MR MORRIS AT GORDON.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 372, 8 July 1884, Page 2

MR MORRIS AT GORDON.

Mr Morris addressed a largely attended meeting of the Mataura electors at Mackay's Hall last evening. MrM'Gill, on the motion of Messrs Henderson and Costello, assumed the chair, and in the usual terms introduced the candidate. Mr Morris said he appeared before them as a candidate, and would briefly give his reasons for taking that position. In 1879, up»n the death of Mr Ireland, he had contested the Waikaia seat against the redoubtable Mr Horace Bastings. He was then quite unknown, but his opinions were in harmony with those of so many that he submittted he was quite justified in coming forward again, especially as much of what was now the Mataura district was then in that of the Waikaia. Moreover, he had been solicited for many months, and could if he so desired, have had a requisition as long as the table. But he considered requisitions merely an election dodge. All a candidate had to do was simply to give a man a couple of guineas and he would go round and button hole every man he met. The franchise was one of the most sacred rights a man had, and it was wrong to ask any man to pledge himself until he had heard all the candidates. HIB GENERAL TIBWB, ITu would proceed to give his Tiewe. Any Parliament worthy of the name should represent all shades of opinion in ordei that ; the claim" of all might be fairly represented. The Legislative Council was constituted in throe great interests ; — land, wealth, and wool. The working man was wholly unrepresented. Looking again at the Lower House they found commercial men, mercantile men, professional men, and more especially legal and the Preps : but he would defy tkem to show him one who would open his mouth in defence of the laboring man. (Applause.) Of course all men in a young country like this were in a manner laboring men,sj but the class he meaut was not at all represented. In the old country where the whole land had been devastated by strikeß and locks-out, Boards of Conciliation or Arbitration had been appointed to settle disputes between employers and employed, and their decisions were received with respect because both sides were fairly represented, and he should like to see all classes represented in Parliament. LAND QUESTION. The happiness, prosperity and welfare o£ the pople depended upon the administration of the land laws, and it was. therefore, the duty of the Government to administer these laws in a liberal and wise manner. Plenty of people came forward with schemes, and of these there were three that demanded attention. One party Bought thai the land should become the property of tho State at a fair rate, and be leased : another said that no man had any right to own land privately. Still another party, and among them was Mr Eolleston was in favor of perpetual leasing. Now Jhe objected to all of them,but was a little in favor j of the last. If the Government had not enough money to carry on, surely they could not affcrd to buy the land. The second proposal simply meant confiscation and robbery. Any man would rather have a freehold. He was in favor of deferred payment. Every Briton had .in inherent desire to have some land of his own. What else had made the colonies? What else had made so many leave the old country to rough it in these new hands but the desire to obtain that which was denied them in their native country. And nowth.it all the most accessible land had been taken up it was surely unfair tli.-.t those yet to come should not have tho same privilege. The system had succeeded greatly., especially in Otago, and had placed thausands of men upon comfortable homes. [ Still he thought the residence claims should not be so stringent as at present. He would like also t« see in e^ery deferred payment block a section in small areas, say from five to 15 acres. This would foster the growth of a class of men who would be known to the neighboring farmers, who would thus not be obliged to take the first swagger that came along. The tendency of land settle- ! ment was, he was sorry to say. in the direction of increase in the areas, an ri this should be counteracted. BDUCATIOX. He thought that a radical change was necessary in the present system. No man would like more than himself to sea Education free to all. He had not, he was sorry to say, had the advantage of going to school in his youth. The little he knew had been lcaint in the bitter school of adversity. He thought the schools should be open to ohildren between the ages of seven and 13. If the children were sent to sohool before they w«re seven years of age they were sent there only to be nursed and he thought that L4= a head was too much to pay lor nursing children. (Laughter.) If they could nor acquire the rudiments of a plain education in six years they would not do it in 60 Higher education should, howover, be paid for by the parents who desired it, hut the costs of if should not be saddled upoa these who did not want it, and who had ts good a right to educate their ohildren as they had to feed and clothe them. Of course children of ability whose parents oould not send them forward should bo provided for by a bursary syttem. Such ability was the property of the country, which would benefits its development. Then there was the ticklish question, the religious one. It was well known that a large number of colonoita either would not or conld not take advantage of the present system. He did not see why they should not, but the fact remained that they did not. They eaid--1 We canuofe use your schools, We build schools of our own, and pay our twn teachers We have no objection tp teach our cjn'dren up, tp y Qur standard and submit them to ypur inspectors if you will only allow us to pay for it qurselves. and you can pay for yours." Nothing could be mere fair and. honest. He remembered when the national education scheme was first put i forward in England it was purely secular ! and now in Liverpool such a system as the Catholics here desired was in full force. Many considered the matter merely one of sentiment, but that was because they were not bred and born Catholics. He was not a Catholic himsplf, in' fact he was the last man tp, 'be one, but he would give his solemn pledge that if returned the first effort he should make would be towards removing the present injustice. LOCAL OPTION. Upoa this subject he would ask them for a

fair and patient hearing. He was thoroughly against local option but not because he was engaged in the trade. It had been said against him that he had changed his opinion 6ince the Waikaia contest, but such was not true, He was a total abstainer then and had opposed local option. In fact, it was impracticable, and would hnve a dimctly oppostc effect to t hut expected by ite advocates. Ir, was al«o one-sided, and he would proceed to prove with propositions. Many things were right in theory, but the opposite in practice. The Gambling Act was an instance of this. Every one that had tin interest of the country at heart was against gambling, and yet the law passed lately had the effect of giving an impetus to the very thing it was intended to put down.. Local option was very similar. Suppose a, traveller came to his (Air Morris') house, and... atked for accommodation for the night, and, > before going to bed, desired a gla?s of toddy. What would he say if he were told that the majority of the lesulentß had said he was better without it? (Laughter.) Every maa had the right to eat aud drink whatever he was willing to pay for. Then, again, local option was one-sided, because it gave the rich man power to drink himself, and his fiiends,*blue in the face, while the poor man might be debarred {from having a glass of beer. There were better means of making men sober than by making laws for them. The theatre, the museum, their parks, their numerous social and athletic clnb*, were all doing their work in this direction, but, he was sorry to say, had hither, o ,^ot little credit for it. A century ago, iu«j higher classes all drank heavily ; now. a person seen drunk forfeited the reputation of a gentleman. This had been done by education, and the influence was sure to spread downward to the classes balow. Making a man ge to church would not make him religious ; and, if such a law were made, people would kick over the traces, So men, not total abstainers, would become their bitterest foes if any ■ attempt were made to curtail their liberty., He did not appioTe o£ the present system of ; elective benches. That system allowed a united minority to govern a disunited majority, exactly as was done last session. The districts should be greatly enlarged, so as to obviate local influence} He quoted a local case, where a man had been refused a license, and shortly afterwards another man got it, so that one committee ceald go exactly opposite to the one before it.' The committees were too small also. At present the publican had to deal with the butcher, the baker, or the storekeeper, which would suit his license ; while in large places, the publicans could command support on the committee by their tra-Ie patronage. In Dunedin they had the spectacle off Hotels in one district being closed at ten. and "fho-e iv another at 12.. They should all be alike, and whatever system was adopted should be permanent. IMMIGRATieK. His opponent Capt. MacKenzie seemed to fancy that the cure for the depression was the importation of more- in*migrants. ' The immigration that was wanted was an immigration of money. Employers could *et . any amount of men at present for 20s or 22s a week. These men worked at '■ monotonous labour, rery often in inclement weather, and surely no one could wish to see them drudge for a bare existence. Labor was a commodity which the laborer sold. If you '■ agree to give a man 25s a week, and reduce him to 20s, the chances were that, he would not give you more than 15s worth of work. Underpaid labor always reveng .1 itself, and a man so situated would always have hia eyes directed to the setting suu in the western horizon (applause). It was not. fair to make men pay to bring competition •■ against them in their own field. The syatem was wrong and he would oppose it. LOCAL GOVERNMENT. '• The time had arrived when affairs should be more locally administered. The whole tendency of the Government was towards centralisation. There waa in Wellington a . large staff of Civil Servants, and they of course spent a large sum of money there. Canterbury, wanted its share also, and as it could not have a Government House they were building a miniatune Pentonville at Lyttelton. Then at Dunedin. they were" building a palatial railway station. This ' wicked and wanton waste of money was going on while settlers had to leave their produce m the open air at waysiie stations, and were thankful if they could ever get a cover. These things were the result of centralisatior, and those who supported it were to blame. It was all very well for Captain Mackenzie to talk about his efforts to get a shed at Waikaka, but why did ho not vote against the expenditure? They could not point out one single instanco of his having given an adverse vote to the Government on a money matter. He (the Captain) could tell of an Opposition member who complaind that he could get no money for his district till he joined the Government side, and in three weeks afterwards he got L 60,000. The Captain could not say whether he himself had voted for the sum ; he only evaded the questiou. The fact was Major Atkinson had been given a very fair chance, and he (the speaker,) would support any one — whether Vo£el, Montgomery or Grey — who would give them local self-government. taxation . He was opposed to the property tftr,' as it' was inquisitorial and a tax on improvements.. No sooner did a man begin to improve than he was more heavily taxed. The tax should, be on unimproved lands, and an}' man who" ' made a blade of grass grow where the tussac . . had been deserved to be encouraged. If the land tax were not sufficient for r the purposes of the country, then an income tax should be imposed to make up the deficiency. BETRBNCHMENT. : This idea of retrenchment had,; to use a ; homely phrase been torn to pieces. If the country was prepared to go in for retrenchment it must also sHbmit to. self-denial. At present those members were the most popular who got most money for their districts, and the liberties of the people might' be . voted away as long as plenty of .money was spent. To try and please everybody the Government pounced upon the Civil Servants aud committed a great injustice, as unleas a man could be well paid for his work it was far better to discharge him. It was "a most extraordinary thing that ' whenever a working, man was : found willing to aspire to Parliament he was pointed at as trying to gain a point, Did not wealthy men work a point? He would say this, that whatever hit. merit might be if they returned him if he could not do much good he could not do much harm, 1 (Laughter and applause.) He was in-< dependent he did not own any broad acres and had no lines to make. He cared for no man. It had been said, that if such as him went to the House members would turn their backs upon them. Nowhe gave members credit for better manners. " " The press joined in this cry, and a nptable case was the Matatora Ensign at the present time. He did not object to fair criticism — in fact, it has the duty of a journalist to criticise and direct ; but to attack a man unheard was wrong, and he might say unusual. It had called him an " Intruding Candidate." Certainly he was an intruder if they supposed Parliament , . to be a select club, but he ; had- . as lauch right there as any man. Moreover, how could he be an. intending candidate. At the time that article was ; , published he waa the only candidate. Where had the othey candidates been announced f He did not mind fair criticism,, but the three | articles in last Tuesday's paper were only worthy of the days of Castlereagh. He remembered that when the first working men entered the House of Commons the press raised the same cry, and now ten years after one of these working men was a member of a Commission on Outcast London,, and sat with the Prince of Wales and Lord Salisbury The only question should be whether a man, had sufficient ability to represent them.' 'if they thought he had sufficient courage and honesty also his social position should not debar him from a seat in the House. Mr Morris safe down amid applause, and after the usual questioning was accorded an ■'" unanimous vote of confidence. . . .