MR BESWICK AT RANGIORA.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 182, 8 January 1875, Page 2

MR BESWICK AT RANGIORA.

Mr Beswick, one of the candidates for the vacant seat in the General Assembly for the Kaiapoi district, addressed the Rangiora portion of the electors at the Mechanics' Institute, Rangiora. last evening. The was a very good attendance, the hall being well filled.

Mr Buss was moved to the chair, and briefly introduced Mr Beswick to the meeting, requesting that they would give him a fair hearing. Mr Bo wen had addressed them on Tuesday evening, and he trusted that the English love of fair play, which he felt sure prevailed in Rangiora,would be displayed that evening, and that they would give Mr Beswick a fair, and impartial hearing. [Hear, hear.J He would now ask Mr Beswick to address the electors present, and give them his views on the public questions of the day. [Hear, hear.] i Mr Beswick, who was warmly received on rising said that he was sorry he could not have given them & longer notice of the meeting than had been done, but a hint had been given that the writ would be down soon, and it was therefore necessary that he should address the electors as early as possible. Mr Bowen in his published address, had stated that he did not intend to address the electors until the day of nomination. However, he found that Mr Bowen was addressing the electors, and therefore it became necessary for him (Mr Beswick) to state his views to the electors. [Cheers.] Some eight years back he had been returned as the representative of Kaiapoi in the General Assembly, and against a good man. He believed that during the time he had held the seat he had retained the confidence of the Kaiapoi electors. [Cheers.] Mr Studholme followed him (Mr Beswick), and he had said atthe time he had to resign his seat that he should on a future occasion when a vacancy took place come forward to contest the election. When it was known that Mr Studholme's resignation was imminent Mr Isaac Wilson and others came to him (Mr Beswick), and asked him to come forward as a candidate, to which he had agreed. He mentioned that to clear these gentlemen from the charge of inconsistency which had been made against them of opposing his election to the Provincial Council, and supporting him for the General Assembly. Now, eight years before, when he had had no experience and was comparatively a young man, they had reposed confidence in him, and had elected him against Mr Travers as their representative in the General Assembly. He now came before them with all the experience he had gained by serving the public in the Provincial Council, as a member of the Provincial Executive, and as a member of Boad Boards, and asked them to return him as their representative again. He made no apology for coming before them; that was not necessary, as he had made a promise to do so on the first vacancy occurring in the General Assembly. He would first refer to a somewhat personal matter. They might wonder why it was he had kept silent so long, and why he had not published an address in the papers. Well, the reason was this: in the interests of the public, to save the money of the public, the Provincial Government of which he (Mr Beswick) was a member, broke down a monopoly of the printers and the newspapers of the province. They had saved the province by this a sum of over £I2OO per year, and for this the papers had persistently written down the Kennaway Government. A gentleman who had been a Minister of the Crown (Mr Reeves) came to the Government and told them that if they persisted in going outside the province for printing tenders the Government would not last six months. The Government were firm and would not give way, and what was the result ? why that the Lyttelton Times and the Press had persistently written down the late Government, and not only that, but had pursued individual members of it, himself amongst others. [Cheers.] He therefore did not intend to give the papers an opportunity of misreporting op maligning him, as they would do that if they got a chance. Now, he had had occasion to complain of the misreporting of Mr Kerr, the Mayor of Kaiapoi, who was alsojagent for the Times, and he had sent a letter to the Lyttelton Times, out of which that paper had cut the principal portion, and when remonstrated with, they declined to publish the letter at all. It was afterwards published in the Press. Another thing was that a letter 'signed " Kaiapogian " had accused him of having used his position as Provincial Treasurer to obtain a coal site without paying any rent for it. Now that letter was a falsehood, and it had been written by Mr Aherne, of Rangiora, inspired they could easily guess by who, when he told them that he was collecting information for the Lyttelton limes. Mr Aherne had told him that he had done the dirty work, being only the tool, but that he had had nothing to do with the composition of the letter. Another thing of which he had to complain wa3, that he had never received any intimation of Mr Bowen's intention to visit Kaiapoi to interview the electors, though Mx Kejgi had received a telegram, and Dr PndWy a letter. He was in town all that day, and on returning he received a requisition, which he thought, on looking over it, fully represented the feelings of the electors of the district, asking him to come forward as a candidate. As he had promised before that he would do this, the request was one with which he had complied. He had handed the local agents of the two papers at Kaiapoi a paragraph stating that he was coming forward as a candidate, but they never appeared, so that the blame of want of publicity and affording information to the electors, rested on the public papers. [A Voice—'! Cut the doleful, and tell up about your policy and views."] Well, he intended.

to do so, but he thought it only right that these personal matters should be referred to and explained. Before he lift thin, h desired to say that it seemed to him that Mr Bowen kuew of Mr Studholme's intended resignation before he (Mr Beswiek) or any of the general public did so. [Hear, hear J Now he came to the great question of the day—the abolition of the provinces. Nome time back the cry was for cheap land on deferred payments, and he had eight years back contested the election with Mr Travers on this point. If they had carried ont that scheme where would they have found money to make roads, bridges, and to give subsidies for schools, libraries, &c. Now it was proposed to abolish the provinces ; but he wanted to know what they were going to put in their place. They had a most prosperous community—one of the most prosperous peih"ps in the world—carried out by the very power which they now intended to abolish, and which had been stated by Mr Bowen to be of such value. If they abolished the provinces, he wished to know from Mr Bowen as a Minister, and therefore in the secrets of the Ministry, what they were going to do when the provinces were abolished ? Again, he would point out that if they had the central authority in Wellington, they would find it very hard to get their grievances redressed ; whilst under the Provincial Government system they could at once go to the Superintendent or Secretary and make known their wants. [Cheers.] In the North Island, where there were a number of matters relative to the native race to be carried out, and perhaps circumstances differing from the South Island, it might be right to alter the constitution. But it was all very well to talk vaguely about the creation of shires, counties, &c; but it was bard to say what could be done until a scheme was before them to replace the one they were about to sweep away. [Cheers.] Mr Bowen had spoken of the speech of Lord Dufferin about Canada; but the cases were nq.t analogous, because in Canada the provinces all had governors, with the paraphernalia of Parliaments, &c, such as they had, therefore it was not a case in point. He hoped the electors would think of this matter, and consider calmly the pros and cons of the ques tion of abolition of the provinces. He did not care what they called the divisions, whether shires or counties, or whether they changed the name of provinces. He would not object to that, but what he wanted to point out was, that it would be far better for them to endeavor to improve the provinces rather than abolish them. [Cheers.] Respecting Mr Bowen's determination to go into the Lower House, he must say that he did not agree with him in this course, and he might also say that Mr Bowen's personal friends were also very much opposed to this. The appointment was not popular; there was scarcely a paper in New Zealand which had approved of it, and the House would, he felt sure, resent a man being brought in from outside instead of, as was the usual practice, winning his spurs in the Assembly first. This was the case with regard to Mr Gisborne, and would be the same with regard to Mr Bowen. [Hear, hear.] He held that Mr Bowen could do the work of his office as Minister of Justice in the Upper House instead of coming into the Assembly. [Hear, hear.] This would be a clear gain of one vote by Canterbury by the return of himself (Mr Beswiek), wbicb would be a great thiug at a time like the next session, when there would be a great scramble for the land revenue of the Middle Island. Therefore, he thought, that the electors should return him, as they would gain a vote, and have two instead of one. There would be a general mix up of parties at the next session, but he (Mr Beswiek) would not mix himself up with any of them, but would go into that House perfectly independent. Now he wished to refer to a personal matter which had taken place at Kaiapoi, when several of his friends, or who were his friends once, had called him a billet hunter. Now he (Mr Beswiek) wanted to put this fact before them, that during all the years he had been been connected with politics, the honorarium he had received would not equal one year's salary of Mr Bowen. [Hear, hear.J He trusted that these remarks would not be persisted in. He came before them to ask them to return , him for the reasons he had stated, and he hoped that they would exercise their own independent selection. and not allow themselves to be biassed or swayed in any degree by what might be said by the Press of the province. | Cheers] He did not know that he need detain them any longer. He thanked them for their patient and atteutive hearing, and would be ready to answer any questions which might be put to him by those present. .In reply to .Mr Boyd, Mr Beswiek said that he did not see any difficulty in the existence of two systems in the 'North and South Islands. In England and Scotland the laws were different in form, and there were many differences, so that he saw no difficulty in the change being made in the North Island first. It would also allow the South Island to see how the change worked; and if good, to adopt it. In reply to Mr Isaac Wilson, Mr Beswiek said that he would not support any change in the constitution of the colony unless the people of the country had an opportunity of expressing their opinion upon it. • [Hear, hear.J He gave no pledge, .but that he would say; and he would further say that should he change his views, he would communicate with the chairman of bis committee.

In reply to Mr Wright, Mr Beswick said that he should only be too happy to meet his constituents at any time after the session should they elect him.

In answer to Mr Boyd, Mr Beswick said that he was not prepared to go the whole length that Mr Vogel might wish to go, though he was a supporter of Mr Vogel. The-four millions which he had gone home to borrow was the last amount authorised by the Assembly. The railways should of course be made reproductive so far as possible, and he should not oppose any borrowing of money, but simply wasteful expenditure without a chance of the works being made reproductive. In reply to Oapt Parsons, Mr Beswick said that he was certainly of opinion that Mr Vogel was the moving power of the Government. He believed that Mr Vogel was an honest politician, and a moat able man.' As regarded Mr Vogel's influence over bis colleagues, he might say that he thought upon Mr Boweti's speech and Mr Reynolds' address at Dunedin, that while the cat's away the mice were at play, and they might be told if they interfered with the (management of the ship, that they were only taken in as passengers. Of the other portion'' of the. Ministry, Mr Biohardson pnd Sir Donald McLean were so much ab-

sorbed in the work of their departments, that they did not interfere in politics generally. ' ~-,. In reply to Mr Good, Mr Beswiek said that his opinion, or that of any others, on the question whether the the lines projected by the Government would pay was not worth much. As regarded the Eyreton line, referred to by Mr Good, he m'ight say that he thought it would pay as well as any other line projected. In reply to Oapt Parsons, Mr Beswiek said that he should endeavor, if returned, to get the colonial land regulations assimilated, so far as it was possible, to the Canterbury land regulations, which were as perfect as any in Australasia, In reply to Capt Parsons. Mr Beswiek said that he felt that the putting down of a tramway like that to Oxford alongside a main road was a most absurd idea, and he could not understand why when land was open that the projectors did not take the line away from the main road. [Hear, hear.J In reply to Mr Rickman,

Mr Beswiek said that the colony as a whole was responsible for some twenty millions of money; therefore it was to their interest in the South to see the North Island well settled, because the additional population which they got there took so much more from the amount that the Fouth Island would have to contribute. The South Island would have to make up the deficiency if any existed. Therefore they would see that they were as much interested in the prosperity of the North Island, as the northerners were themselves, [Hear, hear.] No other question being asked, The chairman said that though somewhat unusual, he should like to say a few words. He was a supporter of Mr Beswiek, and what he had to say was what he should, had he been in the body of the hall, have said. He thought they ought to return Mr Beswiek. who had served them well in the Provincial Council and elsewhere, and he hoped that on the poll day they would put him at the head of it. [Hear, hear.] Mr Beswiek proposed a vote of thanks to thfl nhairman for his able conduct in the chair, which was carried. Cheers were then called for Mr Beswiek, and responded to, as were also counter cheers for Mr Bowen, and the meeting broke up.