Mr Arkwright at Marton

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 5, 26 June 1890, Page 3

Mr Arkwright at Marton

(Abridged from Marton paper.) Mr Arkwright, one of the candidate! for the representation of the Rangitike electoral district, addressed a meeting al the Forester's Hall, Marton, on Monday evening last. There was a large attendance, 'and the Mayor occupied the chair. Mr Arkwright, who was greeted with -applause, apologised for calling a meeting at to early a date. If his opponent (Mr Macarthur) had kept within the bounds of his old electorate, he should have said nothing ; but when he boldly crossed the Rangitikei, and laid seige to Bulls and Marton, he began to think it was time for him to have his innings. He had read Mr Macarthur's speeches with the interest that must always attach to the utterances of a man of his ability and experi- ; ence. At the same time, he thought some , of the praise bestowed upon them seemed ! a little extravagant ; for nothing could be s . more painful to a modest man than to be held up as the personification of common cense for saying things which, however true, had been said a hundred times be- , fore* It was usual for the supporters of a candidate, to invent some sort of battlecry, and from various newspaper puffs which he had seen, it was clear that his opponents were to fight under the banner ~«f "Vote toe Macarthur, the commonsense candidate 1" A considerable portion of Mr Macarthur's speeches had been devoted to a subject which, he informed them, had always been a hobby ■of his — the acquisition and roading of land for settlement. His own views were briefiy these : — That those lands should be settled as rapidly as possible, by as numerous a population «8 they would fairly maintain ; that they should be thrown open-under regulations which would ' exclude capitalists and speculators, aud on such terms as would give every industrious working man the prospect of being able to make a home for himself and his family ; and that all reasonable endeayours should be made to minimize the hardship to be undergone . "by the settlers. Much of that hardship was caused by the absence of roads. Mr Macarthur's remedy was that Governu ent dx -uld make at least one road through ■each block before throwing it open for settlement, and recover that outlay by a jslightly increased charge on the land. He cordially agreed with that suggestion. So far noweyer, from the Fcheme of Toading lands before settlement being an ingenious invention, of Mr Macarthur's he would venture to ; say that it had oj--curred to every man, who ever thought ' About the matter at all. If Mr MarArthur was presenting himself as a candidate for" the first time, he might fairly lay bis favourite scheme before the electors,: and ask them them to send him to -Parliament to give effect to it. But he Had already sat there for six years, and -surely it was not unfair to ask what he Jiad done during that time to lay his views before the House. So far as could be discovered, he had never once alluded to them. Tfen yeais ago he had laid "them before}: Mr Rolleston, and subsequently before Sir H. Atkinson ; hut if he had done anything more, his efforts iad left no trace iv the pages of Hansard. He had looked carefully through every •debate bearing ori land questions, but could not discover that Mr Macarthur iad ever opened his lips on the subject. - Jt was not for lack of opportunity.Though 6 Public Work's Statements had been delivered since Mr Macarthur had eat in Parliament, he' had i;ever once opeued his mouth. Mr Mac; rohur had alluded to the practical work he had done in settling the Manchester Block, and said he should like to see something of the land carried out in settling -the Government lands.*' >To that he could only reply •" Heaven forbid!" Though Mr MacArthur might look with pride on the work he had done for the corporation, which Lad disposed of its land on terms whioh gave it . perfect -security, he doubted whether his satisfaction was entirely shared by the settlers many of them had been .attracted by the bait of three years without payment of interest; but they -were beginning to think they had paid a iigh price for their land, and some of them had to work hard to pay the heavy rates and the interest on their mortgages. He questioned whether some of them would not gladly change places with the settlers in Government blocks, in spite of the absence of roads, if only they might be freed from the pressure of the money-lender and the mortgagee. Mr Fergus* suggestion to raise money in the colony by means of debentures ' for buying Native lands, and road-making had met with rather undeseryed ridiculeMr Macarthur pointed out that it was letter to borrow at four per cent, than "five, and had said that we ought to go boldly on the London market. If a large sum was required, ' of course it would be better to borrow in London ; but it was not worth while to go there for much less than a million. There was this great adyantage in raising money by debentures — that we should only borrow the exact sum required for each operation : whereas, if we borrowed a million at once, either it would have to be allotted beforehand, giving rise to the usual scxamble, or else a yery large sum would be lying idle. Referring to subsidies to local bodies Mr Arkwright said Sir Harry Atkinson had raised the duty on tea to sixpence a pound, and given half the -proceeds as subsidies to the local bodies. Mr Macarthur had opposed this arrangement, and proposed an alternative scheme, of which he strongly disapproved. That plan was to discontinue the subsidies, and allow the money which would hove gone to the local bodies to accumulate, for the purpose of renewing the large bridges originally built by the Government. There was another matter which would come before Parliament this session in which he took a deep interest— bhe question of the relief of the poor, or, as it -was absurdly called, charitable aid. Mr Arkwright then criticised at some length the proposals of the bill introduced last session. He disapproved of abolishing b the present boards, and giving one local **" body control over the rates collected from the district ; but this proposal had caused such unanimous protests from the local bodies that he thought it would not re-ap-pear. He saw nothing to object to in the change proposed in the manner of giving the Government subsidies to hospitals, especially as he found the Wanganui Hospital would be a considerable gainer by it. Turning to the question of local government, Mr Arkwright said there were rumours that an attempt would be made to amalgamate some of the local bodies. Possibly in some parts of the colony the education and charitable aid districts might be too small, and in that case it might be better to throw some of them toother, but he should Oppose something like a general amalgamation of local bodies. He thought it most desirable that as many persons as possible should -understand local affairs and finance, and take-part in their administration. It was evident from Mr Fergus' speech that an attempt would be made to render the colony partially liable for the debts of some local bodies, such as the Naw Plymouth Harbour Bo«rd. It was unfo:tunate that - Parliament should ever have sanctioned some of these absurd undertakings; but those who invested their money in them elided with theii eyes open, and., knew- perfectly well

that there was no colonial guarantee. For his part, he would resist any attempt to throw the smallest portion of these liabilities on the colony. Another ques--3 tion which was becoming of serious imi portauce was that of providing new t school-buildings. He cordially agreed r with Mr Macarthur that the necessary charges should be defrayed out of taxes, and not out of loan, but he could not tipprove of his proposal to retain tho prim- <■ age duty for that purpose. If the tax ; produced more than was required, it ' would be difficult to enforce economy ; | and as for Mr Macarthur's proposal of forming a reserve fund, he considered it 1 altogether unsound. It would be better that - the construction and repair of school ' buildings should be recognised as one of the regular annual charges, that the Minister of Education should include it in his ! estimates. This primage duty of one per cent. on all imported goods had been imposed for two years only, in order to pay off the deficit .left by Sir J. Yogel, and the mention of it reminded him of 1 the discussion which had been going on as to the probable surplus for the year. It had been stated that there would be a surplus of £115,000. The matter was scarcely worth discussing, for no Minister was responsible for the statement about the surplus, which was merely a newspaper forecast. He should not have alluded to it but for the fact that ou the strength of having exposed the fallacy of the anticipated surplus, Mr Macarthur had been extolled as one of a few men In New Zealand who understood finance. They would know soon whether Sir H. Atkinson claimed a surplus or not, but however that might be it would not alter his opinion of the financial policy of the present Government. He gave them all credit for having effected necessary economies ; but their system of taxation was most mischievous. As Sir Harry Atkinson's health had broken down it seemed probable that there would be a reconstruction, and a new man would be at the head of affairs. He hoped that man w ou ld be Mr Bryce, for he knew no one else to whom he could give an unhesitating pledge of support. Mr Arkwright concluded by thanking the meeting for the patient hearing they had given him. He would only add that if tbey returned him to Parliament he should endeavor to serve them to the best of his ability. — Applause. The chairman invited questions. Dr Monckton (Feilding) remarked that he was there as representing a large section of the Feilding people, and he could assure them that they would be nobly supported in bringing out Mr Arkwright. Mr Alexander Mcßeth moved a vote of thanks and confidence. The motion was seconded by Mr J. MarshaliThe motion was declared to be carried unanimously. The announcement was greatly applauded, and Dr Monckton called for a cheer, which was given. A yote of thanks to the chair terminated the meeting. (For continuation of Reading Matter see fourth page.)