THE CITY ELECTION.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3109, 28 January 1871, Page 2

THE CITY ELECTION.

> The meeting convened by Messrs Hunter and Pearce, in Clapham's paddock, waa held outside the Princess Hotel last night at 8 o'clock. About 100 persons had assembled at the appointed hour, and his Worship the Mayor was called to the chair. In a few appropriate remarks on the duties of the electors on such an occasion, he begged an attentive hearing for any gentleman who might address them, and called upon Mr Pearce to address the meeting. Mr Pearce said he would avoid, as far as possible, a repetition of the ground already travelled over, and plunged at once into the ■ question of publio works, on the necessity for which he said the whole body of the electors were agreed. The only question was the carrying of them into operation. He then referred to his former eulogy on Mr Stafford's good qualities as an economic administrator, and on his indefatigable industry ; but Mr Stafford had hia failures, and these consisted in his native and defence policy. Perhaps the fault did not lie so much with Mr Stafford as with Colonel Huultain and Mr Richmond, who so sadly distinguished themselves by their mismanagement ; but still every member of a . Ministry was to a certain extent responsible for the acts of the whole ; and in such a case it was impossible to separate the guilt. Now, he bade them recollect the difference, both in practice and in result, that characterised the administration of those affairs while in the hands of Mr M'Lean. He did not believe in the justice or fairness of the cry that was raised that Mr M'Lean purchased the good behaviour of the natives, because he had amply showed that he could not only propitiate by gentle means, but could, when occasion required, act promptly and energetically, and put them down with the strong hand. They oould all recollect his action at Oamarnru — how when the natives persisted in their hostile attitude, he called out the militia in the middle of the night, and marched them at once to the enemy's pa, a distance of twelve miles, and ordered them to surrender, and when' ,they refused he surrounded the pa, again called upon them to surrender and give up their arms. When they still refused, then Mr M'Lean ordered his men to attack them. The result was that many were killed, a great many — nearly the whole of them— captured, and very few of them got away. What then wad the conduct of the Government ? Why, they began to hesitate as to what should be done next, and wondered what they were to do with the prisoners. Every one could realise that since Mr M'Lean had been in charge of native affairs we had peace, and they could see by what he hsd told them that Mr M'Lean could act vigorously and effectively when it became necessary to do so ; he could fight when fighting was required. Surely they would not think then of superseding Mr M'Lean by Mr Bichinond. He had no wish to refer to those horrors and disasters that eaeryone so much lamented, or to reflect in the slightest degree on the personal oharacter of Mr Richmond ; but he would say that they would show their appreciation of the blessings of peace Mr M'Lean had procured for them and their discrimination by not putting in a man who would be regarded as his opponent in the native polioy and his probable successor j as there was not a man present but would acknowledge that the colony was deeply indebted to Mr M'Lean. Mr Pearce then roferred to the San Francisco servioe. A great deal had been good-hnmoredly said about himself on that matter, in connexion with Mr Vogel'sname, and that that gentleman had hoodwinked him when he was one of the deputation that waited on Mr Yogel ; but they must remember that the Postmaster-General was master of the situation, and that the action of the deputation rather took the form of a protest. . Still, it was a subject on which he differed very materially from the present Ministry, nB he still maintained his original opinion, that the proper servioe that should have been carried out, should boen that which was advocated at the great meeting hold at the Odd Fellows' Hall. He sincerely rogretted, however, the action the Government- had adopted toward the colony of Victoria, and he thought it a grievous mistake that they had not availed, themselves of the presence of Mr Fitzherbert in Victoria at that titno, and have instructed him to communicate with that Government on behalf of New Zea-

land in the matter of the service. While believing that in any service of the kind thai; the proper point of arrival and departnre should be Wellington, he was guided to that conola* sion by entirely different reasons to those alleged by Mr Travers, who based his argument on the fact that Wellington became entitled to be the porb of call merely because she was the «eat of government, and that a like qualification would have given Auckland or Dunedinan equal claim to the privilege; neither % oould he coincide with Mr Richmond's assertion that it was a cheeky , thing for us to do to enter into such a contract. It was not cheek but pluck a,nd sound enterprise as they must all admit with what unanimity the whole colony had advocated the opening ofii the Panama service— a service which cosSjnst four times the sum the present servioe cost. The one cost something like £100,000 per annum, while the present one cost only a fourth of that Bum (Mr Gillon : £60,000), That meant the service about to be, not the one in operation ; on the former no money had as yet changed hands. Still, dear as was the Panama service, they all realised the advantages of it ; but admirable as it was in its way and at the time, the San Francisco line must be considered infinitely superior in every way • and although we were doing it alone, we were doing it cheaper. Well they could see by the speeches of Mr Travers and Mr Hichmond at the Odd Fellows' Hall, that they were opposed to the service altogether. (Orieß of "no no.") They could say what they liked, but it was riot so long ago — and his memory was good— that he heard Mr Richmond express himself against the service, Mr Travers certainly did not go so great a length, but said that if we were to have a service Wellington should be the port of call, and he had already repeated Mr Travers' reason for saying Wellington should claim that distinction. Mr Travers did not; support his view with the argument by the fact that Wellington possessed a good harbor or a central position, but simply because it wae the seac of Government, and that any other place in the colony enjoying the same distinction would posßees the same olaim. His arguments for making Wellington the terminus of such a line, were baaed entirely on her geographical position and other advantages. Wellington occupied a somewhat analogous position in commerce to the Island of St. Thomas, but superior fn many respects ; and he should like to see Wellington occupy the same position with regard to that service that St. Thomas did to other services. That porfc possessed a good harbor, but it possessed nothing else ; while we had not only a good habor but a good climate, a fine country, and everything else. Every steamer that went to the West Indies, to, the Windward Islands, to Demerara, to Hay ti, tft Jamaica, to Havana, and to the Gulf of Mexico-had all to call at St. Thomas. That was a feature that should be repeated here, and he could foresee that such would be the case some day. That was a prospect ahead of them which they should keep steadily in view, and in making their selection of candidates, these considerations should have a due weight with them ; and he thought they would be most likely to act wisely when they Beleoted from men whose interest* and those of the province were one and the same, and not in preference to men who come and go, men with nothing but their carpet bag. Such was the poisition of at least one of the candidates, whose only olaim upon them was because he claimed to be a centralist. Why they were all centralists . for that matter— at least every Wellington man ought to be a centralist. As regarded free trade and protection, it was a subject that required to be looked at with discrimination, as there was a great deal of truth in both propositions. Free trade meant the removal of all obstacles to the attainment of those things which we had not in abundance; while protection, on the contrary, meant the removal of all obstacles to the manufacture of all those articles which we were obliged to obtain elsewhere. If they could arrive at a satisfactory solution of tilts problem by devising the means whereby to bring this about, the whole thing would be settled. He was in heart a freetrader, but he entirely agreed with the statement of the case as ifc was put'by • Mr Stuart Mill, who said that in a new country it might not only be necessary, but was often absolute wisdom, to encourage by every means in ouj- power, local Industry ; and to that extent he would go. On the subject of education he trusted he did not require to tell such an audience as he was then addressing t^at they ought not only to admit that the education was right, but that it was necessary and absolutely imperative on them to provide it; for he did not believe there was one who would dispute ifc. As a rule, of course the majority of the people would take care that their children were educated, but still they could not disguise from themselves the fact that there would be a certain number of ohildren both in the large towns and the country districts, whose education would be neglected if some sort of compulsory regulations did not exist. It ahould be the duty of the Government to see that these ohildren were educated, but they should first see that provision was ' made for doing so. There should be no interference of the Government in those - schools that were working efficiently and independently— nothing should be done to disturb them' unless it was a yoluntary arrangement; but in those schools that wished to come under the operation of a Government scheme, it was a different matter. He believed the Government were then engaged in "preparing an educational measure to bring forward, at the next session of the Assembly j and if any denominational school, be it Wesleyan, Scotch, Roman Catholic, or any other, wished to come under the operation* of that measure, it should be entitled to do so without any interference to its special creed. It was however, the country districts where the Government would be called upon to pay the greatest attention to the education of the ' the people; it was there where, through, various circumstances, peoplo were liable to be remiss, and where it called for Government interference to see that proper education was provided. He would even go farther, and say that it was the duty of the Government to see that every child was sent to school. It was just as muoh^the duty of the Government to see that parents provided good education for their children as that they provided bodily sustenance and clothing. If parents neglected to do the latter, there was a law in the country that would compel them to do it ; and they were just as much bound to look after the mental culture of their children as of their bodily sustenanes. He regretted that he was physically incapacitated from speaking m an open air meeting so well as he oould wish, as his lungs were not very strong ; as it called for greater exertion and power than Bpeaking in a moderate tone in a comfortable room, and as he had touched upon the subjeots in which they were most interested, he would be happy to answer any questions that might be put to him, on any point that he had omitted to touch upon. That reminded him of a request that had been made to him just as he was mounting the table, and by a gentleman whom he could hardly say he had the pleasure of knowing, though he bflieved he was connected with the " Advertiser" newspaper. (This announcement evoked considerable noise). He was osked if he would deny the assertion made by Mr Travera last night in reference to that paper. For hi& own part these were matters that he paid but little attention to ; but as he had been requested to be good* enough, to state what he knew about, tne statement that the " almighty dollar." was the oause of the support the " Advertiser" gave to iitfsrs Hunter and Poarce, he oould not but W so, He was prepared to say, as far as he was concerned, that he, had not given the paper one " . single sixpence for its support, far less one dollar. At the time that the paper had commenced to support himself and Mr Hunter, he did not believe that 'he had contributed a sixpence 'towards its support. Somuohfor that matter. \ ; An elector then put the question — "Are . you in favor of obtaining land: on deferred : payments?" '. .•- ; . ][ : -i;;'. ; Mr Pearce thought it would be a miataif ;

for the people to gefc land from the Government on the system of deferred payments— not for the sake of the Government, but for the sake of the people, as his own impression ■was that it would not be a wise thing for the people to do. They should nob make the Government their masters in that way. In reply to another rather loosely-worded question, put by the same elector, Mr Pearce Baid it simply amounted to a question of immigration. The best system of immigration ■would be to encourage the people here in sending for their friends at home ; and if they could succeed in doing that they would find they had put in practice the \ery best form of immigration. He was not one of those who advocated schemes of immigration simply as a means of lowering the rates of wages. On being questioned as to his views as to the encouragement of local industries, Mr Pearce expressed himself to the samo effect that he Lad in his speech. Ho could see the wisdom of protecting industries or manufactures if there was any prospect that after a limited support of that kind they would be able to maintain themselves. He believed in starting them into existence and assisting their development, provided there was a reasonable hope that they would be at some time able to hold their own and maintain themselves. This was no new doctrine of his ; it was neither more nor leBS than ■what had been written by John Stuarfc Mill, than whom they could not find an abler writer on the subject. They must not say, however, that he was afraid to speak on any question they were prepared to question him on ; and although he had not intended to speak on the land question, yet he would 6ay something on it. He had told them that there was land in this province, and a greal deal larger proportion than many people would believe ; and he could assure them that not more than one-seventh of the whole province was at that moment occupied — for the one acre owned or in occupation out of the seven millions comprised in its area, cix were lying idle. Very little over a million aores][were held by freeholders, and he only spoke of what he had figures to prove. If they wanted to get this land they had better get railways to it, and then they would not only be glad to give £2 an acre for it, but would give £10 for it. He knew of no country where the laboring classes were in a better position to make money than they were hero, and all they wantod was that the Government should open the Country, as was proposed and would be done by Mr Vogel's policy. The best sign that the policy was a good one was that Mr Stafford and Mr Fitzherbert were admirers of it. If any risk attached to any one by the introduction and carrying out of that policy, it was not tho working man who incurred that risk, but the capitalist and landowner, who had something to lose. As to the depreciation of the position of the country, on which Mr Richmond was so eloquent, and drew such a doleful picture, he would admit that tho position was disastrous and needed a change ; that should not; be looked on as the result of a falling offin our resourcea, .but as a natural consequence of our position under the operation of different causes. With this in his eye, Mr Richmond had pointed out the othei? night in his speech that as population increased the Customs revenue fell off, and that the samo thing was noticeable in Victoria. But he could tell them that that was only an apparent falling off, and it was amply compensated for by the increased revenue derived from public works. In 1861, the public works in Victoria had not got thoroughly into working order, and the revenue derived from them amounted to £90,000 per annum ; but would they believe it that in 1869 is amounted to £700,000 per annum, and that was what he expected to see in New Zealand. Questions were then sent to Mr Pearce about the railways of Canterbury and Southland. The former he considered as one of the best arguments in favor of the construction of lines of railways; and as for the latter, he thought it would not be fair to cite such a case of error and want of judgment. It led from a place where there was almost nobody to a place where there were still fewer. But that railway was not altogether a mistake, as it would pay at some time. When he recollected that the first railway established in the world was one between Manchester and Liverpool — a line which the wise-acres of these days condemned — was hardly known, and seldom heard of, he saw everything to hope from the introduction of railways and opening up of the countrj. (Mr Hunter then addressed the meeting, but the latenoss of the hour compels us to hold over our report to our next issue.)