EXTRACTS FROM HANSARD.

Dunstan Times, Issue 857, 20 September 1878, Page 3

EXTRACTS FROM HANSARD.

’ The honorable Captain Fraser, in speak- , ing to a motion in his name—“ That in the opinion of this Council all Government expenditure in the Jackson’s Bay Settlement should cease.” After giving a most doleful account of that precious settlement he is reported to have said—“ That, all the country had for L 30,000 expended there were sixty shanties, a few sheep, and about 200 acres of partially cleared land. W hen lie (Captain Fraser) was on the West Coast he met a very shrewd, sensible, and honest man, who was chaiiman of a local body, and who had refused to have anything to do with the mad idea of making a road through Haast’s Pass. The Government had said that if the county would pay a third, and Vincent County another third they would pay the balance. He was glad to find, however, by the local papers, that Mr Robinson had refused to have anything to do with that proposal. It was upon this Haast Pass that the people in Jackson’s Bay were employed. That was the idea, make a road through Haast’s Pass and then you can walk away'. The motion was carried. ” During the debate on the Triennial Parliaments’ Bill, and in reply to remarks by the Minister of Justice on the County system, Mr Pyke is reported to have said:— “■ It was not my intention to have said any thing whatever about this measure, but I am compelled in a manner to do so in consequence of the special reference made to myself by the Minister of Justice. I see no connection whatever between the question of triennial Parliaments and Provincialism as it existed, or Countyism as it now stands. The Minister of Justice was good enough to speak of County life as something very degraded indeed! What does he know about it ? He has never had any experience of it whatever, and it is not right for Members, who are tar from experts, to talk of things with which they are unacquainted County life, Sir, County life is the life of the country. I assert positively that County life has stirred up the interior districts, which were being depleted of then wealth, and robbed of their population—it has stirred them up in to a state of energy' and vitality which they never possessed before. I am prepared to prove the fact which I am now assorting, and for the Minister of Justice to express such an opinion as he has given utterance to to night, about a subject of which he knows nothing whatever is to my mind—l say it with all due deference, and in a Pickwickian sense an impertinence. • - - - There is no work, not even the Railway schemes propounded by the Government which I admire without any stint—that is more necessary to the welfare ami prosperity of the Country than the work which the Counties have taken upon their shoulders - - I say unhesitatingly on the floor of this House that the County system has' been a success where it has been honestly'tried. If you were to go to my ‘county and the adjoining counties of Lake, Maniototo, and Wakouaiti, and talk to them about abolishing the county system—well, I should not like to threaten the House with a revolution, as the Minister of Justice has put it, bnt I am sure you would create such a tense of dissatisfaction as would very much trouble the minds of Ministers. In that part of the country they would rather see this House abolished, I think, than the county system. . . . With regard to triennial Parliaments, however excellent the theory may appear to the Premier, and 1 give him all credit for being honest in his dealing with this question—the effect of the system would be to keep comparatively poor men out of the House, and place the representation of the country in the hands of the wealthy classes. 1 may take, as an instance, inyowa comity'. No man could afford to travel over that county every three years. Honorable members do not know what the task is. There is another reason, to go to the country every three years would be to introduce into the country, on a small scale, what 1 may call the curse of (he United States—continual agitation. I ask honourable members, then, to pause and consider the matter well before they give their votes in favour of this Bill.