CANTERBURY LIBERAL REFORM ASSOCIATION.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1717, 21 August 1879, Page 3

CANTERBURY LIBERAL REFORM ASSOCIATION.

A meeting of the public, called by advertisement, at the Oddfellows' Hall, Woolston, was held last evening. Dr. Turnbull (Presidont) was voted to the chair. Mr S. P. Andrews was called on to address tho meeting, and stated shortly the origin and occasion of the formation of the Canterbury Liberal Reform Association. He gave a short statement of the conduct of government by the late Ministry and the effects of such government, which, he said, gave rise to the necessity of calling a new Ministry, wi\ h such a leader as Sir George Grey, to take charge of affairs, and the consequent break up of sundry abuses before existing. The speaker read the objects of the association and the conditions of membership which were found necessary for securing the return of only such candidates to Parliament as would ensure the complete break up of such abuses as he said existed and were created by the Atkinson Ministry. Mr Andrews concluded by commending the Hon. J. T. Fisher to the electors as being the truest and moßt consistent Liberal friend of the Heathcote district. Dr. Turnbull, president of the association, then addressed the meeting at length, instancing the people and circumstances which gave rise to the abolition of the provinces and the evils which he held had arisen therofrom, as shown by results. He advocated the removal of the seat of legislation from "Wellington, the alteration of the Electoral Bill, with an extended franchise and a simplified system of securing one's vote ; the abolition of the plural vote ; and spoke of the evils of the present system of taxation. These, he said, were only a few of the main features of the Liberal measures advocated by the association, and which it now expected to secure. Having secured these, there were minor reforms which the Association felt sure must follow. Mr Stamford moved, Mr Thomas Wilson seconded—- " That this meeting form themselves into a committee of the Canterbury Reform Association, to carry out its objects and to secure the election of the Hon. J. T. Fisher for the Heathcote district." A number of the audience enrolled themselves as members of the association, and it was left in the hands of Mr Stamford to secure a ■ suitable committee.