MR STOUT, M.P.C., AT THE FORBURY.

Evening Star, Issue 3886, 7 August 1875, Page 2

MR STOUT, M.P.C., AT THE FORBURY.

Mr Robert Stout, M.P.O. for Caversham, addressed his constituents at the Forbury Schoolhouse, last evening. Mr Rutherford was in the chair, and there were upwards of seventy person* present.

After a few introductory remark* by the Chairman, Mr Stout said he appeared before them in accordance with an election pledge, besides which he considered it was more than ever the duty of a representative to meet his constituents, : in view of the_ impending changes discussed in the Colonial Legislature. This was more especially the case now, beoanso if the impending changes were carried out, tjie representative, as a Provincial Councillor, must retire from public life ; and he might mention that should the Provinces bo abolished he intended to retire from political life, so that he might be making his farewell speech. He then referred to the “slurring over” of political questions by the electorate, which he described as a great curse to New Zealand, and said this impending abolition was one of the first results of such apathy by the electorate, because, if the elecloratehad said they would not allow constitutional changes to be rashly brought about, they would not have had the scenes enacted in the Parliament which had been enacted there: they would not have seen Parliament devoid of an Opposition, and allowing scheme after scheme, involving hundreds of thousands of pounds, passed in a night, without criticism. That wa* one of the many evils arising from not calmly discussing political questions, and it was one they would have to regret. Before the scheme was introduced, something should have been done to have secured, to the Middle Island its revenues and some kind of financial separation. He condemned the action of those who opposed Mr Reid's Ministry of last session, saying their opposition was not based on any question of policy, but on the ground rof the distribution of public money. This contention for the expenditure of money in certain districts was vicious, and must end in disaster to the Colony if not stopped—if everything were viewed from the strict money point of view politics, in the strict sense of the word, were banished. After giving a brief sketch of the progress of the land laws since 1865, Mr Stout spoke in favor of the adoption of the principle of leading State lands instead of selling them, so as to prevent a monopoly in laud and reduce taxation, and mentioned that since he had agitated the system in Otago, he found that in Victoria leading men, like Messrs Grant and Higginbotham, had voted in it* favor. He wished them to regard the land system as one of the leading questions of the day, and said that in Victoria there would have been good land laws had net the squatters caused a split in the liberal ranks by introducing the cry of Free Trade and Protection, the Abolition Bill would have his opposition if there was no other objection to it than that it tools (n« whole ftdmlhijrfcatfon of tihe Utn<& out

?/ » fba administration of I tneir waste lands was of as much importftHcls lb tuern as the revenue to be detivbcl, hiitthis Bill vested it in the Assembly—an AssemfhtlMed the Upper House, which nai lone everything in its power to prevent & Iberal land law being passed. The Bill also introduced a moat vicious system into Government— that o! allowing people to bo gdvisrhcd or nominees: a system against Which he had taken a stand in the Btobor Board Bill in the rromcxal Council before he knew of the Abolition Bill. Ibis Bill provided for SuperintenSecretaries, and Treasurers, the difference being that they would be nominees haying nothing to do with the people, instead of being elective. Mr Stout then referred to ms last year s address to his constituents at Mormngton, and quoted a« follows from the report of that speech:-“To those who said that they must believe in Mr Vogel’s sincerity when he said he would not touch the Middle laland land fund, or abolish the Middle Island rovinces, he would merely ask them to remember Mr Vogel a action in reference to the capitation allowance, which showed what political exigencies compelled Mr Vogel to do. Mr v ogel s proposals for the abolition ot the North island Provinces must end in there being ft common purse for tht Whole Colony. The WelWten b® administered from knd 4he P ro * eedi * « the land will a to P»y the Colonial debt.” The i ! INQ .i ST i R s l id T : " W ® aw teld that in revenge the North Island Provinces will never “ abolished in this sland. This is the bug-bear held up to frighten us, and if we allow ourselves to be terrified by ¥L de ® erv « wha ,t will Inevitably follow. If Northern Provincialism is maintained, our land revenue will pass from us.” Hestated at the time that the Star was making a statement that Would within a year be shown not to be a fact, and ho would now Ask the meeting whether he or the rfTAft had been right in their prophetic conclusions as to the future? Mr Reynolds had said at the Temperance Hall . wa ® no chance of Provincialism bemg abolished in the Middle Island—in fact he said as much as that if abolished in the South ne. t°r onQj Would retire from the Ministry—: and. when asked what guarantee there Was against the Abolition of the Southern Provinces replied that the Government could not stand before the Canterbury and Otago members for an Hour, It was now said that people had never opposed the abolition of tne Southern provinces, Whereas people had been misled into oelief that abolition would not atfect the Middle Island at all. Disguise it as they might, this abolition meant the taking of the funds of the Middle Island for the North. There weie two views to take of Provincial Councils—the money view and the political v . lo w—and he was willing to meet the Abolitionists on _ either ground. Instead of this Abolition Bill being introduced as a Constitution for the people under which to live, it was clogged with money questions, and bribes were thrown here aud there. The cry that Provincialism was a modified centralism was rebutted by the fact that this Bill put up the centres of population against the outlying districts. He contended that though at first sight there appeared to be a saving of L 3,000 or L 4.000 a year in the abolition of the Provincial Council, there would rather be an increase in the expense of government. It would at first appeal that their land revenue was secured to Otago, but this was not the case, and it would have been far more honest and manly to have said that the Colony was to have one common puise, because it amounted to that and nothing more. L'he Bill was a sham, a delusion, and a snare, and its subsidies were bribes to the electors of central localities to vote for the scheme. It was argued by some that Central Governments, being removed from local control, administered affairs with greater purity, but they had only to read history and look at the present to see that it was in Central Governments that the greatest jobbery prevailed. He thought he had shown them that, so far as revenue was concerned, abolition would not prove beneficial to the Middle Island; but, on the other hand, that it would bring many evils. He was perfectly well aware that the Bill would be treated like Mr Vogel’s grand scheme, and that there would be a general rush for money, aud the idea of mixing up money with constitutional changes was a most vicious one. Mr Stout concluded a very lengthy address by saying that a nation that parted with its liberties for money was an ignoble one : when giving up its politics for money it lowered its standard, and parted with what money could not compensate it for. Before they had any Constitutional changes he would ask that they should calmly and rationally discuss them. Loud and prolonged applause greeted the conclusion of the speech. Mr M‘lndoe proposed a motion to the effect that the meeting strongly objected to the Kill for the Abolition of the Provinces being passed by the General Assembly before an appeal to the country had been made. Mr Bakrowiian thought the measure for the Abolition or the Provinces should arise from the people themselves, and not from the General Government, and that the course adopted by the Government was an act of tyranny uneqmallcd in modern history. He moved—- “ That this meeting disapproves of the Abolition of the Provinces Bill, as being a measure not in the interests of the people nor called for by them.” He thought this measure had been propounded by the Press of the country, and that the Press had not dealt fairly with the jjeople. (Mr SIODT: “ Hear, hear.”) The Star had acted most tyrannically in not publishing a letter of his, because it did not coincide with the editor’s views.

Mr M ‘lndob withdrew his resolution, and seconded that proposed by Mr Barrowman, which was carried ; and it was agreed that a copy of it be forwarded to Mr Maeandrew. vote of thanks to Mr Stout and to the Chairman concluded the proceedings,