SIR GEORGE GREY’S ADDRESS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 173, 3 September 1879, Page 2

SIR GEORGE GREY’S ADDRESS.

Sir George Grey, the- Premier of the Colony, addressed a public meeting in the Princes Theatre, Dunedin, ou Saturday night. Amongst the gentlemen on the platform were a number of the members of the Dunedin Liberal Association, and Messrs Stout, Logan, Reeves, Bracken, Stout, Houghton, Bradshaw, James Lackay, Garrick, Hudson, J. Brown, and Sibbad. At 10 minutes to 8 o’clock his Worship the Mayor (Mr H. J. Walter) took the chair, and,introduced Sir George Grey to the meeting. On the curtain rising thtir was loud applause, but some hissing was noticeable. Sir George Grey was received with prolonged cheers. He said ; Mr Mayor, ladies, and gentlemen, I would first say that I understood some persons have raised a doubt whether it is becoming in one of tlieir-Jeadingstutesmen to address the people of,.,.New Zealand assembled in public-meeting such as this, which I answer that,if your statesmen are worthy to govern you they must be able- to talk to you—(Hear, hear.) They must be able to explain what they mean. The days have passed away when statesmen could add to their reputation by remaining shut up from the public at large, when they could venture to introduce suddenly measures in to parliament, and hare them carried without the people of the Colony having any warning on the subject; and I think that th* time has come when every man who caves about New Zealand should come forward and do his duty to al i his fcl!ow-clbkens. —(Hear, hear.) Now I have seen that it has beeltjf‘tCSTew Zealand tb.at.l was too long in the army and have been too long the- Governor to be able to mb shoulders with my fellow men. To that, I answer that I do not believe that any man of the present day has rubbed shoulders with his fellow men more than I have. —(applause.) I do not believe that any man has done so more openly, move repeatedly, or with larger numbers. You may rely upon this, that as long at I am an inhabitant of the Colony of New Zealand I shall never be afraid to meet you, either singly or such large numbers as I see yon now, to give a a explanation of my conduct to you, and '.o let you fairly judge of the Government of which I am the head, as to whether they are right or wrong. A great many attacks have been made upon ms, but as they are not of a public character I shall not notice tliem. I will, however, just allude to two or three which are of public interest to all of you and the others I shall cast aside. I shall leave it to future times to do, I trust, justice to my actions whilst I have been in this colony. The one or two points to which I shall allude to are these It has boo a said that I inlcnrlpfl to try to foiafc a constitution which wai to be composed of a council made up in great part of nominated members. Now (hat statement is absolutely untrue—(cheers)—absolutely untrue. The proposal was made to me to do, that it would be a very good thing to do that, and a representation was made to me that it would be a vey good thing to do it, but I scouted it at once, aud never entertained the proposal for a single moment The only constitution which I ever endeavoured to gain for New Zealand is the one under which you happily lived from 1854 until quite recently—it was the most liberal constitution ever given to any part of the British Empire. (Applause.) Under that Constitution Dunedin flourished, under that Constitution Otago flourished in an extrordinary degree. " It was that Constitution which made you what you are now. Some people have s-id that that Constitution was Sir John Pakington’s Constitution—(A Voice; “ So it was”) —to which I answer, let any man search the records of this Colony, and the records of Parliament, and see whether I did not send that Constitution Horne to Sir John Pakington’s, and the dispatch with it you can all of you read now, and see whether the Constitution as I sent it Home was not adopted in every respect but one. Sir JotnPakington made it his Constitution by striking out the elec-j tive Upper House—(A Voice: “ Good luck to him! Glad to hear it’),—and in the place of a representative council, putting in a nominative Legislasive Council. By so doing, he ruined the whole Constitution, and in that respect he made it his own, l»y that one alteration, which I consider to have been one of the most disastrous and improper character. (Hear, hear.) Well, now, I will go further, aud say as i stated last night for the first time in New Zealand, and you can trace this out for yourselves, for if you .will search the “ Hansards” of the period you will find that Sir John Pakingtdu introduced the •Constitution in to, the House of Com mops by speaking the dispatch which I-wrote to him, and if you search the ‘Times’of that date you will find that after he made his speech his friends gathered round him and congratulated him upon the excellent speech he had made, and he accepted their congratulations, and was excessively pleased at it. Now these things are capable of proof. My dispatch is in existence, as is well known to thousands of persons in the Colony, and the statement made on the subject that I did not like the Constitution and had nothing to do with it is absolutely baseless. Then it is said as a further proof that I did not likp the Constitution, that I would not remain in the Colony to introduce it, aud that I left the Colony to avoid introducing a measure so obnoxious to myself. Now, again, I can refer you to documents — what I state does not rest upon my own evidence only. The fact of the case were these : I had been exploring in Australia for four years ; I returned Home, remained two or three months in England, and was then sent out again to South Australia I remained there for several years, and from there was sent on to New Zealand. From that time my absence from England without a visit Home was 14 years; I had at that time living a mother, to whom I was deeply attached, and who was deeply attached to me, aud she fell into a state of sac!) ill-health that an application was made to the Government to order mo Homo at once, that T rai-H r-v h - . . o .

that she might have the pleasure of looking on myself.—(A Voice: “ Indeed.’ 1 ) They sent out an order to me to return Home, and that was what made mo return Horae. 1 reached England, the ship was telegraphed in the Channel, word was sent to my mother, and I reached Home after she was dead. Well, now you can search the Hansard” of the day, and you will find some of the people of Canterbury made some allegation against me—that that allegation was sent Horne to Lord Lyttelton, with a request that he would move in the House of Lords for an impeachment or a vote of censure against me. He did make such a motion ; the Duke of Newcastle got up and made an explanation, and no peer in the House would second the motion of Lord Lyttelton, and lie was left sitting alone in confusion. (Applause.) Many of the storie. agninst me are put about iu a most ridiculous way. Another statement is that I have vilified the settlors of Canterbury. I made-inquiries, and they said, yes that is true ; you said the Province was an “ ugly duckling.” That story originated in this way. At a dinner complaints were made that the people of other provinces were all turning Canterbury into ridicule for some of its regulations ; and I, in replying to a toast, quoted one of the mqst beautiful fairy tales, of Andersson, and,said, in point of fact, I believed that the Province of Canterbury was the “ ugly duckling.” If you recollect, the “ugly duckling,” when it grew up, turned out to be a swan, the most beautiful of them all. (Applause.) I paid a compliment to the Province of Canterbury, and I shall have the satisfaction of showing that prophecy is fulfilled, because I believe they will .return me, and then, rise really a swan. There is one other circumstance of the same kind to which I will allude. It has been said myself and my friends would not allow the Electoral Bill to become law because wo were anxious to confer a dual vote upon the Maori people. Now the extraordinary circumstance connected with that is this: that I have always been , against a dual vote for the Maori people. When I-framed the Constitution I could Save given them a dual vote but I put the Maoris and the Europeans upon exactly the same footing, as I believed ought to be the case. (Hear, hear.) They had one common franchise, and long after I left the Colony, and long after I had ceased to have anything to do with its affairs while the affairs of the country were in the hands of a responsible Ministry, the law was introduced giving a dual vote to the Natives. The law enacted that there should be four Natives sitting in the House for four Native districts, and I thought that a very bad arrangement, because the Natives can be easily worked upon by the Government.

I should like to pass to another subject —another of the Bills brought forward this session. I have not heard much about this, but I really believe that this was as great a charter of rights as was ever proposed to give to any country. You are aware that at one time no one had the right to buy the lands. It was called the Crown’s right ,of pre-emption. It meant this —that any'"Native -who sold his land must sell that land to the whole' public of New Zealand, to be used for the common good of all. You could not sell at all to a private individual, and the reason of this 'was obvious. The Natives had large tracts of very valuable land. The only persons able to deal with them were those who spoke the Native language. Those were not many in number, and amongst that number wore many who had lived amongst Natives fur years—perhaps were almost like Natives themselves. These were easily got rid of by large speculators and wealthy men. And these large speculators and wealthy men did not like this system, and the law was altered in this way—when what was called free trade in Native land was established the result of which was that the public had ceased to get any good from the Native lands, and private individuals acquired large properties for almost inconsiderable sums, the Natives were plunged into a state of drunkenness and debauchery, and were defrauded of the fair value of their lands, and a system resembling the feudal system in England was got up by persons possessed of monstrous estates. Well, now, last session, determined to put an end to this, a law was introduced which the Natives all appeared to give a hearty consent, to this effect—that for the future no Native laud shall be sold except publicly and in open market ; whether sold by public auction or upon the deferred payment system, the Government should have the public lands sold in such a manner so that everyone should bid fairly for them. Well, I say now, obnoxious as this measure at first appears to be, a large number of leading men throughout the colony are saying that that was also just what they always wanted. But I ask anyone to look at the law that was introduced, brought in by the Attorney-Gene-ral of the Government which preceded us, and to mark the difference. Well, then, if they really desired to introduce a measure of this kind, why did they introduce so totall} 7 a different one ; and then, when an editor came forward and gave them good advice, did not they thankfully accent it instead of trying to get him put Into gaol for libel 1 I feel sure- investigation of past transactions will show that there has not, until the present time, been any real desire to amend the abuses I speak of, and that the desire now has arisen from this—that the people of New Zealand are determined that they shall be amended. (Applause.) Mr Robert Stout, who then rose, was received with cheers, mingled with a few hisses. He said : Mr Chairman, ladies, and gentlemen,—l rise to propose a hearty vote of thanks to Sir George Grey for the able and eloquent speech he has delivered to us this evening. (Loud cheers.) I know that everyone here will accord that to him if they will only think of the trouble that he has gone to in what has been termed his stumping tour through the colony. Of course I cannot expect in a meeting so large as this—perhaps one of the largest ever held in Dunedin—that all are of one mind. It would be a very peculiar community if there were not some oppositions to be found in it—(applause)—and I say if one will only consider what Sir George Grey has done for this colony, they will not refuse to accord to him a hearty vote of thanks, and also to bid him speed in the task be has undertaken. (Applause.) 1 have already addressed the citizens of Dunedin on politi- | cal matters, and I don’t intend to-night to inflict another speech upon r have simply, I •■:iv s o ■

this evening - ; and I think I may expr the hope that the principles he h advocated to-night wall be upheld by th community in a way that will make thos who have sneer ed at Sir George Grey feel ashamed of themselves. (Loud cheers.) Mr. Barnes, sen., rose to second the motion, hut was unable to obtain a hearing. In tire interruption that ensued there were loud and repeated calls-for. Mr Bracken. ’ The Chairman then put tire resolution to themeeting, and amid much enthusiasm declared it to be carried. In response to renewed calls, - Mr Thomas Bracken stepped forward, and was greeted with a round of cheers. He said : Mr Mayor, ladies, and gentlemen, as (he hour is very late, I shall not detail you more than a few minutes. I have expressed my views on political matters through the medium of the Press, fearlessly and without equivocation. (Cheers.) And by those views I intend to stand or fall. (Renewed'’applause.) I am in favor of the principles enunciated by Sir George Grey, because I believe they are conducive to the welfare of the whole coinmunityy and because Lbelieve Sir George Grey t to be the enemy of monopolists.; (Cheers.) Ladies and' gentlemen, apart from my political views, I respectfully submit that I-have as great if not greater claims ,on yourssuffrages than any other candiffaWiif 'the field. (Applause and interruption;)...'During tho ‘ last 10 or 12 ycarkH have.c6mc forward in every charitable movement, and on behalf o? every benevolent object in Dunedin. I have taken part in every such movement in Dunedin, and spent time and trouble in doing all the good 1 could amongst my fellow citizens. Another reason, -gentlemen, why I claim your suffrages is this—the legal and mercantile ; interests are already fully represented in , Parliament; those of the industrial classt and working men are not. Without v * detaining you further I may say that if you return rne, I shall be at least as intelligent and fully as honest as any of , tho other candidates. (Applause.) With I these remarks, then, I have very great 1 pleasure in moving a very hearty Vote 1 of thanks his Worship - the. Mayor for-. j the very excellent mantier in’ which he I has occupied the chair. .(Loud cheers.) Sir George Grey : I beg to second the motion. The meeting then terminated. I