ELECTION NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1866, 26 August 1887, Page 18

ELECTION NOTES.

The nomination of o&ndidates ilk tQB Southern "Maori electoral district took^lace at Kaiapoi on the 17th, when the xollowing were proposed ;— Raniera Eribana (of Waikanae), Tare Wetera Te Kahu {of Waitaka), Tare Tikao (of Port Levy), and Tama Parata (of Waikouaiti). The show of hands was in favour of Parata j and a poll being demanded, it will take place oa the 7th of September. The new roll for Waihemo contains 1568 names as against 1220 on the old roll, an increase of 848, and there, will be a farther incre'^e when the supplementary roll comes ou.'u. Our Palmerston correspondent states that there are a large number on the roll having no claim to vote, besides a number of pefeohs who are dead.

The Premier was asked <k Very large number of questions at the close to'f his meeting at WaiIhemo, among them being the following: — Mr Murcott : How do you reconcile the giving away by your Government of 2,500.000 atites nf ■Crown lanrila to the Midland railway syndicate with your convictions on land nationalisation ? Sir Robert Stout said he would answer that by stating that before they took office the Railway Construction Bill was passed by the Hall Government. There were four railways in the schedule. The Manawatu was one of them, for which land was given at the rate of one-third of the cost of construction up co a certain value. It was afterwards found that no pride had been fixed for the land, and they got It at 2s per acre. This had been guarded against in dealing with the Midland railway, They had made much better terms ; they gave one-half value on conetruction, and fixed the value of the land at 10s per acre. Had it not been for the act passed before b.a was iv office, he would not have proposed khto scheme.

Mr Kerr spoke on the IStll at the Theatre, Tima-cu, the building being •crowded to excess. He -is in favour of doing aWay altogether with the Legislative Council, retrenchment allrourd, favours the present tariff, and would not tou'eh primary education, but would do away with the present endowments to high school^ 'expending the income from it on scholarships. He received a vote of thanks.

Mr A. D. Johnston has retired from the contest for the Clu.iAift seat, as he finds his health will not periiift of his travelling over the large district at <&\s time of the year. After, his address at Palmerston Mr J. C. Buckfcttia put the following questions to Sir Robert Stout :— ln your speech at Opoho you stat-ed that the persons now opposing Sir Julius Y'ogel were the persons who put him in Parliament. Is it a fact or is it not that Sir Julius Vogel was put on the rolls for Waikoixaiti by virtue of property that belonged to you then, and belongs to you nowV Sir R. Stout: It is not a fact ; Sir Julius Vogel bought this property from me years ago, before he Mb for England. Mr Buckland : But, Sir Robert, as a legal man, will you say that Sir Julius Vogel could be legally placed on the roll unless the transfer was registered? Sir Robert: Any child knows that registration means placing on the foil ; any boy in this school knows that. Mr Buckland : Did not you yourself in 1&84 witness the claim for enrolment ? Sir & Stout : I might have done ; I cannot remember. Mr Barron addressed a meeting of the Caversham elects at Fairfield on Friday evening in the schoolhouse. Mr James Louden presided, and the): c was a large attendance. In the course Of his address Mr Barron said the colony had evidently come to the conclusion that the gross misnj'dnagement from whichits affairs had suffered in the past under the guidance of its so-called leading statesmen was sufficient to make it lose confidence in a continuance of their administration, and seemed to encourage the hope of any change which might result in Parliament replacing them with any other honest, capable men, even if less experienced in devious ways and less pretentious. He quoted figures to show that the increase of debt, interest charged, and cost of government since 1870 was steadily and alarmingly growing far beyond the proportionate increase of our population. The one thing needed, he said, was an honest, earnest effort on the part of every elector to select representatives pledged to reduce the extravagant expenditure that was so dangerously increasing, to stop the system of indiscriminate borrowing that had been followed 5n the past, and to refuse to sanction any increase on any pretext whatever of the already intolerable burdens of taxation which the people had to bear. By such means we might hope for some return of prosperity. A vote of thanks to Mr Barron was moved by Mr Joseph Louden and seconded by Mr Stewart Guthrie and carried unanimously. Mr H. S. Valentine addresses the Waikaia electors at Gore on the evening of the 26th, and as the other two candidates for the constituency have delivered their views Mr Valentine's speech is looked forward to with considerable interest, as it is rumoured he will advance something new. Mr Thomas Mackenzie addressed the electors at Hillend on the 16th; Mr Ralph Moir occupied the chair. At the close of the meeting Mr W. S. Pillans moved and Mr Mathew Marshall seconded—" That Mr Mackenzie is- the most fit and proper person to represent us in Parliament," which was carried. Oh Friday night the same candidate addressed a meeting of the electors at Waiwera. Mr Blacklock occupied the chair. Mr Mackenzie spoke for about an hour and a-half, after which he was questioned at great length, his answers appearing to satisfy the electors. At the close a motion that he be thanked for his address was met by an amendment, moved by Mr Roseveare and seconded by Mr Jamison, " That Mr Mackenzie has the confidence of this meeting," which was carried with enthusiasm, only three hands being held up against it. A vote of thanks to Mr Blackwood brought the meeting to an end.

Of the 95 members of the last Parliament, according to the Wanganui Chronicle, only 20 pay property tax. Unless someone has betrayed the Property Tax department, this statement can at best be but a guess.

The questions put to candidates by the New Zealand Alliance for the suppression of the liquor traffic were as follow : — "No. 1. If elected, ■will you support legislation which will give to the people power, by direct vote at the ballot box periodically taken, to prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors in the district in which they reside without compensation ? No. 2. If you consider compensation due, by whom or from what fund should it be paid?" As already stated, those whose replies were deemed satisfactory by the alliance were: — Sir R. Stout, Messrs O. J. Hodge, C. R; Chapman, James Gore, A. H. Ross, and Hon. Thos. Dick.

Sir George Grey addressed the Christchurch electors in the Theatre Royal, which was densely crowded. His speech lasted nearly two hours. His subjects were : — "Village settlements, which he condemned; education, in which department he said retrenchment could be effected ; and retrenchment generally. He advocated a reduction iv the salaries of Ministers and was in favour of an elective governor. He got a fair hearing, and a vote of thanks was carried nem. dis., the proposer of an amendment being refused a hearing after an hour's attempt. Our Oamaru correspondent telegraphs that Mr John Church, who is a candidate for the representation of Oamaru, addressed a large meeting on Wednesday evening. He spoke

bitterly against our present ,soWrnmentr, lamenting the alliance 'off &ir Robert St6ut with Sir Julius Vogel. At the .same time he \*au equally "Beverfc upon Ma^or Atkinson 3Ad Sir Jonh Hall. He looked to the SPorination of a new, and independent party iS ( the necessity of tha time. He advocated retrenchment ahd simplification of the machinery of government. He read most of his address, which was of such length that the meeting befcame wearied, and insis.'fee'd upon it being tSUt short. Mr Church received a vote of thanks, an amendment of Confidence not finding a seconder. ! Advantage was taken of Mr Hislop's meeting on Tuesday evening to pass the following motion, which was regarded by some of those i present as a surprise one :— •♦ That in the opinion of this meeting the Waiteki High Sc&Jol as at present constituted aoes n'6t meet the requirements oi this 'constituency, inasmuch as the high f^es charged places Secondary education beytind We reach o£ the great mass of the working classes in this district." At Jibs close of a meeting 6f Mr Purnelr, who ib standing for Ashburton-, Mr Cayjjjill, A brother Bolicitor, moved a Vote 'of thanks to the candidate, remarking} with unlawyer-like frankness, that he iWpte'd n'6 would get in, for in these times of keen Competition his absence for even a few months would leave a little more to be done in the profession in Ashburton by himself and •