MR SUTTON AND CAPTAIN RUSSELL.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3017, 25 February 1881, Page 2

MR SUTTON AND CAPTAIN RUSSELL.

The members for Hawke's Bay addi'essed a large meeting of their constituents last night, at the Theatre Royal. The body of the hall was full, and a considerable number occupied the circle. His Worship the Mayor occupied the chair, and said they had assembled to hear the members for the district give an account of their stewardship, He trusted that those present would give tliem a fair and impartial hearing. The affairs of the colony were in a critical condition, and required the most careful attention from those intrusted with the government. Mr Sutton, on coming forward, was received witli applause. He said that on the last occasion he addressed them he referred to matters connected with the late Government; he was told by friends that he had put matters too strongly, and that he would hear about it on the floor of the House. Of course, he had heard nothing about it in the House. Oh this occasion ho would devote the remarks he had to make to the position and doings of the present Government. One point; however, he would have to deal with, and he would deal with it in a public and not a personal spirit. Mr Bryce had lately resigned, and in losing him they had lost the services of an able and honest man, who had done much to unravel the secrets of the Native Office, and he had done good service in putting a stop to the abuses connected with the purchase of native lands by the Government. He was sorry that the country had lost the services of so able a man. Mr Bryce had been succeeded by Mr Rolleston, who had many points fitting him for the discharge of the duties of Native Minister ; he would give his best attention to the duties of the office, and anything he did would be done honestly. Amongst the several bills brought in last session there was one called the Native Lands Bill. He strongly approved of the bill, and had supported it, but he was sorry the Government had not been able to place it on the statute book. During the debate on that bill Mr Bryce had made a statement such as, ho would venture to say, had neter before been made in that House, to the effect that £400,000 or £500,000 had been frittered away in so-called native land purchases, and it was afterwards ascertained that the Government had no titles whatever to the land. The Native Lands Bill provided that those lands should be sold the same as Crown lands. The measure wouid have placed everyone on the same footing, and it would have stopped the proceedings of a most objectionable class of men who came between the natives and tho purchaser. It might have had the effect of stopping the sale of native lands for some time to come, but the natives would soon have come to see the advantage of it, and it would.have stopped the many very improper transactions in Government land purchases. It had been said that Sir George Grey intended, to stump the country on the Patetere question. _ Sir George Grey would .do nothing of the kind. If he tried it he would only find a mare's nest, and any discoveries he had made would tell more against the Government of which he had been Premier than against the present Administration. He had seen by the papers that at a sitting of the Native Lands Court at Cambridge application had been made to have some land set aside—a portion of the Patetere block — to secure the Government for £14,000 advanced upon it. He had no hesitation in saying that tho Government had not advanced as many pence upon it, though probably £14,000 worth would yet be forced from the natives. From papers to which he had had access he had s©en that Ministers themselves said there was nothing in tbe advances. In 1873 a man named Brissenden, in connection with a company in Auckland, negotiated something called a lease of land in the Patetere block for an annual rental of £007, and it was only while the House was sitting last session that the first of the land passed through the Land Court. The lease was not of much value ; if it contained any it only contained one or two names mentioned in the grant. The company attempted to survey the land, which attempt was perfectly illegal, as the land had not passed through the court. They doubtless knew about the murder of Sullivan. He was "engaged _ at the time in surveying on the land respecting which Mr Brissenden had made an engagement. Shortly after the murder the Ministry, of which Sir Donald M'Lean was a member, entered into a negotiation in order to stop bloodshed, and agreed to pay Mr Brissenden £3600 for the purchase of his lease, and this amount which was never paid to the natives, was charged as an advance on the purchase of the Patetere block. He would read them part of a letter written by Mr Sheehan on the subject in January last year, which would prove what he (Mr Sutton) had stated. This was what Mr Sheehan said : " Referring to our conversation of yesterday, I have now the honor to address you in regard to the block of land know as Patetere. As you will no doubt have observed from the official records, lands comprised within the proclaimed boundaries were partly negotiated for by Mr Brissenden, on behalf of himself and others, by way of lease. In consequence of the murder of Sullivan in 1873 the Government of the day interfered, and stopped the negotiations, paying to Mr Brissenden and his co-partners a sum of money as compensation, in return for which these parties transferred to the Government all such rights and interests as they had acquired. These interests were, strictly speaking, worthless, inasmuch as the land had not been surveyed and put through the Court. But the Government were strong enough to prevent any active resumption of negotiations over the area for several years after the acquisition of those interests, such as they were. These facts apply only to a portion of the proclaimed block, as a considerable area of it is outside of Brissenden's boundary. From 1873 down to 1877 scarcely any action seems to have been taken in the direction of acquirir 3 these lands for the Crown. Hardly any moneys were advanced, and the traditionof the office appeared to be that it was not intended to carry out the purchase, but only to make use of the Government position to prevent negotiations by private persons which might lead to a breach of the peace." Further on, in the same letter, Mr Sheehan remarked, " You will see, upon reference to the accounts of this particular block, that only a very small sum has been paid since tho beginning of 1878—tho largest amount, a sum of £1000, having been advanced by mo at the last Native Land Court at Cambridge with tho knowledge and approval of Rewi, who was present. The Cambridge Court had lasted for a considerable time, and tho natives had exhausted both their food and money. It was under these circumstances that I agreed, after conferring with Rewi, to advance the sum of £1000 against the block—to be arranged for afterwards when matters came up for final settlement. The natives might have obtained this amount, perhaps morp, from the private speculators who were present, but Rewi explained that it would complicate matters much less if the Government paid the money." These words were written by Mr Sheehan to Mr Bryce, and they showed conclusively that there was no negotiation for the purchase of the land, but merely for the purchase of Brissenden's lease, such as it was. He would now read to them a telegram from Mr Bryce to Mr Sheehan. It was dated the 24th of February, 1880, and ran thus : " The Paterere accounts drag, and old accounts are still dribbling in. Indeed, those Waikato accounts generally will turn mv hair grey. However, as to sending some one up with the vouchers for examination I do not mind admitting, for you must be aware of it, that not one-half of the vouchers would bear anything like a strict legal examination. Still, the payments were bond fide in a sense, and I do not mean to lose the money. I wired to yem a few days

ago that the total of the account would bevery much larger than you expected, and have not heard from you since. I suppose there is some hitch; indeed, I am told that there is. I think it will be found that, if. the matter is ever satisfactorily arranged, it will be done, not in Waikato, but in Wei* lington. When the mountain would not come to the Prophet, you know .the other course was adopted." The total amount; charged .as advances, against the Patetere block was £13,850, and. in respect to that amount Mr Bryce himself said that not one-half of the vouchers would bear anything like a strict legal examination. Ho (Mr Sutton) had no hesitation in saying that not one-tenth would bear examination. As an instance of how charges were mado against the Patetere block, he would tell them of an arrangement that existed between the Atkinson Government and Mr James Mackay. The latter was tq purchase native lands .on a commissidn of four-pence per acre. When the arrangement terminated Mr Mackay claimed a much larger amount than the Government was disposed to allow him, and the matter was referrd to arbitration, and a decision was given for £1050, This amount was paid ; and charged against the Patetere block, although Mr Mackay had not been engaged in any transaction connected with that block. It was not right that this amount should be charged against tho natives. The triumphal entry of Rewi into Auckland, which cost £1000, was another instance. That was charged against the Patetere block. Then there was £200 spent in the election expenses of Hans Tapsell on the East Coast, and that was charged against the Patetere block. He was glad to see that the Native Land Court at Cambridge had agreed to ati examination, by the natives; of the* • charges made against the Patetere blocks The claim would be shown to be small. If I Mr Bryce had been in the Native Department these transactions would have been impossible. The Patetare account was a rubbish heap into which all doubtful vouchers had been shot. The Patetere transactions and others like them had brought about the resignation of Mr Bryce; he had felt that a great injustice was being done the natives, and rather thari coritinuei it he resigned. He (Mr Sutton) thought the Government ought to have told the reason of Mr Bryce's He knew that Mr Bryce was far too cautious a man to advise any active measures towards Parihaka, and he felt sure Mr Bryee never advised any action against either. Te Whiti or Hiroki. It would be remembered that a short time before Mr Bryce's resignation, the Governor's aide-de-camp went to Parihaka, and to speculate whether he was sent thither at the request of Ministers or at the request of the Governor was opening up very nasty ground. If the matter had been forced upon the Ministry, it was their duty to resign, and the country would soon have put them in office again. He trusted his surmises were not true, but he felt there was great probability in them. The policy of the Government for the last twelve months had been one of retrenchment and retrenchment was unpopular. He did not approve of the way they had set about reductions. He had strong objections to reducing young men with salaries of £80 and £90 per annum. What should have been done was to reduce the total expenditure ten per cent, and then for the Government to have distributed the reductions judiciously. The Government had been charged with governing by Commissions, but the work done by two of those Commissions proved that the Government was right. He refered to the Railway and Civil Service Commissions. Through the reports of these Commissions very large and important savings had been effected, and there was ample room for it. It would surprise them, perhaps, if he were to tell them that on the 30th of June last the number of civil servants was 10,853, out of a population of 136,915 adult males. [Mr Leonard : Were they appointed by the Grey Government ?] Certainly not. The Grey Ministry only appointed about 3000. (Loud laughter.) However, he was not speaking of the Grey Government or of any Government in particular ; his remarks had reference to the system and not to to those who administered it. (Applause.) He felt convinced that much larger savings than had yet been made could be effected —not by reducing salaries, but by amalgamating offices. (Applause.) It had been said that last session had been a barren one. It was certainly true that there had not been many statutes passed, but he did not think that was a matter for complaint, seeing that the statute book was already too large. Several important measures had suffered during the slaughter of the innocents, for instance the Licensing Bill, the Fencing Bill, and the Re-distribution of Seats Bi?l. It was time we had one licensing law for the colony. The act of last session was an act to consolidate the existing Acts. Such an Act was very much wanted, and he hoped it would be passed. The gentlemen who were weak enough to acceed to the request of a number of teetotalers to ascertain which publicans sold beer on Sunday deserved no credit. The law of the land had been against selling liquor on Sunday for the last sixteen or seventeen years, and why should it be put in force now ? If anyone had been annoyed during public worship it would be different. Every hotelkeeper had broken the law, and no one had suffered by it. _ In legislating on this subject some specified time would have to be allowed during which liquor could be sold on Sunday. (Applause.) He believed a Re-distribution of Seats Bill would be brought forward next session and passed. It would give one member to this borough, one to Hawke's Bay, and one to the Wairoa. That he thought would be an improvement. He had seen a letter in a local paper the other day drawing attention to the encouragement of investments in Government securities by the people. That matter occupied his attention some years ago, and he had suggested it to Ministers. It had been lately introduced in England and was found to work very well. He did not see why they could not here have Government bills for £10, £20, £50, and so on, purohaseable at the post-offices throughout the country. There was a good deal of money at present lying idle which could advantageously be invested in that way. He thought tho system could be easily carried out, and he intended to see if he could get it introduced in a bill. If it were carried out it would give the people holding the colonial bonds a more direct interest in the affairs of tho colony. He had always supported the Property Tax Bill. He had not regretted any position he had taken up upon any public question, and he had given a thorough support to the property tax. (Cries of dissent.) He was not sure that the way it was worked was good ; some of the valuations were not at all right, but the spirit of the Act was right. The spirit of the Act was that everyone should bear his fair portion of tho burdens of the country, but it was necessary to see that tho burden was fairly distributed. Ho strongly approved of direct taxation as against the imposition of duties. The people should know exactly what they were paying. There had been a gambling policy in the past, which it was necessary to do away with. The colony could not again go into the loan market unt ; l 1882, but he had made up his mind to oppose any further borrowing whatsoever. (Applause.) It was not to be tolerated that, taxed as we were, we were not paying our way. There had been a very considerable deficit on last year's transactions, and it would be well to be cautious not to increase our liabilities. There was no probability that New Zealand was going to repudiate her liabilities, but therohad nearly been a necessity for it just previous to the raising of the five million loan, when the „, Agent-General and the Crown agents had to raise a quarter of a million on their personal security. There would have been a smash if that had not been done. He trusted we should never approach that Btate of things again. In the course of last session the question of a modified form 0$

provincialism was referred to. Mr Moss and Mr Ormond had expressed an opinion that it might bo necessary to return to such a modified form. He (Mr Sutton) would very much like to know what was meant by " modified provincialism." [A Voice: Mr Ormond will tell you.] He thpiight they now had a system, of self-government that might very "well, be termed modified provincialism, and it was a system, too, that was giving great satisfaction. Provincialism had done good work in its time, but the country had completely outgrown it, and it would be well if provincial districts were abolished also. (Hear, hear.) He did not believe in that system of localism. It was a bad thing for the interests of the colony that because of local jealousies Ministers had to be selected, not for their fitness, but on account of the places they represented. It was reducing the choice to a question of locality instead of ability. During last session he moved in ihe direction of consolidating County Councils and Road Boards. He considered thpt ihe Councils had done their work well, anc" he had ho hesitation in saying that the three Councils of Hawke's Bay, Waipawa, and Wairoa had done far more useful work than was done by the Provincial Government. But he, nevertheless, thought there could be an improvement made by consolidation. At present, people were rated both by the County Councils and the Road Boards, and he thought it could bo easily enough arranged to have only one rating. Let either the Councils rate and pay moneys over to the Road Boards, or the Road Boards do the rating and pay over to the Councils. His idea was to make each Riding a Road Board, and so get hold of districts where at present there was no rating at all. What Ed wanted was to have one valuator 1 , one collector and one paymaster. (Cheers.) Among the bills abandoned last year was pne for taxing native and Crown lands. That bill concerned the North island. He had always held that native lands should be taxed. In Hawke's Bay there were large tracts of native lands, and it could not bo tolerated much longer that these should re- i main untaxed. The bill which had been '. brought in had been constructed to touch : the natives lightly. It proposed that the i tax should be paid by the Colonial Government. The land was to be classed by a Govern- ; ment officer into two classes, and the tax proposed would amount to about one farthing per acre, while the pakeha was paying 3s or 4s per aore. He thought that the next ' session was likely to be as unprofitable as 1 the last. What was wanted was a compact ' Opposition, and then there would be less : waste of time, there would be no three or four i hour speeches from Mr Seddon and others. There was very little hope, however, of an organized Opposition this year. There had '. been a meeting somewhere in the South, and 1 it had been resolved to ask Mr Stout to re- i enter politics and to lead a party. The ~ Opposition could not agree to follow Sir i George Grey, Mr Macandrew, or Mr Mont- s gomery. If Mr Stout would come forward c he was the best man to lead; he was the -\ best man in the late Government, and the -\ only one able to bring together the scattered c elements of the Opposition. It was not t probable that he would come forward this t session, but he might next, and then what a would become of Sir George Grey P In t conclusion, he would say that, while in the i House, he would endeavour to press upon a the Government in power to frame their I measures fairly, and for the benefit of the t majority, not to tax a man because lie was t rich. He opposed the land tax because it c aimed at that, and supported the property I tax because he thought it was fairer. (A c voice How about the beer tax ?) He had cl opposed that tax because it was a local t excise, and he would oppose it again. Mr c Sutton concluded amidst loud applause. c Mr Berry rose and attempted to speak, i but there was a want of coherence about his s remarks, and he only succeeded in leaving t the audience with the idea that he had some t vague notions about " life and death." t Mr Sutton said the subject was too vast x for him, but he hoped Mr Berry would )'ve a long and. die happy. a Mr Begg was not so well satisfied with c the property tax as Mr Sutton appeared to f be. He thought it favored the land shark. c Mr Sutton repeated his opinion that the s property tax was a fair one. a Mr Begg then asked about what he called c the "Pollen job." v Mr Sutton said the Government had no \ power to tax pensions. These things would -v not last much longer. By an Act of 1866 \ or 67 pensions were abolished, except as re- c garded those who entered the Cirl Service £ before that date. c Captain Russell, on rising, was received r. with loud cheers. He said he said he would c keep as much as possible from going over the cl same, ground as Mr Sutton, but his position s was a difficult one. He differed from his 1 colleague on two or three points, although v in the House they had worked harmoniously a together. In reference to the Beer Bill, he t had been charged with first voting against o the bill and then voting in favor of a six- t penny tax as against a threepenny one. v His explanation was that he objected en- t tirely to a system of excise, and he consid- t ered beer just as much a necessary of life as n tea and sugar. He voted, however, for the o sixpenny tax that the income and expendi- v tare might be balanced. He thoroughly f agreed with Mr Sutton on the property tax; c it was the best form of tax yet suggested, t There was a grievance in this, that the tax o did not touch these with large incomes, but n who were without much property ; but it 1 must be remembered that the labor of the 1 brain was no more entitled to be taxed than f the labor of the muscles. Then mind was c not altogether untaxed. He had been tin- c favorably criticised in tho local papers v last year for his remarks on this ] question. What he endeavored to point j out was that upon whomsoever taxa- t tion was imposed it would go downwards, -v The property owner who was immediately i called upon to pay the tax looked round to 1 see where he could save ifc by reducing ex- i penditure. His income was reduced, and c consequently he was obliged to save in some c way. His purchasing power was diminished, i and every tradesman he dealt with had to c suffer. Instead of the money being spent i locally, it was taken to Wellington to pay 1 salaries. Thus the tax was felt by the £ tradesman and the professional man, and i through them by all classes of the com- i munity. He thought the property tax much t fairer than a land tax, which was a class i tax. Supposing that two men came to the i colony with £10,000 each. The one invested \ it in land on which he settled —the other in - town property, which he let. Why should i the former, who as a rude had the hardest i struggle, be taxed, and the latter not taxed ? ] There were two other subjects upon which i he would like to say a few words —the native matters at Parihaka, and the education < question. The former had been dealt with i at length by Mr Sutton, but he had left one aspect untouched. He would bo as little prolix as possible, but it would be necessary for him to refer back some years. The native difficulty was not of recent origin. Many before him could recall tho New Zealand warß in Taranaki and the Waikato. Subsequent to the Waikato war there was an outbreak in Taranaki, and General Chute drove the natives from the Waimate Plains. The whole of the land was confiscated by proclamation, but it was stated that all natives who had not joined the rebellion, and all those who had returned to their allegiance to the Queen, should have their rights inviolate, and their land returned to them. Until 1868 no notice was taken of this proclamation. In 1868 Te Ivooti escaped from Chatham Island and set the colony in a flame. Titokowaru and other excitable spirits on the West Coast revolted, and drove the settlers near the Plains into Wanganvd. Colonel Whitmore then drove the Maoris from the Plains, and no native was for years allowed to set his foot there. But gradually they returned and settled on the land, among them being various tribes who had been our staunch alie3, and some of whom had been fighting on our side. It was hard that they should too made to suffer because a relative had

been in revolt. An arbitrary Act confiscated all the land to Waitotara, but a system was inaugurated of buying out the claims of the natives who had settled on the Plains. . The natives imagined that they had a right to compensation, when, all of a sudden, a Colonial Treasurer found himself with an exhausted treasury. He immediately .set to work to survey and advertise the sale of the Waimate Plains. No attempt was made to return their land to the loyal natives or make reserves. The natives thought all the promises made to them were to be violated, and consulted Te Whiti. Parliament mot, and a strong feeling pervaded tho House that a wrong was being done to the natives. Two very ablo men —Sir William Fox and Sir Dillon Bell, both of whom were friends of the natives —were sent the West Coast with ample powers to inquire into the claims of the Maoris. The result was that they found that the promises made by Dr. Pollen, Sir Donald M'Lean, Sir George Grey, and Mr Sheehan would absorb 262,000 acres. As there were only 3000 natives there, this would be about 70 acres each. This seemed a good deal —70 acres for each man, woman, and child —but the Native Land Act of 1868 provided that when native lands were purchased reserves of 50 acres each were to be made, to prevent the natives becoming paupers, dependent on the State. This land to be returned was valued at £600,000. If anything could induce the natives to become peaceable, well-disposed subjects of Her Majesty, it would be the possession of such a valuable estate, which they would imperil by revolt or turbulence. There was every hope that when Sir Wm. Fox had bad his way a great part of thib area would not remain . an vmcirltivated wild, but that part would be aleniable by sale| and part by lease to Europeans, a: I probably only the bush at the back wou 1 be oocupied by tho natives, and consequently settlement would not be i" - tarded. As our share wo had 143,000 acres of the Waimate Plains and Parihaka land, valued at £750,000. It was perfectly true that the proceeds of the sale of the land could not possibly recoup the vast expense incurred during the last two years in making roads and maintpining a large armed force on the land, but it must bo borne in mind that this was not as the Press was so fond of calling it—" a purely Taranaki question"—but a colonial question. Belgium had been described as "the cockpit of Europe," and Taranaki might with equal truth be called " the cockpit of New Zealand." The whole native policy must be fought out on tho West Coast. Some men said it was unEnglish and undignified to yield ourselves to the despotism of a savage, but ho denied that there was any such yielding. And if we took up arms and drove the natives back into the bush where would it stop. The first shot fired would be the signal for murders and excesses. Mr Bryce was a personal friend of his, and he agreed with his collegue that he had done much to clear the Native Office of many impureties, but he thought his advice to the Ministry to march upon Parihaka was a mistake, and any Native Minister who would precipitate the Colony into a war with the natives was not worthy of tho position. He did not agree with Mr Sutton in his estimate of the Native Lands Bill; it was all very nice in theory, if you could get the natives to agree, but would they ? All the native members opposed it. He estimated that under that bill at least thirty-fixe per cent, of the value of the land would go in expenses. It was desirable to get the land out of the hands of the natives as quickly as possible ; he had no desire to impose on the natives. Two-thirds of the North Island was in the hands of tho natives, and he thought it desirable that they should be induced to sell it, ample reserves being made for them. It was quite absurd to say that Ministers were not unpopular ; they had no need to be ashamed of their unpopularity. came into office after a monstrous scattering of money, after a time when people had only to ask to receive. They had to face reduction, and fancy reduction with one in every thirteen of the commun-ty against you, The civil servants amounted to that, and there were all their relatives, " theiv sisters, and their cousins, and their aunts." He did not agree with the way in which the reductions had been made. He advocated in the House a way which he considered better. He would have said to the Service that the colony could afford only a certain sum for salaries. Some must suffer, and as the unmarried men could best afford a reduction he would have put them on half time. The others, receiving full salary, could have been asked to do a little more work without hurting themselves. In the meantime the bachelors could have existed on their half-pay. Then he would have passed a Civil Service Act to abolish patronage by Ministers, so that they might not be bothered and buried out of their lives to appoint some son, or brother, or nephew, or cousin to office, until every one of the half-time men had been reinstated on full time. He believed that such a system of reduction would have met with the approval of the service, as officials would then have felt that, come what might, they were sure of employment for life. Now he came to speak of the education question. There was no doubt that of all questions occupying the attention of thoughtful men that of education was most the important. The old shibboleth of Liberalism—" the government of the people by tho people " —was now an accomplished fact. When he first came forward as a candidate for the House he said he had no objection to universal sufferage provided it was accompanied by an educational test. He held that opinion in advance of most politicians here —at any rate he was one of the first who had courage to own it. He was firmly convinced that the sterling common sense of Englishmen, added to knowledge of reading, to enable them to read men's speeches, would prevent democracy ever being led astray. Thus it was of very great importance that all men having a voice in the government of the country should be educated. As to the expense of the system, ho found that the amount voted in 1878 was £368,000, and in 1879 £467,000. This gave an average fo about £8 10s 9d for each child in attendance. But these votes were exceptional. School buildings had to be provided all over the colony, but that was an expense which would not occur again. Probably £150,000 more would provide the whole of the necessary buildings, and then a comparatively small vote would be required for additions and repairs. The true light in which to regard the question was to see what was actually spent on educating the children. The capitation fee was paid only on an average attendance of 54,000, the amount being £239,000. But there were 75,000 children being actually educated, so that the cost per head was only £3 3s 5d per annum. Was it possible for a better education to be given for the same money under any other system ? He hold that there was a large annual saving to the colony. Supposing the cost in the public schools to be £5 per head per annum— which was an over-estimate —and tho cost of an equal education in privato schools £10 per head—which was an under-estimato— there was an annual saving of £377,000 to the colony through the present system. (Applause.) Then some people said, "Oh, yes, that's all very well, but what right has a rich man to send his son to the State school ?" The rich man might retort, " What on earth right have I to be made to pay for tho son of tho poor man attending school?" Ho (Captain Russell) looked for greatest good as the result of the son of tho rich man and of the poor man playing and quarrelling and fighting together. (Laughter.) It would teach them practically that the fact of a man having a good coat on his hack did not make him of necessity a very good follow, and that the man with a poor coat might bo as good as the other. A general State system also enabled education to bo given in country districts where otherwise there would bo no

school. The salaries paid to the teachers in the Napier schools did not nearly absorb the money actually received by the Education Board for children attending school in Napier. The surplus was used to aid country schools where the attendance was not sufficient to support a master if ho did not l'eceive more than the capitation grant. It was robbing Peter to benefit Paul, but Peter could afford it and Paul wanted it. Every year the system would become cheaper, as the|pop'ulation increased,and the attendance become larger. A master could teach 30 children as well as 20, but though he would receive a larger salary with the 30 it would be less per head. Here we were in a domoci'atic country—where no person claimed hereditary honors —and our future must largely bo shaped by our policy of education now. In the future, when money i becomes less plentiful, without education : there would be a poor, wretched, miserable people amongst us ;)sbut with education every man and every woman would have the chance to better his or her position, and secure a competency if not a fortune. It would be a crying shame to us if, instead of hereditary honors; we handed down hereditary vice, misery, and crime. (Applause) . Mr Fielder asked the members would support an amendment of the property tax, so as to exempt the shares in building societies and companies from taxation, in cases were it was clearly proved that the holder of the shares did not possess £500 worth of property ? Mr Sutton intimated that he disapproved altogether of an exemption to the tax, and if it were amended he hoped the exemption would be abolished.

Mr Ellis asked Captain Russell what he thought about the Meanee racecourse ? Captain Russell replyed that he said he would not support the vesting of the reserve in the Jockey Club. When the present trustees were, appointed he was not consulted, and had no opportunity of expressing an opinion. He knew nothing about it until he saw the names gazetted. A number of other questions were asked of no great importance. Mr Neal proposed, and Mr Foreman seconded, a vote of thanks and confidence. Mr J. Leonard proposed a vote of thanks only as an amendment, and Mr Carnell seconded this. . . The original motion wa3 carried by a large majority. A vote of thanks to the chairman concluded the proceedings.