CAPTAIN MORRIS' ADDRESS TO THE Electors of the Bast Coast.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 866, 18 August 1879, Page 2

CAPTAIN MORRIS' ADDRESS TO THE Electors of the Bast Coast.

There was a very large attendance at the Masonic Hall, on Saturday night, and it was evident that the meeting desired to accord the candidate a fair hearing. ' ; On the motion of Mr. J. Cuff, Mr 0. W. Ferris occupied the chair, and called upon Captain Morris to address the meeting. . . . * - : Captaiu Morris, on coining forward, said that since'he had the honor of representing the East Coast electorate, he had been m the habit cf occasionally calling here and addressing them. He had now to appear before that assemblage to ask them to return: him. He did so on the most popular grounds. He asked them to return him m order ' to 1 oppose Sir George Grey ; m fact, he appeared before them as an Opposition candidate and identified himself with that party. He was there to ask their support and favor m placing him m a nosition to conduct him through to the. fruits whiclrthe Opposition had.: fought; for so long. Two gentlemen had already addressed the electors of Poverty Bay, then there was himself, an Opposition candidate, and another who had yet to do so. Of these there was Mr Johnson, whom, he considered a straight ' man^ 1 Mir McDonald, -a Grey candidate; and Capt. Porter, whom he might ; call dotibtful. In discussing their merits, "he thought he had a perfect right m doing so, and touch a little on his opinions concerning the re*3pective candidates. He had said that Captain Porter was a doubtful man. These were times when there should- be no do\ibt on political matters. Opinions should be professed one way or the othftr. In view of borrowing large sums there should be no doubt as to the policy and administration of the country. It had been , said that there, was ;a Liberal party, and a Conservative party m the House. Liberalism wa3 a good thing, but a pinchbeck article he could not approve of and, support. Such was the lberallsm of the Premier. What was the action- of the leader of the House with reference to the FranchiseBill and re-distribution of seats; ; and does his liberalism with respect to these measures accord with his profession of liberal principles 1- For his own part he was m favor of manhood snffrage and a re-distribution? of seats. JVyiio^cjpposed it, was it his party? No, it was Sir George Grey, and were it not for him there would have been a bill to that effect past during the .last session, and he would not have been there that night to solicit his return. It was through no fault of his own that he came there. Last session it was moved m the House that a bill should be drawn out during the recess, by which Poverty Bay and Tauranga would each have a representative. He interested himself a great deal m the.. matter, and on that occasion walked across to the other side of the House to '• urge upon them - the necessity : of carrying this motion. But: his efforts were unavailing. On the- motion of Sir George Grey, the latter part of the resolution was left out,' and owing to it being near the close of .the session there was but slight interest shewn m the House. He found himself fighting for a redistribution of seats, and. the Premier against it. All the principal liberal measures were introduced by his party. As to borrowing-, it was a necessary measure, and supported by the undivided opinion of the House, In order to shew them the hollow pretensions of the Grey Ministry to truly liberal measures, he would ask them ; who was it that brought forward the motion ou the incidence of taxation. It was carried by their side, and the credit was due to Mr. Woolcock. He would ask them to consider these firings, and form their own conclusions. Were they to be governed by a dictator or by the voice of the people? It was said that wealth should bear its fair quota to the taxation, but it did not now do so m any respect. It wa£ the case all over the Colony, without alluding :in any way to the Pemier. They now raised from wealthy men but very, little m proportion to the extent of their wealth, and they were comparatively unaffected by the present incidence of taxation. In the case of the : Premier though he is m the receipt of considerably more than £5,000 a year, he pays about four pounds to the revenue. This was quite an unfair manner of dealing. In altering the incidence of taxation it was intended that it should fall on laud,/

shares, and mortgages. There should be not particular spotting of any parti-, cular class. He saw that was the tendency of the present legislation, and he would set his face against it. 3e would ask the meeting to bear him out m reference to two or three matters m his address. It was on no particular policy that the Grey ministry were defeated, |bnt mainly on their maladministration. A body of men had got into, power who had shewn such an amount of incapacity tfiat it was impossible for him to support them, and it was utterly, impossible for him to think how they should have met with such a show as they had received. The first thing he would charge them with was the maladministration of Native affairs. The Government were turned out by a majority of 14, and the Native administration was their worst point. If they called "their latb representative back they they would do so to support him to remedy the ritany defects of this department. There was no matter of greater importance not only to this district but the whole colony than the Native question. It was mainly owing to their policy that the present disturbance on the West Coast arose, and the peace of the Colony threatened. He ■ was averse to •. fighting with the natives. A short time ago when hostilities were probable at Taranaki, the report was circulated that the Government were going to employ 1000 Ngatiporou . to fight the natives there. He disapproved' of levying native . contingents to fight for them. They should fight themselves. He anticipated troubles, and possibly war, on account of , this land question. But he was the last person that wished to fight ; he lived among the natives, and his property would be depreciated m common with that of others. [The speaker then proceeded at considerable length, deprecating war, and advocating fair and .honorable dealing with the natives.] With reference to , Financial matters, there was a great depression all over the Colony, and was no doubt felt severely here. What had been the case with respect to the financial management of the Colony ? During the last few weeks £360,000 hacL been sent ho.ne, removed from the circulation of the Colony. Could a Ministry that had received sanction for a loan of £3,000,000, after doing a thing like this deserve the confidence of the House 1 Previous to their possession of office there was a ory for retrenchment m the expenses of the Native Department. Instead of a decrease, the expenses had enormously increased. It was then £32,000, but now it had amounted to £55,000. There was another charge against the late' Ministry m their mismanagement of immigration. A sum of money had been placed on the estimates equal to £15 for every immigrant that was to be landed, If it had been for nothingelse than this Ministers should have been sent to the country, and condemned It was too expensive, and was if steadily persisted m, to lead to overcrowding the country. (A Voice : No fear.) He did not wish to tread upon the toes of any one m the remarks he had to make. There was one failing he had no fault to find with the Government^ they had ad-, ministered the billet business very well,; and as to this it would have been better had they ridt done so wpll. ' The policy which the late Government how claimed had been introduced on the side of the House to which he belonged. 'When He first came before them he laid down what he intended to do. At the time he then came forward he was m favor of triennial Parliaments, bu^ he. would not now be m favor of it. There should be some plan for the allocation of the expenditure of the -loins, as it would prevent the unseemly scramble there was for expenditure on, public works m the various/ districts. By some such means as that mentioned there would be an end put to it. He knew there would be opposition to- this, and that. it would not be carried. He would now come to some of the things he would dp m the event of being returned. First and foremost was the land question.; unless lands not already acquired were not put. m a reasonable position to deal. with and, negotiable m the market, so long would they be back m these, matters. A bill has been introduced for this object by Mr Whitaker; and it was the very one wanted.' • Titles to-Native 'lands should be individualized and ' then s they must not purchase. The Government should not purchase any other lands than those they Were already m ! treaty for !and on which advances had been made. He was for some time m advance of his party m advocating free trade m Native Lands. This was not quite unobjectionable* as large tracts of land might beacquired by capitalists. The Premier would raise the cry, " We are; giving it to the -land sharks." . The greatest facilities should be given of surveying j,t, and passing through the Court, and' permission given to sell it to the first man that offers a reasonable price. He knew a little of these matters aud it was. discreditable to have the question, of Native Lands m the state it was. It was natural for man who had auy dealing with the natives for land to have a heart of leather. They should once for .ill get good titles to all their lands. This was a serious matter, and aftected everyone m. the North Island. He trusted that who ever was returned would do his utmost to have the matter settled. They must do •something to indicate to the Government that they were bent on obtaining a final settlement of these titles. All they wanted was a simple Land Act, individualization of Native titles, the retirement of the Government from the . purchase of lands, and arbitration m respect to defective titles. He would now come to the question of Land Tax. He wns a landowner and paid taxes, but anyone could pay it for him. But the principle of this tax was altogether an improper one. They should, if taxing property, apportion it to the district where raised. Whatever the revenue raised by this special taxi it should be paid, over to the local bodies. He was jn favor of giving increased power to local bodies. It was part of a miserable policy that they had to pay 10 per cent cent, on the purchase of Native "Lands. The money went to the Government, and they do nothing for it. In a district such as this, it ifas utterly impssible they could carry out works without extraneous assistance. Property and income should pay » tax as well as land. He advocated this four years ago, and did so still. There was tinbther matter he was iv favor of— the

formation of special setttements. There were two blocks m the district—the Motu and the Waikohu-matanai. These settlements' Bhould bo formed by a number, say half of immigrants and half of anybody m the district. He then explained the manner m which these lands should be settled. There should not be any patch work settlement, but everything prepared so that all the settlers could occupy their sections There was another matter he had been reserved about — the question of a local candidate. He had a great respect for all the local men. Just-let him talk a little business, as it was of moment to them. Ho had been m the Opposition for some time, and had not had any show. The party he served were how having the handling of £5,000,000. He heard the poople here say they ; must have a local man to do this sort of thing for them. Well, he must ask them to, judge him by •what he had already done for them m the , past, while he was m the Opposition and take that as an earnest of what he would do m the future. What had, been spent was for the Government Buildings, the Waipaoa Bridge, the Patutahi drain, £2,200, worth of railway iron for the Gisborne and Ormond railway, and~£lß,ooo as a refund to the County. (A Voiob : They were not worth thai) That was the estimate of the Minister of ' Public Works. If they took the trouble to reckon these items they would amount to over £26,000. He had, oh every possible occasion, done whatever he possibly could for them. (A Voiob : You did not get them.) Very well, if lam to be condemned for what I have not done, surely he deserved some commendation for what he had done for them. He had often been told that the countenance of a country member was a brazen one. And what about the other portion of the electorate — the Bay of Plenty ? They had better reason of complaint. He had been placed m an awkward position^ taken up at both ends and dropped m the middle. Opotiki had received only £2000, and Tauranga nothing at all. If he had done little, he had not the opportunity, being with the Opposition, but if he had another chance he wonld obtain more for them, aud give Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty a. fair show. He would endeavor to obtain the construotion of the railway as far as Ofraohd for the present, and would -reoommend it to be carried on m 3 mile oontraots and also a road tapping the interior of the country. The railway aud roads would have the advantage over the Harbor works, which he thought'should lie over for the present, being expensive, and costing four or live times as much as a road. Now as to the local man, however, much they were entitled to return him. they must remember that, at the next session there will be a Bharp and tremendous struggle for coin, and it required a man of experience to conduct their cause, Whatever their inclinations were, if they were wise they would consider this. It was probable that during the session', a redistribution of seats will take place, and a dissolution of the House-follow. If a vote for a dissolution is brought forward, he would support it, and then a local man could be returned for Gisborne and Poverty Bay. Whether , they: would receive a member greatly depends upon the majority with whioh they returned a supporter of the incoming Ministry.. In any case, it was fair to suppose that they would not receive any benefit from a Government to which they were opposed, as was already exemplified by the neglect they had received and complained of. He would if returned, do his best all round, and he would ask them to consider the facts and figures he had given, and say if he had not sunk his private feelings and interests for their good. He would alao ask them to consider what he had already done, and take that as an earnest of what he, would do. In reply to any questions to him that night he wonM give a straightforward answer, m order that he might not be acpused of obtaining catch votes by suiting his opinions for his own ends or advantage. We have, from want of space, to leave the questions put to and answered by the candidate, m our to-morrow's issue. .