THE CITY ELECTION.

Evening Star, Issue 3442, 4 March 1874, Page 2

THE CITY ELECTION.

MR CARGILL AT THE MASONIC HALL.

There was a large attendance of electors at tile Masonic Hall, last evening, to hear Mr Cargill. The Mayor occupied the chair. . r Cargill, . after making an explanation, similar ■ to that he gave ou the hustings on Monday, of the reasons that led him to resign his seat the session before last, said that he heard that it was objected to him by some persons that he was a squatter’s man—an agent of the squatters. Well, he was a squatter’s agent and a squatter, if they liked. He was a merchant, and was interested in the great staple of this country—wool—and in the shipment of wheat and other articles of produce. It was quite true that wool, which was the great staple of this country, had a very large share in his transactions; hereby, in a place like this when we considered the great wealth brought here year by year, there should not be a cry raised against the wool interest. Nothing had un( i would toud, more to the prosperity pf Dunedin than the prosperity of this wool interest, apd it should be valued highly by all sensible men. Of course in speaking of their wool interest he knew that there had been a certain feeling in the matter that had given rise to serious contention in connection with our land laws apd their administration. .We had had land laws and land laws from time to, time, apd all sorts of changes had been tried. The real- good of the land laws lay in their proper administration, and it the laws we had, such as they were, were properly administered by those in power, then we could get on well enough. It was only when there were some aUegal4qpß. Pl unfairness .that there; was any

difficulty in the matter. For his part, he had always resisted any attempt to raise up class . questions between people who should always be fast friends and supporters of one another.— (Hear, hear.) He had always maintained that the agricultural and squatting interests should not be enemies, but hclpers 'and friends. The agriculturists and the farmers were beginning to meet; agriculturists were becoming sheep farmers on a small scale, and the two interests showed a mutual dependence more and more every year. He could only say that his views, so far as the land laws were concerned, had been guided by one great principle. He desired to see land suitable for agricultural settlement open to people who followed these pursuits, and that every facility should bo given to the settlement of those men on the land wherever they could find ground that it would pay them to cultivate. He also objected to such, lauds as these in the Province being absorbed by being bought up in large blocks. Purely pastend land, and land suitable f or agriculture, ; were so distinctly marked, that there was no necessity for much comparison in this respect, and a fair and careful administration of the law would secure that land that was suitable for agriculture should be reserved for this purpose, while the pastoral occupation should be continued over the land that was not suitable for the former. Of course, now there was not much left to be done in the Council in the way of legislation. The truth was that the duty of the Provincial Council would be to watch closely and carefully the administration ©f the laws, and to make recommendations from time to time for their attention. The, extent of legislation by the Provincial Council was not great. At the ? present time we had in full progress the policy or the internal development and settlement of the country, initiated a few years ago, and the Council had to carefully watch the works that were being carried on in this Province, and see that we had a fair share of the public expenditure, and that all the works undertaken were undertaken in a spirit of prudence and caution. He could not, for his part, look for anything but the best, results from the policy now in force, if this degree of caution and prudence were now carried out. It must be plain that the change that-had taken place now, to put forth the whole strength of the Colony in carrying out these works on the Colonial credit, and bringing people here to occupy our waste lands, was the best .use we could make of our political power at the present time. One of the matters under the control of the Provincial Council .was the Education question, and he did not see that much good would be done by interfering with it at the present time. ' fie would be glad to see matters remain very much as they were. If there were a change, he hoped it would be in the direction of making the system more comprehensive, so as to bring it within the reach of the mass of the people, and of every child in the Province.—(Hear, hear.) The question had been made to bear somewhat of a religious „hape, and upon the one side we saw the denominational system, and upon the other side the purely secular system of education. In looking at the matter in this light, he said at once that sooner than see the introduction of the denominational system into this sparsely peopled country, by which what now existed would be broken down, he would prefer to see the change come in the way that would sweep out anything that would interfere with the religious principle of any class of immigrants who might come here.' In fact,,.he would sooner see a system of purely secular education adopted.— (Hear,; hear.) There was a matter. that. would come before the Council, and one which he would use his endeavors to 'advocate and forward by every possible ’ means', for. it would greatly affect the City. He meant the improvement of the Upper Harbor at Dunedin. It must be quite clear that there was a very large work to bo done <here some day or other. It would be absolutely necessary at some time, and it would bo a matter tor regret if we neglected the opportunity we now had to get a work of this kind pushed bn. He did not mean to say that we should rush into any great scheme to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds, but it would be very desirable to see some scheme for the improvement of the Harbor initiated at the present time, and carried to such a length as was fairly within bur means. It would be a great advantage to have a better approach for the great number of vessels, and particularly, steamers ; and it would soon be ; necessary to cover with deep water those banks of mud which, in , a few years, as the . population increased, must prove injurious to the inhabitants of the City. He thought this

would really be necessary from a sanitary point of view, and lie hoped the ■ Council would get some good scheme initiated. Some citizens had been engaged in getting valuable information on this point, and it would be laid before the Council. Any reasonable scheme would have his earnest support.-(Hear, hear.) Another matter which he thought deserved to be carefuUy watched by the Provincial Council was the progress of immigration. It was of the greatest importance, now that we were bringing • out so many people here, that those persons should be well and Carefully selected. In bis opinion nothing would so well and so fully secure a suitable selection of immigrants,- as the system of selection by thosC who were’out here upon the spot. This appeared to him to be the most just and efficient mode of conducting the Immigration scheme. He even carried this to a length which went beyond what some people called right. Ho woula not be inclined,to place much restriction as to the age pm. character for mer work'of the people whp were brought out here under this systemMany of the people here, who were young, and who were engaged in the active business of life should have an opportunity to bring out as many of their own families as possible. He: would like to see the people here bound together by family ties, and the interest which these created, and every encouragement should be given tea system that would bring this about.—(Hear, hear.) Upon the other hand they must know' from past experience, the great danger that arose from bringing here Targe numbers of people picked. up Indiscriminately from the large in - the old country,. W no other purpose'than'te make tip'arid sselT the number sent here. " We might get hunibera of d&pte by this means, but they would hot be Of the best class, and there was the' danger. If We had a large number of people placed here for whom suitable employment might not be got at once, we should have a large body of men clamoring for work, and angry that they were brought here under false pretences. The result would be disturbances in the labor market which would bring great discontentment upon the laboring classes. —(Hear, hear.) He looked with suspicion, upon the system of sending here large numbers of people selected in this way frgm some of the larger towns in Great Bntftin. I bis was a matter that came more perhaps within the functions of the General Government, but it . was one that interested the Provincial Government at the same time' More attention would be paid to the comfort of the immigrants in bringing them out. The arrangements are not what they should be, and it was too much the fashion of sailors upon passengers in the light of so much livelumber and cargo, and forget their obligation to take care of their safety and make them comfortable and happy on the voyage. More stringent regulations should be issued for the comfort of. the passengers; and a great deal might be done in this way which would render the voyage much less dangerous to life aud health.—(Hear, hear.) These were some of the matters which might engage the attention of the Councu, and which it would bo their duty to look after. He would give information upon any other point upon which the electors might like to question him. He was asked to give his opinion upon two points. One was the improvement of the Town Belt, and the other his opinion as to the removal of the toll-bars Thev were both questions which had been the‘source of much argument, and in which he had been much interested. He was jealous of uni encroachment which would have the effect of taking away .these most valuable reserves from the permanent .use of the public. He hoped the existing statute would never be interfered with, which forebade for ever the alienation of ' 1 4* to the improvement of the iJelt. this .was of course a most desirable:thing f w , co^ ld nofc well ast for vote! from the Provincial Council for this, matter. He was himself the means of getting a large number of votes for one particular part of this Belt, mid the Council voted the money liberally. The money was not laid out as it might have been.;. He aUuded to the South Keoreation Ground. The country members weto not likely to ypte imuoh more money for the im PtevewptoftheTowußelt, the

toll-W.he held thistobhAijreat grievance to the City; ./Xhefe was no doubt, looking at the taxatian : w®had toll-bars should not have-been placed their present position, but should be removed to a distance of at least two miles from idle town.—(Hear, o n should be ho toll-bar upon the South Road nearer to Dunedin than Look-out romt, and people belonging to'the town should be ableto drive out about the outskirts of the City without having to pay toll. He would advocate any proposal for the moving of these toll-bars, which were a great eye-sore to him In answer to questions, Mr Cargill said he understood medical men were allowed to see operations performed at the Hospital. It seemed to him that the Hospital was such a model institution, and so well administered, that he was averse to seeing rough hands lain upon it. Nor did he think it would he for the benefit of the pat cuts if they were interfered with.—(Hear.) He would receive with a good deal of hesitation any movement to open the Hospital to other medical men than the medical officers of the institution. At present the Hospital was under the care of a paid medical officer. If they abolished this system, and introduced the system in force elsewhere, they threw themselves upon the services of men who might not do the work as well. They now had two paid medical officers in whom he had every confidence. He believed Dr Hulme to he a valuable public servant, and was sure that anyone in the Hospital would bear testimony to this. He should be sorry to see any interference. Whether or not 150 invalids required more than two hours’ attention every alternate day from Dr Hulme was a matter of detail which he (Mr Cargill) could not deal H ® , onl y judged by results, and he believed the treatment at the hospital had been most successful, and would compare .moat favorably with any hospital in the world.—The deferred paymettt system was on its trial, but. if it worked well, he would support it. All athenaeums supported bv public lands should be open to the public.-He Would like to (tonsider the question mf a Vote to improve the iown Belt before committing himself to an opinion.—He wasopposed to Sunday traffic of all kinds, and would use all' reasonable endeavors to prevent Sunday trains. Mr Neil proposed, and Mr Barker seconded, a vote of confidence m Mr Cabgill, which was earned unanimously. MR REEVES’S MEETINGS. Mr Reeves addressed meetings, last night, at the Peacock Hotel, and at the British Hotel. At the first mentioned place a resolution was earned, that Mr Reeves, from M his long realdcnce and high standing in Dunedin,” was a fit and proper person, ,&c. A vote of confidence was also carried at the second meeting. ; MR CHAPMAN’S MEETINGS. MrC. R. Chapman addressed; a numerously . attended meeting of the electors last evening at Cottar s Caledonian Hotel,. Great King street. Mr John Barnes was in the chair. “ After the candidate had .touched upon the various subjects,, at present exciting, public attention, a large number of questions wore' asked him, to which he gave satisfactory answers. Many of these had relation to .the High School, immigration, and the running of Suii lay trains. He saw no objection to the running ■of trains on Sunday as long as the law allowed. At the close, Mr T. Birch proposed and Mr M’Gregor seconded a vote of confidence in Mr Chapman, winch was carried unanimously... * Immediately after,’ the aboVe,' Mr. CHAPMAN addressed another meeting of the electors' at * '£ hjl ‘ e S-? otel * AR>aay street. There were about fiftjr persons present,. After, the candidate had given his Views on passing qvghts a number of questions Were answered by'Mm Mr Brencbley then proposed, Mr M‘taren, sen., seconded a vote of-confidence, which was also carried unanimously.