MR. JOLLY AT THE TOWN HALL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1288, 24 June 1884, Page 2

MR. JOLLY AT THE TOWN HALL.

. There was a fair attendance at the To wn Hall last evening, when Mr S. Jolly, the working man’s candidate, addressed the electors. Mr Yenables occupied the chair, and briefly introduced the candidate. Mr Joily commenced by criticising Sir Julius Vogel’s speech, saying that his; address was a hollow delusion and a snare. Ho (the speaker) quite agreed with Sir Julius, that we should not sell the rail, ways, but yet the latter hqd advocated a Company to construct the West Coast line. Mr Thornton, an engineer of Christchurch, had discovered a seam of coal, and if a private railway was made the cost of carriage of the mineral would be far greater than if taked by the Government. The real cause of depression was that too great a quantity of land was sold wholesale. There wer« in the colony too many bankers, too many merchants, too many land owners and too many, agents', and the consequence was that if the truth could be discovered very few people really had a freehold. He syould advocate that money should be borrowed at 4 per cent fron|i the Bank of England to pay off the interest of loans qbtained at 8 per cent. This would save on the debt of the colony more than L 3,000,000. When wo had obtained L14,000,00p by this means the colony should not sell any mow land wholesale. The year before last-we had •to pay L8.f100.000 for goods brought into this colony, and wl>en it was gonsiderqd many of these goods could be made here sutqething should be done tQ alter theqe things. What we wanted was / that there should not be so many land owners, bankers and lawyers, and it war

Strange if 5 the working men cm: a not band together to send to the Homo v'i'o- • par persons to represent them. > Mr Jolly ' then repeated hie argnmente in favor of establish in g a National Bank, by which over 1.600,000 won d be saved instead of going into the hands of the Bank of New Zealand. In thirteen years the debt of New Zealand had increased L 22.500 000, and including mortgages 1,45,000,000, and wet they came down on us and taxed us still note. L 1,840,000 had been spent in three years in public " works, and what was there to show for it? Major Atkinaon said the depression was due to the fall in. the price of wool and grain, bat he (Ur Jolly) did not think we were such sheep as to believe that. Some people thought that land near railways should be taxed, but he (the speaker) did not believe in that, but the men holding l arge tracts in idleness should be taxed. He would advocate that the Maoris should •ell their land as theyjliked, as the moneywould be left" in the country, and it would be better for all. As to nationalising the land, to carry out this would mean thatthe colony would have to pay L9,C00,000 Us interest on lean, and he certainly did Wot think wo could afford this. After indulging in some amusing strictures upon the press for not having reported his speeches more fully, Mr Jolly went on to speak of education, advocating that masters should be paid a. uniform rate, ro that children might be taught as well in -country districts as in the towns. If the ' Government gave help to the different denominations to establish schools, so long aa they were under the control of the. Inspector, a large amount of money would be saved. Speaking of federation, the candidate said that we should be independent of Australia, aa if anything • happened we should have to pay our share, without gettiag an advantage. He quite agreed with Sir George Grey that we should have an elective Governor, as at present we had one over us who know nothing about our wants and our country. If- we had. a Governor who had lived among ua it would prevent land jobbing and useless" expenditure in public works. None of the men now in the House could form a policy, and every party was in a state, of dissolution. The speaker then gave.the audience his own policy, which appeared to be as follow*:—Borrow money from the Bank of New Zealand to pay > mortgages and thus secure the laud to the people, the establishment of a National -Bank, free trade in Maori land, abolition of property tax, and putting an -impost -on waste lands and absentees, and protection for -the purpose of encouraging ; local industries. The candidate then proceeded to repeat his arguments ip favor of a uaifeira railway rate, which : .with the assistance of _ moveable, ' sheds at the port of landing would be made to pay “ something enormous.” I Toe whole management of our railways was a disgrace, and although he might 1 never go to Wellington, all he hoped was that some of the things he had said on the -. platform might be considered by the members of the House. The candidate was applauded on taking his seat, hut some time elapsed before any 1 of the audience responded to the request J ; of the'Chairman to put questions. At last > an Elector inquired of Mr Jollywhother he was of opinion that the public works 1 oomjpenced in the colony could be com- • plated for less than L 6,000,000, and he | "answered that his panacea was the estab- ■ lishment of a National Bank which would ' borrow money at 4 per cent and pay off 1 the mortgages now. bearing interest at 8 ' per cent, and use the balance for public works. The candidate said he could rot t only hold his own against all the lawyers t ~ In Wellington, but he should like to ses 1 the best man there tackle him on the plat-1 * form. He would not favor free immigra- t tion, "end thought the Government should t make arrangements with the Union S.S. c Co., to ship the men who went to Sydney t from New Zealand beck here again at half a price. Be did not think it would be wise » to put duty on the exported frozen J . meat. He thought that the Salvation I Army procession* should be. dealt, with by . ■ the County Council. j After some delay a vote of thanks to i Mr lolly was moved and seconded, and 1 on being put to the meeting was declared 1 .earned. ’ ’ ' “ C