PUBLIC MEETING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 741, 12 April 1881, Page 2

PUBLIC MEETING.

Messrs Bunny and Beetham M.H.R's addressed their constituents in the Public Hall, Carterton, last evening. The meeting was well attended, nearly 100 settlers being present, Mr R. Fairbrother Chairman of the Local Board took the chair on the motion of Mr Bunny, and called upon the senior member for the district to address the meeting.

Mr Bunny said—Mr Chairman and electors of the Wairarapa, Mr Beetham and myself have invited you here this evening, for the purpose of expressing our opinions of things past and present, and, as far as we can forshadow, the future. In these days of rapid communication it jb unnecessary to go too much into past questions, those who take any active interest in politics are already familiar with them, I propose to begin with the period at which the present Ministry came into office, to refer to the questions of the past session, and to indicate the probablo course of events in the coming one. I will then refertosome affairs moreofalocal character. I may say that neither my colleague nor myself ask you to give us a vote of confidence, the proper time for doing this will be at the next general election, through the ballot-box. When the present Government came into office the financial affairs of the colony wero in a very ticklish state, and it waß necessary that determined steps should be taken to put them on a proper footing. This not only applied to public affairs but also to private ones, many persons having got into a habit of living beyond their incomes. The Government brought in the Property Tax and increased the Custom duties. I am glad to say that the former is tolling up very well, and is likely to exceed the estimate. When £220,000 is paid within 'the space of a fortnight, it shows very well for the resources of this colony, The Customs revenue is less than the estimate, but this decrease is easily accounted for by people having to curtail their expenditure, I would liko myself to see a Property and Income Tax in the future, and to reduce the oustom duties, excepting on articles of luxury. Major Atkinson in a late speech claimed that people paid an Income Tax through the customs. I differ from him on this point and maintain that persons with large incomes are not taxed by Customs duties. I have read a speech recently delivered by Sir Edward Stafford, in which he alluded to settlors in New Zealand with incomes of from £30,000 to £40,000 per annum ;. the Customs duties do not tax men with incomes of this amount. There was, too, this objection to the Customs. The merchant puts a profit on the duty which he has to pay, the retailer adds another profit, and the public, the consumer, has to pay the duty with these profits added. As long as we do pay the Customs duties, I would like to see the Government reimpose the duty on tea and sugar. I don't believe the people at large derive the slightest benefit from its. remission, and it cost? notljing for oojleotiou, The among other 'things 'in the way of retrenchment, knnoke'd off 10 per cent, from the salaries. I do not'npprove of any uniform reduction of this kind On a large income 10' per cent, is scarcely felt, but on a small one it is a sorious matter. I would sooner have seen a graduated scale of reduction, and hope to see a faipr principle ndqofed in the coming session! Another 'tjjing which I advocate in the way of retrenchment but which I do not expect to be very popular is that I would reduce the Education Vote by £IOO,OOO a year, Those people who want their children' eduoated beyqnd the Fourth Standard ought 'to''pay for it. Any persons who, want their sons to learn Greek and Latin ought to pay for it. (Applause,) Another retrenchment can be made in the Government Buildings, thousands a-yearrqay be saved there by abolishing the red-tape system into which we have got, Take, for example, the Auditor-General's department, Wo can afford to send that gentleman travelling about the neighboring colonies, visiting the Melbourne Exhibition,and enjoying himsplf thoroughly,and, tl|e questiqn which occur? to' us .'will bp, if that gentleman can be spared from his office all this time could we not do without him altogether? Messrs Batkin and Seed have been travelling round the North Island for the paat six'months, and are now gone South to see what further reductions, can be made, I only hope that these gentlemen, in their report to the Government, will be patriotic enough' to state what I know, viz,', that their departments have been better conducted during their abgenoe than tljoy ever were before, and that their qp services should be amongst those which should "be dispensed with. -1 hope next session to see a return giving tlio qnioqnfc of salary and compensation, with ;the nan)es of those officers who have been dismissed, written on the one side, and on : the other a list of those who have be'on taken on. If the Government/does not lay on the table suoh a return, I will .move for its production, I will next refer to the question of public works, O r ur railways and their management are matters of the. greatest concorn, and as far as I can judge,'the management of them is exceedingly bad, No attempt is made to •encourage traffic, or to give people excursion trains. No discretionary power is given to the local manager, and on the Wellington and Masterjo.nline, the jianager is about as good a man as can be gojt hold of.' He is, however, tied hand and foot, and has no more power than this table, To' give an instance—when the raising of the tariff of timber threatened to paralyse the trade of this district, I went to Mr Ashcroft, but found that he had not been consulted on the question, and that until the order was absolutely given for the alteration, he knew nothing about it. He was the very man ..whoso opinion should have been taken before any change was made. I am not going to find fault with Ministers in this respect, though I have no great opinion of the present Minister of Public Works. I am of opinion that a Bill should be brought down next session to enable private companies to construct railways. It we can bring about a system of constructing railways by private companies, we shall find them muoh better managed than the Government lines. I shall next say a few words about" Native affairs." First and foremost'J support the course Mr Br'yce intended to have taken at Parihaka, (Applause) Nine out of ten;of (he papers published in New Zealand looked upon Mr Bryce as the best

Native Minister NewZealand; ever'.had, Mr Bryce had organised his plpns,\and, saw hia way to Zea- v land as far as the natives art ■'■ concerned}'' but when he wanted to take a step to show his mettle, his colleagues held him .back, and he did quite right .to resign. Te Whiti is a harborer of murderers.' If he is that peaceful man that he is represented to be, how is it that 700 armed men are required to be maintained in his neighborhood. With such a force to be kept up, some Government or other must sooner or later take a strong measure The fact that we can concentrate such a force on one spot, and yet keep the peace throughout'the rest of the colony, shows that we have the power if we choose to exercise it. We cannot afford to maintain WO men to keep Te Whiti peaceful. I will nexfcspeak of the government of this country. There is'no county in the world so overwhelmed and burdened with a multiplicity of Governments as New Zealand, and no country with so little real practical Government. We are gradually getting to a system despotic Government under permanent heads of a Department who are responsible to nobody, and who yet are ruling the country. It is impossible for the seven gentlemen who constitute the Ministry to grasp the affairs of the country, and so its affairs are under the control of heads of Departments. When my friend Mr Beetham and myself go to some of these officers—l say some of them only-we can hardly get a civil answer, and if members ar9 treated like this, I hardly know what sort of answer the general public gets. We have gone also too much into, the importing line. We have imported an Inspector of Asylums (a laugh), and an Inspector of-prisons, showing the world that we are incapable of managing our own affairs. I will now speak of "the County system of Government. lam adverse to it altogether. It is very costly and has turned out an utter failure. We shall have yet to go back to some moderate form of Provincialism to carry on the work of the country. At the late meeting of County East my friend. Mr Beetham. stated that he had taken great interest in the County work, and would like to see the end of it. (A. laugh.) Mr Beetham, I think, had then seen the last of it, and the end was very unsatisfactory. The income of his County is now but LB6 a year. This is _ a fine sum for making roads and bridges. This LB6 requires nine gentlemen to meet once a month. I hope to havo Mr Beetham's assistance to change this state of things. With reference to borrowing, the Government has made up its mind not to borrow, but I believe it would be a wise thing to borrow a million, not for railway purposes, but for roads and bridges. And now as to what course I am going to take next session. During the last session I gave the Government a" fair and reasonable support. I.belieye a frequent change of Government to- : be -bad for the Colony. I am of the opinion that; the retrenchment policy of the present Ministry has been beneficial to the Colony in restoring its credit in the London market. It would be very unwise, in my opinion, to_ disturb a Government which is doing this for the sake of changing men. If the Government carry out the measures which they propose I do not think it will be wise.to.turn them.out. One or two of the Ministry are good men, and ono or two of them are awful muffs, 1 do not pledge myself to do so, but it 13 my intention to support the Government during the coming session. One of the great misfortunes of every Government is bnugins! down every session an enormous quantity of bills which are not wanted. I trust-the Government will bring down only a few bills, which'they intend to pass in the coming sossion, and stand or fall on them ns a Government should. Amongst the bills brought down I hope to see an electoral bill, which will give each olectnr in the Colony, one vote and no more, this will, work favorably to all Another thing I hope to is a reduotum of election e X p enßeß , p flop , 6 talk about tha honorarium of two hundred guineas, but I venture to say that %fo?Mfmostly Beotham.-Mr lhara|yn and myself over £I3OO, Triennial Parliament., will -result in returning only wealthy men, and men with moderate moans like myself, will be excluded unless the election'expenses re educed The redistribution of seats bil Df he Government gives'one member to ■ Buohdißtriot.Btfdwillgo along™ towarsre; uc;ngt.l,p W t o Ja,j elecW ' Ml 'will be' tvo i ttj§« } Ir T beetham will 'be returned ' loronendllortheotlier. '(Lau*hler ' mdappause) -Anduowl coL t the ' Veil ngtonand-Eoxton railway question; 1 rheWAiKAUAPADAity that i ' »» not again gqi)ig t q bq elqcted bficause : ' Oawo httoknow, but I suppose he ' year'agon ' on unction with Sir William Fitter- I art, to acquire 800,000 acres of the best 1 and in thowlony from the natives, and < ipen it up for settlement, I beg leave to ' ellmyfeendthatMastertonisnotNew ' Zealand, and I am not going to give up ] upporting a great work initated ten years < '?L W Btf%TO H° the bargain, r ecanse the 'editor pftlie Wairabapa ■ >AILY la guided by a friend of mine at * oatljerstnn, J have not a better friend « gn the editor of the Waihaiufa Dam. « Kur Bunny during this part of his speech, l reated considerable amusement, by indi- 8 j«ing the person ho was referring to by £ lieatriMl gestures],.. He always abuses » ie,and if he can't do so himself he gets v fnend from FeatheMon to help him. I ' avo not the slightest fear as regards the i iture Zealand, and. belipya there b I a turn in. its affairs already apparent I P m glad also to see there are person's with 2 ifficientfaith in this part of New Zea- ti Hid to import expensive machinery for fi ie Featherston reefs. On the present tl soasion, I do not ask for a vote.of ennfi- a snoe but at the election which will take E laoe before the end of the year, I expect a' )do so, J Mrjunny resumed his seat amid eon- $ derable applause. ci Mr Beetham, on. rising, said it fell to tl is lot to be tho second speaker, and he o: iared. Mr Bunny had left him very little w i say, But in son)e things he differed si om his oojleague. Qn the Eduoatiori n aestion he agreed witji Mr Bunny that tl ie expenditure must be reduced; and tl 3 thought that if the Government gave w ee education to the extent of the first, ai ipqnd and third standards, those who m aired hjghe.r eduoatipp for their chil•en should be prepared'to pay for, it, ai had been calculated' that.if those who are being educated in the fourth standard tc id upwards were to pay Gd per week, a im of £3OOO might be raised, which w duH about meet the increase in the m ite the Colonial -Treasurer was about to 3i ■opose next session. He thought the B Bp indicated would be a good one, He tl so agreed with his colleague, Mr vi unny, that the abolition of the tax on si a and sugar caused a loss to the pi venue without benefiting the taxpayer, tli e agreed that a great deal might be ac iproyed in the management of our pi ilways.'' Local managers should be tl lowed to deal with local contingencies, as thbut regard to a uniform rule. He in- to inced the case of Messrs Booth & Co. 's cc wmill, Had the 1 fixed rule been con- M iued, where the department now re- pt ived £6OO a month from that firm they mid not have gained £IOO a month, of e was sorry he could not go with Mr sa inny as regarded native matters. He dt lieved that Mr Bryce was the best v

■Native Minister the colony had yet, had, but he:alaoJ believed that if Mr Bryce's planlwlth regard to the seizing of Parihaka.had'been carried out it would have involved the colony in a costly war; and would be a step which would prove a severe-blow to the advancement of: the country,.Jt was all very well-to talkof Parihaka Sheltering murderers.? Ministers had,.before this, had to shake hands: with murderers. A native war at'"this' juncture would mean ruin. His colleague had made a few remarks as to the County i system, and: read, him ;(Mr Beetham) a lecture on certain remarks he was reported to have made..at, a meeting-of-the.; East County, Council, : What; he' ; had' meant in the remarks referred.to. was,' not ;• that he would be glad to see the end of <:' the County, but of the work it had,;in.; hand. The Road Boards could very well do for the present what there was to do;'' Money was what was;. wanted by 'the * Counties, as well as by other public'' bodies, and Provincial Governments would have,been, in the. same position.. Provincialism -had been,'abolished., the County system,.,which took itsplace/j had worked very well, and only wanted!' money, as every other thing.did .in, New*'. Zealand. He would not go over ground::; that had been gone over before, or .given * fully in the papers circulated amongst them, but would say a few wbrds'as'to' thefuture. As Mr Bunny- had - Biid, 1 the Wairarapa district was to be divided into two electoral districts, 'He should offer himself for the North and Mr Bunny had said he should stand for the South,. The . point of division he did hot think waif generally known. It was from the source of the Waingawa, following its course down to the Ruamahunga, thence,along,-.the.y boundary of the Highway Board to, the" Coast which" would about divide the Wairarapa. With regard to the future of local public works, money was the necessity,■": and' many, would recollect the scheme which was proposed by the Colonial Treasurer to enable loans'' to bo raised for local public works. '. This-' 1 scheme had not received the bqnaidera-.' tion it deserved, but .he hoped the., editors of the papers of the distriot; would place this matter before' their .'■: readers, when it would be found that. the,, plan would be very suitable to this district. He was glad the Colonial Treasurer

had taken so hopeful a view of.their finan<

oial future in his late utterances, No new taxation was to be proposed. The landrevenae had realised the Property Tax might be said to liaje coma up to the estimate, and there would be a a million and a quarter expend on public works. All this showed plainly that we had power to pay our taxes and were in a '■' fair position for advancement. This,' ; would cause an influx 'of population■ and a consequent increase of capital, and progress of the colony.'He had travelled in other colonies a great deal lately,'and had not been able to holp'thinking to'• himself every day that his lines had fallen, . in pleasant places, and that our colony' was indeed destined to be the"Britain of the South." Our climate was a splendid, one, oursoil good, our resources unlimited, and we might fairly expect, and; would,/.. attain to, a proud position, During last, . session the Native Minister introduced a'. Native Land Sales Bill, which placed the . sale of all native lands in the hands of the various' Land Boards, and not an aora could be sold without passing through their hands. This was a measure very repugnant to many, as the sooner native lands passed into the hands of Europeans the sooner would they be made to help to bear the burden of taxation, He had voted against the Bill, and though it war carried by the help of, the Opposition, '. it did not become law. A great deal had been said about the land question. It had been said that the Minister of Lands did not want to see the people settled on the land. He would like to disabuse the minds of his hearers on this point. , The Minister of Land? and. his colleagues were' very eal'llest ill tile hiatter, alld he fejfj sure they were giving the work of settlement their deep attention, He gtajed that in th,e lifangapne and Pahiatua ' blocks 496Q aores had been taken up by 19 selectors, who were pushing on well with the work of settlement, He agreed with his colleague as to'the fairness of a nroporty and income tax, but found, on enquiry, that many difficulties were in the way, notably that of collection. He ■ alluded in complimentary terms to those who, like-Mr TpJliWhe, though'living out of the Colony, still contributed their.. just share of, its taxation. He expected thequestion of '"• Protection y Free Trade" would coriie on next session, and stated- - that he advocated Free Trade; So.nie of his hearers might be. surprised, a* (hey \4 known him to advocate the timber duty. He intended that ft was one of those subjects on which, one might 'depart 'from a fixed principle, as their forests would havo.,remained idle and been wasted through the owners not being.a,ble to competo against other placos- He thought perhaps he might be allowed to speak a few words of a non-political nature, Arrangements ought to be made for getting their surplus stock to market, They had 11,693,000 sheep in New Zealand, out of this 1,000,000 wero.Fjavallajjle fos •»™i a 84.8t9d par lb,.h»Wij-million o| money blight be raised.' as at present thgre was no way of getting them to a market, He thought attention . should be- paid'to the refrigerating pro- : cess. He was gratified to find that though the rabbits had increased, their sheep had also increased by 30,000; ■. Most people knew the efforts that were being made to get rid of the rabbit peat, but he would point out that they were not facing the rabbit question as they ought. A' man who could kill GO a-day on his land qoqld hardjy save: himself from ruin. ' it. w,ould. pay better to-, give by per rabbit' 1 than; . 2d," as by the time they.'.'were-des,-. troyed by the latter: rate,'..three' fourths of the. carrying- power-of tho land would have been destroyed. - also, He would like to have heard; Mp Bunny's opinion on hospitals and ohariti able aid. [Mr Bunny \ I'll give that at Slasterton; must reserve something.] {This was one of the questions that would come up next session. However, he thought he would reserve further remarks on the subject also till next evening, ■He would like to say that as he would be standing for north Wairarapa ho might not have again the pleasure of addressing " them as their .representative, but n£ thanked them (or the'patient'lnantier jn whioh they had always listened to hitri, and wished theni all the good that one: man could wish another. ■ • > " Mr Beetham then resumed his seat amidst applause, The Chairman then inyited anyone to question Mr Beetham. ' ":"" 1 ' Three questions were asked.. One, aj fq. , why the 4th Standard children should be, made .to pay any more than Ist, 2nd, and 3rd Standards? The seoond, whether Mr' "l Beetham thought the time haa" arrived for - '■ , the question of the planting and conservation, of forests to be seriously oon» sideredl The third, why a Maori, if he paid no taxes, should ~have,a vote? -ToM •■ the first question Mr Beetham replied.in,, accordance>ith the opinion he had e£ Hpressed in his speech. To the seoond, that ho did not think the tihie had arrived, as they were stijl cutting down, the forests "\ \~ to obtain a living from'the" ground they,;''.'.? covered.. To the third, that only,those.:.;' Maoris on a ratepayers 1 roll, or owners of' property in severalty;'had votes.; 'V/.'.v'

Mr W. Booth then rose'to move a vote of thanks, Their representatives had said they did not want a vote of confi* dence. "/ ;V ; .

Mr Bunny: We have got your confi? |■. • )

dence, we only want your thanks. (Laughter). Mr Buchanan seconded, and the vote was carried by acclamation. [Messrs Booth and Buchanan both made able speeches in moving and seconding the vcte, ; the former'advocating the opening of the lino to the camp, and condemning the West Coast line, and the latter speaking in defonceof the County system, fe We will endeavor to do thorn more justice M, tn our next issue.] J The meeting, which throughout had Wfk.beon most orderly, then dispersed, after ■p tho _ customary_■ vote of thanks to the "■ Chairman, which, was moved by Mr Bunny. '••'..