MR DODSON AT EWARTS HALL.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume III, Issue 318, 30 November 1881, Page 2

MR DODSON AT EWARTS HALL.

A cnowimi) audience assembled in Dwarfs iiall last evening, to hoar Mr Dodsons first; address to tin; electors, Mr F. T. Farmer. Mayor, in the chair. Mr Do Ison said ho would like to have spoken earlier, but Mr Seymour had fixed ids meetings and lie could not hold <t mooting in Dionhcim while his opponent was speaking elsewhere, or he would have laid himself open to a serious charge. lie regretted even now that lie had to stand b 'fore them, and could have wished that the gentleman who before contested the election had been standing instead as lie

would have liked to see him returned. He had scon lit to retire, however, for causes which he (Mr Dodson) did not exactly understand, and having been requested by him and his party to come forward lie had reluctantly done so. lie bad now two things to do ; one was to show that the district had been neglected in the past, and the other to show the unfitness of the late member. To do this was no sensational story, but lie would speak to them as a practical man. lie meant to indulge in no personality, but meant to contest it on fairgrounds, and ii he lost llio election lie would thou retain hisown self respect, lie would first review M r.Seymour. Tim t gen ticman bad lob! them that ilc- Hall M inisiry had given them Triennial Parliaments, and that Grey did not intend to give them till eight, years had elapsed. lie was not going to defend the Grey administration, for there were some parts of it quite indefensible, but li" alleged that this matter had been so stated been use the present Government on

going into oliice had found the Dill in a pigeon-hole, where it had been placed by the tircy Ministry with the intention of introducing it just before they were ousted from oliice. and not in eight years time as stated. They had aho been told over and over again by Mr Seymour and Ids followin'.;, ami aho the columns of tiic M.\m,s:■ >i:i.*i■ •:n TiMK.s, that the colony was on the very verge of bankruptcy when the Hall .Ministry took oilier, and lie had no doubt the very ones who made the statement bad begun to believe it was true. The Grey G ivcrnment however, had never touched the livc-miliion loan, and had spent less than any previous Government, and far less than the present one. .Mr Seymour had told them all about sending telegrams to Vogel, and saving the credit of the country, and all tint, but if lie did not know betler than tint he was sorry for him. iie was astonished at Mr Seymour’s .statement, that lie had not called them logolher before, because the la»t numbers

of Htinuu.ril. had not hern received. When he made his post-sessional speech lie said the same thing. When he (Mr j i>o Ison) went into figures he could quote I their exact.source, lie quoted an extract from a report of Mr Seymour’s post-j sessional speech, published in tlio ’J’lMKsof : 1880, and said that it appeared from that a ; member went over t > Parliament, not to j know what had been done but to wait and see 1/itii.mril. If lie was arguing a ease in ; Court be would ask for a nonsuit on that ! ground alone. Mr Seymour was never to j lie depended on in figures; most often his j two and two made live and sometimes six. : Ho had told us that the railways cost ; L 10,000,000, and another 1.10,000,000 had j gone he knew not where. lie quite believed lie knew nothing about it; Die: only extraordinary thing was that | he should make the admission. . it was very wrong for a member to mislead Ids constituents. When lie spoke j Irani figure* lie ought to be accurate. 1 Major Atkinson was ,-.lso a "re.at lin.ancicr, | and a most audacious iinu, Ho lul l a great ; respect for him, but for putting figures j together he beat everything he had ever

| Keen, He had heard him say in Wellington | that part of the money had been spent, and ; there was nothing for it but taxation, ,I’yj atid-by lie came to another dueument, and ; said that the late (lovoriinieiit had spent j LI 1,2:»‘.),00;) of public money in two years, | hut did not show how it was made up or j that other Governments had done as bad. j The explanations afterwards made by 1 Messrs. Montgomery, IHll.nice. and others, j j showed they had spent far less than pic* j | viotis] Ministries. Mr Macandrew, that , ! much abused man, had also explained this | and Major Atkinson had to admit that he j h id made some charges which could not he j borne out. Kveryone was prepared to lind I Major Atkinson doing extraordinary things, j but the wond-r was that our member came j over and told us the same story. Mr Sey- j j in our came over and said there was a year 1 j of trouble. His'd's and '2’s madeMx this time. I . Ho did not quote Atkinson, but said (Ley j ; spent L!:»,*>();),0 ! ')0. It was very wrong to ! come over and add L'2,()•)!),000 on to it. Tiie ! I speaker tiien quoted a speech of Mr. Mont- I ! gomery's, stating that only half a milli m of j money hail been spent by tboCrey Minis- j try, ami Government hid drawn a very ! gloomy picture of the position of the colony. Mr. Hail had also said that there was a j balance of L1,SOO,0;)0 remaining, which j showed that the neglect of this district was j not from want of figures, but neglect of the 1 member for asking for them. Since the ! present Covernment had taken olliec it ; had spent live and a half millions of money: and if was no use saying the money ha 1 been spent by Cray after that. If all his hearers would read the public accounts the) would discover that they themselves were j an extravagant and foolish people, anil he j hoped they would hear no more about the 1 extravagance of the Drey Government, j < which was not one whit- more extravagant l than its predecessor.*. Xew Zealand itself j 1 was to blame, as it had been perfectly ma 1 1 1 over borrowing and spending. Tim very sea- j siun Mr Seymour had told them o! the great j I financial trouble they had aunropriatc i i ; l

2!> millions. They did not spend it: they never did spend what, they appropriated, for instance they did not spend the money voted for the Dai Valiev Road : they saved that. The year ISTii was a time of great commercial depression. Kveryonc looked to Government to relieve them of tiu-ir burdens. The land sales fell oil’, and they were nearly a million deficient ; but the estimates they brought down were the most extravagant ever put before the Assembly, Mr Seymour’s sdiry ami that of the Speaker were increased amongst (he rest. When in' read tiic estimates lie said (1 overt!• ment didn’t know a hit about tiic (lovernment of the country. The House asked Government to reduce them by LIOO,OOO but they would not. r.nd they decided to strike oil' 10 per cent, from tin- salaries of all Civil servants. They were not to!.I lo take it offal! round, hut they did so. They brought down proposals to levy taxation, a hour tax to begin with and then a Property tax. increased the Customs revenue by heavier duties on tobacco and spirits, and made small telegraph stations pay extra fees. He did not complain of the Deer Tax, as long as they had protection from outsiders they had no right to complain. Hut Government had no right to levy a Property T;.x when they were spending so much upon schools, ivum-ir.i water-races, nml big pumps at Auckland, &o. it had been claimed licit the Customs tariiriiad been altered in the right direction but according to the evidence of Mr Sued the increased duties bad caused more smuggling, ami they got actually less. Then a Dog Tax was put on. II - supposed they would tax babies next. Mr Seymour hail

said he war. instrumental in getting certain dogs exempted under this, and lie had received letter after letter from the Awahere asking whether this was correct. What Mr Seymoui had stated was not true, lie said, ho was sick when the original Act was passed, hut if he had not been it would have been all the same. This year there had been a jolly row about it, ami he had found out people didn't like it as it was like a tax upon tnois. [air Dodson here quoted Mr Seymours speech in /fmixiii'"' which we publish elscwh re.] He said they hud not exempted rabbit dogs (only in proclaimed districts), and Mr Seymour had taken good cure this shouldn't be a district, when Mr Philip -Mcllae went for him in his usual straightforward style. Mr .Seymour had told them In: drafted a clause and handed it to Mr Arthur Collins to introduce in Committee, hut there was nothing about that in Ifimsor-l. Mr Shanks had moved a resolution, which lie quoted. lie agreed with powers being left in the hands of local bodies, but was not prepared to say that Mr Seymour wished this. 11 is friend Mr Collins had, in fact, voted straight against tills. Practically Mr Seymour had kept- the tax on, and lie had no doubt the Road Hoards would keep it on. if be (Mr Dodson) went to Wellington, as their member, he would have it oil' as the country didn’t want that sort of taxation. Mr Seymour had told them tiic Land Tax was burdensome, and it certainly couldn’t bo defended. Put lie had also said it was levied on tiic acreage, which was a mistake as if it were Mr Seymour would have to pay twenty times as much for his run as was paid for tiic town of Christchurch, which

paid Li.»!),()!).). ilc had never heard of such wild and reckless statements. Then he said that the id LOT) on tiic estimate* was our proper share of tin; loan, and ho had given it up in the year of scarcity and insisted upon having it tiii.s year. We were to go down and thank Providence for this. Tiic speaker then quoted a variety of figures obtained from various sources, and argued that the id 1,000 alluded to wai a balance remaining unexpended out of a previous vote. He stated ho had more to do witli obtaining tiii.s amount than Mr. Seymour had, as it was mainly through Ids representations to a young engineer that ho had got (lie ’line taken so as to save id 1.00 ). in ISSO, oolhinc was voted for this railway, and it was only the other day the amount had boon restored. Mr. H ill had .'rated that Government were guided in the allocation oi money on public works by the advice of their cngim;f;rs, but Mr. Seymour said he had got tiii.s placed on. Dither .Mr. Hull or Mr. Seymour was

wrong ; he didn t care which. (The ■speaker quoted at length from the appropriation for roads and railways for ihc present year.) lie said it was very siran-o that the ('larenee bridge should be "set down under the head of roads, if it was intended to make a railway bridge of it. as Mr. Se\ ■ mour had said. The money for the A«j. turn .Shearing Deserve was onlv a lean, and this was the only place in the Colony where Government proposed to sell a Deserve, lie hoped to he in Wellington in time to stop the sale of it, however. Session after session Mr Seymour had dunenothing about this road, till Mr. Monro and some other members of the Hoard stirred him up. Ho told us also liie passing of the Keprcscu - tat ion Dili cost i .700:), but it cost next to nothing, for members were paid by the fixed salary, and if the section took longer they would actually cost the Colony less pur day than if they were shorter. Our Legislative Vote was Ld7 I,7Hi. while that of Gueom • land was LI 1,000, Now South Wales LIS,OOO. South Australia L10.0.K), and Tasmania loss, The extra coal of llmutttiul w.-s about all the debate 011 the lie-presentation Dili entailed. This would give them an idea

1 of the wild and reckless .Talcunmi.H Mr : Seymour made. He said it had cost : them 1.7000 when if, had only I cost them I.gOU, ami he knew ho was ftat- ; iug what was untrue. He would now give h;s views on lvlucation, which was an important question. lie hud had the matter brought closely under Ilia notice lately and had come to the conclusion that we had a system unnecessarily expansive, j There was a section of the community also j which had a grievance under the system j ami lie would try to remedy it. flow it cost so much money was a mystery to him. j I iie last two years it had cost about a I quarter of a million and one-eighth of the population had u >t benefited by j;. This j ought tuhe remedied. We had no right to i ask them to contribute to the fund, if j would no doubt be said that ho load formerly j said this was right, that they should con*, j tribute, and he ind d-.-fondod the system j lint-he did not def.aid it much fl.nighkwi. I Wlnt he had s-nid w.i-, tint Mr Seymoi r ! had said he voted for the Curtis Clausa for j the sake of the outlying districts, but lie j said hi: did so to deceive them. 111 the old ! Provinci il (,’ouacii he iud tried.to got t wo ! scholarships thrown open to all, but Mr S-symour and Mr.i. T. llobinaoii had Le, lt too much for him, an 1 had decided they should only be open to cliildrcn attending the schools. Mr Lobinam indeed ban nude a:i extraordinary .statement at the time that if they threw them open to till th< y would have hoy’s from \TLOO <Vd coming ami taking tlmm. This had berm a Hit at him, a; hr had a hov at the eolh'-c Lien. He would not he a party to go on taxing people for thb unless all shared alike He believed the Colony was now in a humor r to do absolute justice, lie would advocate either payment by results or by grants to the schools. 1 hej was a change from what he iiad .said two or three ve irs n ■> but t c lurational era/.; was now passing awoi. »> e '..0 ii 1 :i ivo to limit tie- eXiieuditui'but exten 1 the operations. About a ago lie had had school matter-; bronchi-

forcibly 11 odor his notice, Mid thought t.l\system than allowcid such a state of thing! - as iio alluded t > must-be very lad. H- hatV said al; a previous meeting that the m hole! svslein would have to lie reviewed, end i! rsl.tmied lie would have it altered. '• e would at all times tell the electors what his views wore, for the time being. He would try his utmost to remedy injustice, and one fearless man could do a lot over in ' • (dlingtou. -'hmiinr_, to Major Atkinson again he s-iid In; was ii ’perfect taking machine and the idea, of saving never crossed his mind. Hr had heard him say that lm held that a man and everything he possessed belonged to the State, and'that wo should tax everything productive or unproductive. IT a raid, this when introducing the Property Tax and appeared to gloat over it. This Property Tax repealed the Land 'l'nx and doubled it at the same time, because we had ro pay a penny now while it was only a half-penny before. Mr Seymour now defended the Property 'Pax l>ecan.se it was the same in principle as the Road Hoards worked under, lie believed in taxing improvements for purposes of local improvements, lmt not in having our money t iken away to he pitched into the water at Taranaki, ft was iniquitous and wo could do without it. Mr Seymour told them next year it was wnv going to bo .Id because Major Atuiuron had : promised so, but he (Mr Hudson) might i make the same promise with eijiia! saietv. , Mr Seymour had said what prosperity j it ln-ought and what capital tiny Hand ; 'Pax frightened away, but H t his _ was j was so they had onlv to put on this e time,.; | a? much Property ’Pax and they would h uvo j money enough for everything, v. hen the J assessor, M r Robinson, e.unc to him about j 1 lie Properly'Pax lie lelt very bad anout | it. He had just had his house painted, and j they charged him lor that too. i he H ind | Tux was had because it old noea , cm t i 1 ■ * mortgagees, but the Property lax did eaten j them. The men who got mortgages were shrewd business m m. and men of enterprise, and if the tax touched that class of men. it was s had one. W'e wanted no I more taxation at all. An income 'Pax I could be defended, but should only bo put on in (unergoiieun. lb: wanted to sec the j Property 'Pax taken away. It would bo j ju.st.sHed if the nionev raised was spent j lC a!ly, but it should not lie ’ taken from here In be spent in 'Paranaki the blest, Resides Bleulmim got oil' better under the Land 'l’a.x than under the Property 'lax. it paid about 1/2,000 under the former, hut only LI. 100 under the latter which was rather puzzling. W <: had not had our share of public money. When the live million loan was raised we were entitled to 12.10,000 outlie basis af jiomilatiou and more it we took the territorial av< rages hut we had re- j oeivod nothing like that sum. In the old days also Wellington and other places had burrowed nionev and spent it freely and when abolition came, the colony took over the debts and we actually became liable ' for theirs, though wo had not spent any borrowed money. The proportion we Were 1 liable for was about 1.000,000 and we ought ’ to have had that sum. Taranaki had had HSOD,I>o‘.). hut then it had members who really worked for it. \s e had had less than ; 1/200,000, ’Pile speaker then alluded to the public money spent in Taranaki and .stated that the settlers there seemed to bo j living entirely on the public purse. Tara- j naki also contributed less than Marlborough I under either Land or Property lax. >;h\ I did notour member denounce it when if received more than we did? lie Mien pro- ; needed to speak of the Waste Lands Hoard, and said he. had had a rattier peculiar : experience in connection with tne local one and the recreation ground, which h • alleged he had obtained for the do-key flub, and j not Mr Seymour. He stated that he had j in t!m old Provincial days, in company ; with Mr P. Hush, waited upon Mr Seymour and asked for this reserve. dr Seymour after a day or two told him its lonic would be assessed ami put up to auction, which was done. Shortly after a m-miiev of the Hoard waited upon him and a ked if . tin; Jockey Chib wanted it for anything j else than racing purposes, and wlk thurthey ! would let it to him. He then began to| smell a rat, and said they would not. when i this gentleman said lie would hid against i : him at auction, as the Club hid got no ! nionev. lie said in- would liu-1 t! - men-v, and on the day of sale i. xpeetc d to s-e that gentleman conio and bid against him, blithe didn't, and he got it lor the assess.'l j . amount, J. 22 !<»*, and it had rim:- b.-en ; leased to Hit) very same person !.y the Hub j for !/:.") per annum, lie had determined , from the first to have the lv.wrvc handed | over to trustees and in -ianuary la<d: at a! meeting of the Jockey Club had _ brought , the matter forward, when he ami Mr I lor- , ton were appointed to go to \\ clliiigton and arrange for thic, lie went L■ \v ciliugton himself because he knew what Mr Seymour ; was, and in coinjimy with Mr I liarlcs ■ I led wood 1.0 went to ihc <lovcvnment : buildings to see Mr Seymour. ..lust. as they • got inside ilie door be saw half a dozen he thought lie knew. There wore Mr G ninth"-;, the politician from -.pring ('reek, Mc.Sah, ; and the gallant and noble (.'aptain of Volunteer*. They were an <'xl raordinary looking lot and a man in blue was just | beyond them. Ho explained that they! wanted t<> see Mr Seymour, when he was! told “Oh, lie's sitting on a Select Com- j mittco and lias to go to the ! louse j directly, iles too busy to see you. 1 Is | then thought that Mr Seynr-isr must be a ; sort of Atlas withall the world on his shoo!- j tiers, but ho pushed through although the i man m blue tried to st"pliim, and succeeded j in getting to M r Seymour. \\ iicii begot him they came out: together, and the noble i Captain looked daggers at them, though as . he hadn't hit sword he didn't do any I damage. Just as they passed someone called out “ lii, Mr Seymour, Mr Robinson wants ; you 1" Mr Seymour, however, iiad the po- j liteiless to tell them to request Mr Robinson to wait, and they went and arranged all | about t lie matter.uul got trustees appointed. j That wax the history of the reserve. While Mr Seymour found a good deal of satisfac- ! tion in supporting the Hall .Ministry, lie found none. They never had a majority, 1 mt were only put in by Liberals to pas* j Liberal measures and reduce, expenditure, j Jlo believed they held oiliee in consequence of a comnaet made with the Liberal meniI.ei’ :, li-Imped a totally new set of men : would occupy the benches in next Parlia- j m-nt. if was high time Xow Zealand was i govern-i P-\ nv-r.t vigorous intellects. He did not want o> see more borrowing tor unproductive works, i 1 wanted to sec local ' lan'lie;: established in our midstand endowed. \Ye could re verge!" m.ivthing so long as we eeiiiiaiis-d everything m Wellington, and lie would work to -c-iuv Local > L.v runmur. As to the sionewaliiii;;, he thought Mr Soy- . inour had, done a great wrong in stopping ' it. Tim Nelson nienioors had a great gm.. vance. Tiiotlgh no one could ueien.l their -tonewalling" tacties. there was , something unfnir about the Huh .Mr Seymour hau a nai row i scape himself of being ! among the stonewallcrs tor tln.-y liist proposed to tack on Kaikoiira to tliis district, < and surely lie would have lenl that much loyalty to his district to r. s-nt tl»i-. lie i believed, however, that Mr Seymour had liimsnlf proposed ilia; Kudurum sitonld he •« i 1)0 added so as to w::u;i t.io em-t..i , alc as he had done last time with -Nelson voters, j:

~ i Mr Seyincur had struck a blow at I lie right <j of discussion. Imagine such a power in / i the hands of a weak man like Mr Scvm •nr, \ ; tmfc he would not he there again. He A | crushed a minority on ! hatoce.r-im. which ; \ me: of discussion if it could he ga.-g.'d. ! t \ was known all over Wellington t.'ic same , Way that on that evening someone was i ,\'oing to put a stop to the stonewalling, s\ nd it was not done simply because Sir <l. ; : G\ toy was going to make a speech. Mr. ■ ; SlUymour had compared his action to Hint j of j tlie Speaker of the Ilonas of Coin-nuy-us, hut a Speaker was very diifer- . eat to a Chairman of Committee. A ape,Aker was a man before whose di-cis-nion' all the members bowed. A iter Mr Heyiv .oilr had given his ruling Mr Gisborne move 1 that ho report progress, when he told him t, > sit down, and when he would not, the Spi a!;<-•,• was called ■'’.nil he was lined f/20. ghike a cockney sportsman Mr Seymour h. m 1 lired at the first thing that presented it -cif and hit, not a stonewaller, but j poor old Mr Gisborne. Standing orders I were, nun le to protect minorities. (The i Speaker In re read an extinct from Jeremy I Hcnthain), After this any weak-minded | Chairman height gel: lip and stop freo disj missions. A a conununitythis was rather ; a jiceuiiar o w. Its social condition was : good, and it was tairly sober and decent, except in one way. There was a blot up m it which it bill! ove 1 tliem to win • out, and | that was the ox -rinse of tin: terrible: personI alities which Mi orc going about. if they ! believed whr.t \was 'said about him they won I I believe 1 in; ro lie soiiietliing awful, i He vva.i glad to. find a divided iniprov.- \ incut in jmbliel feeling this tunc. -\li j his friends h*(j! strongly advised him j to go through the election without indulging | in personalities. I Tor the futura he liopail | anyone would be s', blc to stand before tliem ! without comniiltii. :g a crime. (>f course h- • did m-t mind per\mnaliti-s while he had ( sueli good canvasseV-s ns Robinson, CriliiMis, McXab, nr tlie. pol.Vtien'i of Spring (,'reok. The public knew .that af. the poll they ; woui-1 1,,: voting aga, nst them as well as for i him. ihit it was at\ -viable thing t!iat they ! should have men sti\ ml before them and j attempt to contrast Vilien am! now in the mail ••• of K location.-; He too could say somethin!.; about it roc mtly, but Mr Henderson deserved far mo.\'e credit than he did : for that, (He.ir, hear). H was a terrible thing to think that a 1. inn who spoke of Kdueatinu was also a mn i who rent round disseminating filth in a i. ew.spap/r, wiiieli was read by the young am 1 eonrair.-d such \ terrible things. ((.Vie:; ‘of “\\ lisro s . Riiitz-Hhiggins," “The H.vvlxw,'’ “.Let's ' gargle.") ijolo hoped lie "ivcakl not be able to circulate much more of fit. jcganl I to the Chinese. (i fear, hear). H« mix not j going to have any more in the cour! try tiian In; could he!:,, as he would lv- very sorry to see labor coma down. If was all very well for Mr A-yineur to say h< believed in the Chine*.-; lnnnigratiou ih'tl , hut he didn’t hclievH lie spoke upon it. j He eoneluded by saying there were many other I subjects ou which h» wished to apeak, but ns it was getting late (c-leven o’clock) he would now thank thorn for t-lieir palient; licaring, and was prepare-l to answer .-my questions. Mr-). Ward —J think you said that Air Henderson Ind retired for reasons you did not know. L very much regret that he did retire. I >oes Mr Henderson canvas* for you? _ ... . ! Air Dodson (in a very lunitating manner), j 1 -.1 think lie dorx good deal. Mr Ward - i fee! sure he do.:sn't. Mr Hudson -Ob, he Y..uit.=t to see me get in ; rimt’s why he doesn't. Mr Ward—Could yon tell us whether tlie ; lirst document of his which was publish,-d, in which he aiim,tines',l his retirement, was I written and .signed by him? Mr Dodson -No, it was written here by : the committee. Mr Ward—Oh 1 then. :v, l understand, it war, a document claiming to lie put forth by Mr Henderson with Mr Henderson's ; name to it, which was never signed by j him ? j Mr Hodson (Pmuri'diing a piece of maiiii- i script) - I have his original letter here. , ((fries of ‘•Real it 1 read it!" but no j attempt was made on the part of Air Hod- >

son to comply with the rec|>io»t.) Mr Ward—Was the document received j before tie- one published was signed A! r ! tidaon—Oil yes ! it was written on ; tlio tilth, and was not published till the j hist. (Cric; of “ ite.nl it !"a:id great sensation , for sum; time.) ; Mr Dodson- 1 will let any gentleman ace . it at .Mr Terry's olliee to-morrow. Mr Ward—How do yon propose that we should meet our interest, as you spade ; against all taxes ? Mr Dodsou said lie found the.tour income was id,710,000, and our interest reached j nearly that amount. It was terrible to think that everyday 17-1000 was bci nysji-i.it for interest and the problem w.vi, how long it was to-continue, It was a very diilicult question to solve. If the flood Templars! succeeded in making everyone leave oil j drinking it would soon briny Major Atkin- i son on hi.s marrow hones. Mr -i. S. Carroll ito you believe in pen- ! siourrs, as 1. see you allude to M r < lisbornc, ; win. is a pensioner ? Mr Do.!soii —.v> : 1 would pay those now dii' l.v law but would have no more. Mr -I. S. Harrell —Has it ever struck you j that the Colony is paying L 20,000 for a. Hoy.-il Family in New Zealand, and will you promise, if elected, to do away with t hem ? dir I h.dson ! will. Mr J. s. ('arroll-You have told us about getting' the .Itaeing llcscrvo. lias it ever! struck you that most towns but ours have got reserves? Mr. Dodson—Y«v. 1 liml others have i got reserves for all kinds of purposes, but i Marlborough lias only got one rood in \ i’icton. Mr .J. S. (,'arroll—AVill you assist Sir (1. ! (Irey in getting his Law i’raetioners Hill j ' 1 • . . , ! Mr. Dodson I. think tiic law now is that j any man of ability ami education whospeuds three year.''in McXab's olliee can be a lawyer. .if that's it t think it wants amendment. J. would support drey's Dill. Mr. •!. -S. Carroll -Have you read the Cliiuev.* Immigration Act. What- amount | of luggage can a Chinaman bring into the j Colony ? Mr. Hod.-on —! believe lie can bring as Mr. .!. 8. Carroli I was of tlio same! i.*j*iiiion tfiO. .Mr. .1. JeHym.'tii --Wotihl you be in favor : of having all local l.eer analysed ? Mr. iV-dsou have no objection toanalysis of beer or anything die. Mr H. dcllyman—Will you pledge yourself that you will not try to got the Deer Tax rescinded ? Mr. Hudson--] niigl t easily do that while ws have p:election igainst the Kuglish manuruet nrt-rs. Mr. H. JeliynKiu- -Arc you in favor of the Local Option Did. dir Dodson —Yes, 1 am going to get all the power I can from Wellington. 1 don't : live out of drunkenness, nor do [care to do Mr T Jackson —Will you support a grant to the Volunteers V ,

t M r Dodson —I believe there is something i ; wrong about that vote. I would support a •, ! reasonable vote, but not one that percolates e down to the captains and the men see a ' nothing of it. yj,.T. Jackson - f want to know whether o i A! r 1 >odson —“A cs. s I Mr-Jackson -Then it’s enough to give one ■, j the liorrors. . ; Mr It. Ronowicz.- -Ifelected would you j be in fa vor of the Rabbit Tax. t ! Ad r ! )o,lson —Yes. - ' Mr Ronowicz - Would yon be in favor of - ! a grant for the importation of weasels and V j ferrets. - j Air Dodson—Xn. r Air Ronowicz—AVould you he in favor c ' of a grant to the Acclimatisation Society l i For the same efl'-ct. . ' Mr Dodson--Xo. I j M r Ronowicz-Would you propose a - ; General I irainago Act for Marlborough. -i Mr Dodson- '-Vm, J would drain every t ! place T could. 5 ! Air R. Allen proposed a vote of thanks to . ; Mr Dodson for liis able and instructive • ! address. (Crir.sof “jWheie's tlie man from l j London.") 11 thought the meanest capacity - ! could see the pains mid trouble lie had taken • | in looking over //mis,/;•■/. (Cheers and Mr J. Ward said lie rose to second Hie ; vote of thanks to Mr Dodson for his learned : and labored ancuch. He hop- l all present I understood it, for lie was sure lie did not. • 1 j At this stage a scene of indc-cribablo dis- ■ | order c-mue l. accompanied by cheers and : hisses, and after vainly trying to gain a hearI ing. Air Ward retired fro'm the platform. ; Tin? motion wa-; put and deebir’d carried, I r,midst a deafening storm of hiissca and | c’icers, and (he meeting separated.