The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 863, 14 August 1879, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 1879.

The election address of Mr Allan McDonald will be found m our columns of this afternoon, having be"en forwarded from Auckland through the telegraph wires. Mr. McDonald's platform appears to be a very liberal one. He says that from his. long residence on the Coast he is intimately acquainted with the requirements of the district, and it is these requirements he will contend for, especially m the matter of public works, which has so long and so unjustly been withheld from the district. The candidate if returned, promises to support all liberal measures which are likely to engage the attention of the new Parliament. Mr. McDonald will vote for Triennial Parliaments, and Manhood Suffrage on a residental qualification to Europeans. He would give to the Native races the electoral franchise, ■who may be on ratepayers' rolls, or •who hold grants of land from the Crown. He will go m for a readjustment of the electorate upon the basis of population, and certainly fox* . .an _ independent x*epi*esentative for the Poverty Bay districts. The view which Mi\ McDonald takes as to the disposal of the waste lands of the. colony is an original one, or at least it is the first time we have heard it urged. The candidate would vest all waste lands m the County governing bodies, giving them the same powei'S as are now possessed by the- Waste Lands Boards, and ■which they have so greatly abused. We are quite sure that had the unsold lands — within the four corners of Cook County, been placed m the hands of the Council to deal with under necessary restrictions, they would long ere this have been m profitable occupation. * Councillors, for instance, would xxever have made such: a mess of the Patutabi blocks as the Board at Auckland, m their grasping selfishness, have done. The boon would be a very great one if conferred upon Counties, but we fear it will require very hard and long continuous fighting to obtain it. Pi'ovincial Councils, when- they existed, controlled the sale of lands m their own provinces, and we may very pertinently ask why should not County Governments ? It is a battle well desex*ving of being fought out to the end. "I approve," says Mr. McDonald, "of portions of the Waste Lands being sold on defexTed payments with a view to promoting the settlement of the country, having watched the operation of this system m the j Middle Island, and found it to work beneficially." There is no doubt but what land sold upon payments, with cultivation clauses intx*oduced into the grants, would greatly tend to promote settlement among the smaller farmers. Px-ivate land dealers find it to their interest to sell

on deferred payments, and as a rule allow of long credit and easy instalments. "We ask then, what shrewd man, can do m their px'ivate transactions and find it to their advantage m so doing, why should not a Government do the same ? The unsold Crown lands of the Colony belong to the people and should be so disposed of as will be most likely to benefit the people. Deferred payments for land, so regulated that they shall not be purchased for speculative purposes, should be the basis upon which our farm lands are obtainable. We now come to what we consider the most important portion of Mr McDonald's address. " I consider," j says the candidate, " that to effectually put a stop to the present difficulties m the acquisition of Native Lands, that the Natives should be treated as Europeans. Failing this, that the Government should hold a pre-emptive right over all lands which have not yet passed through the Court." This is the opinion expressed by men who have had long experience with the Native lace, as it is also with men who have not , thought superficially on the subject, but have gone deep into the question. There should be no one law for the European and another for the Maori. The Maori must be told that our laws must be his laws, and if nis customs, superstitions and modes of thinking stand m the way of giving obedience to our laws then he must dispense with them, or accept the consequences. The Maori has been long enough with the Europeans to know and feel that the latter are his superior, and that as superiors they m the end must and will govern m such a way that there shall be only one set of laws m the land, which all men, white or dark, must obey. When the Maories have been made to understand this, they must be taught how to obey, without any supplies of sugar, or flour, or blankets being paid to them for their obedience. Mr McDonald's address contains much to recommend it ; but he will have to be heard at greater length, before the electors can say who shall be their man.