MR STOUT AT ROSLYN.

Evening Star, Issue 3784, 10 April 1875, Page 2

MR STOUT AT ROSLYN.

Mr Stout, M.P.C., addressed a well-attended meeting of his Roslyn constituents in the Institute Hall last evening. Mr Wales, M.H.R., occupied the chair. The address of Mr Stout was mainly directed to the questions of land and the abolition of Provmces, and in respect to them he said The land question was not got rid of as soon as all the waste lands were sold. That was just the time when the question really began to be discussed, as was proved to be the case in Prussia and in Ireland, and was now being illustrated in England and Scotland. And in the question of Provincialism versus Central-. ism, there was something far deeper than the mere changing of political boundaries. It Was a question as to what works should be done by the General Government, and what under local control; what functions should be exercised immediately under the eyes of the people, and what by the General Government. The question was being discussed quite as actively in Germany and several other European countries as in New Zealand at the present time. What was the agitation of Home Rule in Ireland bat simply another phase of the same question? After dwelling at considerable length on the point that if the Provinces are abolished their functions muot still be performed by other bodies, that will probably perform them with mss efficiency and at much greater expense, Mr Stout said that at the same time no one could deny that the present Government of the Colony and the Provinces was not perfect. Or course no Government was perfect. A s one writer said, laws were only an effort for the best. But there was no question that thfi Govemment could be improved considerably; and ne believed it was not to be improved by merely drafting a Bill and submitting a new Constitution to the Assembly, s country was always governed us well as it deserved to be. As a rule, if a country was badly governed, it was not the Constitution but the people themselves that made the bad government. What was wanted was that the people should place before themselves some higher object than merely to get “money spent in the place,” and should consider all important political questions actually, instead of being led away by grand phrases. I- tluy did that, and insisted upon honesty and consistency in legislation, they would need no reform of the Constitution. If Provincialism were abolished, and all local matters were abolished, what would be the result? Their representatives who would go to Wellington would either be men _ of wealth or men who looked upon politics as a profession independent of their other business. If they had rich men alone aa representatives, they would have a lot of biassed men legislating for the Colony from whom no great reform could be expected. For example, they found that scarcely any Bill tainted with liberality passed the Upper House of the Colony, which was composed of wealthy men. who looked at all questions from a TfThL°l C j a “ P°A nt . of v *? w * —(Hear,' hear.) If they had as their legislators the other class of whom he spoke—men who «wi«

? dittos a profession—they would have the arliament filled a swarm of political Micawbers “ waiting for something to turn up.” It was certainly not his opinion that good government could be administered by either of these classes. They did not need an alteration of the Constitution as much as that each elector should ■ look upon himself as a man who had to perform an important public duty, who should take a warm interest m political matters, and seek to influence the whole action of the State. If Ihey could ever train the electorate to a sense of this responsibility—if they could once train the people to look upon their votes as a sacred trust confided to them—fewer complaints would be heard against the Government, So long as people treated politics as of no concern—so long as they were led away by fine phrases about progress and about “money being spent in the place ’—they would hear very little about reform, and about economy in administration. Reform rested with the people themselves. The passing of an Act could not alter the character of a nation. He Had not yet seen anything to show that the present Constitution Act was detrimental to the Colony, and until it was proved to be detrimental, or until something better or as good was submitted, he would oppose the proposal to abolish the Provinces, — (Applause.)