THE HON C. C. BOWEN AT KAIAPOI.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 179, 5 January 1875, Page 3

THE HON C. C. BOWEN AT KAIAPOI.

The newly-appointed Minister of Justice, the Hon C.-O. Bowen, who is a candidate for the seat in the General Assembly for Kaiapoi,’ vacated by Mr John Studholme, addressed the electors of Kaiapoi, at the Mechanics’ Institute last evening. There was a very good attendance. On the motion of Mr Birch, his Worship the Mayor (Mr B, G. Kerr) took the chair. His Worship" Said they all knew the reason meeting together that evening, and tbat Mr Bowen, who was a candidate for their suffrages, would address them. He would not ask them to give a fair hearing to each side, because at Kaiapoi meetings always did that, and he felt sure that the present occasion ;■would be no exception to the general rule. He did not intend to make a long speech, bat would simply introduce the Hon Mr Bowen, [Hear, hear.] The Hon Mr Bowen, who was warmly received on rising, said that he had been desirous to address them at as early a date as possible in order to explain to them not only his views on the general questions of the day,'But also the reasons which had induced him to come forward as a candidate for the suffrages of the electors of Kaiapoi. Those reasons were simply these: When asked to join the Government he was ca led to the Legislative Council, but he only accepted this latter on the understanding that he should be free to offer himself as a candidate for any vacancy in the Lower House which might occur in any constituency or part of the province in which he was known. [Hear, hear.] He felt that it was only right that he should, instead of taking his ease in the Upper House, be prepared to do battle in the fiercer conflict of the Lower House, as this was the assembly where the greater part of the work of the country was done. Besides this, he felt it was only right that a member of the Government should be jn the Lower House, and take his ■hare in tb© work which necessarily devolved upon his colleagues, and indeed the whole of the meihhett there. [Hear, hear. \ Therefore, when he heard that Mr Studholme intended to resign, be had made np his mind at once to offer himself for a place where he bad many friend 0 , and where he trusted he should be supported. [Hear, bear.] With regard to his connection with the province, be might say that, before he became Resident Magistrate of Christchurch, he was a member of the Provincial Executive who initiated the first railway and the first electric telegraph in the province, [Hear, hear.] He had also been connected with the history of the province ffom the first, and if returned he should do all he could to represent Kaiapoi and the r colony at large, As long as Kaiapoi stuck to 1 him be would slick to Kaiapoi. (Hear, hear.) The present time was one of more peculiar importance than at any other, because they were as it were on the eveof a change of system. From a variety of reasons which at the the time made it a matter of expediency, and indeed of necessity, they had to create provinces, each one perfectly independent in its mode and | form of Government, and they thus had established six or seven independent powers working in opposite directions. Every province too came up year after year to the Colonial Legis ature for permission to pledge the credit of the colony for loans for all of objects, and thus' they became, as it iwm*, dependent upon the State, They had nj com plex and duplex system of Government at work, which was most costly, and though perhaps in times past it had done its rfoik well, which no one would deny, he thought the characteristics , of. the system was bad, 'and it’was, in his opinion, one that could not long exist! Judeed, so soon as the Immigratiqc apd Public Works policy was accepted by tfie General Assembly, the first nail was driven iqto the coffin of provincialism. [Hear,bear] . He thought tfiatthe tirqehad pome when they Should bring forward a pqlicy; a pplicy which would tend tq firing together the interests now scattered so widely }ntq oqe coipmqn whole,, 1| they wanted local self-government here it was for them in the highest form; they would, under the proposed system, whether the details were worked out with counties, shires, or in whatever form it resulted,; have local self-govern-ment given to them, and he thought that this nawkwimt .they wanted. [Hear, hear.] If |||pppH|Duffuriu. in a recent speech at Toronto, congratulate the great Dominion of. Canada upon having got rid of local or provincial prejudices which; were cloginuß; tbe.wheels of progress, acid that the heart of the nation was allowed to throb and beat. unitedly, bow much more should they in New Zealand congratulate ■ themselves upon the * establishment , q£- a policy which would make them a nation indeed united and compact, instead of a natvod-’of 'divided .parishes, [Hear, hear.] It was, however, no light task which would be imposed upon the Parliament at its next session, and perhaps it would not be completed in two or even three. The Government, however, had pledged themselves to commence the alteration of the system at the North Island. There was no doubt ultimately that it must extend over the whole islands; and it would be all the better when it did do so. [Hear, hear.] It was, however, in his opinion, better to begin the revolution or change of system at an end where the w/»k was wanted now, and not in those where the provinces were doing good work in furthering the public works of the colony. Otago and Canterbury, the two great provinces of the'''Middle Island, were doing this now,- and he thought it was ' better that they should be allowed to carry o&b to an end what they had so usefully When the Governmen idid him the honor to ask him to join them in this work, ho felt that for one who had taken a share >-i in the public affairs of the colony to weigh nicely personal interests was not right, and he had, therefore, felt honored by such a request. Besides this, he looked upon it I / that,-in the present state of things it wa> much better that the South should be repre Rented fully in the Government, hence it was very dgrirable that another Southern member should be added to,the Cabinet [Hear.] Vv hat bp wanted was to secure th progress of the. colqny as a whole, to make, tbp .railways, to ;open up, the country foi

civilisation, and this he took it was far better accomplished by one united self-go-verning nation rather than by a divided and scattered system of duplex and complex governments. [Hear, hear.] There could be no doubt about the matter that it would have to extend over both islands, and thus have the whole colony under one system of government. The North Island provinces had financially come to an end ; not that they had got rid of all their land fund ; far from it, he believed they would have a better one than they had by and bye, as they were spending theirs very fast; but they were coming to the Assembly session after session to scramble for money, and getting it; therefore it was that he held it was right to begin where the Government proposed to do. At the same time he said this, that if any man believed solely in his province or parish, and ignored the general interests of the colony, all he could say was, that he had got his head into a provincial bag. and was going to ruin with his eyes shut. It must be remembered that they in the South, especially in Otago and Canterbury, had had their work to do under very exceptional circumstances, and there was a good deal to be considered in this way. But still there was no disguising the fact that, sooner or later, the extension of the system now proposed to be introduced, and the abolition of provincialism would be general throughout all the colony, and but one form of Government, prevail in it. The real question after all to be considered in dealing with this matter was. the allocation of the land revenue. He was not going that evening into all the intricacies of the scheme, whether it was better to have shires, counties, or whatever form of Government might be proposed. That, as he had said, was a very large question, and one which would take the Parliament some time to consider,. But, after all, it really resolved itself into a question of what was to be done with the land revenue. Of course with regard to anything which, like this, came as it were from Heaven, there could not be any agreement as to the way in which it was to be spent. Now, to look at this question fairly, they much go back to the compact of 1856, which had been so often spoken of. In the earlier days, me follo-n-crs of Edward Gibbon Wakefield held that the land itself was of no value, it was simply the means of communication which were established that rendered it valuable. The New Zealand Company’s debt at this time was like an incubus on the resources of the colony, and the South refused to pay any share towards it because they had derived no benefit from it whatever. Therefore the. matter came up in the Assembly for discussion at the session in Auckland, and the arrangement was made that each province should be allowed to deal absolutely with the land wjthin their own borders, that they 1 should have power to administer the laws relating to them, and also that the scrip of the New Zealand Company which had been left as legacy on the land, should be allocated in the North Island provinces only, and that £186,000 should be allocated for the formation of a land fund for the purchase of lands from the natives in the North Island. There was of course great disparity in the way in which the various provinces administered their land laws, and the price charged for it. In Canterbury alone the land laws had not been subject to legislative tinkering, and as it was probable that one land law would be for the whole colony, bethought it was quite possible that £2 per acre would be considered a fair price. [Hear, hear.] There were, however, a number of circumstances to be taken into consideration under the new system. Whether they divided the colony intro shires or counties, or in whatever way they arranged it, he felt that the land re* venues would be as fairly distributed as they were now under the territorial system which prevailed. [Cheers.] They would sec from the sketch he had given that it was a very large question, and one which would occupy the attention of Parliament very .largely during the next session; but while this was the case, he hoped that a number of social questions which affected the wellbeing of the commuity would not be neglected because there was a larce political question to be discussed. Take, for instance, the marriage laws. He thought it was only right that these lavys, which were so intimately connected with their domestic relations, should be §o codified and consolidated as that every one should be able to understand them. Take for instance again the Stamp Act, which unfortunately came horqe to them at almost every turn. He felt that this law particularly required codification and simplification, because the general public, who were so much interested, knew nothing about it, indeed it was a labyrinth even to lawyers. Then again there were offences which were offences on one side of a provincial border and not on the other. There was one point particularly, which as a Magistrate, as a visiting justice, and now as holding the position of Minister of Justice, was on his conscience, and that was the condition of the gaols of the colony. He might say at once that the condition of the gaols of the colony, despite what had been been done to ameliorate the evils existing, were a disgrace to their civilisation. They could not, perhaps, realise what was meant when it was stated that in their gaols no means existed for the classification of prisoners. It might, perhaps, to many seem strange that when first offenders came before magistrates or judges they received what might seem to be very light sentences for serious offences. Well, he might say that the judges and magistrates who passed those sentences did so with the knowledge that if they passed a sentence such as the offence merited it would send the prisoner to herd with hardened and habitual criminals, and he would come out of gaol far worse than he had gone in. This was a matter which rested very heavily upon his conscience, and he should take every means in his power during the next session of the Assembly to see that this crying evil was remedied. In their province much had been done to ameliorate the condition of their gaols, and he might say that his Honor the Superintendent had taken very great interest in the matter, and the result of the erection of the gaol at Addington for female prisoners, and the classification there instituted had been productive of the most beneficial results. [Hear, hear.] Still there remained a great deal to do throughout ill the provinces, and he felt that nothing really could be done until the long sentenced prisoners were drafted off into a central penal establishment. [Hear, hear.] He hoped next session to see a vote taken for the esta blishmentof this. [Hear,hear.] Anotherpoint upon which general legislation was required was the education of the people. In some parts of the colony this was not attended to

as it ought, to bo, or as the importance of the subject demanded, and he should like to see a general system introduced. These were a few of the more prominent subjects with which ho hoped to see the Assembly deal during its rvxt session, notwithstanding the. targe question which they would have to d--al with, f Wear, hear.] Now he wished to say a word or two on the relations between the constituency and the member representing it. No one more fully recognised the duty which devolved upon a representative to look after and attend to the interests of the district he represented, but he also recognised the fact that he had duties to perform to the colony as a whole, and he thought that perhaps in some cases it would be far better to allow matters to stay in abeyance, rather than push them on when it was seen that their advocacy would not Vie attended with success. Fortunately he believed Kaiapoi was in the happy position of being without a grievance; at least, he had not heard of one, except the Maoris’. They complained that they had not had churcnes or hospitals and schools built but he could promise them that he would lay the matter before Sir Donald McLean, who, from his long experience of the Maori race, would be enabled to thoroughly go into the subject. Personally he was of opinion that they should recognise the claims of the former possessors of the ground upon which they now stood. [Hear, hear.] Another matter was with regard to the opposition which had been brought, aeainst him. Shortly after he decided upon offering himself as a candidate he became aware through the papers and other sources that he was to be opposed. Now he was somewhat at a loss to understand the grounds of this opposition. As he was a member of the Government it must be on a question of policy, or if not he was at a loss to see what it was. It had been said that he was not a local man, but did the fact that he resided some twelve or thirteen miles from the electors, make him incapable of representing them properly. Why, in England they were endeavoring to - —turner"from"this very local influence. If the argument held good that no one but a local man should ever represent Kaiapoi then they would have to look out and elect some ouc who would have no chance of becoming a Minister, and thus have to reside iu Wellington. However, so far as regarded being a looal man, he could claim to have been over and in the district long before many of those he now saw in the room, and when there w-s nothing but ducks to be seen about. He thought that the cry about a local man could not seriously be meant, as certainly his residence a few miles from the electors would not interfere with his representing them if elected to the best of his ability. [Hear, hear.] The-present contest had been the means of his being able to see some of the finest agricultural country in the province, and to renew his acquaintance with many old and valued settlers of the district. He had detained them at some length, and would now conclude by expressing his willingness to answer any questions that might be put to him. Mr Bowen resumed his seat amid loud and continued cheers. The Mayor asked if any elector had any questions to put to Mr Bowen. A Voice : Oh ! No ; we’retoo well satisfied with what he has said to want to ask him any questions. Mr Birch said he had been requested to ask Mr Bowen the following questions with regard to the financial position of the colony, viz.—(I.) What was the present amount of indebtedness of the colony? (2.) What was the amount of interest the colony had to pay per annum upon the sums borrowed? (3.) Did the Government intend at next session of the Assembly to apply for authority to raise any more loans? Mr Bowen said that with regard to the first question, the amount of indebtedness of the colony when the amount raised which was authorized, including general and provincial loans, would be about eighteen millions. He was assuming that the general and provincial loans were all one. Mr Vogel had gone to England to arrange for a loan of four millions, part of which had been already allocated. The interest on the loans wm>, he thought, about £926,000 per anuum, but it was expected that, when the trunk line throughout the islands was finished, that, it would pay largely, as the railways in Victoria and New South Wales, which had been constructed at immense cost, were paying largely, so that they might expect their trunk-railway to do so also. In reply to the question as to whether the Government intended to raise any further loans at the next session, they did not intend to do so after the present authorised amount had been raised.

In reply to Mr Isaac Wilson, Mr Bowen said his opinion was that it would be the best policy to commence tentatively where it was most needed with the alteration of the system, but that next session, or perhaps after that, it would be right to introduce a Bill to include the Middle Island. [Hear, hear. 1 He would not pledge himself at all to say when the proper time would be to do this ; but most decidedly he was of opinion that the Middle Island should be included. [Hear, hear.] In reply to Mr Isaac Wilson, Mr Bowen said that he was not in favour of borrowing, at least on the system now carried out, in which the provinces pledged the credit of the colony. This, he thought was ruinous. He tried to explain that he was in favour of the nrinicipalitiosor divisions or whatever they might be, borrowing money if they had any security to offer to the public creditor, but he did object to the provinces all hanging on to the milch cow, the state, some milking her openly and in broad day, and others under cover. As he had always said he objected to the provinces being allowed to hang round the colony borrowing on the strength of the credit of the colony. [Hear, hear.] No further questions being asked, Dr Dudley rose to propose a vote of thanks to Mr Bowen for his kindness in coming there that evening, and for the eloquent speech which he had given them. He had listened with great pleasure to the speech made that evening by Mr Bowen, which proved him to be the man they required to represent them. [Hear, hear.] Mr Woodford seconded the resolution with much pleasure. He was glad to see young blood of talent and eminence, such as Mr Bowen, who had filled high positions in the province with so much credit fo himself and to the province, coming forward as can didates, and he hoped they would send Mr Bowen to Wellington to see what stuff he was made of. [Laughter.] Mr Bifch said he gathered from the papers and from what he heard that there was to be opposition to Mr Bowen, Now he wanted

to know what the policy of that opposition was. Mr Bowen had declared his mnst plainly and straightforwardly and why could not the opposition come forward and do the same. | Hoar, hear.] Why was this opposition erot up? Was it on account of a local candidate? Well, he saw a good friend of his close to him who was a warm supporter of ‘‘local” candidature nor, who told him not so very long ago. that he hod written to ask Mr Vogel to become a candidate. [ Loud laughter and applause.] This was inconsistent enough at any rate. [Hear, hear.l With regard to the main question of Mr Bowen’s speech, the uniting of the country under one form of Government, he might say that he quite agreed with that, as he felt that the time had arrived when the provinces should cease, and the whole islands be united under one form of Government. [Hear, hear.] He bad much pleasure in supporting the resolution. The Mayor then put the resolution which was carried with only two dissentients, amid loud and continued cheering.

Mr Bowen said that he had hoped that Mr Beswick would have been present that evening so that he might have heard from himself what were the reasons for the opposition. However, he supposed he would not, even had he been there, grudged him the vote of thanks at any rate. He trusted to meet them often on future occasions as their representative, to give an account of his actions in the Assembly. [Loud cheers ] He now begged to propose a vote of thanks to the Mayor for his kindness in occupying the chair that evening.

The motion was carried by acclamation, Three cheers were then given for Mr Bowen and a similar compliment paid to the Mayor, and the meeting dispersed.