MR ROLLE6TON AT TEMUKA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1296, 3 July 1884, Page 2

MR ROLLE6TON AT TEMUKA.

At the meeting heid by Mr Bolleston last evening at Teiuuka there was a good attendance, the chair being taken by'Mr K. F. Gray. Mr Kolleston commenced by stating the reasons he had come forward as a candidate for the Geraldine constituency. He then went on to speak of the dissolution, and said that in the previous session the Government were in a majority, and the Opposition let matters go principally by default, and it now remained to be seen how it was that at the beginning of the last session of the Parliament the Government was in a minority. Well, there were two questions which principally conduced to the defeat of the Government; first, the imposition of an increased grain tariff, and secondly, the dealing with the native lands. It might have been said— Why did they go to the country 1 and was there not a hope of the Opposition carrying on the Government \ Well, the resolution of the Opposition was intended to mean that they should go to the country, The resolution condemning the Government was passed in silence, and was the result of common action on the part of men determined to .turn out the Government. Therefor# they determined to let the country have a say in the matter. They had had, it was true, quasi leaders speaking. They had Mr Montgomery, who had been used as a cat’s paw, putting forth a policy of separation and bursting up ; Sir George Grey preached the “ unearned increment,” and so on. There was no united policy, and so the Ministry advised the Governor to dissolve the House. The papers had said there was no policy for the people to decide upon, but be differed from this There was the policy whethep the lands of the ] colony should be preserved from land t sharks and grabbers ; there was the <juea- I

tion whether the property tax was to be continued, or that, they were to go hunting after a Will-o’-the-wisp like the' ‘•unearned increment,” or the “bursting up ” policy enunciated by Mr Montgomery. Then there was the question whether they were to go in for a new flatter instead of prudently developing the resources of the colony. Now with regard to the increase in the grain tariff it had been said that the introduction of the increase was inopportune. The harvest was small and ill-gotten. This latter part he admitted, but they must remember what had been done in the past. They had lowered the rates on the assurance that traffic would increase. This was done, but the result did not cotnq up to expectations. The revenue for the past financial year was estimated at L 300.000, but it fell short of this by some L 50.000 Seeing that this reduction had been made tentatively, and that the revenue, instead of amounting to 3 per cent, would not be more than 2, they had to decide what to do. either to increase the rate or leave that to Parliament, and they had taken the odium on the selves. They had not done it sooner because they expected to bo able to meet the House without raising th* railway revenue. He would point out in passing that, the freights were now no higher than i.i 1831, and did not.represent more than a fair charge for services rendered. They must also, re- 1 * member that the Government represented all parts of the colony, and that those non-grain producing parts of the colony had a right to insist that a fair charge should be made for services rendered. There was also a large expenditure on rolling stock and shed room for the especial service of the grain traffic, which was not required, at any other portion of the year. Mr Rolleston then defended the action of the Government in not increasing the rates for wool, arguing that there was not ione-third of that commodity carried on the Northern lines as there was on the South. Ho deprecated the idea of sectional railway rates, arid considered the General Assembly would not listen to the' idea that the railways should be treated as other than colonial property. He would now speak.of the financial cpndition of the colony. He did not think that the depression now complained of was more than temporary. .; i; They had passed through quite as' bad before, and he felt this, that there was a summer and winter’ in regard to finance as well as to nature.' When they took office' they found the five million loan authorised and about to be',raised. That loan had been forestalled, and further public wp.rks initiated to-the-extent of eight millions. The Government set itself to work to administer the finances economically, yet the expenditure of their first year of office amounted to some two millions. They then fixed the raising and borrowing of money in such a way as would prevent the forestalling of the loans raised, or the appropriation of the money except to specific works. ’they found also that something like a million on the general revenue had been overrun. The,Government at once decided nob to allow the land revenue to be diverted from its true object, viz, the formation of roads and making bridges, in opening up the country and settling it. They had instituted the property tax as the purest incidence of taxation, and from that time their credit had steadily risen. The five million loan went at while the last million went at 6s 81 over the LIOO, and it was nonsense to say that they had done nothing to restore their credit on The London market and with the public creditors. They would wish to know what should be done with regard to future borrowing. Thera was only one million left of that sanctioned to be borrowed. The new Parliament would have to decide what was to be don® in the future in regard to borrowing. The first principle he thought they should adopt with regard to future borrowing was as a people what would be done by a wise arid * prudent man whose "estate had been involved. Their borrowing should only be for specially needed work until their population had grown and resources had been developed. The speaker proceeded to defend the land policy he had advocated, arguing that the perpetual leasing system would prevent the lands of the colony falling into the hands of the landsharks. He bad been accused of doing away with freehold tenure, but this was not true ; nor had he any desire to nationalise the land, but he did desire to establish the perpetual leasing system so as to secure the holding of the lands of the. Crown by the greatest number of people. He.desired to se© the land classified into pastoral-agriculturel, pastoral and agricultural. Now, with regard to the pastoral, he would not sell any more Their present revenue was L2 jO,OOO per year, and this ought to be conserved. The pastoral tenants should be kept as graziers, and not encouraged to.become land speculators, and the pastoral land should have such a tenure given to it as would enable the tenant to pursue his avocation of wool growing. lu the past they hud been driven to buy land, and the result was that the agricultural land had been kept from the bands of those who required it. Now with regard to semi-pastoral country. His. idea was that blocks of 5,000 acres should be held under perpetual leases, with compensation for improvement, and he believed that these lands would be made to hold a class of people who could • live in comfort. The system of alienation under the pastoral deferred payments was, he thought, wrong, and the pro per system was perpetual leasing. H had had to ded with 175,000 acres of land on the West Coast of the North Island, and it was proposed to sell this right out. Had this been done it would have fallen into the hands of a speculator, and instead of the 30 ) homesteads which were now on it there would have been a cattle or sheep walk. This was done under the homestead residential leasing on deferred payments which had the result of preserving this land from the speculator. Now during the four years he had been in office ovpr a million acres of land had been sola to 4,000 persons under the residence clause, which meant 4,000 homesteads. During ten years over 10,000 settlers had been placed on the land under the land policy of the Government, and he should always support such action as would prevent the land falling into the hands of speculators. They were a people so bound together that settlers placed in one district were of interest to all, so that though these settlers had not been placed on lands here the people of this district must feel an interest in them. The perpetual leasing system was, he considered, an enormous boon to the people who were cultivators of the land, when they considered that the sale for cash meant putting the land under the power of the speculator. After dealing with the questions of native lands, over which he thought the Government should have pre-emptive right, and [ giving his opinion in favor of the property tax and non-interference with the present system) of education, Mr Rolleston concluded by saying that he had been for some time past a well-abused man, but he was never afra : d to face the criticism of writers in the public Press, though exceedingly powerful. He was sensible, however, that public men were often very much misrepresented in the public prints, and the hand of one could be often seen attempting to influence public opinion, sometimes most unfairly arid unjustly. He appealed to the people, who,' he felt, Were quite able to judge of their public meii fairly, apart from these small and petty spiteful attacks, and uninfluenced by them. He thanked them very heartily for the patient hearing they had given him, and trusted to be able to address them again before the day of election. '

After some questions had been as* snored, the following resolution was de* . dared carried, there being about twenty . dissentients: —“That this meeting accnrds : the Hon. Mr W. Rolleston a hearty vote of thanks for his address, and also ex- ! < presses its confidence in him as the representative of Geraldine in the new Parlia* ment.” -