MR. SYDNEY JOHNSTON AT WAIPAWA.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3232, 8 November 1881, Page 2

MR. SYDNEY JOHNSTON AT WAIPAWA.

Mr Sydney Johnston met the electors afc Waipawa last night at the Oddfellows'

Hall. '•' There were about :250 pofsoJarpresent. On tho motion of Mr H. H. Bridge, Mr Alfred Dillon took the chair, and craved

the indulgence of the audience on behalf of all the candidates who might come before them.

Mr Johnston, on. rising, was received with loud applause. After referring to his want of experience in public speaking, and to his reasons for coming forward, he said that ifc had been supposed he had come forward as a representative of the large land owners/ '* but he thought it hardly necessary to contradict that statement. The fact was that, < a large majority of the landowners were-. supporting Mr Ormond. It had also been - said of him (Mr Johnston) that if he were returned to Parliament he Would be merely a* representative of Wellington (Hear, hear.) That seemed rather a hard thing to say of '-■ one who had lived 20 years in .Waipawa, : County. He supposed fchac ifc was owing to his having influential friends in Wellington,; ;V who might be expected to bring pressure"to bear upon, him and make use of his position in Parliament to further the interests of Wellington, instead of of Waipawa,'' * He considered a .statement of that:-sort.rfcoo ? absurd to require an answer, but as it might. be used against him he. would like to say that his brother had represented the Ma'na-' watu district for. the last three parliaments,: andas a proof of hishavingdonesosatisfactorily.: : he was about to be again returned .'for that. district without any opposition afc all. He thought that.was sufficient evidence that he,. ■. at any rate, recognised that the first a member was to represent his constituents^-a As for himself, he resided in Waipawa County, in which his friends had also large so that, if he were returned to Parliament, instead .of Wellington gaining a representative, ■ ifc would be Waipawa that would gain two or three. If elected, ho intended to give a general . Bupporfc ',■ to the present : Government. He thought Ministers ■ ; were ' deserving of support, because their financial policyhad been a most successful one. When they|tbpk office the finances of the country were.! in a most disorganised condition, and that ugly;, word / repudiation' began' to be whispered s about. They were also deserving of support.' as he believed they were the first Government which had caused the wealth of the country to contribute its fair share of taxation by the imposition of the property tax. _ (Hear, hear.) Another reason for supporting v the,, Ministry was that Mr Bryce again possessed a seat in tho Cabinet; and was now carrying out on the West Coast a vigorous .-\ native policy. (Hear, hear.) They were aware that during last session .Mr , Ormond had deserted his party and moved a'vote of .wanti. of confidence in the Government. Although.',, he did not altogether agree with Sh* Joseph Porter in " Pinafore," who always voted at his party's call, he still considered that a member of the House should not desert his .party unless very grave reasons could-'-be" shown for such ; desertion, or., else at' the wish of his constituents. The reason Mr Ormond gave for breaking with tho Government party was that he did- not like then; local government measures. One of tho measures brought forward by the Government last .session was the Crown and' Native Lands Rating Bill. Formerly the local bodies were assisted ..by subsidies, but ,that, system had now broken down, partly through want' of funds and 'other causes;;t" It was felt by the Government: that;" whercr-' local bodies had to make roada through land it would be only reasonable. to\, give some assistance towards ' "making" them. In the Seventy-mile Bush there was a large quantity of native land through, which a railway was being mado, and yet the, j

natives paid no rates. It seemed to him only fair and reasonable that the natives should pay rates on those' lands. ■-' (Hear, hear.) Amongst other objections .raised by Mr Ormond to the Crown and Native Lands Rating Bill was ope that the valuation proposed by the Government would gife . no material assistance to the local bodieß generally. Some little time back the Chief Surveyor in Napier (Mr Baker) bad' furnished him with the area of land in the County, and he found that, taking the Government valuation, a rate of one shilling in the pound would amount to-£SOO. a year on the Crown and native lands in Waipawa County. If the County levied a shilling rate, and the Road Boards also a shilling," it would' ; make £1000 a year. He thought that would.;' be a very-material contribution" towards * making the roads in the thinly setttled part? ; of the Waipawa district. (Hoar, hear.)" Another of the local , measures which Mr .„ Ormond opposed . was the Boads Construction Bill. Mr Johnston here read an extract from Majpr Atkinson's speech pointing out the advamtages of that Bill.. Had it become law last' session he thought it would have been of ' great service to the Waipawa district. ; He then referred at. some length to. the con- ',_■ struction of roads in his own district.'-• He went on to say that when Mr Ormond ad- : dressed his constituents- before last session v he told them that in assisting to carry the r Abolition of \ Provinces Bill he had made a;' mistake, and that he had since regretted his . action. He thought that admission a very. ; candid one, but he did not think.it al-, together creditable to his judgment as.astatesman. Mr Ormond had been for many-, years Superintendent of; Hawke's Bay; and : a member of the House and of the Provincial Council. He had also been a Cabinet Minister, and was thoroughly well acquainted' with the working of the provincial system and.. the General Government system. Having had that large experience of the working pf. both forms of government Mr Ormond had • deliberately -supported the abolition ;of; provinces, and yet four years afterwards he said he had made a mistake in doing so. He did not think, however, that the settlers in that part of the country considered'any mistake had been made, and they had no desire to return to the provincial system (Cries of " Oh " from Mr Lawrence.) H« supposed Mr Lawrence meantthatbig-O as a groan over the dead provinces. At any rate, as far as he knew the feeling of the settlers in Waipawa county, there was no desire on their part to return to provincialism, either in a modified form or otherwise. Those of them who remembered how the special settlements and the surveys were managed under that system could have no desire to return to the provincial form of government. Mr Ormond was very vague as to what he intended to substitute for the ■ present form of local government. He had not as yet laid down any well defined scheme ; possibly he would do so when he addressed the Waipawa electors, as it would be advisaWe-to have sonic scheme' before the elections came off. He wished to point out that '; if. the Waipawa people ?desired [to belong toa larger body they had power, under tho. 4 Counties Act, to do so. If thoy wished to join the Hawke's Bay County ample provision was made for them to do so. All that was required was for a majority of the ratepayers to make known - their wants by petition to that effect. If there was any, such feeling amongst them it was not at all necessary to abolish, the present form "of"' county government. They had simply to give expression to it, aud the thing was done. He would like to mention .another matter, which might possibly, account for Mr Ormond's hostility to local government. There were very severe floods last year, by"' which a large amount of damage was done to various roads and bridges throughout the districts of Porangahau and Pal'angatti,

The County Council applied to the General Government for a grant to enable them to repair -that damage, and also asked :Mr Ormond to use his influence with the Government to obtain such aid as was required. The Government notified to the Council that they would give a grant of £3000 to repair the damage, but that tho money was to be spent in repairing tho Seventy-mile .„ Bush road. Shortly afterwards they were jjkinformed that the money was also to bo -'•spent on tho Porangahau road. Well, the | County Council did not like the expenditure boing limited in that way, and they applied to the Government again to bo allowed to 1 upend a portion of the monoy in repairing the Hornewood bridge, and a portion of it in,another direction. The Government, however, insisted that the monoy should bo Bpent in tho manner indicated. He could not say how the Government had obtained information that the Wallingford road was in so much need of repair, but there was' no doubt Mi* Ormond had been in • communication with the Ministry on the subjeot, and it was presumed they obtained tho information from him. If it were not so, Mr Ormond would probably deny the statement when he addressed them. (Hear, hear.) He himself thought the statement was correct, as at that time Mr Ormond addressed a letter to the Chairman of the County Council, pointing out that it was absolutely necessary that a portion of the money should be spent in metalling v the Pukehou Hill. He considered that before the settlers in that part of' the district received assistance they should be able to show that they had availed themselves of their rating powers. It had been said by Major Atkinson that tho County Councils were to receive greater powers than they at present possessed, and that they were to be consulted in the administration of the waste lands and to levy rates for tbe road boards, the money from which they could expend in their own districts. They had seen in tho Napier papers criticisms on local government in the Waipawa county. He had also seen a great deal of criticism on his own conduct as chairman of that county. Ho did not object to

that at all, as ho considered that when

men occupied a public position it was only right their conduct should ' T be criticised,; and they should not be too thin-skinned in the matter. It was also stated in the same paper that in Hawke's Bay the County system had worked very well, and great credit was given to Mr Sutton as chairman of that county. Ho quite agreed with that, as he considered Mr Sutton had made an admirable chairman,

and had given to the subject an amount of --time and attention which very few could P-give., 'He, however, did not believe the **- county system in Waipawa had failed as was stated, and if it worked, well in Hawke's Bay there was no reason why it should not work equally well in Waipawa county. (Hear, hear.) He went on to refer to Mr Ormond's hostility to the property tax, which he said was founded on similar grounds to his hostility to the Government. (A voice : Three cheers for him.) When the tax was first proposed in 1879 Mr Ormond voted for it. He. had heard miny doubts expressed on this point, but if they turned to Hansard they would find he had voied for it on that occasion. In the session of 1880 he displayed the utmost hostility to the measure, and spoke of it as a grinding tax which would drive capital out of the colony, and half depopulate the country. The property tax, however, had not driven capital out-of the country, nor had any of the evil effects prophesied by Mr Ormond been caused by it. After referring at some length to the beneficial effeot of the tax in the country, Mr Johnston said the tax was only paid by 22,000 people in the colony, of whom 5400 paid a tax under £1, and 9000 paid between £1 and £5. On the other hand, 146 large property holders paid £142,000, which was sufficient evidence that the wealth of the country was taxed by the measure. The

same 146 men who paid such a large sum

under the property tax paid only £17,000 the land tax of tbe Grey Government. He was opposed to Chinese immigration. (Loud and prolonged laughter, with cries of " encore!") If returned to the. "House he would support a bill,,to restrict the. importation of Chinese.- With reference to the education question, he might say he' was in favor of the present system, because he did. not see how any other system, particularly in thinly settled districts, would work better. Ho had been told that because he happened to belong ; ! to the old faith a good many votes Woiild ; be recorded against him on that account, .but he did not think any such prejudice would weigh with the electors in deciding : f or* or against him. He wished to state that He was in favor of payments from the Government-to Roman Catholic schools on the present system. He was opposed to Bible reading in schools. Mr Johnston concluded" by expressing his willingness to answer any questions put to him. Mr. ,Lawr|nce asked in the event of Mr Johnston being returned to Parliament, what action he would take to reduce the property tax.

Mr Johnston said he would not be in favor of reducing-the tax in the present state of the colony. He thought the Government had done wrong in reducing the tax as they had done. Mr Bowd'en,- who was received with great laughter and cheering, asked whether Mr Johnston would be. in favor of half the money raised by the property tax being handed over to the local bodies for the construction of roads. Mr Johnston said he would be quito favorable to such a proposition if tho

colony could afford it, but he thought the v whole of the property tax would be required jT t(Tsupplement the consolidated revenue of : the colony. - Mr Bridge moved a vote of confklenoo in Mr Johnston, which was seconded by Mr Lpgan. Mr Harding moved, as an amendment, a vote of thanks only. Mr ; Lawrence said he would heartily

second the amendment. The amendment, on bekig put to the '■ meeting, was carried by a large majority, scarcely a dozen hands being held up for the vote of confidence. The meeting closed with a vote of thanks to the chairman;