THE ABOLITION BILL.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 360, 7 August 1875, Page 3

THE ABOLITION BILL.

MEETING AT LEESTON.

A meeting of the electors of Leeston was held last evening, at Loe's Leeston Hotel, to consider the Government Bills for Abolition of the Provinces.

There was a very small attendance, only some thirty persons being present. Mr C. J. Bridge was voted to the chair.

The chairman said the object of their meeting there that evening was to consider the question of the abolition of the provinces. This was a most important question one of the most important that had ever been discussed in the district, and he hoped they would discuss it fully. Mr Win. Miles asked the chairman to read the requisition calling the meeting. The chairman said ne would look in the paper, and find the local referring to it. Captain Willis explained chat the matter had arisen from a conversation between Mr Frankish, Mr Gardiner, and himself. He was asked to call a meeting of the electors to discuss the subject, and he had spoken to Mr Bridge, Mr Lee, and others, and on the sale day having met, they talked the matter over, and he guve the notes of the meeting to the reporters of the two papers resident in the Southbridge district. Captain Willis tnen read some notes of the meeting referred to. Mr Miles had seen the report referred to, aud he might say it led him to suppose it was an extraordinary way for two or three gentlemen to meet together, in what they called a preliminary meeting, lie never knew preliminary meetings to pass a resolution on such an important question as this, and even went so far as to urge upon their member to oppose the Bill. [Hear,- hear, from Mr McLachlan.] He considered there was no necessity for the meeting being called, and he considered it was a most improper proceeding. [Cheers.] Mr Woodman considered the meeting should have been opened by reading the telegram from Mr Reeves, in which he said if they could get the opinion of the inhabitants of the district it would strengthen his hands in the Assembly. Therefore some gentlemen had met and decided to call the meeting. It was therefore virtually on Mr Reeves's telegram that the meeting had been called. Mr Miles was proceeding to address the meeting again, when The chairman said he must call Mr Miles to order. The only report of the matter was a local in the papers, which he would read. |Read.] There had been no advertisement i of the meeting calling the electors together. The report he had read was all the information he had got on the matter. [Mr R. Frankish—" Quite sufficient." Cheers. J i Mr Gardiner said that he cousideied by 1 calling this meeting that those who worked

with him had only in view the good of the district.

ivl r E. Jollie said that he did not consider that there had been anything irregular in the calling of the meeting, but it might have been better to have had an advertisement inserted, [Hear, hear.] This was a most important occasion, because he thought every constituency should, he thought, protest against against the action of the Government in this matter. [Hear, and " No, no."] He thought that they should protest against the Government forcing on such a radical change in the constitution of the colony without giving the electors a chance of expressing their views on this matter, therefore he thought the Government should allow the matter to stand over until next session of the Assembly. Nothing would be gained by pushing forward now, as the Imperial Government had to be appealed to through the Parliament before the alteration of the Constitution. The Ministry were, he understood, going to act upon the Act of the Parliament separating Westland from Canterbury, which was getting in a change by means of a side wind. [Mr Frankish—" Question."] He might say that he wasnot going to say anything about abolition, he left that an open question. There was, as he had said, a legal difficulty in the way, and therefore it was better to postpone the matter for the present. Mr Reid, the Solicitor-General, gave one opinion, and Judge Gillies another. Besides this the Government had not considered their Bill as was proved by the 26th section of the Bill which he would read. [Read.] This was giving the Governor enormous power, in fact the "clause might comprise the entire Bill, as it gave him absolute power. By this clause it appeared to him quite clear the Government were not prepared to give them such a substitute for the provinces as they had a right to expect. Another point was the representation of the colony. At present it was largely in favor of the North Island, perhaps because of the Maori population, but as there were now four Maori members in the House they might consider that the Maories were fully represented. The meeting would see the necessity for the representation being adjusted so as to give the Middle Island a fair share of the representation as far as regarded their wealth and population. The North Island had 33 members out of the total number, while the Middle Island had only 44, which was not a fair representation on the basis of population. They ought to have 46J members, and the North Island 27£, if they took the basis of population. Since the return upon which this was based had been framed, the population in the Middle Island had increased very greatly. The population of Otago and Canterbury alone was nearly equal to the whole population of the other parts of the colony, and as their interests in regard to the Abolition Bill were really identical, and theiefore it waß highly necessary that their representation should be fairly based, so that they might be able to assert their just rights through a fair number of members. This was one of the principal reasons why he advocated the delay of the Bill to next session, in order that Otago and Canterbury might have a fair proportion of members. [Hear, hear.] The present population of Otago wab 103,424, and Canterbury 75,090, the total population of the colony being 327,833. Taking the half of that, or 178,0 LR, they were entitled—that was Canterbury and Otago—to as many members in the Assembly as the whole of the rest of the colony put together. [Cheers. | They had now some eight under it. [Mr McLachan—"Does not the new Representation Bill now before the House make provision for that?"] He hoped so ; but he did not think so. As regarded material prosperity, Canterbury and Otago were far ahead of the rest of the colony. [Cheers.] He had been rather particular in this matter because the interests of Canterbury and Otago were identical as regarded the quantity of land in their hands for sale. In this province they had between two and three millions of acres which even at 15s per acre would realise over two millions of money at once. Otago had a much larger amount of land, and between the two about four millions of money might be realised at once by the sale of the waste lands of both provinces. [Cheers.] They had heard several cries on this abolition question ; from the North they wanted abolition because they wanted to have a part of the land fund of the South. The Northern politicians wanted it for this reason. [Mr McLachlan—- " Not Sir George Grey."] He named no one at all, but he pointed out that at the caucus of Government supporters the other day, some of them declined to support the Bill on the ground that it did not give them the land revenue of the South. [Mr R. Frankish—'• But they would support it to the second reading."] Major Atkinson had given them the clearest financial statement they had had for a long time, far more so than if Sir J. Vogel had made it himself, and he agreed with their Superintendent when he said that it was a good thing for the colony that he could not get out again. [Cheers.] He objected to the speeches of some of the members in the Assembly as regarded corruption; Sir Julius Vogel himself had naid that the reason for abolition was that the provinces were the cause of much corruption ; but if they were districts there would be as much corruption—if it was so—as now. Sir Julius Vogel, as Premier, should have stopped this corruption as he could have done, and he should have taken some other means of curing this corruption besides abolishing the provinces. Though some of them wished abolition, aud some not, he thought that they would support the resolution he had to propose. The Bill, though very good to the municipalities, was not so to the outlying districts. The financial statement said that the amount to be paid to Road Boards would be calculated on last year's rates. Now, it was not fair for districts which had been only just started, or which had not rated themselves, to be cut off without anything, as many districts had not yet raised rates. In their district they only raised £BOO, but if they had known they were to get this grant from the Government they would have doubled this amount. Therefore they proposed that the Bill should be postponed until after the general election, in order that they might raise their fair amount. He would now propose the following resolution—" That this meeting urge our representative Mr Reeves strenuously to oppose the passing of the Bill for the abolition of the provinces until after the general election, aud further that Mr Reeves oppose to the utmost section 26, aud all other sections giving arbitrary and unlimited power | to the Governor of the colony."

Captain Willis rose to second the motion proposed by Mr Jollie. Until the Government had shown them what they were going to do they could not give their opinion upon

the Bill. It wag perfectly clear that the Government intended to rob them of their birthright as Britons. [Cheers.] When last session the Government brought forward a proposition to abolish the provinces of the North Island, and they at once pricked up their ears, but they had no information upon which to found any action for an appeal to the constituencies as to the abolition of the Middle Island. When the Bill passed its second reading and came out of committee, let the people have an opportunity of expressing their opinion on the matter, when if a majority were in favour of it, well and good. He had very much pleasure in seconding the proposition. Mr R. Frankish would like to make a few remarks. He came there that evening ex pecting that he would hear something on the question of the abolition of the provinces, but he must say he was under a mistake. The speech of Mr Jollie was a very useful and practical one and one from which they could get a great deal of information. They did not come there that evening to discuss the finance of the colony or the representation of the colony; they came there to discuss one point, and when they did this, he would be prepared to speak on it. At present, he contended they had never discussed the matter. [Cheers.] Mr Gardiner contended that the resolution before the meeting was bound up with the financial statement, and they could not separate them. [Hear, hear.] [" Mr Miles: I beg your pardon, but there is nothing about the financial statement in the resolution."] Well, he would read some of the sections to which he objected. The Chairman read the resolution, aud ruled that Mr Gardner was not in order. He then proceeded to put the question. Mr Miles—Stop, stop, I have an amendment to propose on, that resolution. The Chairman—Will you write it? Mr Miles—l have it here now, so I need not write it. You were going to put the resolution without giving a chance of any one moving an amendmeut. Mr Miles contended that their representative should not have been communicated with except after the meeting of that night. He considered that it was now a case of Provincialism v Centralism. They all agreed that provincialism must go, it had done its work, and perhaps nobly too. As regarded surprise, this matter had, been debate i for years past, and therefore no one could say that they had been taken by surprise. Provincialism was expiiing, and he hoped it would do so nobly; but he must deprecate the words which had been spoken about the members of the General Government. Now he contended that they were fit to stand before any one? Where could they find a better man than their late resident magistrate, Mr C. C. Bowen, who had been sent up with all the honors that Canterbury could heap upon him, or the Hon E. Richardson. [Mr Gammack—" He's all very well as an engineer.''] He would now read his amendment, which was as follows —" That the electors of the Selwyn district approve of the Government Bill for the abolition of the provinces, and for the constitution of districts throughout the colony, such districts to have the control of their local revenues." Mr M'Lachlan rose with great pleasure to second the motion. He had come there not to hear a financial statement from Mr Jollie, but a carefully concocted speech prepared after a week of consideration. But what was the fact ?—why that they had c ime down to the meeting with their fingers in their mouths, and had got Mr Jollie, who knew nothing of their little game, to open the ball. The Bill was objected to on the ground that it would interfere with the land fund, but this was, as had been proved by Mr Stevens, a fallacy. The provinces of the North Island wtrc in a state of bankuiptcy, and could not exist except by and from the Government. The Government found that it was impracticable to abolish the provinces of the North Island and leave the Middle Island alone, and therefore they had so framed it that the Middle Island still retained its land fund, and was also given local self-govern-ment. The idea of the Government was to have a Central Government, and he believed that, whether they passed the resolution or not, Mr Reeves was like a drowning man grasping at a straw. Mr S. McLachlan said that he believed that this meeting was irregularly called, and he did not believe one-third of the electors knew anything about it. A very lively discussion then ensued, Mr J. McLachlan, Captain Willis, and Mr 8. McLachlan, all being on their feet at once, appealing to the chairman to let them address the meeting. After some time, Captain Willis got possession of the floor, greatly to the chagrin of Mr McLachlan, who thereupon moved—" That Mr Bridge leave the chair, as being unable to keep order ;" which created shouts of laughter. The chairman ruled all the speakers out of order. Mr J. Gammack said he considered it unjust to bring a Bill such as this forward at the tail end of the Parliament, because he considered they should appeal to the people before the Bill was made law. He believed that the greater number of the electors present were in favor of abolition —[Cheers] —but still he thought they should postpone it for five years at least, because he did not like to see the large amount of land revenue owned by Canterbury and Otago thrown into the common stock. [Mr Miles : " You have no right to say that it will be so."] What he wanted to see was that their land fund was preserved and not placed to the credit of other provinces of the colony, which were not able to meet their liabilities, They were going to raise Treasury Bills and they would never be met, and the fact was the two solvent provinces would have to meet them. He was, therefore, in favour of the Bills being held over until next session. The amendment was then put, and the result declared as follows : For amendment 11 Against 15

Majority against amendment... 4 The amendment was therefore lost. The original motion, as proposed, was then put and carried on the voices. Mr Rennie then proposed—" That a petition be forwarded to Mr Reeves, the membei for the district, for presentation to the General Assembly, praying for the increase of tiie representation of the Selwyn district, by the addition of one member." Mr Rennit then read the proposed petition. Mr R. Fraukish seconded the motion, which was agreed to. Mr Woodman moved a vote of thanks to the chairman, which was seconded by Mr Miles, and carried,