PUBLIC MEETING.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 2, 3 July 1865, Page 2

PUBLIC MEETING.

[Continued from our last.] Mr Stuart then came forward, and was received with applause. He said that he should not have attended the meeting, had he not been invited, because he believed that it entirely rested with the people. He and his colleagues were outnumbered in the Council, and could not do any practical good After the very able remarks of his big brother he did not know what to say—the subject seemed to be quite exhausted. There was 100,000 acres of the finest agricultural land in the Province contained in these plains. If all this land were planted with wheat, it would produce something like .£500,000 annually—very different from the wretched £40,000 or £50,000 derived from the wool, and we should not have to pay £12,000 for imported flour. He was himself concerned ia the wool trade, and therefore spoke disinterestedly. If they were tenanted by an agricultural population, property of every description in Napier would treble its value. He had resided nearly four years in the Island of Hayti, under a black emperor, Faustin Souiouque, and a black Government, but he was ultimately obliged to leave, on account of the corruption which prevailed a corruption so general that it was impossible to trade there without succumbing to it. He could say, however, that the corruption under Faustin Bouloque, great as it was, did not surpass the corruption of some of the Government officers in Hawke’s Bay. First, he would mention Donald M’Leau, Esq , the Superintendent of the Province anti a General Government officer, for the purchase of land, and for the conviction of illegal squatters. He received a very large salary from the General Government—£T,soo—in order that he should be beyond the reach of temptation to break the law himself. He was trusted implicitly by the Government, he had an unlimited supply of money, for which he did not have to account, for disposal among the natives. He never went amon<r them without gold to dispense iu handfuls, and of course he had an unlimited popularity and influence with them. How had he used this influence? Why, for his own benefit entirely. Therefore, he had committed a great breach of trust. Again, this man, in the name of his brother, illegally held a run of 30,000 acres of the finest agricultural land in New Zealand. He (Mr S.) had passed over the land many times and it could support a vast agricultural population, ♦ffhe run, nominally, was his brother’s, but rate all the wool was his—all the im wethers were his—and it was well known that the run was his, too. This man, then, had committed a breach of trust—a breach of trust that a hundred years ago, would have brought his head to the block. [Great applause.] Next he should mention Major Whitmore, who was appointed Civil Commissioner for Hawke’s Bay—another well paid General Government officer. His first act when he got into office was to take a large slice himself! He was known to adjudicate in cases of squabbles between illegal lessees and native proprietors. He, next, with a member of the Executive, known as John the Shrewd, proceeded to add a tremendous slice at Karamu. He, again, had committed a gross breach of trust. It was related of Charles the fifth that in the latter part of his life he kept a large collection of clocks tick-ticking together. He tried to make these clocks keep the same time, but they would not agree, with all his efforts. At last he gave up in despair, and said, “ What a fool I have been to try all my life, to make men’s minds agree, when I cannot eventnake a few clocks do so.” If old King Charles could again come to life nothing would-so much sui prise him as the unanimity of the members of the Government. If one said yes, all the others said ; if one said no, all the others said no.

The steam-boat, die railroad, the telegrap nothing would so much surprise him as this woudrous unanimity. It was true that he (Mr S.) held some land illegally himself, and he did not deny it. It was but a little bit, and he was only half-proprietor but he was ready to give it up to-morrow if the Government would show him that they could make it of any use to the people. He wished for nothing more than to see the province go ahead and the breaking-up of the little ■coterie who held possession of the plains. The resolutions were then put and carried unanimously!. [To beCteaCMed-3