ELECTORAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5700, 20 October 1896, Page 4

ELECTORAL.

MR CHARLES LEWIS AT THE THEATEE KOYAL. Mr Charles Lewis, one of the members for Christchurch, addressed his constituents at. the Theatre Eoyal last evening. The Mayor of Christchurcli occupied the ■ chair, and there was,a verylai-ge attendance. Upon the stage were a number of - ladies and gentlemen, amongst whom were Dr Nedwill, Messrs F. Wilding, C. Burgess, F. Peyton, H. Lake, G. M'lntyre, H. T. Gourlny, W. Lisle, A. Evans, R. C. Eishop, A. G. Howland, G. T. Booth, H. Hinge, W. Acton-Adams, F. Turvey, 3. Allen, M. Donnelly, W. F. Pullan, and T. Jacques. Mr Lewis, who was very well received, said he had asked them to meet him in accordance -with a time-honoured custom, which ordained that when a man returned from the House he should tell his constituents what he had been doing during the session. . In ordinary circumstances, perhaps, it would not have been necessary to do so, as he might have made one address serve two occasions, but as they had had no previous experience of him as a member, he thought it only right that he should call them together and tell them what part he had played in the session. What he had to say would be puiely in the nature of a post-sessional address ; his remarks would be confined to the past and to his own actions, and he would only speak of others in so far as it ) would be necessary to explain his own position. When he left Christchurch: he told them he was going to Wellington to " learn rather than to teach. He had done so and endeavoured to pick up what he could. He had not learnt everything yet, but he had learnt something, and could only say that he was appalled at the extent of his lack of knowledge before going. He would never forget his first experiences upon his arrival. He had found a number of Bills in the pigeonhole, had taken them home, and after studying them carefully came back propared with what he thought was a neat little speech. 'Then Sir Kobert Stout got ■up, and after him Captain Russell, and he (Mr Lewis) found that his speech had been delivered for him. There were two courses open to a new man who. was anxious to make himself conspicuons — one was to catch the Speaker's eye and fire off his little popgun before the big guns had their say ; another was to stay away from the House for two or three hours and then come in and fire off hi 3 pop-gun regardless of what had gone before. It had occurred to him that he had better stay in the House and listen and give an intelligent vote when required. Although he had not played a very prominent part he thought he might fairly say that he had .stuck to his work. They would see that a T very large number of measures had been brought forward, some of which had been struck out and some passed. Of these, only a very, few were of direct interest to a Christchurch electorate. He would have been justified in staying away more than he did, but he had made up his mind to learn all that he could. During the session 334 divisions took place j they would find that he had voted in 315 of them, was absent from 14 and had given a pair in five other cases. . (Applause). He did that because he thought it was only right that they should be able to follow him through the session and- have an idea of tl((e attitude he had taken tip: .-."■ - TH3 BANKING QUESTION. : ,' "' The first matter he would have to refer to was the banking inquiry. It must be admitted that an inquiry was demanded by the .country, but when it came to the question of why it was demanded there wa3 considerable difference of opinion. What the country wanted was an inquiry into the circumstances leading up to the amalgamation of the two banks. Mr Seddon said the people wanted to know how the money had been lost from the commencement of the difficulty as far back •as 1889. He said the shareholders wanted to know where that money had gone. He (Mr Lewis) could only say that he had never observed any demand among the shareholders for such information. The Premier also said that the Opposition were afraid of the inquiry, that they had "shared the plunder," and things of that kind. As far as he (Mr Lewis) was awaro there was not one member of the Oppotion who had anything to dread from an inquiry into the affairs of, the bank. The | only member who had had extensive dealings with it was the Hon E. Mitchelson, and he had stated from his place in the House that he was very anxious such an inquiry should take place. (Applause.) As far as the order of reference was concerned, what the Opposition objected to was this : — Under the order thjfe Committee had power to rip up old accounts. The Premier said he wanted to find out where the money had gone and who had got it. Well, if that was allowable, in a few ; years they would be able to go back" and rip open accounts now in exist- | ence, and even the possibility of that was likely. to be attended with disastrous results in driving capital from the bank. However, Clause 2 was included in the order of reference,.and the Committee had this power given them. Mr Lewis then i related the circumstances that had led to Mr- Watson's appearance before the bar of the House, and said -that, in questioning him about the writings-off, the Premier had asked him to perjure himself and break I the oath he had taken in accepting office. J If Mr Watson had done what the Premier wanted him to do, he would have been imperilling the existence of the institution. He (Mr Lewis) was of opinion that a man's notion of what was due to Parliament must be founded on what he considered was due to himself, and even if he did not ' think so, Mr Seddon was not the man to \ whom he would go for advice. Hehadavery clear idea of the kind of joke Mr Seddon had indulged i:i before a mixed audience at the Tuam Street Hall. The position taken up by the Opposition was that, in view of the issues involved, they would best consultthe interests of the country by ■waiving their parliamentary privileges, and not compelling Mr Watson to answer. As they knew, the majority had decided otherwise. When the Committee concluded its inquiry the House had nothing to go tipon, as the reports published in the papers were inadequate, and in some cases misleading. He had asked the Premier whether he did not think it would be advisable to have the evidence published, say, once a week, and had that been done they would have been able to keep abreast of the evidence, but when the inqxiiry was concluded, members knew very little of the course affairs had taken. As it was, the House had to discuss thb report after theevidence comprising some sevenhundred pages had been in their hands only about twelve hours. Mr Lewis then referred to the details of the Banking Bill as introduced in the House. The proposal to increase the number of Directors to eight was objectionable, as in very many cases the smaller the Committee the better the work done. The proposal to have members of the Board nominated by Parliament was also objectionable, as it would have meant endless lobbying in order* to get certain persons put on, and there was far too much lobbying in connection with banking matters. Other clauses of which he disapproved were that all contracts entered into by the bank with any of its officers should be declared null and void, and that the Government should have power to determine the form in which all banks in the colony should draw up their balance-sheets. Some of the banks doing business here had their head-quarters out- ' side the colony, and it was foolish' to attempt to make laws to govern banks of this kind. In spite of this, however, it vt&s probable that the Bill as it passed the Lower House was such that it /iroulcl have given general satisfaction, but just in the last hours of the session

they discovered that a\ clause had been put into the Bill by the Upper House which was just the clause they had been looking for, and one they determined should not pas 3. This clause provided that any washing up of the affairs of the Colonial Bank should take place in private. There was no escape from the conclusion that this clause had been put in for the purpose of screening somebody, though who it was he did not profess to know. Mr Lewis then referred to the conferences that had taken place over the Bill, and commented adversely on the fact that the Hon Downie Stewart, a director of the Colonial Bank, was one of the Upper House representatives on the matter. Mr Seddon had stated before the third conference that he was afraid the amendment proposed would have to be accepted, but, as they knew, that had not- been done. When the Bill was dropped, Mr Seddon said he would not take on himself the responsibility of dismissing Mr Watson : but in the matter of the Fraser appointment — (derisive applause and cries of "ringoff") — all he (Mr Lewis) wanted to say was that the Premier took the responsibility in one case, and in the other, where he was empowered by law to do so, he professed to be unwilling to take it. (Applause.) . CANTERBURY COLLEGE. He was one of the first who had stated that some improvement in the present system of electing the Board of Governors was necessary. Of the two Bills that had been brought down he preferred the one that had been introduced by Mr HallJones. Mr Russell's Bill, which proposed to elect a great part of the Board by the School Committees, was not a good one. His own idea was that one-third of the members should be elected by the graduates, one-third by the School Committees, and one-third by the members of Parliament resident in Canterbury. Eventually the two Bills were amalgamated, ' and after they had been passed the position was very much the same as it had been before. He could see very little benefit in having the members elected by school teachers, though a precedent fOr it did exist in Wales, and, he believed, in other countries. THE TRUCK ACT. A Truck Act Amendment Bill had been introduced by Mr Pirani, and in his opinion should have been passed into law. Mr Pirani's Bill was simply intended to allow magistrates to introduce the equity and good conscience clauses, which would enable them to give their decisions in accordance with their ideas of what was right. (Applause.) It seemed to him that people who opposed the Bill said that magistrates •could not be trusted. He said that we had men like Mr Martin, Mr Beetham and others, "who could be trusted. (Applause.) The Bill was thrown out because Mr Seddon would do his best to defeat anything Mr Pirani brought up. (A voice : What about the Chinamen ?) Well, all he had to say was that thpy had a Bill brought in dealing with Asiatic immigration, and he had supported it throughout. PRIVATE BENEFIT SOCIETIES. The objectionable features of private benefit societies were that t^e men were in many cases compelled to subscribe, while they had no voice in the management of the fund. When a man left his employment he renounced all claim upon the society. Snch a system gave the employer an unfair advantage. He (Mr Lewis) had suggested to the Premier an amendment that banks should be included in the provisions of the Act, and the Premier had inoluded them. However, the measure had been thrown out by the Upper House. GOVERNMENT ADVANCES TO SETTLERS. He came now to the question of advances to settlers. (Applause.) It had been proposed to increase the amount which the Government could advance from .£2500 to .£4OOO. (Interruption.) He had opposed the clause, as he considered the intention of the Act was to afford assistance to struggling settlers, and he did not see how a man with security to borrow ,£4OOO could be called a struggling^ settler. (Applause.) THE LOAN BILL. He came next to what most people called the Loan Bill, but the Government called it an Aid to Public Works Bill. He was opposed to the Bill from the first. The present Government had always professed to be opposed to borrowing, and no reference to anything in the shape of a loan -had been made in any of the pre-sessional speeches of Ministers. Of the sum proposed to be borrowed Canterbury would receive about .£20,000, on which they would have to pay something like .£7OOO a year interest. Mr Lewis went on to criticise the proposed aid to the gold-mining industry, and said that the fact of the Premier's connection with a foreign mining syndicate gave the transaction a sinister look. The quarter of a million allotted to railways should have been spent in finishing important lhnis, not in tinkering with a crowd of minor one 3. OLD AGE PENSIONS. The Old Age Pension Bill had contained a great many clauses, but that dealing with finance was practically the only important one. The House was generally agreed on all the rest. In his speech on the Bill the Premier had burked this | question altogether. After the Bill had got into committee it had been moved to make the application of the Bill universal. (Applause.) It was all very well to say I that such a scheme should be made universal, but they must hav&a beginning, and even when persons having incomes of more than 10s a week were excluded the initial cost would be .£250,000, The main question was one of finance, and under the circumstances the Premier was justified in throwing over the Bill. LABOUR MEASURES. Then there was the Eight 'Hours Bill, (a voice : " Two hours.") Well, he had a two hours' contract that evening. The Bill was limited in application to private employers, and he held that it should be made applicable to employes in Government printing offices and workshops'. The | Premier had refused to entertain the idea, but it seemed to him (Mr Lewis) that .the' idea of making the Bill applicable to private employes and not J to the Government was ridiculous. He had voted for the second reading of the Master and Apprentice Bill as brought down, with the intention of dealing with it in committee, but it never got that far. He still held to the opinion that the Bill brought in the previous session was a most iniquitoxis measure, although he had been told by his Gloucester Street friends that it showed his hostility to Labour measures. Howover, the clauses he had taken exception to in that Bill did not appear this year, having been thrown out by the Labour Bills Committee. That action showed him that they had arrived at a more reasonable stage in regard to Labour matters. THE USURY BILL. Another policy measure of the Government was the Usury Bill, which he regarded as purely a politicai measure. He contended that the rate proposed as the minimum (8 percent) was too low, and any man wanting money could not borrow it at | that rate unless ho had good security. These usury laws had been tried in many countries, but had always been repealed. In his opinion the best way to deal with the matter would be to alter the bankruptcy laws so as to make it compulsory for a man to ask the consent of his creditors before borrowing, and it' that were not obtained he should be compelled to wind up his estate. RAILWAY CLASSIFICATION. With regard to the Railway Classification Bill, he explained that it was intended to provide that all men in the service should get promotion .automatically. He considered that it had much to commend it. The Minister of Railways, who had introduced the Bill, was a really honest, capable and painstaking gentleman, and had drawn up the Bill after conference with a deputation of railway men, who had expressed their satisfaction with the measure as brought down.. The whole cntx of, ijhe measure was in the schedule, and as the Minister

was backed up by the deputation of railway men in declining to allow any alterations in it, he had stood by the Minister, after first satisfying himself that none of the present employes would suffer any reductions. (Applause.) If he were returned again he would have better opportunities of seeing htfw it would work out before next Parliament. Mr Lewis concluded by thanking them for their courteous and attentive hearing. With the expiration of the present Parliament he would have to restore the • trust the electors had given him. He had stuck to his work, and hoped he had done his best according to his lights. If he had not done much good, he had at least done nothing to reflect discredit upon his native town. (Applause). j •' QUESTIONS. In reply to questions, Mr Lewis said he had opposed most of the provisions in the Liquor Bill, and had. voted against nearlyall of' them. Had he been a member of the Government he was not sure that he would have agreed to J. J. Meikle. getting so much as .£SOO as compensation for his seven years' imprisonment. He had voted for Mr Mills's Bill to give Chemis a new trial. As to whether it was justice or not to bring Leonard Harper out from Home he was not prepared to say, but if it was just to bring him out he ought to have been taken Home again after his trial. There was no division on the second reading of the Shearers' Accommodation Bill, but he had voted for the reduction of the fine of £50, and had also voted to reduce the space for each man to 240 cubic feet. Government had, seized the Midland Eailway because the Company was not making Ihe required progress. He was in favour of women holding seats upon Charitable Aid Boards, bvit, he was ashamed to say, had voted against women entering the House. He was distinctly not in favour of removing all disabilities from women. He was not in favour of the abolition of the Upper House, although some change might be made in the mode of filling vacancies. The Laud for Settlements Actwas avery good measure, and provided for landless men getting on the. land. As to what he meant when he had said that he would abolish women, what he had said was, that to bo logical, if they were to abolish liqupr, they should also abolish money, which was the root of all, evil, and women, because it was always said there was a woman at the bottom of everything. If the other twelve Canterbury members had come over and sat with him, they might have got more i money spent at this end of the Midland Railway. Mr K. C. Bishop said Mr Lewis was to be commended for facing his constituents within forty-eight hours of the closing. of Parliament. He moved — " That this meeting tenders a hearty vote of thanks, and expresses its satisfaction with the manner in which Mr Lewis has .fulfilled his duties I in Parliament as representing the city." ! The motion was seconded by Madame I Winter. The ayes and noes appeared to be about equal, but the Chairman declared it carried; and a vote of thanks to the Mayor for presiding brought the proceedI ings to a close. - [Pee Pkess Association.! DUNEDIN, Oct. 19. Mr George J. Clark, a candidate for the Waikouaiti seat, addressed the electors at Ravensbourne to-night. He is an independent, and believes in measures not mcD, :i_.v;-;:tO'-;.'.:i...',. -„. . ■ .

but he would be sorry to see the Opposition in power, in place of the present Government. He supports the Bible in schools, nationalisation .of land and minerals and the Referendum. He received a. vote of thanks. Mr E. M. Taylor addressed a meeting of electors at the Mission Hall, Sydenliam, last evening; Mr J. Forrester occupied the chair, and. there was a fair attendance: Mr Taylor gave his views on the political questions of the day, but, at his own request, no vote, either of thanks or confidence, was proposed. Mr H. J. Beswick, the Mayor of Christchurch, has decided to be a candidate for one of the Christchurch seats. A rumour was in circulation yesterday to the effect that the state of his health would prevent Mr W. W. Tanner again seeking the suffrages of the Avon electors.. This rumour is unfounded, as Mr Tanner is in very fair health, and will address the electors at an early date. A well-attended meeting of friends and supporters of the Hon W. Eolleston was held in the schoolroom, Prebbleton, last evening. Mv J. Haydon occupied the chair, and after a general discussion, a committee was formed to work the Prebbleton portion of the Riccarton electorate in Mr Eolleston's interests. Applications for enrolment are noiv being received in largo numbers, more especially for the Christchurch electorate, in which the roll is expected to total some 15,000 names. Mr L. C. Williams, the registrar for Christchurch, Avon and Riccarton, is haying considerable trouble through many of the applications for enrolment being improperly filled up. In several cases the applicants have neglected to state the qualifications on which they claim, whilst j others have omitted to give their ad- j dresses, and in some instances the forms are not witnessed, whilst some have come in witnessed, but without the signature of the applicant. One matter that it would be as well to call attention to is the fact that any registrar is precluded from witnessing signatures of applicants for enrolment for districts not under his control. A number of persons who have hitherto been in the Avon district, and who reside at' Woolston, have applied to register. at the Christchurch office, but have beerl tumble to do so. In their bases the matter is extremely' awkward, as all their neighbours are new applicants and therefoi'e cannot witness signatures. In such cases it would be as well to sign the application forms before a Justice of the Peace and send them by post to Lyttelton. It was stated in town yesterday that Mr Blake was likely to come out as a candidate for the Avon district.