Page 2 Advertisements Column 2

Colonist, Volume IX, Issue 855, 9 January 1866, Page 2

NEW ADVERTISEMENTS. TO THE ELECTORS OF THE CITY OF NEL9OIT. GENTLEMEN,— The present Parliament of New Zealand is about to be dissolved, and writs for a general election will shortly be issued. I take leave to offer myself as a Candidate for the office of one of yotfr Representatives in the General Assembly. Proffers of support received from numerous electors of various classes, and the belief that I might be able still further to serve the public by the attainment of a more practical and personal knowledge of Parliamentary affairs, combine to induce me to take this step. From choice, as well as necessity in the nature of my daily business, I have, since I became a colonist, devoted much of my time to the study of New Zealand politics, and to the examination of those subjects of legislation and policy which affect the welfare, of the Colony. To most of yon it will not be specially necessary that I should dwell at length on what are my political opinions; but I gladly avail myself of the opportunity which this address affords of noticing some of the more prominent topics that loom on the political horizon. It has become almost a settled conviction in my mind, that New Zealand has, for years, (and especially during the last three or four years.) been the unhappy subject of a series of violent experiments, political and i financial. These have been all the more dangerous,. ' because the political philosophers who successively i hazarded them have each had a peculiar theory to ! work out more or less at variance with that of their ■immediate prdecessbrs. And :what was worse, none, jof them seemed to count the cost of their respective 'experiments, nor the great strain on the future which this round of costly essays at government would produce. It has not. surprised me that this financial strain is now beginning to be.felt; and it.needs no i prophet to predict that it will yet be more' sensibly experienced. Successive administrations in New Zealand within Ihe pnsf four years (and they have been numerous emugh in that time) seem to have vied with each other in the concoction of schemes for the government of the Colony, of the vastest'and most expensive description, without producing a probable estimate of their practicability, and without bestowing due consideration as to how the resources ofthe country would bear the drain they necessitated. The cry was, "Borrow, borrow," and trust to the chapter of accidents and the "future cf New Zealand" for repayment, or— must it be said ? —repudiation. It lias been a chapter of accidents, and the future of the Colony is now deeply mortgaged, as the tax-payers will yet learn. Ido not need to tell you that during nearly three years I have systematically opposed such reckless borrowing for"ill-defined and worse calculated objects. The present finance of New Zealand bear 3 testimony to the mistake which the Colony has committed in rushing into its existing heavy liabilities, and in the way in which its borrowed money has been expended. .< From the time that Mr. Domett promulgated the scheme of sptlling a large military population in different localities round the North Island, down to the well-known cry of Mr. Weld for "Roads, roads, roads," there has all along been shown a want of preliminnry calculation. Results prove this. The Fox-Whitaker Ministry modified and adopted Mr. Domett's military settlement scheme, and passed an Act to borrow three millions to carry it out, and also for carrying out various public works, such ns tlie telegraph and other objects, which, although valuable adjuncts irft commercial civilisation, are nevertheless luxuries which a deeply indebted people, while conducting an expensive war, were not warranted in entering on. The war expenses were, we were told, to be amply repaid by the sale of land taken from rebel natives ; but if ever •' figurative " expectations were utterly erroneous, this supposed recouping of the war expenses out of confiscated land has been most egregiously deceptive. More than two years have elapsed. The military settlement, scheme has dwindled down to the smallest proportions. Few' are yet settled on their land, although the cost of maintaining the small body that still exists has swelled to proportions far beyond the calculations of Mr. Domett or his successors ; while returns from the sale of confiscated land are a drop in the bucket hardly worth computing. So wi_h Mr. We.d's'wntchwm-d about roads, impressively put on his taking office. A ninety-miles road from Tnranaki to Wanganui was to have been constructed at once. Here again the question of cost and practicability was singularly omitted. There never was.any estimate of cost. What is the result ? Instead of ninety miles—instead of a way being cleared through the wild and difficult bush, as was spoken of, nnd a highway-made from Tarar.aki to Wanganui.— there are six or seven miles of road formed ! The .schemes for suppressing the Maoris always assumed too large dimensions, and showed far too heavily on the estimates of expenditure. Men in power often seem to forget that finance, — the questions—What will it cost ? Where will the money come from ? and how shall we repay it ? — lie at the basis, in fact, form the basis of all business, of all policy, whether in the world of commerce or in that of stntescraft. They appear to be led away by the thought of the desirability of a certain course, and straightway they resolve to pursue it, without reflecting that it is only possible if finance will allow it. Of this class of ill-digested projects were the Military Settlement, Mr. Weld's "Roads" theory, the Panama Mail Service, and the Telegraph schemes. The possible results expected from the two first, even if carried into effect, were always grossly exaggerated." Regarding the two Inst, the Government was not warranted in.undertaking.such an expenditure while? it was so surely adding to the taxation ofthe country. From first to last, and especially at the last, the history of the Panama scheme exhibits a marked absence of commercial nnd business-like skill on tie piirt of the Colonial Government. Ifc seems to me that now it is the duty of -the electors to stop all this, and to say, with one voice, that this system of uncalculating expenditure shall cease. That henceforth no government shall conceive an exaggerated estimate of what may be the future taxation power ofthe Colony, nor on that conception heedlessly resolve to expend on the present, sums which existing conditions utterly refuse to warrant. During the last session of Parliament, there was no small amount of this mistaken management. Money was recklessly asked for by the Weld Ministry, and recklessly voted by a section of the House bf Representatives wh'ch for the moment formed the majority that the unpractical character of the Ministry helped ultimately to dectroy. , Ifc is because I believe that Mr. Stafford—whose financial abilities are acknowledged—will follow a more practical, more possible and economical- course, a more enlightened and wiser policy in all departments, that I shall be prepared,- if you elect me, to give his Ministry an independent support. That is to say, a support so long as he adheres to those principles which I understand he now professes— principles which embody a wise economy, and a care, for those Provincial rights to which Mr. Stafford in former years gave in his adherence, as opposed to that growing system of centralisation which appears to have reached its culmination during the; existence of the Weld Ministry. So long as Mr. Stafford does this, si long, if you send me to Parliament, shall he have my support, and no longer. People talk of the mismanagement of Provinces ; but what has been the management of General Governments ? Let the deplorable condition of New Zealand finance bear witness. Some Provinces no doubt have been grossly extravagant; but both by example, and precept, by allowing extensive Provincial borrowing, the General Governments for the past three or four years led them on instead of restraining them. Provincialism is a necessary condition, viewing the geographicnl position of New Zealand. It means local self-government-; and—making an allowance for the drawbacks which attend all popularly based forms of government—it. is surely far better than having a Magistrate sent down by the.Central Government, irresponsible to the local electors, and not very dissimilar in his position to that of a French Prefect. Recent disasters will have taught Provinces wisdom, and I do not believe we shall ever again witness such lamentable blunders as those which have so shaken the Province of Southland. The Weld Ministry, who desired to weaken existing Provinces by permittng an increase of their number, opposed the amendment of the New Provinceß Act. They wished to extinguish the Provinces by tWing not only til the iwptat wteaue hitherto dtodrii