THE ELECTIONS.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 476, 24 December 1875, Page 3

THE ELECTIONS.

MR MASKELL AT OXFORD. On Wednesday Mr W. M. Maskell, one of the candidates for the Ashley district in the General Assembly, met. the electors at the Road Board office, Oxford. About sixtj-five persons were present. On the motion of Mr P. Briggs, seconded by Mr J Olphert, Mr T. Woodfield was voted to the chair.

The chairman said they all knew why the meeting had been called—viz, to hear Mr Maskell explain his views. He had come as a candidate for the suffrages of the Ashley electors, and he hoped they would give him a patient hearing, and behave as they generally do at Oxford meetings, and hear Mr Maskell quite out before interrupting him With questions. He begged to introduce him.

Mr Masked, who was received with cheers, said that the remarks made by their chairman, so far as his experience of meetings in the Ashley district went, were hardly required, as he never was present at one disorderly meeting in it, and as a public man he had been connected with it about ten years. It was five years ago since he last addressed a meeting at Oxford, then as a candidate for the seat in the General Assembly. As there were some of them aware, on that occasion he was defeated, and had not since an opportunity of asking them to elect him. Since that time the Government had done many things, and left undone many things, in the colony, but which it would not be necessary to bring into this election or to make reference to questions of former years, as there were now later questions engrossing public attention—matters which were of importance one year might not be so the next, therefore he would not refer to the past, but confine himself to his duty as a candidate, to explaining those of the present and future as well as the course of action which, if elected, he would take, He wished to make one remark, not only to those present but to all the electors of the district, namely, that whatever he might say to them that night he desired it should be entirely and absolutely understood he did not intend to make to them a statement wrapt up in a mist or fog of words, but what he honestly thought and intended, if returned, to do in reference to the matters to which he would allude. He assured the electors that he should speak his mind distinctly, acd not in a way intended to deceive

them. [Cheers,] Now, proceeding to consider the question of centralization conclusively decided, the first matter before the electors of the colony was, what form of Government they should adopt for the future. They were aware that the form of ment they had hitherto lived under in Canterbury was soon to be done away with. Most of those present were also aware that when the Abolition Bill was in abeyance, and the country was engaged in the consideration of the question of abolition, he strongly took the side of provincialism. Now he must take the liberty of saying—whether they thought him sentimental or not—he had a great respect for the provincial form of government, and regretted that the provincial institutions of Canterbury, under which they had lived for so many years, were to be done away with ; institutions under which they had rapidly come into the prosperity of the present, and institutions 1o which for the last ten years they had shown so much attachment, and with which he had been connected, and he could say without false pride not ingloriously. [Cheers.] Some of them might have visited a dockyard like Plymouth or Portsmouth, and seen dismasted vessels or war ships no longe* made use of. Vet although those old hulks had seen their day, and their day was gone, persons could not forget that they were once fit for service and war, but had given way to the demands of modern requirements, and while the victories or dangers of these vessels were remembered, persons might be excused giving way to a sigh of regret that they were no longer required. [Cheers.] Well, they all knew that the provincial days were gone by, and Provincial Governments were giving way to a better kind of Government—-) Hear, hear]—yet they could not say that whilst it lasted, the Provincial Government had not done well on the whole for this country. [Hear, hear.] Therefore, he could not help saying—on this perhaps the iast occasion when he might have an opportunity of doing so—one word in regard to this useful institution as a matter of feeling. The Abolition Act was nowj passed by the Parliament of the country, and its decision had been ratified, he must admit, by the people. He was not prepared to go in to attempt to upset the legislation of last session in regard thereto; and whatever opinions he held, the fact that the leaders of the provincial party had partly given up the battle, was enough to determine a man in his position not to attempt to upset what had already been done. It was a fact —he read it so—that the candidates for election who were of the provincial party, had given up the contest —had thrown up the sponge, and would not attempt to restore the provincial form of government, [Cheers.] He was of this mind, and decidedly of opinion that it was unwise to be perpetually trying to upset legislation. Supposing there was a party returned strong enough to bring back the Provincial Governments next year, and then the central party again gained the ascendancy next year, and so on ; this he considered would be an undesirable state of affairs to encourage. It was to be avoided. The minority ought now to accept the decision of the majority, and if he had the honor to be elected to tne seat for that district he should not go in to try to upset the Abolition Bill, and bring in the old system again. [Cheers.] That being now settled, it was to be considered by them what was to be put in the place of the provincial system. If the meeting would allow him, he would read a portion of the Hon E, Richardson’s speech, as a member of the Government returned by the electors yesterday. Mr Richardson said—“ The Government propose to centralise the whole legislative power in the General Assembly, to decentralise the administration provincially, and put. it as far as possible in the hands of the local bodies and local boards to carry out put-lie works The Local Government Bill, now in course of preparation, went to divide the whole colony into shires, these shires to be constituted as the present Road Boards were, so far as the system would suit The question of electoral boundaries was one which would receive attention, and the Government intend so to arrange it in the division of the colony into shires as to make the electoral boundaries coterminous with those of the shires.” This was only perhaps a rough outline of the new system, and the details would have to he supplied in course of time, but in the proposal he saw a form of government that would, he believed, prove acceptable to the country, and if the Government filled in the details in a way satisfactory to himself, his district, and the colony, he would be prepared to support it. [Hear, hear.] A deal depended on these details, and he wished to point out some of them which must take place before ho considered the plan satisfactory. First, it seemed to him that it was absolutely necessary in the provision for local control in the decentralising system, thd all the Boards ought to be elected bodies, and should he be returned he would persistently refuse to support any proposal to make them nominated bodies. [Cheers,] It was plain to him that such bodies having the administration of the laws and entire management of local affairs should not be exercised by persons who were not elected on the votes Jof the taxpayers. This he would strongly support. [Hear, hear.] Secondly, the centralising principle must be made to apply to all parts of the colony in the fullest sense, and carried out so that the sparselypopulated districts were n-4 overborne by those thickly peopled and the towns. The electors might have seen from his address that he stated he was d- sirous of equalising the representation, Bi that those districts now surrounding a id including the large towns should not any excessive share in the representation of the country. [Hear, hear.] It was kniwn that in England many thinly-populated districts would never have a larger number of people settled on them, notably in the West of England, where it was evident also that the requirements of such districts were limited But in a new country it was precisely the reverse ; those districts that were not yet fully settled in required more money spent in opening them out than really the settled ones wanted. The latter could well take care of themselves, but in a district like the Ashley, under present circumstances, the people were not able to bring so much pressure to bear on the Government to prosecute public works as in districts near such a centre as Christchurch, and possibly some others. One of the objections brought against the provincial institutions was that they favored the centres too much, and paid not enough attention to the districts outside. Be that as people thought, there was one part of Mr Richardson’s speech to which he would call attention, viz, “ that the Road Boards Would get as fixed in the Abolition Aci for £ I on the fates levied to be found

out of the consolidated revenue, and the Shire Councils and districts would also receive a portion.” Well, they all must know that £1 would go further in a less scattered district, as for instance, Heathcote and Avon, to meet the requirements of the people, than it would in a district like this, in which there was a good deal of road yet to make. He was not, therefore, prepared exactly to go in for a hard and fast line that there should be only £1 for £l, but it must be considered what the districts want. [Cheers ] Returning to the matter of representation, he pointed out that North Canterbury only returned about two members and a little bit more to the Assembly. From the Waimakariri to the Huruaui there were only two districts and two representatives, whilst, for instance, around and in Christchurch there were five members returned for what appeared a smaller tract of country. Last sesrion, too, the latter district was practically represented by seven members. This, he thought, scarcely fair. ) Hear, hear.] It was giving a central district a greater proportionate power than a scattered one, the latter being more extended and requiring more public works to foster and encourage settlement. [Hear, hear.] With respect to this he might point out that practically the opinion of a meeting in Christchurch on the Abolition Bill would receive more attention than a meeting of forty or fifty persons who were located in a larger area of country; Was it not a fact that Government paid more attention to that one meeting than to all the rest put together. If he had the honor to be returned it would be his endeavor to either advocate increasing the representation, or by making the districts smaller, accomplish the same end. [Cheers.] In this respect he found great fault with Mr Brown, who in the last session, when the Representation Bill was under discussion, so far as he could ascertain from the papers and Hansard , had never objected to Christchurch having another member, or tried to procure another for the large agricultural district between the rivers Hurunui and Waimakariri. [Cheers,] If he (Mr Maskell) had been their member he would have strenuously tried to get another member, and failing in that have opposed the third seat being made for Christchurch The giving of an extra member to the suburbs was as bad as giving an extra member to Christchurch, and to that he had been unable to find that Mr Brown had ever objected. He was prepared to support the the scheme sketched out by Mr Richardson, with the proviso that the shires and representation in the Assembly, Shire Councils, and Road Boards should be placed on an equal footing. [Hear, hear.] There was another question—the registration of votes—to which he would give attention. They were too well acquainted with the trouble of the present mode of registering votes. Whether it was new to them or not he would repeat that in the Provincial Council and outside he had always urged for an amendment, and should still do his best to bring about a means to simplify the registration to enable every man who had a stake in the colony to have his vote recorded. On the question of separation he was not, and never had been, a separationist. A few years ago an association was got up to bring about the separation of the islands. This he was quite opposed to, and always held that if New Zealand was to be made a great country it must be by the unity and harmony of the colonists. [Cheers.) Another matter —the runs, although a local question, and barely a colonial one—was of considerable importance to many in this province. He then referred to the schemes for dealing with the pastoral leases in 1880 The proposal to cut the runs into blocks of 500 and 1000 acres, he certainly could not support, for if one man agreed to take up several such blocks, it would come to very much the same thing as at present, and persons taking up the front country might prevent persons pplying for that behind it. He did not agree with the putting of them up to auction, being afraid the Government would not receive the value of the land, and besides, persons might bid the runs up to a price which they could not afford to give, and then neither derive any benefit from them themselves or allow the couut.iy to get any it m them, There was another course open to which he agreed, viz, that in 1877, three years before the runs were given up, a certain number of honest, experienced gentlemen, independent of the interests of Canterbury, might be called upon to assess them, and a fair notion of the value of the country having be -n arrivd at, then they should be off-red at that assessment, | Hear, hear,] If those d pres* at located on the laud were averse to the assessment, the three years would allow sufficient time for them to clear off their stock, hence no injustice would be done. By this plan he saw a means of arriving at a fair valuation of the land for which, to the present, little or nothing had been paid. [Cheers J He was next going to speak of another important question that himself and the public must take an interest in, in and out of the Assembly, and no doubt many had heard it reported; or formed an opinion that he was a sort of ogre in a manner devouring all the children —it was that of education. [Hear, hear.] It was easy for persons to make accusations, and difficult to bring them to book,but as he h ad been greatly misrepresented he claimed their indulgence for a few minutes to say that in conversation with a farmer at the other end of the district, who was a supporter of his, he was surprised to bear him say that he (Mr Maskell) was reported to be opposed to education. Now if such was true, the electors might look on him as a kind of drivelling idiot. He had always seen that the more education a man had the more he wanted to acquire, and the greater progress he made the more anxious was he to see the persons surrounding him educated. He had received a pretty liberal education, and he felt as anxious as any man in the province to see the children have a good education provided. All the candidates had spoken on this point. They as a rule expressed intentions to support a compulsory free education, ho .veyer ho had not noticed that one candidate had stated what he meant by compulsory and free education, He was going to tell them what he would go in for, as he did not want to hide anything, but to be candid on all matters, [Hear, hear.] Free education was a misnomer. There was no such thing as free education no school fees might be paid by the parents, but in some way this so-called free education would have to be paid for—[hear, hear] —borne by the State. He was in favor of compulsory education, so far as he could go. [Cheers.] They had it in England, but the case was slightly different here. Compulsory education meant that every child should be sent to school, or in default its parents incur a penalty.

Now, it was perfectly easy to apply this system to towns and thicklypeopled districts, but elsewhere, for instance, where there was a sparse population, it was a totally different affair. [Cheers.] At the Gust he had been informed by one parent that he had *to send his children four miles every day to school. Thus, if they went in for compulsory education it must first of all be decided how far they would go, when it was remembered that there were a number of such analogous cases in the province. [Cheers.] Before the system was applied to such cases as this, it would have to be arranged to make the districts smaller and bring the schools nearer to the children. [Cheers.] To say off-hand that they intended to support compulsory education was very much like humbug. With regard to free education, he begged again to say there was no such thing, for the education would have to be paid for in some form or other. He denied ever having objected to a system of national education, conducted by the State. 1 Hear, hear.] Explanatory of his meaning regarding the free system talked of, he read a few figures showing what it would mean in this colony. In the province of Canterbury there were about 12,000 children to a population of 70,000 or 75,000 people, which in relation to each other, so far as he made it out, was about 16 per cent. He did not know the number of children in the colony, but taking it at the same proportion, he computed there were 70,000 children of school age. It cost the province nearly £40,000 last year for the education of 12,000 children, viz, for teachers’ salaries, apparatus, and so on, but exclusive of buildings. If, therefore, it cost this amount for one province, it would cost about £230,000 a year to maintain' the schools of the colony. This would mean ultimately a heavy tax. He was prepared to support free education—that was, education not paid for directly by the parents from a tax. It was said by some of the candidates they would pay for education out of the consolidated revenue. But he desired to point out that the consolidated revenue would not stand such a charge as that alluded to being made upon it. so far as he could gather from the Colonial Treasurer’s statement. Then that revenue was not considered certain, and on the other hand it should be borne in mind that the education expenditure must increase every year. This national education meant a heavy taxation no doubt, and they would in Canterbury and Otago have to pay more in proportion than any other part of the colony. Therefore, having come to this tax, the question arose, which tax would they prefer 1 He did not agree to a land tax, which was very well so far as it went, but did not go far enough, as it did not apply to property of value placed on the land. If there was to be a tax, it ought to be on property generally, and extend to shares in companies. It was the only way to impose an equal taxation. Having stated this, he need only add that, so far as it could be carried out, he would support compulsory education, which should be made free by being paid for by a property tax, levied to carry education on as a national system. | Cheers.] He hoped ho had explained plainly this matter, and if he had not, that the electors would question him, as he had no wish to keep back anything. The only difference with regard to it between himself and the Provincial Council, was on a point he had raised himself, upon which he was beaten, and had not raised it again, [Hear, hear, from Mr Inglis.] His statement was borne out by Mr Inglis, whom he was glad to sot; present. [Cheers.] He was not aware ‘o what Mr Brown referred in his speech when he alluded to sectarian hot beds, but Mr Inglis would fully bear him out, lhat the only question ha ever raised was that when; the Government found a good school, equal in all respects to rhe district school, lie said it should b< helped and not knocked on i ho head. [Hear] Another matter that he had nearly omitted was in reference to the Lyttelton and Christ church and Selwye. and Christchurch rail ways, which were made by and belonged to the province. Some time ago the Colonial Government made a proposal to the Provincial Government to purchase them for £600,000, which was valuation put on them by the latter. Now, when the Provincial Government was abolished, ought to be handed to khe province, not probably in the shape of money, but in public works [Cheers.] If he had the pleasure to be returned, this was one thing he would try to get for the province. In conclusion, he considered he was not ne v to many of them ; he 1 ad given his opinions straightforwardly, and whether the public liked them or not, he was not putting them forth to gain popularity. He was not going to make promises that he could not carry out. or ask for a vote from any man who might expect him to go in foi some underhand work, for laud in the North island or a railway scheme. He was not going in for anything but for what was right and honest. If any questions were put he. would now bo happy to answer them without beating about the bush, and if unable to answer would at once say so. [Prolonged cheers.]

Mr J R. Gorton moved—“ That in the opinion of this meeting Mr Maskell is a fit and proper person to represent the Ashley district in the General Assembly.” He d'd not think that on any previous occasion in New Zealand’s history was it so necessary that thinking and conscientious men should be returned. The affairs of the country had gone on admirably under the provincial form of government, and now it was defunct. In rushing into centralism it was necessary to exercise caution, and place the affairs of the colony in careful hands. In England, when a change took place, it was generally urged on by the Liberal party, and then worked out by the Conservatives—those who judiciously conserved its interests,—and he looked upon Mr Maskell as one who would rather conserve their interests than push them along too quickly. Such were the men to return at the present time to the Assembly. [ Cheers. | Mr Parish seconded the motion. He had no ill will to Mr Brown, but looking back on Mr Brown’s actions of the last five years, he saw that he had done nothing for them but ask a few questions. [Hear, hear.] Mr Morris moved as an amendment—- “ That this meeting thanks Mr Maskell for his address.

Mr Parish—l should have no objection to seconding that. [Laughter.] Mr D, Sladden seconded the amendment, saying that an expression of opinion from a meeting like that went for very little. Mr Maskell had modified his views so that they almost accorded with Mr Brown’s views, and in that case he did not see why they should pass a vote of confidence on a matter of opinion, Ho thought Mr Maskell would

be treated with every courtesy in passing the amendment, but if he had drawn it up he should have worded it rather differently. The amendment was put and carried. Mr Sladden moved a further amendment—“ That this meeting thanks Mr Maskell for his address, and will support a candidate who supports the policy of the General Government.” Mr Mullin—Add through thick and thin. [Laughter.] Mr R. Perham seconded the amendment. Mr Parish—Does this mean Mr Brown at all. [Laughter.] Mr Sladden— It’s nothing. Mr Parish—lf it’s nothing, don’t hold your hands up. [Laughter.] The chairman —It seems to cut both ways, Mr Sladden —Then I will move a vote of thanks to Mr Maskell, but this meeting does not support him. The chairman—l had better put the motion. This was agreed to, and the result was—For, 14 ; against, 7. The motion was declared carried. Mr Maskell thanked the meeting and Mr Sladden, explaining that not till tbe Abolition Bill was passed had he modified his views. A vote of thanks to the chairman terminated an orderly meeting.