THE ELECTIONS.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1716, 20 August 1879, Page 3

THE ELECTIONS.

SIR WILLIAM POX AT WANGANUI. [Br Telegraph.] WANGANUI, August 19. Sir W. Pox addressed a meeting last night. The hall was crowded from floor to ceiling. Mr D. Peat occupied the chair.

Sir W. Fox, after referring to the many occasions on which he had been returned as member for Wanganui, said he would divide his remarks into two heads. First, ha would make a few observations of a character personal to his opponents, and.the manner in which the canvass was conducted by them, and he would then advert to the great principles which were included in the programme of those who called the great Liberal party, and would show how little that party was entitled to any such name. He then referred to the unfair action of Mr Ballance, who, neglecting the interests of his constituents, had left Parliament a week before the close of the session to steal a march upon him by canvassing his constituents at Wanganui, knowing that it was impossible for him (Sir William) to follow him for at least ten days. Mr Ballance was the only member who, for his own selfish ends, quitted his post. Every other stuck to his seat to the last. The last week, was the most important of the whole session. The House was called on to pass a -65,000,000 Loan Bill, and vote estimates, without one particle of information as to the financial condition of the country, and Mr Ballance, the exTreasurer, the only man who_could tell anything about it, was away, canvassing another man’s constituents. Sir Q. Grey, who pretended to be his successor in the Treasury, and ha henchman, Mr Sheehan, sat at the table looking like two whipped schoolboys, while Major Atkinson exposed their ignorance and made them ridiculous. They might depend upon it if they elected Mr Ballance as their representative he would prove false to their interests, ns he had done to those of Rangiiikei. He hadshownan entire absence of the spirit of fair play in acting as he had done, but, thank goodness, we have the ballot, and those whom he might have de ceived into promises of support had the remedy in their own hands now that they were told how unfairly they had been entrapped. As regards his friend Mr Bryce, whom he wished to speak of with respect, he had no such charge to make against him. But he wished to point out to the electors what would be the result if they e’ected him and Mr Ballance as their representatives. Mr Bryce called himself an independent candidate, but the claim was absurd while his election was being worked by Mr Ballance’s committee and he allowed their joint names to be placarded together. They were political man and wife, and to all Intents and purposes one person. But let the constituency look at what the result would be if they elected the two. Mr Ballance was to the last hour of the session a steady supporter of Sir G. Grey, and when he left the Assembly he placed his pair at his disposal, and it was used for Sir George to the very last hour. Mr Bryce had denounced the conduct of the Government _ in the severest manner, and had voted for his motion of want of confidence. When Parliament re-assembled the same issue would again present itself, and Mr Ballance if elected would vote one way and Mr Bryce the other. The result would be that Wanganui would be nowhere. Its vote would be nullified, and it might as well have no representative at all. This was what Messrs Bryce and Ballance meant, and it was an unholy alliance, ia Fori his part, ho stood on his own merits, and should ask them to plump for him. Sir William then proceeded to refer to two or three of the leading measures which formed the Liberal programme, to show that the principles of that programme were not Sir G. Grey’s, and that his Government was not capable of carrying them out, and never intended to do so. Ho would first take the question of the electoral franchise, and to make the subject intelligible, ho would give them a brief sketch of Sir George Grey’s political career. Sir George had repeatedly _ told_ the House and country, when he made hia political tour with the Hinemoa at the public expense, for his own private benefit, that when he was a yonngjsubaltern in a 'marching’ regiment and stationed at Limerick, in Ireland, he became deeply impressed with what ha saw of the wretched condition of the Irish people, and grieved when the soldiers were employed to collect tithes at the point of the bayonet, or to send poor starving laborers from their cottages. At this time he had a dream or a vision, or an hallucination of some sort, in which the angel of Liberty appeared to him and beckoned him on to the great work of regenerating the human race. He then registered a vow that if ever he should be in a position to do it ho would devote himself to the task of binding up a new commonwealth with such a constitution and such laws as should prevent the growth of all social evils, and make everybody happy. After bavin" mado this vow ha lost no time in getting into the service of the Colonial Office. At that period this was the most illiberal or narrow-minded department of the British Government, which kepttho colonies in utter subjection, and refused to give them the smallest particle of self-government. Here this apostle of a new democracy devoted himsilf to the work of his master—made himself a reputation by writing dispatches conformable to the views of the Colonial Office. The office began to have a light lot in upon it, and, in a moment of unusual liberality, under the Secretaryship of Lord Grey, it passed through the Imperial Parliament a Bill which gave representative institutions to New Zealand. What did the great regenerator of the human race do then ? He had here the means placed at hia disposal to carry out hia vision of a new commonwealth and all the rest of it. Did he do it? No. Ho burked the constitution, and wrote home recommending its suspension for five years, before the lapse of which he well knew ho would be out of the colony. Then followed a period when the colonials entered on a bitter struggle with him, they seeking to obtain self-government, and ho doing his very beat to prevent it._ Ho wrote home describing the colonials as disappointed applicants for office, land sharks. aliens, various persons arriving from the Pacific, Americans, and others disaffected towards the British, or indeed any Government, and he asked what advantage was to bo gained by introducing selfgovernment among so small a number of Europeans, who were demanding the power of

expending a revenue arising from the British Treasury, and ■who would probably quarrel with the Natives and involve the colony in the worst consequences, if free institutions were bestowed upon them. But though ho succeeded in getting the constitution suspended, the colonists were too strong for him. The old colonists, of whom he was one, together with Mr Featherston, Sir W. Fitzherbert, Sir F. Weld, Mr Godley, their friend Mr Watt, and in fact all the leading men and other men of the period, formed themselves into a Constitutional Association, and exposed his falsehood to the Imperial Government. The result was that he saw what was coming, and veered round and recommended that a constitution should be given, and the Imperial Parliament gave one which, though not perfect, had the elements of self-govern-ment iu it. What now did Sir George Grey do? Did he hail it with acclamation and set to work to construct with it Ms imaginary commonwealth. Nothing of the sort. He bolted from the colony, leaving it to an old military officer, who knew nothing of politics or constitutions, to put the new constitution in form, while he went Home to Europe, aud finally to the Cape of Good Hope, to the governorship of which colony ho was promoted. Then some twenty years elapsed, during which he returned to the colony as Governor for the second time, and afterwards as a private settler, living in retirement on his island of Kawan. Somofour years ago ho suddenly emerged and rushed to the front as the regenerator of the human race, and set about the work of carrying out his Limerick dream some fifty years after he dreamt it, and so wo have him before us now ns the leader of the great Liberal party. Now, wewill just test his sincerity by his action in reference to the extension of the electoral franchise. Sir George Grey during his stumping tour, already mentioned, wont about stimulating the worst passions of the working men, by telling them that they were down-trodden serfs, no better than negro slaves, and that therj were 100,000 of them without the franchise. At this time there were only about that exact number of male adults in the colony He has since reduced his estimate to 75,000, and more lately 05,000. His own followers put them at 1000 to 6000. Let us see what he has done to reclaim this mass of down-trodden serfs. A year ago he met Parliament with amajority of from fifteen to twentyat his back. The’most prominent measure which he proposed was an Electoral Bill, which was to enfranchise the 75,000 serfs. Both sides of the House supported the Bill, and it would have become law without opposition. But when it was nearly through he and Mr Sheehan, added to its provisions what was called the dual vote for the Maoris—that is to say, they proposed-to give an additional franchise to the Maoris in respect to mere tribal tenure of lands, for which they paid neither rates nor taxes, in addition to the franchise they already possessed, in order that he might bo able to smother the European votes iu all districts where Maoris predominated, as he had done already in one instance, by stuffing the roll at Monganni. Even with this iniquity in it, he forced the Bill through the Lower House, but the Council struck out the dual vote, and sent back the Bill to the Lower House in as nearly as possible the same form as it had been introduced by the Government. Now, if Sir G. Grey had really believed in the existence of his 75,000 downtrodden serfs, and really desired to emancipate them, what would he have done? He would have said—“ I am sorry that I cannot get the dual vote for my dear Maoris, but that shall not prevent me giving the franchise to the down-trodden Europeans. I will accept the Bill ns it stands.” If he had done so there would not have been an adnlt male in New Zealand, resident in the colony for a year, who might not have voted at the present election. But what did ho do P He toro up the Bill in a pet and threw it into the waste paper basket. And after this he pretends to he the advocate of liberal measures and the leader of a liberal party. In connection with the same subject there were two other measures wh : ch he treated in a similar way, namely, those for triennial Parliaments and redistribution of representation. As regards tho former, a Bill was actually introduced by a private member, and only lost by two or three votes. If the Government had taken it np and made it a Government measure, it would have passed by a largo majority. But, though Sir George had paraded the necessity for it in his speech all over New Zealand, he declined, when ha could have made it law, to touch the question with his little finger. As regards the readjustment of representation, which has been one of his! great cries also, a resolution was moved,by another member of his own party, affirming the desirability of a Bill being brought in at an early period. A member of the Opposition moved that instead of a “peried” it should be “ immediately.” The Government also voted against this, and tho motion was lost. T he fact was it wonld not suit Sir George Grey’s purpose to have any of these measures passed. If they were “ Othello’s ” occupation wo aid be gone.” He keeps them as his stock-in-trade to dangle before the eyes of his deluded followers when he mounts the stump or addresses them, but ho has no intention whatever of passing them. Sir George Grey claims for himself tke proprietorship of all liberal principles, and he calls myself and the party ot which I am “ old bones” and other complimentary names. Why, we advocated these principles years ago, when he was_ opposing our having any self - governing institutions at all. Here is a summary written twenty years ago, which the men whom he called “ old bones” proposed then. I quote from documents in print at the period. This is what we proposed :—“ A Legislature of two Chambers, both entirely elective; a franchise, universal except as far as limited by twelve months’ residence. No additional qualification for membership in the Lower House; greater age and longer residence qualification for the Upper; the Lower House to ha elected for three years, tho Upper for five. No vote to he exercised by the Colonial Office in any matter purely local, and not involving Imperial interests.” These were our recommendations, and we only failed to get them put into the constitution because Sir Geo. Grey recommended the contrary, and yet he claims to be the father and the advocate of these principles, denounces ns as enemies of the people, opposed to triennial Parliaments, and the Residential FrancMse. Now about the land question. Sir George Grey denounces the party which I lead as land robbers. He points to ns as having acquired for ourselves enormous landed estates, of which we have robbed the poor man, aud he points across the House at ns and says, there sit those land robbers. Now I have taken the trouble to analyse tho rest of my followers, and I find that with about half a dozen exceptions there is not a man among the forty-six who owns as much land as Sir George Grey does. For my own part I own about a third as much land as Sir George Grey, and for what I own I pay both rates and taxes. Sir George Grey has contrived to get his land excluded from any County and any Highway Boards, and pays no rates to either, and on a valuation of his land made by himself of .£21,470, ho only pays land tax over £, 1607, amounting to the total sum of id 6s IHd. But more than this, by far the largest part of those big estates which do exist in New Zealand, were purchased under what are known as Sir George Grey’s land regulations, promulgated by him just before he left the colony in 1853. Among the largest owners of land are Mr Larnach and Mr Eobt. Campbell, two gentlemen'who in Parliament were the principal means of putting Sir George Grey into offic'. They evidently knew that Sir George Grey’s cries of land for the people and people for the land were all bunkum, as wo shall presently see by his later action. What his views were when he issued the regulations referred to is clearly shown by a conversation with Major Smith, who reports it in a late Wellington paper. Riding through the Wairarapa when large purchases were being made from the Natives at that time Sir George Grey said to Major Smith—“ Don’t you think it would ho an excellent thing if these lauds were so disposed of as to create a great landed aristocracy such as they have in England.” These no doubt were Sir George Grey’s views at this time, and his regulations bore the fruit he intended in the form of those big estates, the owners of which he now announces as land robbers. I have an aversion to speak of myself, but I see that one of tho newspapers here denounces me as the enemy of small farmers, and whnt it calls cockatoos. The charge is absolutely false. I appeal to what I did when I was the New Zealand Company’s agent at Nelson, when at a crisis of great distress and difficulty, I relieved it, and, as I believe, saved tho settlers, by putting in possession of small farms hundreds of working men. I have opened for sale many small farm blocks, and if I may be allowed to speak of my (private affairs, I may say that X have sold off all I ever owned in small farms to working men, by a popalation of whom my own house and farm are surrounded. What has Sir George Grey ever done to help the small farmers or place land at their disposal? Let us see. In the session when Major Atkinson was turned out of office, his Minister for Lands, Mr Donald Reid, of Otago, who had been known for years as tho champion of the small farmers, brought in what was by far tho most liberal Land Bill ever proposed in New Zealand, making provision for deferred payments and all other methods of placing land at tho disposal of working men. This Bill was partly through before Sir George took office, and it was not without great pressure by even his own colleagues that ho could bo got to take it np as a Government measure. At last ho did so, but very unwillingly. It passed both Houses. At tho end of the session, when the various Bills wore laid before the Governor for his assent by Mr Maoandrew, his Excellency observed that this one was absent. Sir George Grey, like the “ Heathen Chinee” who had the aoea up his sleeve, had shuffled it out of the pile. The Marquis refused to sign the Appropriation Act till he had the Land Bill. Mr Maoandrew promised to bring it up afterwards, if he would. Tho Marquis know his man and refused. Mr Maoandrew had to go back to Sir George Grey, and at last ho had to consent to its going np to tho Governor. The thing was most unconstitutional, but it shows beyond all doubt

Sir George’s insincerity. Bnt further to spoil the Bill after it had passed the Lower House, this friend of the small farmers brought in another little Bill, which raised the price of sll land in the North Island, good, bad, or indifferent, to £2 an acre. Again, and since the Bill has been passed, what has the Government done to promote the creation of small farms_ under its provisions P Absolutely nothing. This was admitted to bo so by Mr Ballance, by his friend Mr Bryce, and a number of the leading men of the Government party. He had no objection to a land tax if it was accompanied by taxes on other interests also. When it was introduced it was so. There were the Beer Tax Bill and the Companies Income Bill, and the Colonial Treasurer and Attorneygeneral both declared they would stand or fall by these Bills, and if they lost either of the two latter, they would abandon the Land Tax Bill. At the first show of opposition to the Beer Bill they dropped it and the Companies Bill. In the matter of railway reserves, which were admirably suited for small farms and intended for them, I am told these sales had been so arranged that the greater part of them have passed, or are passing, into the hands of the rich capitalists, and the small farmers and working men are shut out.” Sir William then proceeded to discuss the land tax. He described it as a class tax of a vindictive character. However, after eight or nine months they had failed to collect a single penny of it, solely owing to the bnngle of Mr Ballance. It was almost certain now it never would be collected, though tha attempt had already irritated the colony from end to end, and had cost some £30,000, all money wasted and thrown away. It not only hit the largo land owners, who paid it, but the small farmers who were exempt, and the working man who was dismissed because his employers had to pay the tax and could not afford to keep him on. It lowered the value of the land all over the colony, and thus the small man, who was exempt, suffered as well as the larger men to nn extent of probably 20 per cent, on the value of his farm. It also lessened his borrowing powers in the same proportion. It also prevented capitalists in England from sending money to the colony, and no one suffered more than small farmers from that. A member of the House, who was a land agent, stated a few days ago that a client of his had written to say that he was about to send out ,£IOO,OOO by the r ext mail for investment, but when the mail arrived the money did not. but a letter came, in which the capitalist said that after reading Sir Q. Grey’s speech at the Thames, in which he told his constituents that id in the £ was only the thin edge of the wedge, and that it would be their own fault if next session it was not increased to 4d, he should keep his money in his own country and not risk it in New Zealand. These were some of the points of Sir G. Grey and Mr Ballanco’s vindictive tax. What was wanted was a general tax, an all round tax, in which land would be made to pay, and which would fairly touch all other properties also, only exempting any class which might really be unable to pay any tax at all, if such there were in New Zealand. The finance of the Grey Government had been most reckless. Mr Ballance threw away .£IOO,OOO of Customs duties, easily collected, and of which no one complained, and put on this universally obnoxious tax, which ho could not collect at all The pretence of this was to give the working man a free breakfast-table. It had done nothing of the sort. The only people who profited by it were the importers and retailers of tea and sugar, who put the difference into their pockets and the working man was not one penny the better. One ground on which the Grey Government had lost the confidence of the country, as seen by their majority of fifteen reduced to a minority of fifteen, had been its reckless extravagance. While Sir George Grey was in opposition, and while he was stumping the colony, as he is cow, in the Hinemoa, he was never weary of denouncing the extravagance of the Atkinson Government, and he offered on one occasion to go into the next room and in half an hour return with estimates which would effect a reduction of .£IOO,OOO. But since he had been in office the cost of the Civil Service, instead of being reduced, was said to have been increased by £ 100,000, and Mr Sheehan admitted the other night that he had exceeded the appropriation of his department by .£20,000, though he did not not tell the House how the excess had occurred. Doubtless those great meetings and carrying about of whole tribes, while orders were showered on storekeepers without stint accounted for much of this, but the wasteful jobs were without number, and some of a shameless character. Take the Larnach’s for instance. Sir George Grey was indebted to this gentleman for turning out Major Atkinson’s Government, and ho had his just reward in being made Colonial Treasurer for six weeks. He then went to England to float a big land speculation, with which, by the aid of the Agent-General, he had contrived to mix up most injuriously tha credit of the colony. When asked about it by his Thames constituents, Sir George told them that Mr Larnach went entirely on bis own private business, and was not to receive a shilling from Government. When Sir George was asked the same question in the House he admitted that Mr Larnach had had .£2OOO. This was on the_ pretence that he had assisted in the negotiation of the loan, when everybody knew that he had no influence in the matter, bnt that it was floated solely by Sir Julius Vogel and the colonial agents. Another atrocious waste of money was the appointment of Mr McCulloch Held as Immigration Agent in England, with £GOO a year, his expenses paid both ways, and an employment for two years certain. A more glaring job was never perpetrated. No such appointment was necessary. It was no wonder that transactions such as these had exhausted the Treasury, and led to a state of finance of a most alarming character. According to Mr McEarlane, Sir G. Grey admitted that reckless expenditure and waste had gone on, bat laid the blame on his colleagues, particularly on Mr Ballance. There was one important subject on which Sir William Fox had not yet touched, the Native question. If he was asked what he proposed to do with that, his reply must be that he did not see his way. The position was extremely complicated. Sir Wm. Fox then pointed out several of the peculiarities of the case. It was quite free from difficulty when Sir George took office, but resorting to the usual practice of making capital of Native affairs, he had thrown everything into confusion, had set the King party on its legs, and on the West ('oast had brought matters to a very serious crisis, and what might end in a Maori war. If he had followed Sir D. McLean’s suggestions and waiting policy, and let well alone, this would have been avoided, and the gradual reconcilement of the races gone on as it was doing. Sir Wm. Fox then touched on the subject of Native land purchase, referring to the policy declared by Mr Sheehan on taking office, of the Government retiring entirely from the market, and helping the Natives to sell to real settlers —in short, to carry out the principle embodied in Mr Ballance’s wellknown amendment of inducing the Natives to promote the colonisation of the lands by small farmers. All this seemed to have been abandoned. No such result had followed. No attempt had been made in any such direction, but the Government had rushed into competition with the private speculators, and bought largo tracts, much of it worthless, for large sums, which they had not funds to pay. The whole management of Native affairs seemed to have been the moat unfortunate, and the result was every way most unsatisfactory. It would require great care, tact, and prudence, to put things straight again, and at this moment they were kept in the dark by the personal Government, and were ignorant of most that had been done. The meeting was very rowdy. A vote of confidence was moved, to which an amendment was proposed, pledging the meeting to support the local candidates only. The amendment was carried by a large majority, including a number of non-electors and boys.