MR S. JOLLY AT THE TOWN HALL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1263, 26 May 1884, Page 2

MR S. JOLLY AT THE TOWN HALL

One of the intending candidates for the vacant Ashburton seat, Mr S. Jolly, gave an address to the electors in the Town Hall on Saturday evening. The building was. crowded, people evidently coining out of curiosity and the prospect of having some amusement, rather than the expectation of gaining information on important topics of the day. The address was listened to with attention, and although at times the laughter and applause were somewhat uproarious, no attempt was made to disturb the peace. Judging from the effect of the speech, we should say that Mr Jolly’s chances of success are not very great. He has considerable power of eloquence o! a not very refined kind, and his knowledge of the rules laid down by the Hie Liudlay Murray is certainly primitive. The questions put at the conclusion had evidently been framed in a spirit of banter, and the seriousness with which they were answered was not the least amusing part of the evening’s entertainment. Punctually at e'ght o’clock Mr Venables took <he chair, and briefly introduced the candidate. '

Mr Jolly prefaced his speech with a few autobiographical facts, for the purpose of explaining who he was. From these it appeared that he had b-'en a great traveller, having lived in many countries, , and now ho sought the suffrages pf the Ashburiea constituency as a working man’s candidate. The speaker then i launched into the question of our railway management, a subject be evidently felt very strongly upon. We had lines,, he said, going through broken .country; that would never be settled, and "similar projects were still being carried out. If the electors put Sir Julius Vogel in the House he would go in for borrowing millions, and the working man would have to pay for it. What was the present state of the colony ? All the hands were out of work, the revenue was falling, and yet those in power went in for more taxing. Every working man in Canterbury must know that the great object-was the construction of the West Coast line Yet instead of carrying font this work, the legislators helped to put twenty millions into the hands of the Banks, and the “ mercantile V’ which enabled the rich to live in idle luxury while the bulk of the people, the real producers, were at their wits’ end to keep themselves from a state of semi-starvation. He would-: advocate small holdings in land, and he also thought we should go into the market and obtain funds for starting a National Bank, so as to keep the money in a small “ circulus.” L20,C00,000 of gold had been got from the Coast, and this bad all gone into pi irate hands instead of the men who had worked the mines deriving any benefit. There was a great deal of talk no w-a-daya about taxation, but nobody seemed to know what the Property tax was. He would toll them. It was taxing the producer, and lotting the 15,000,000 acres of land now lying in idleness go . free. Mr Jolly then went on te discourse of the management of the railways, for which he seemingly had supreme "contempt. He said we had 150 men in the House, and what were they ?• Merchants, bankers, land owners, and lawyers, but there were no supporters of the people. We had got a jumbling way of working the railways, and a little common sense was needed to set things right. He would suggest that moveable sheds should be placed alongside each vessel in port, so that she might bo discharged easily, and enable 25 trucks to be loaded in the same time that it took to load ten now. As to the ocean-going steamers, they were extra cost to the shippers, and this came out of the pockets of the people. At the opening of the Lyttelton dock, Mr E G. Wright had referred to the quantity 'of goods carried by the steamers. If it was not that our railways were managed in such a blundering way the railways would carry more No -v wo had to pay extra for travelling up and down the lines and very little merchandise was" carried. He had been looking at the new tariff, and there he found classes crlled A, B, C,'D, and so on. They didn’t have this kind of thing on ships, and he -thought that a ton of one sort of material should be carried for the same price as a ton of another. The railways should carry everything at a uniform price, and let every poor man have a slap at it. A low price for cartage would be better than running empty trucks. man should be given free use of the line, and half-a-crown should be charged as the fare to Christchurch. If this were done many working men would ride who now preferred to walk. The excursion on tho Queen’s birthday was proof of the wisdom of lowering the fares. They reduce the rates and get -a lot of people to go, and then when the holidays are over they shut you up. He n'W came to the coal industry, which he wps the first man to start in New Zealand. The speaker then gave elaborate statistics to show jbe returns of coal from England, Nova Scotia and other parts of the world. Ho had gone to Newcastle and found thaji tho Christchurch tqerqhauta toade a clear

profit of 10s on every ton of coal, while in Ashburton they had to pay L2 10s a ton Half a million of money was going to for coal, while we have the mineral here and men remaining idle The West Coast coal was so good that not even the best that came from Wales and England could rub it out The working men should rally up, and soon they would get coal in Christchurch at 21s per ton. He had seen an advertisement in a Victorian paper, asking- for tenders for the supply of Newcastle and New Zealand coal—New Zealand preferred. An appeal was made to the Government, but nothing cameof it, because there were too many coal merchants in the House engaged in importing. He ceuld toll them that a small quantity would not pay, and as Newcastle could not meet the demand this was our chance to work our coal. He did not believe in the mileage system, and would charge the same price however far the coal was brought. Mr Jolly then went into figures at great length to show that if 16s were obtained for a ton of coal 6 per cent, would accrue to the railways. Than there were the timber and gold of the West Coast to be developed. A Royal Commission had reported on the West Coast railway, and what had they done? They had told barefaced lies about the matter, and it was for this they had been paid LIO,OOO. They said that the timber on the top of the hills was valueless, but they forgot-te look at what was at the foot of the hil ! *j and the report had simply blinded people. “ Sir ” William Montgomery had told the working men not to interfere with politics and ho (the speaker) could tell them that if the leaders would not go into these things the men should go into them themselves. Montgomery said he was a liberal and yet he bought all the land round about Akaroa to prevent the working man settling down. Now he came crying about the Government carrying their Bills through at all hours of the night, but if he had anything to complain of, why did he not go to the Governor and have it set right 1 If they put merchants, bankers, and lawyers into the House, the working, men had themselves to blame if their interests were not looked after. It was all rubbish to say they wanted c’ever men in the House to manage the railways. He (the speaker) had only come away from a theeshing machine about a month ago, and that evening he had told them of a scheme. Mr Jolly resumed his seat amidst uproarious applause, and the chairman then put the following questions, which had been sent to him in writing Would Mr Jolly be in favor of granting the same voting powers as men, and would he grant the same to his mother-in-The candidate said that he considered that men were the bread winners, and women should not be allowed to interfere with matters outside the house. As to his mother-in-law, he had to say that he did not possess one. Would lie have any objection to ride in an ordinary first-class carnage instead of a special.—As a matter ofecenoroy he preferred second-class. Would he support an Act limiting a lawyer’s charge to Is 8d instead of 6 s Bd.—Anything to do away with lawyers would have his support, and he thought they should do the same as in America, namely let any man plead. As to lawyers, they very often took a note in one Hand to plead for a man, and 30s in the other te hang him. Would he be in favor of the appointment of a Government Rabbit Catcher.— To this the candidate made a long answer, to the effect that rabbits'were a plague in the country, and it was the duty of the Government to put it down.,

Would he endeavor to form a now Ministry pledged to carry out his coal policy I—He did not think that there was any man in the House capab e of forming a policy. Sir George Grey was too old, and alb the rest h »d interestsof their ow to servo.

Would he favor a. Bill to move ; straw* stacks out of Ashburton I—The gent'email ‘ who asked that question was evidently , hankering after the contract. If defeated, would he accept a seat in the Legislative Council ?—All the Councillors should be working men, fo* the purpose of keeping others out. Had Mr Purnell made any overtures to Mr Jolly for the purpose of forming a middle party ?—He had not the honor of Mr Purnell’s acquaintance, and no such overtures had been made.

A final question was then put to Mr Jolly from the body of the Hall, asking him whether he would be in favor of granting a premium for the coloring ofmeerschaums. This appeared to rouse the candidate’s anger, and he commenced another speech in answer. He said that of all the people he had ever met, those Id New Zealand were the most ignorant. They might ridicule him, but he could warn them that if they put Sir Julius Vogel into Parliament they would live to regret not haring listened to his (the speaker’s) warnings. ■ A vote of thanks for the address was moved and seconded and was carried by acclamation.