PORT CHALMERS ELECTION.

Evening Star, Issue 4015, 8 January 1876, Page 2

PORT CHALMERS ELECTION.

Mr Reynolds addressed a crowded meeting of the electors at the Royal Assembly Rooms last night, the Mayor occupying the chair. In his address Mr Reynolds necessarily travelled over a great deal of the old ground. At the outset he mentioned that he had been requested to stand for Roslyn, Mataura, Waikaia, Bruce, Glutha, and the Grey Valley, to all of which he had made reply that if he represented any place it would be Port Chalmers. He then referred at considerable length to the provisions of the Abolition Act, and denied in the strongest terms that under it it was intended to remove the administration of affairs to Wellington. Personally, he was strongly.opposed to a centralising policy, and if such were attempted to be earned out he would be found opposing it as determinedly as the strongest ultra-Provincialist. He next made reference to the action of the Anti-Centralist League in this contest, and to the letters of Messrs Barnes and M‘lndoe in last night’s Star. He (Mr Reynolds) had not the least doubt, notwithstanding Mr Barnes’s assurance to the contrary, that the League was still in existence, and paid for the handbills that had been posted in the Port. He reminded the electors that the only difference between the platform of his opponent and himself was that Mr Green went in for Federation and Separation - which were incompatible while he (Mr Reynolds) opposed Separation, well knowing how impossible it was to attain it. Like Mr Green, he was for a liberal land and local' Self-Government, Then it narrowed itself into a questioll as to who was the better man ; and that was what the electors had to decide on Monday. In answer to questions, Mr Reynolds said: The further deepning of the lower harbor scarcely came within his department' but belonged to the Harbor Board; but this he would say, that if the Harbor Board did not do its duty to all parts of the. harbor alike, he would be prepared as a member of the Assembly to take the power out of the Board’s hands. As to what the candidate had done for the shipping interest since he had been in office, he made reply enumerating the various new lighthouses projected and erected; the system of storm signalling also originated with him, and that of training ships for the Colony. He had been the means of having a new steamer built at Home for Colonial use, especially in the re-survey of the coast line. The ‘New Zealand Pilot’ would also be revised and -increased by a supplement. He was sure that the Marine Department had never been in such good order as now. He would not promise to advocate the immediate construction of a line of telegraph from the Nuggets to the Clutha—it would be done in time though; but there were other places that just now had greater claims upon telegraph construction outlay. Touching the mail service, he was opposed to the present contract because the steamers were not sent down to Port Chalmers in accordance with the original resolution passed by the Assembly. He, as Postmaster-General, would not recognise the contract on that account. Touching the removal of the work shops from Port Chalmers to Dunedin, he thoroughly opposed it when it was mooted, and considered that Port Chalmers was being treated in a, scurvy manner. Mr Macandrew agreed with him. Convince him that the interests of the shipping required it, and he would fight for further wharf extension at the Port, He would be in favor of allowing entries to be passed at the Port Chalmers Custom House, so as to obviate the necessity of going to Dunedin, providing the Collector of Customs -did not object to it upon departmental grounds. Dr Drysdale proposed, and Mr Neale seconded a vote of confidence in Mr Reynolds, which was carried by acclamation.

ANOTHER MANIFESTO. Yesterday the following address by tho Superintendent to the electors of Port Chalmers was circulated in Port: — Gentlemen,—As it appears that there is some • misapprehension in respect of my having transferred my seat in the Colonial Parliament from Port Chalmers to -Dunedin, I may perhaps be allowed to address to you a few words in explanation. It must, I think, be manifest that nothing but a strong sense of duty, and of whaf was best for the public interest, could have induced me to contest a seat where there was a risk of being defeated, when by sticking to my former constituency, the probability was that there would have been little or no such risk. Ineed not tell you that CentAlism has been the bane of this Colony, and that at your representative—and, I believe, with your approval—l have for years been associated with those who have been endeavoring to curb it. It was with this end in view that I helped to place the Yogel Government in office. I have no hesitation in saying that but for its declared Anti-Central proclivities that Government would not have been placed in power in the first instance, much less would it have been replaced subsequently after having been ousted by Mr Stafford—and yet, I regret to say, that under no previous administration has the Centralist spirit be«n more fully developed. Mr Stafford has so far succeeded by means of a professedly anti-centralistio administration, in doing (hat which he himself, as an avowed Centralism never could accomplish. When I lately had the honorof addressing you vxvd vece, the burden of my remarks went to show the evil that has resulted from Centralism in the past, and which cannot fail still further W result from it in the future. I showed that not content with having abstracted from Otago upwards of two millions sterling, It now seeks to mulct us to the extent of what will turn out to be L 200,000 a year in addition to the rate at which we have been already plundered. Bad as this is, however, it is in many respects the hast o jectionable feature of the evils which are sought to be infl cted. I consider that while the attempt—should it succeed—to extinguish Provincial sentiment, will be most disastrous to the material interests of the Colony (it is like -stopping the motive power which has hitherto sent New Zealand ahead) it will be more disastrous still as regards the development of those higher qualities, such as self-reliance, Wholesome rivalry, ana political training,- which it becomes us to nourish and to cherish in every po Bible direction if we would have this country not an autocracy of slaves, but a democracy of free men. 1 rejoice to think that these are the sentiments of nineteen-twentieths of the people of Otago. Already yon begin to taste some of the sweets of a levelling, deadening Centralism, which seeks to do everything for you, and will permit you to do nothing for yourselves, even with your own money. As a small instance of this yon cannot, even at your own cost, erect leading ligh's inside the harbor, to enable vessels to get up to,the Port in the dark, wi bout the intervention of some mysterious power at Wellington, which requires to be valiaficd with the quality of the kerosene, the arc of illumination, and so forth, just as if there were not talent enough among ourselves to attend to such matters. T lt has been decreed by Centralism that the New Zealand terminus of the Californian Steam Service shall not b? at Poit Chalmers. Last session I submitted a resolution to the House of Representatives, declaring one essential condition of the ratification of the contract to be that the outward boats shall proceed light through to San Francisco, taking their departure from Port Chalmers. On a division, however, Centralism carried the day by forty-eight against twenty, every member of the Government, of couise, voting against the motion.—(See ‘Hansard,’ page 381, vol. xix) I believe that this Province, which pays about one-third of the subsidy, will derive no benefit whatever from the tevvice, should tho Central element retain the ascendancy in the House of Representatives. Prom what I have said, and from much more that might be sail, <uu be it wondered at that those who are cofctsndlng for Otaf*

holding its own should be desirous to see none but Anti Centralists returned to the new Par-liament-men who will stick together and wo k together to this cud ? We w-nnt nothing at the expense of the rest of the Colony, unless indeed a Dir share of the revenue of the Province being profitably expended within itself is to be considered so. Gentlemen, with these views it needed no argument to show the immense value of the City of Dunedin—the «most important and • populous constituency in the Colony—returning three anti Central sts. It was only after very strong representations that this was not likely to be effected, unless I became a candidate, and after an assurance of approval from many of my former constituents, that I agreed to be nominated. The result speaks for itself, and the Dunedin election has, with one except! >n, given a tone to every subsequent election throughout the Province. It is said that 1 have slighted my old friends I assure you, however, there is nothing of which I am less conscious than this, or which is msre repugnant to my nature, and that I shall ever cherish a grateful recollection of the confidence which you have so long reposed in me. In conclusion, I feel persuaded that my action in this matter will commend itself to the judgment of those among you who, like myself, deem it onr duty, at this important crisis, to sacrifice our personal feelings to the public interest.