MR TRAVERS' MEETING.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3108, 27 January 1871, Page 2

MR TRAVERS' MEETING.

Pubsiunt to Mr Travera' announcomenb, that he would address the electors at the Hull last night, a number assembled at the appointed hour, but they did not roll up -with the s»\rne promptitude as at former meetings, the gallery being almoßt empty at 8 o'clock, and the hall only about half filled; but very soon after I the hall became well filled. * ' His Worship the Mayor was called to the chair. Mr Travers said he had already addressed several email meetings, but he hnd felt it his duty to ask the electors generally to do him the favor of moeting him in that room to hear a full expression of his views on the public questions of the day. Mr Travera, in referring to the insinuations made in a public print of the city, said he thought that any one seeking their suffrages should, as an indispenablo qualification, have clean hands at least. Mr Travers then proceeded to correct the misrepresentations of the " Advertiser," to the effect that lie had resigned hia seat for tho sake of obtaining an emolument from the Government. The whole explanation was, that Mr W. Pharazyn, the assistant law officer of. the Crown, being ill, and requiring a respite from his duties, Mr Travcrs' partner, Mr Ollivier, was asked to assist, in the some capacity as Mr Pharazyn for a short time 5 bub Mr Travera said, thut as Mr Ollivier was* the working bee in their firm, ho could not well bo spared. He however, offered his own services to tho Attorney- General, as likely to be more useful to them and less inconvenient to hia tfwn business. This was tho whole matter ; and as regarded the exact remuneration, it hnd assumed in no way the appearance of a bargain, as it was too delicate a matter under such peculiar circumstances. A certain offor was made and it wa3 accepted. Mr Travers then occupied some time in dealing with tho strictures of the "Advertiser" on himself. He for his own part discountenanced all such tactics, and such scurrilous writing, und was bitter in his remarks. Mr Travels then proceeded to quote from the columns of tho " Advprtiser" to show the extraordinary change of opinion that had come over that paper lately with regard to both General and Provincial politics, and the personal character of the Ministry, and wound up his comments by saying that the " Almighty dollar" was at the bottom of it all— its praise ho looked on as censure, on its censure as blame. The speaker then exhorted tho electors not to part with their votes until they were thoroughly satisfied that an honest cofidence existed between themselves and the person who proposed to be their representative. Mr Travera then enumerated all the largo questions of the day, on each of%hieh ho intended to express his opinion. First, we must resort to immigration in order to people the colony, as was aeon in. the peopling of the United States of America ; but it would be madness to bring immigrants to this, country unless tie could offer them the usual accompaniments that create immigration. It would be impossible, therefore, to carry put this without ear» rying out public worka of utility, accompanied

■ ■'. ' < ( > ■.-■'■"."■> ' ", -■.' -. ' ,-. ■'.■■-"■■"-■ with power to the immigrants of acquiring land'' with a reasonable degree; of' facility-- , these must go band in band. Otherwise we should be creating pauperism. He was not prepared, to say that the coubtry : 'would not ' be permanently benefited By the expenditure of large Biims of money; hut unless we had; some provision for enabling those whom we brought out to settle down in thp country, ruin and disaster would attend us. On the ->-■ land question, Mr Travers said it was apparent that public opinion was gathering its Btrength for an attack on that system of land tenure by which men held tracts of land as largeas principalities; anditwastheimminence of that danger that brought forward sucjmftt as Mr Hunter and Mr Pearce, to endeJ^to stave off tho evil day a little longerl^MT Travers then quoted from a parasjeaph- which recently appeared in this journal to show the ; large preponderance of very small farmers in the agriculture of tho United States. Owing to tho excess of manufactures over agriculture in England, she did not occupy the sound and healthy position that as a nation she ought to do ; it was even shown by the observations of medical medical men that a greafc portion of her population were, owing to that very thing, degenerating both physically and mentally. The land question would never be properly dealt with until the colony possessed a strong Government that could unhesitatingly grapple the difficulty. Regarding tho, 6ta°te. ment of Mr Pearce that a great part of the Highlands of Scotland was only fit for thtf rearing of black-faced Bheep, ,Mr Travers quoted from a work of M. Sismondi to show how thousands of families had been " re* moved" from the hills and glens of Scotland, which were then converted into large sheep farms—■instancing in particular the estate of the DucheßS of Sutherland. -In parting with our lands so foolishly in this colony, we had committed a grievous wrong both to ourselves and posterity ; and in looking into the history of our land regulations it Bhould be our duty to re-convert the country from an accumulation, of great sheep runs into small and busy-looking farms, where we might raise happy and wellfed people instead of sheep. The jand question must eventually assume such pressing importance that lie felt convinced that the whole voice of 'he colony would be heard in demanding back what was once the estate of the country; and he believed, if all other means jailed, they would compel these lands to be given up without any compensation whatsoever. On the San Francisco mail service, he did not care what people thought about his speech on thai subject on a former occasion, he had always been of opinion, - that the proper port of arrival and departure should be where the fieafc of Government was, especially when the place possessed the best occupied harbor in the colony. He In3wof t unoccupied harbors that were quite as good. His chief argument for this view of the case was that the seat of Government should be the terminus— if we had it. He wanted to r see tho- business of the country transacted here ; Ministers should not be running hither and thither continually. But he objected to the scheme- altogether j it should have .been carried out in harmony with fchepowerfulcojony of Victoria s.in fact, it should not have been entered into at all, as being too much beyond our means. He regretted to say that a public roan of New Zealand should have addressed Buch insulting letters to a neighboring colony as Mr Vbgel had. done to Victoria. The letters were vulga* and scandalous in the ertreme, more calculated- to make the Victorians " get their backs up " than to entice them to join cordially in the arrangement, and were.nofc in any degree an emanation characteristic of a gentleman. He thought the best interests of the colony lay more in promoting relations with the east than with the west, Ifc might be very fine to suit the vanity of Mr Fox and Mr • Yogel, to give them an opportunity of writing letters to the President of the United States— to which they never got any answers, because it was not the rule with great powers to enter into correspondence with erery little insignificant dependency— but he contended that it was not only a line far above our means, but also not calculated to induce immigration, owing to the terribly high fares. On the question of the patent slip, Mr Travers assured the meeting that the erection of that slip by - Messrs Kennard was lost to the province, as nothing would ever induce those contractors to spend another sixpence toward the erection of tho slip. Education was the next subject touched upon, and his opinions were identical with those already enunciated by Mr Richmond. The financial policy of the Govern* ment was then referred to, Mr Travei-3 quoting from Sir Duvid Moriro's speech at Motueka, ' to show that a yerj considerable fulling off hnd tuken place in the Customs' revenue ; also referring to return of marriages in the vital etatisticß, and various other statistical tnbles— all going to show that m had been living beyond our means for several yearß. This was evidence that the country was going down hill too fast, and every one should unite in his exertions to make the Government restrict their expendi- ' ture to suit the position of tho country. The colony ho might say was galloping to an official bankruptcy. As long as a country raised an excessive taxation ifc only served as a fruiiful generator of jobbery and other improper' practices in government affiairs. The way in which public affairs were being conducted at present iorcibly reminded him of the etorv where Artemus Ward says— "Live within your m ?w 3 ,'~ 1f you hnfe t0 borrow money to do it. That was our exact position and practice, ' and it behoved the electors to return men who would resist this to the death; if not, measures for further and more direct taxation would have to be made. He firmly believed that the ministry of Mr Stafford, which had been turned out by the present one, was really the most economic that the country had had for some time. On tke question of the treatment of Jhe riatives, he was of opinion that if the natives would allow us to live in peace, well and good, because we were a peaceful loving people ; but he could not help thinking a serious effort would yet have to be made by tho people of the country, and he knew we were quite capable of doing it if vro were allowed. He objected to seeing so much credit given to the present Government for having brought peace to the WestJ Coast district, for before they took office Colonel Whitmore had driven Titokowaru into obscurity j and moreover, if Colonel Herrick had been allowed to prosecute to the finish, the Wai--karemona expedition that he had carried so fur, the war in that district would have been finished twelve months earlier; but he was prohibited on tho moat shallow of pretences. That was a political mistake, though he -gave' Mr M'Lcan the credit of having been actuated by perfectly honest; motives m seeking to establish peaceful relations with the nalites. St;ll he found fault with the policy that dictated such a course, and thought a great wrong was done to tho colony by removing Colonel Herrick at tho moment he wa3 about to capture the rebellious ruffians. Mr Travers depreoated these rascally insinuations connecting Mr Richmond's name with certain painful disasters, and no man of any right feelings would do it. He had been asked to say a word about provinohlisru, but ho hardly thought it was worth while kicking a follow when he wtte down ; and it was pretty evident that provincialism was as low down as it was possible to be, for if there had been a spark of vitality left in it here, Dr Feathersfcon was just the man who would, have stuck to it to the last. Still, it was easier to tear down than to build up, and it was in a mmk degree so with provincialism, yet he thougKft ! beneficial change might be effeoted. Mr Carpenter, as one of the old radical party, thought that the meeting was deeply indebted to Mr Trovers for his eloquent and powerful exposition of the principles of that 'X party, so feebly expressed In olden days} an# /: he, for his parfcj was happy fco see that am^ter hand had revived the old agitation,iah<£ it&"i; went a great way towards conwli^ hf^ for^ i the deoadence of the party and thavdeat^of!?! -^ '':-■ its chief. -Jle begged to propose MijT^Jawa^'B as a fit and proper person to 'ifipves^ t^ixiMvk^ in.the neit Parliament. ' ■: . „u" >:.

This was seconded and carried unanimously. Mr Travers then briefly returned thanks, hoping the electors would show their enthueiaem for him by taking it to the poll. He also put a word in for his colleague, Mr Richmond, reminding the meeting that they would only be studying their interests by sending in men who would march Bhoulder to -• shoulder, aud bo found voting one way. In reply to a question as to whether it was true that ho was a runholder, Mr Travers proceeded to recouut the whole history of how he became possessed of a run in tho Nelson province j but he 6aid he was not a runholder in the strict sense of the term. He owned only about ten acres, and anyone who chose might, to purchase as much of the run as he saw fit, and though it might entail some inconvenience upon him, he was in no position to prevent it in any way. - In reply to another question as to whether he had not, by his vote, assisted in turning out Mr Stafford (his much-vaunted financier) and his present colleague, Mr Richmond, he gave a positive denial, as he was out of the province when ifc occurred, and was rery much astonished when he learned of it. So opposed was he, indeed, to any such course, that shortly before going away he cautioned Mr Rolleston and Mr Bell that whatever political action they might be forced to take, they ought to take no part in turning out the Ministry, as they would find it a difficult matter to replace it by a bettor. » A vote of thanks to the Chairman, proposed by Mr Richmond, and three cheers for Mr Travers, brought a most orderly meeting to a close.