a vote of thanks to the Chairman.

Mr Baymss seconded the motion, and Mr Chapman's meeting terminated.

Jilt C. 8. REEVES'.S MEETING,

At the conclusion of Mr Chapman's address to the electors, Mr C. 3. Reeves held a meeting in the Masonic Hall — the room being full. The Mayor (Mr Mercer) was called upon to take the chair.

Mr C, S. Reeves, who was received with applause, said that after the eloquent and ex : haustive speech which he had no doubt they had just heard, he would consult their convenience by making his address as brief as possible. He hoped he would be able to keep them in the samegood temper thatMr Chapuianhad evidently done. Mr Reeves then stated* his reasons for coining forward, as stated at his nomination in the morning, and said that thoso who knew the position of matters at the last election were aware that he then worked under very adverse ciioumstarices. One party that should have supported him did not do so, but this time he hud au assurance of their support, and aKo tho support of many electors who opposed him before. That day he had boon rcquosted by some of Mr Cargill's friends not to come forward, as he would entail upon that gentleman a certain amount of tr.mblo and expense. PTe knew in name Mr Cargill was somewhat powerful, and ho (Mr Reeves) had felt a certain amount of temerity in comingforward at the present time. Mr Cargill had been connected with the Prorince from its infancy — ut its birth, and luring its growth, and wns of course entitled to great respect. He had been elected three or

four times to the Provincial Council, but who knew that lie (Mr Beeves) might not be elected this time ? He had no name in connection with the previous history of the Province to refer to, but he had the interests of tho Province quite as much at heart as Mr Cargill had, and feeling his suce;ess was almost certain, he would do all he co\Ud to be returned. — ( Applause. ) The state of poli tics in the Provinceat the presenttime might be said to be almost one-sided raid quiescent. A few yeaisago, they would recollect, there were two distinct parties, but now it appeared to him that they had merged into one party, which only desired to see the Colony progress from north to south. There was no doubt that the Colony had progressed wonderfully, and when they considered what its position was when the Public Works and the Iminigiation system at present in force were first brought forward by Mr Vogel, they must wonder how any men of common sense could have opposed him in these schemes. We were told then that the country was to be ruined because we were to get a few millions in debt ; but this was, in his opinion, the most absurd opinion that anyone could hold. He believed there was no such country under the .sun as New Zealand, so far as climate and natural resources went, and to think that we would be ruined by involving ourselves in debt for reproductive works and developing the resources of the country was absurd. Mr Vogel, in a speech that he delivered here a few nights ago, said that before the

whole of the lonn of £13,000,000 was expended, we should haye nearly 800 miles of railway in Nuw Zealand. Let them just imagine that we would have this length of line before the £13.000,000 was expended, and think of the state the Colony would be in then compared with its condition at the present time. We could see the growth of Dunedin of late, and this just showed what the growth of tho whole Colony will be before tins money is all expended. Then, they must remember the number of ways in which those lailways were reproductive. 'J'hey could not take the benefit they got from the railways into an ordinary profit and loss account in the same manner as they would any ordinary business transaction. If they [ showed an actual loss on the account, we might still at the same time have a great positive gain, and an apparent loss would in reality bo no loss at all. In the working of the Main Trunk Line, the Province was to some extent entrusted with the management, and it was necessary for the Province if the railways were to bo the .success we all, he was sure, wished to see them, to have connected with the main lines, branches and feeders. He was happy to hear that it was the intention of the present Provincial Government to recommend the Council to construct different branches to the mainlines. This was a matter that would benefit the Province, and would have the effect of bringing all the outlying districts in connection with the city and the seaboard. If this was done, we should have coal at a much lower rate, and the Shag Point coal, for steam purposes, was, they knew, nearly equal to the best Newcastle. When we had these bianch lines, and coal could be brought to the seaboard, the ncean-gning steamers might be induced to stop at Port Chalmers for the purpose of coaling. There was one line, the construction of which he would have stopDed if he could have done so, and that was the Port Chalmers line. We appear to have, to a great extent, lost sight of the necessity of having our harbour deepened, and thid was one of the things that would fir.st be noticed by strangers who came here. Had tho money the Port Chalmers railway cost been expended in deepening the Harbour a railway would not have been required. Before the railway was commenced, had this matter of deepening the Harbour been taken up, we might have had docks at Dunedin large enough to tloat the largest vessel that now rode at anchor at Port Chalmers. On the principle of " better late than never," it was now pioposed to have a Harbour Trust appointed, and to endow them with a certain amount of land for the purposes of revenue. He thought that if this was done, and the work carried on energetically for a few years, we should see the largest .ships come up to Dunedin. In Newcastle-on-the-Tyne and on the Clyde they did more with one of their dredges in one weak than we did here in three months ; aud when we looked at what had been done there, we should expect .similar results here, and not for one moment imagine it impossible. Some hundred years ago the river Clyde was fordable ac places where the largest ships now float, and therefore he advocated the appointment of a Harbour Trust. With regard to Immigration, theie was no doubt that nothing could make a country great except population. Upon the same principle that as the present population had increased the price of land in Dunedin during the last 20 years, so would its value increase during the next twenty years, so long as we had population increasing. The people made a country, and while we had a country that would support them, it was only doing an act of kindness to ask others to come here and share the benefits that we enjoyed. We had a good deal to thank Captain Cook for, in discovering; for us such a grand country. There was also great honour duo to the enterprising Scotchmen who first peopled this place. — (Hear, hear.) Speaking of Scotchmen, he mu>ht say that he was taken for one himself a few days before. — (Laughter. ) And this reminded him of a witticism of Dr Johnson's, in tho last century, when he said that much might bo mado of a Scotchman if he were caught young.— (Laughter.) Some of those who were hero must have been caught young, and great credit was due to them for coming here and founding this Colony. Their worthy Mayor being one of them. — (Plear, hear.) The nominated system of immigration works well, and although latterly some of the ships had arrived hore in an unhealthy condition, perhaps this was not so much due to neglect or the carelessness of the Colonial authorities, but was tho will of tho Almighty ; and it is to be sincerely hoped the immigration scheme will not be retarded owiug to the sickness we have had. It had been said that the Mongol when she left homo had sick immigrants on board, but he dared say that this would all bo explained in some satisfactory manner. He hoped, however, that wo should have uo more vessels arriving here in a similar condition. It was proposed to endow Athenaeums and Mechanics' Institutes with grunts of land, and he thought this an excellent proposal, not so much from tho value of the land now, as from what its vnlue would bo in the future. There was nothing tended to elevate the intellect of a man so much as taking advantage of the opportunities offered by froe libraries and Athenaeums.— (Hear, hear. ) There were a number of matters ho wished to touch upon, but he did not wish to exhaust

their patience. With regard to the present franchise for the election of members for the Piovincial Council and the General Assembly, lie might say that he thought it absurd. Itgave him great pleasure to notice in a telegram of a speech lately delivered by the Premier that the present Government proposed to introduce a measure giving manhood suffrage during the next session of Parliament. — (Hear, hear.) This was, in his opinion, a step in the right direction. We had arrived here, many of us, with very little, and wealth was simply a question often of chance. When a, man came to a country like this, where we all ' ome upon common ground, he thought manhood suffrage right and proper, and he was gliwl to see th.it the Premier intended to deal with the matter. la speaking of immigration we had this to bear in mind. Jt appeared evident that the flood of population had commenced, and from what we heard from home there would ne no difficulty in getting immigrant!) for this country. From the latest accounts from the United States it also appeared probable that we should find a large inflow of population from Amenc-a . It was an ascertained truth that the people were returning in great numbers from America to Great Britain, and there was no doubt that a great mauy would find their way here. If we did not, however, offer inducements to the people to stay here, we would lose our population quite as fast as we were now gaining it, and he must say that to his mind the land laws of the present time seemed inadequate. The great object should be£to allow the people to acquire land easily, fairly and reasonably. There was a fine block of land sold the other day by tho Government, and it was purchased by the squatter upon whose station it was. Now, I ask, what chance would any man who landed here with £300 or ,•6OOO in his pocket — and this was more than many British farmers land with— have to compete with a man like Captain M'Kenzie, who was the purchaser of the land he had just referred to. He was of opinion himself that if we were to get settlement in the country the system of deferred payments should be extended to all the agricultural land in the Province. This should be guarded by residential conditions, and there should be some rule as to maximum .amount of land to be purchased by | each individual. .Such a plan as this had been carried out in Victoria for some years. Twenty years ago there the cry was "land for the people," and if we had people here and no land for them, where was our chance of progress or permanent prosperity? Jf the pick of the land was allowed to be purchased by capitalists there would be very little chance of hardworking men acquiring property and a home in this counfay. Pie did not raise this as a party cry. Every candidate would tell them that lie was in favour of a liberal land law. They all had their private interests, more or less. When, some years ago, Mr Clarke purchased thousands of acres of land here in one block, it was then said that the eyes were picked out of the country. But we had hundreds of thousands of acres of good land to be taken up yet, and it behoved us to see that it was taken care of. If they wanted to see what the monopoly of the land was, they could go to the neigh boui hood of O.unaru, and there they would see sheen and cattle running on thousands of acres of land, where farmers imd farmers' wives and fftmilies should be settled and prospering. The power in a democratic country was in the hands of the people, and by-am l-bye it would come that tliuie -would be a land tax : but we found in the Legislative Council of tho Colony the capitalists and squatting interest largely predominated, and was dangerously powerful. In conclusion, he had only to say that he had now come fonv.u-rt four times to endeavour to represent thorn in the Provincial Council. He did not do so with a selfish motive. He felt that lie had the itch for public life, and although this was his fourth attempt, it would not be his last even if he were not elected. —(Applause.) He believe I in perseverance. It would overcoino ail obstacles, and perseverance would yet elect him to the Provincial Council. — (Hear, hear.) He had no family history connected with the Province to look back upon, but he hoped he would live long enough in this Province to obtain the honour and esteem of his fellow-colonists : at all events, it would always be his anxious endeavour in the future, as it had been in the past, to do so. He trusted that on next .Friday lie , would be favoured with those who supported him at the last election, and those who had since promised to support him now. He would endeavour, if elected, to carry out his viows on public matters faithfully, and to do his best for their interests. — (Applause.) In answer to questions, Mr Reeves said that the -subject of education was one winch he approached with great diffidence. Ifc had distracted the minds of tho greatest statesmen ; therefore, it was not for him, a young politician, to bo dogmatic concerning it. Personally, he was in favour of a purely secular system; but as there aie mauy independent schools now being established by diffoient religious sects, lie would be willing to consider any plan that might be devised of assisting said schools, if such can be done without injustice to the community at large. He so much believed in a secular education, that ho would not have a word of religion read in .schools. He had thought a good deal of the question as to whether the State should ever part with their right to the land, which should only be leased. Tho idea was a grand one, but he looked upon it as somowhfi,t Utopian. In a new country like this the fee simplo of the land might never have been parted with, and the small rout at which it could have been leased would no doubt have ptoduced a eood revenue, and have prevented a grc.it deal of taxation, and would have beeu a good thing; but lie did not see how it could be dono now. If libraries and athenaeums were endowed he was in favour of their committees being compelled to keep them opon free to the public for two or throe nights a week. He hoped tho time would come when wo should have a free library here that we could bo proud of. Pie approved of tho system of nominated immigration, but ho would not do away with free immigration. With respect to the High School, ho was of opinion that it should bo made more democratic in i's character.

Mr Millak moved that Mr 0. S. Reeves was a fit and proper person to represent the citizens in the Council.

Mr Rossbottoji seconded the resolution, which was put and carried unanimously. Mr .Reeves returnod tlwnks, and said that their vote of confidence gave him great gratification.

The meeting closed with a vote of tha ks to the Chairman.

ME BARXARD ISAAC'S MEETING. Between 30 and 40 electors attended at the Oddfellows' Hall last evening, to hear the address of Mr Barnard Isaac, a candidate for the vacant scat in the Provincial Council

Mr Worthington occupied the chair, and in introducing the candidate to the meeting, stated that he had closely watched Mr Isaac's career for a lengthened period, and found that he took great interest in the land laws of the Province.

Ma Baknakd Isaac, who was recoived with appLiuse, said that at the request of many of his fellow citizens, he was present to ask them to elect him to the Provincial Council. He had great pleasure in offering himself for election, and after hearing hi 3 address he believed he would have convinced them that his interest in the future of the Province was extensive, and he ■ would do his best to make it a prosperous and happy country. — (Applause.) What they chiefly wanted was a liberal land law. He had taken au active interest in the land laws question some ! years ago in Victoria. He thought the question was one of vital importance, and for that reason he came forward as a candidate to represent them. Several of the other candidates would be willing to dispose of the land in large quantities. He especially alluded to Mr E. B. Cargill, who was personally interested in the squatters. Mr John Cargill had disposed of 20,000 *cres of land in the Teviot district, and it would also be to his brother's interest to sell land in that manner. He (the speaker) had stated about two years ago, in the old Masonic Hall, that the land question was of infinitely more importance than any subject specially relating to their <% merchant princes." He would warn them to be cautious of Mr E. B. Cargill, though he did not wish to deal in personalities. The speaker could have raised himself into a very different position if he had listened to the proposals of those who were in favour of selling the land in large blocks. We must hold the land for the people to settle upon and improve. He was not aware of the other candidates' opinions upon this important question, but he would strongly advise the electors not to return any person who would only look after the squatters' interests. Look at the proceedings of the last Provincial Council, especially with regard to the sale of land in the Oamaru district. Though some ste]js were taken to stop the sale by laying the matter before the Waste Lands Board, that body actually confirmed the sale. Upon hearing this intelligence he became so excited that he ran out to sec if he couid meet any of his friends, and he met Major Richardson. That gentleman, learning the ijroceedings, expressed great surprise, and immediately went to the meeting of the Waste Lands Board to ascertain if the sale of the Maiewhenua Block had been confirmed. Mr Isaac lead an extract from the Daily Times of that date, relating a conversational discussion between the Hon. Major Richardson and the members of the Board. In reply to a question, the Commissioner stated that no instructions had been received from the Provincial Council, and if such had buen conveyed to the Board their decision would not have been altered. The speaker called upon the meeting to pi event sales of land in such quantities, by returning a candidate to look after their interests. — (Applause.) He referred to the Roxburgh district, in which he stated the Messrs Cargill had no less than 20,000 acres. They all knew what Mr Hollo way's mission in New Zealand was, and he (the speaker) thought the people of Roxburgh had taken a step in the right duectiou when they informed Mr Hollo way what largo quantities of laud were taken up by the squatters. He trusted that gentleman would rcjpi esent the actual state of things to the people in the Home country, and secure authentic statistics to show the quantity of land that was really open for settlement. At the last meeting of the Provincial Council a Bill to authorise the sale of three Hundreds representing 10,000 acres each, was introduced by the Government,, in trying to pass which the Executive nearly lost their seats. A great squatter at Oamaru actually spoke against the sale, and by accepting the arguments of Mr Donald .Reid and others, the Government retained their seats. Mr R. Stout introduced a Bill proposing that 30,000 acres should be sold on deferred payments, but it was thrown out. The speaker thought the Government ought to kiiow what quantity of land their people require. He believed that land should be sold on deferred payments, and only in that way, unless in very exceptional cases. If he were returned as their representative he would do his best to have the land sold only on deferred payments, aud have the laws carried out for the public good. The next subject he wished to refer to was the Harbour improvements. He believed that, though the amount required for dredging and reclaiming the Harbour would be enormous, the benefits would eventually cover the original cost. The Province at large would be greatly benefited, and the city would naturally be extended. With regard to tho Education question, he thought the present system was working very .satisfactorily, and it would be better nod to interfere with it. There was no doubt that its beneficial influences were recognised by a large majority. The ministers of religion, he thought, should be allowed to teach at specified times in the schools. That was all he had to say with legard to Provincial affairs. After referring in praiseworthy terms to the satisfactory manner in which the railways and other public works were beiug conducted by the General Government, Mr Isaac stated that he would be most happy to reply to questions upon any political subject. He omitted to mention one thing --that it was his intention to address the electors of Dunedin again during the piesenfc contest. Tho speech would no doubt bo correctly reported in the newspapeis, and if tho electors were satisfied with his views, he oxpected to be placed at tho head of the poll. — Applause) No questions being asked the candidate, The CHAIRMAN said he had no doubt the electors present were satisfied with Mr Isaac's address, and called upon them to pass a vote of confidence in him.

Those present appearing too dilatory to propose a vote of confidence, Mr Lsaao thanked them for their attendance. He trusted they would form themselves into a committee to secure his return. Some of his friends were already canvassing the town, otherwiso he would have had a much larger attendanco fit his meothig. Ho again declared his confidence that he would be returned at the top of tho poll, which announcement waa recoived with applause. The meeting dispersed at twenty minutes to nino, the business having occupied less than half an hour i .