THE RANGITATA SEAT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1616, 22 July 1887, Page 2

THE RANGITATA SEAT.

MR ROLLESTON AT THE ODDFELLOWS' HALL. Lasb evening the Hon. W, Rollesfcon addressed a meeting of th« electors of the i'angitata electorate at the pddfollows' Hall, Aehburf-.n. The Hall was orowded, and tho chair aras occupied by the Mayor, iCrT. Bealy. The meeting wag a moil orderly one throughout, The Mayor briefly introduced tho speaker. Ide said that Mr Rolleaton waß before them that evening as a candidate for the uewly constituted district of Bangitata, and he was sure that he would receivo a fair and impartial hearlrog from the meeting, and that Ashburton audiences would maintain their character for conducting themselves m a quiet and orderly manner. Mr JRolleston ; who was greeted with applause txpressed his pleasure at such a uumbor of gentlemen having assembled. He felt, to a certain extent m a strnnge position, on an Ashbu-ton platform asking Raogitata electors to support his oandidatuwi for the House of Representations ; but though tho position was rather j strange, it was not an unpleasing one to meet a fresh group of electors, electors whom any man might bo proud to reprosentj electors who were tho backbone of the community — the farmers and agrioultutists of Canterbury. Alluding to the fact of his being on an Ashburton platform seeking the suffrages of the electors of a dißtriqt taking its name from the Rangitata, he said that he thought that on the whole the operation of the REPRESENTATION ACT was not all that the people could desire. He had previously thought that the position taken up by the Government m regard to this meaaure was an unfortunate one. Parliament had abdicated its funotions as regarded this question of repre sentation, functions which should inalienably attach to the representatives of the people to a commission. The representation could not be adjusted by any rule of thumb, and it was impossible for any body of men, no matter how honest and able they might be, and he had no doubt the gentlemen who composed the com* mission were both, to perform a duty such as this satisfactorily to themselves and to the country. His own opinion was that the Represent ttion Bill should proceed to defiae the natural boundaries and group the people m geographloai districts, and then tbe number of members and other details could be ieft to the final decision of Parliament. But tho position of political matters had lattterly been so confused that it was quite impossible for the Government to have carried a Representation Bill through the House. Suoh a BUr was difficult to foroe through at any time, but the position lately had been bo muddled that the Government had not had a party stJong enough at its bsok to force through a Bill satisfactory to the oounty. Therefore the Government resorted to the experiment of the automatic pdnolple. This was a obuntrj of experiments but that with regard to Representation was not altogether satisfactory. However, they had to make; lh3 beat of things as they were, and, at far as he was eonoerned, he was satitfisd with his district. It was » large one and required oonaiderabta enduranoe to get over it, but he hoped that, whatever h's othor qualifications, he would get arqiainted with the wants of Unpeople throughout the whole dis^riofc. He thought that the Gavernment had done wrong m hot taking the Bill through m the previous session, beoauae the House had be?n placed m a very awkward position* Great quertiona canoe apdtrlogtha last session m which an appeal was made to the country, thus involving two sessior s instead of one and had put the country to great expanse and he thought it unfortunate that the election had not taken plaoe before the laat session. THE POSITION as he understood it, now before the country was this :— The Government met Parliament with a very considerable deBolt, and the revenue was falling short every month by £18,000 or £19,000 or nearly a quarter of a million a year, and this while the present elec iod was being carried. The Government had made proposals to Increase taxation' by more than a quarter of & million, and the question now before the electors was this :— Are you prepared to submit to this increased taxation or are you determined that there shalt ba retrench' raent. It seemed to hiai that thin wa3 the main question. The Govoenment might beat about with Retrenchment:, L\nd Lawn and Education, but this question overshadowed them all : Are wo going to rotrench before we submit to further taxation? He did not think there was much difficult m answoring this. Since goiop out of office the Government had cad a sort of death-bed reprentenoe, and. the Premier had lately acknowledged that it was possible to retrench to the extent cf £100,000 m addition to the £20,000 stated to Farliambnt. The country had a right to suppose that if the Cabinet went into the matter again theyoould see their way to savo another £100,000. It wag not sufficient to retrench only to tho amount of , £100,000. Retrenchment to the extent of £2;0,000, at least, was needed if they wanted to live hosestly as a cDuntry, restore equilibrium to their finances and establish that confidanoo with the outside would, whioh waa needed to put New Zealand on a proper footing. Dnringpaat years we bad been borrowing to a large extent, and wa^ had now reached a point where the interest we have pay at H( me Is very great, and the position is beoomlng more eerioua every day. For the fust time the people were awaking to- the fact that something is wrong m the Gnanoial position, and that it was time to bestir themselves. Blame for the state of affairs had been thrown upon the Government and that, and upon the representatives, bob »he fact broadly stated was that the representatives took their one from the people, and that If the latter were extravagant and localism determined to put its hand into the pnbllo ohest the representatives would follow m the wake and they might take it that the Government would be no better than the representatives, or that it would not be ab!e to resist their importunity. This, he thought, was the first hopefo.l time m the reoent history of the colony, because he saw a general* move towards tconomyj Economy he had been preaching for years, from it he believed waa the only safety for the colony. He did not wish to press his own claims on tht.ni that night, but he thought he was entitled to remind them of the course he had taken m the past That oonrse had rabj roted him to much derision as being a man who waa overprudent and cautious and who was inclined to put pa the brake too muoh, He did not repent of that course, for the tendency had been too muoh on tho other side, and they must have men with Btrong viows on either side if they were to have a happy medium. He would not aik them to go back to the inauguration cf the poHoy of 1870, but he would ask them to go baok to the time whan his Government left office m 1884. 'they had had three eventful years since then, Tho present Government went into office with the cry that the country was doling and that it resources were elaatlo enough to satisfy any treasurer, that it only wanted reinstated finance and it would proceed with leaps and bounds. The first year, .884, was a year of equilibrium. The Government said that little could be ex« paotad from an increase of taxation through the Customs, as the people were already too heavily taxed. The reve ua . was relieyei by the appropriate of tbe

4inktn; Fund, and the Government pa ;> ' out of loan wha 1 , had prevlons'y baeo paid out of revenue. The next year 1885, the Government B^id that thing* were not proceeding, ia spite of the se'zireof the sinking fund, aa pleasantly as they wished and the country was not going ahead by leaps and bounds. Thereupon they revoraed their prof easlohs of »he previous year and propoaod hrgelf increased Castotnß duties, but,the Hou*e aaH that they we old have noni of it, and h*> thoaght the country endorsed the deeminatlon of the Opposition on that occasion. That year was Blgnaliied by proposals »hat would, if carried, have landed ths colony m diffionlties, compared with which our present onea wereamall indeed. There was the Meggs proposal by whhh the colony would have been committed tj £97,000 a year for 20 years, anl there waa the proposal to subsidise the looal bodies to Mm extent of £303,000, and to enable them, to borrow on the strength of that revenue to the extent of seven or eight millions. He asked them what would have been the ooantry'a present position had there not been men' in the House who would have none of it. la addition, the Opposition, not content with negativing these proposals, also took steps, through Oaptain Russell, to curtail the expenditure of borrowed money by half a million a year. The Government was itsongly averse to this course, and at the time tha oountry ranj with Ministerial denunciations of the aotion of the Opposition. Time had gone on and he thought tima had justified what they did. Coming no^w to last year 1886-7 the Government; appeared to hava been again somewhat divided m their connse's, At one end of the country lha ory of the Premier *as eoonomy and taparing-off borrowing, and at the other the Treasurer advocated giving the country another chance meaning to go m for further borrowing. Here waa a display of extroardinary Inconsistency by a Ministry at a most orit'ol time m the history of the colony. Mr Bolleston then went on to deal with the profensons of the Government of tapering off. He referred to several of the items m : the schedule of the Loan Bill, and he said that never had such proposals been pat before the' oountry likely to be of leas advantage to it. Thtra was the Blenheim-Tophousa Bailway, which would require abonfc throw quarters of a million, and would bo utterly unreprodoctive ; then there was the Inangahua-Westport line, to which the same remarks would apply Another proposal was the Thames-Aroha Railway, which would run alongride a navigable river, and m addition Aroha was alreahy connected with Auckland by rail. The Helensville Northwards Railway, about which they were now hearing again, would run through a country served with more deep water bvyj than any other part of New Zealand. Tbat line might wait years and years, and he doubted (hat even then if it were constructed whether it would b? able to compete with water carriage. Then there was put on the ratepayer* half a million on acoonnt of district railways. With the talk of taporing there had been also a good deal or vapoury. They had been amused with a proposal of female suffrage ; with the proposal to reform tha Supreme Oourt, a proposal that would bring the Oourt under tin heel of' the legislature ; with an extraordinary 8 11 for Civil Service Reform and with various other things. After a few further remarks, Mr Rolleston wtnt on to say that things bad juet nonr a<rlsed at a olimar, and he was happy to tLiak that there wai an appeal to the electors though that appeal fccarae somewhat inopportunely, his. opinion being that it ought to have oame before/ and that 'Parliament should now bs devising means to meet the situation instead of electionerring going on. BURBKCHMBST.