MR COWAN AT RIVERSDALE.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 372, 8 July 1884, Page 5

MR COWAN AT RIVERSDALE.

Mr Cowati addressed a meeting of 6 l t ctors at Manson's Hall, Kfteradale, on .Friday evening. Between 70 and 80 gentlemen were present, and Mr J. Gee wa£ voted to the chair. The chairman briefly introduced the cuxdidato, s»F iD g that three 7 earH a ß° foe fought a good fight and was deserving on this occasion of an impartial* hearing. One of the planks of his platform would require 10 be the purchase of the Waimea Eailway by the Government ; for, although the settlers Vere no doubt able to pay the buiden j BO^e rate imposed by the Company B till they were far from willing to do 80. Mr Cowan expressed gratification at j the remarks of the chairman, and went j on to speak of his claims to the seat, one of these being that he was a local man, who had resided in the electorate for a longer period than roost ii* ihat room. Nor was he a stranger in other respects ; for he had closely run Mr Driver at the last general election, aince which time he was glad to notice a hat Riversdale had made vast strides, ao.d instead of being a $m»tt township was' .rapidly assuming the proportions of a JaJge town. He claimed tfyai |m? views ««re of a thoronghly progressive character, ajid that at heart and in his actions he waa a true Liberal. Dv ring his many year's residence in Southland he had taken an active pjjrb in public affairs and he claimed to bare been faithful to the varions trusts repcs^ is him/ Mr Cowan then went on to speak of, the depression, the only cure for which was the exercise of patience and economy. Passing on to deal W^h the matter of tHe Waimea Plains Railway he said that on his way to Gore on Thursday he had been informed by a setfcler in that neighborhood that a report was current that he was opposed to^ the purchase of the Waimea Hnf>. When he reaped Gore he found that sfcafcementriffcN Portunate'y at Win ton, before he hea-d anything of those rumors, he .bad expressed himself strongly in txvof of the purchase of the line by Government. Those views he now reiterated. H> thought the circulation of such a statej»env A s that current' at G^ore was most unto, nd ifc was lucky for him that he had been able to answer ifc at Winton before he erar 'had any, knowledge of i f . Be felt • very 'much' for those settee who had to pay this rate/ and if returned to Parlia-j mentdne of his first duties would be I devise i means to relieve them fromthe burden. > ; yarious difficulties stood

overcome. The speaker went on to allude to various matters in the same terras aa those employed at his Win ton and Gore meetings, anc^ closed with an appeal to the electors to do their duty on the 22 nd of the present month when they should proceed to the nearest polling booth and vote for the candidate who would best represent their interests. He[claimed that representation by a local man would be most satisfactory, but if they could get a better local man than the one who was now addressing them by all means get him. rie had been one of them for a number of years and if they returned him his services would always be cheerfully placed at their disposal in all matters on which they might count and. An I- lector. --la it true, Mr Cowan that you or your agents got up a rowd* meeting at Elbow and refused to give Mr Green a fair hearing ? , Mr Cowan. — I know nothing of Mr Green beyond this, that to-day lie met me in Gore and told me he thonght « good deal of m. (Laughter.) In reply to Mr S. Hawkins, Mr Cowan said he was in favor of reading the Bible in schools, with a time tahle and conscience clause. He approved of the Education Act remaining as it was, but if it would not break up that Act he thought the Roman Catholics entitled to considerably more attention than they mow received. To Mr J. Mackay : He objected to the perpetual leasing system, because h hud reference to other than pas- j toral lands. He did not think the I freehold system could be improved upon, but he had no objection to the application of perpetual leasing to I pastoral lands. If app ied to other ands it would be disastrous in the •Hid, because those lands would evenuttilly revert to the Government in a worked out state. , To an elector : His views were in the direction of Freetrnde, but its principles could not be wholly carried put in a country like this, where a if tie protection was necessary to Foster local industries. — Had he been in the last Parliament he would have yoted against the Government, which did wrong in not resigning when they found themselves in a minorit/. fle noticed that the Matauba Ensign had been unable to see the ground for a Statement he made at Winton to the effect that the late session would cob* the country L 46,000 and be would explain the matter- If the dissolution had not taken place that Parliament and the one to meet next month would not have been necessary, and the country would have been saved ?rom an enormous expenditure for a session that only lasted 12 days. Members had not foregone their honorarium, each pocketing his 210 guineas. — As to the honorarium question, he was in favor of a seat in Parliament being placed within the' reach of every man, and he would consequently support payment of members to such an extent as would render it unnecessary that a man should go to "Wellington and be out of pocket over it. To Mr Squirea : Perpetual leasing principles might very well flpply to goldfielda, which should not be totally alienated from the Crown. Mr J. Hall said he had listened to Mr Cowan's address with a great deal of interest. The longer Mr Cowan lived the more clever he became. About three years ago he had the pleasure of supporting Mr Cowan as their representative, and he was sorry he was not returned on that occasion, for had he been thn district would assuredly have received greater justice than had been meted out to it. He moved a vote of thanks to and confidence in Mr Cowan. fCries of " More Questions !") Mr A. Mackay said that before the motion was put he would like an explanation of Mr Cowan's reported statement at Winton regarding the Waimea railway tax, which he then thought might be avoided in some other way than by purchasing the line. Mr Cowan admitted that the most easy solution of the difficulty would be the line's purchase by Government, which had already advanced a con* siderable sum of money to the Company, this having been taken out of the funds of the Insurance Department. The difficulty would be to get Parliament to ace that this vras a colonial matter. If he could not, hjs endeavor would be to devise other means fpr relie?ing the settlers of their burdens, and his action in the matter would bear the light of day. There would be nothing underhand about it, as there had been jln fringing the rate about. During th,e gepsj,o.n before last, although he took an enlightened interest in the proceedings ©f the Uo&se he saw no allusion to the passage o£ thfi ob* noxious empowering Bill ; but he had since with a great deal of difficulty, found a reference to the matter yn 'Hansard,' where it did not ©CGiip^ more than four pages. His own opinio^ jj'as that ij: the rate continued to be levied the district would become depopulated. Taking everting into consideration he had great pope's ih&p Government would seethe propriety of" purchasing the line »&d especially the injustice inflicted on ifof&Q who had bought Crown and otfyer lantfs recently in ignopaaae Qi the e^stence of any flQger to ley/ su,d* a# enprmo.us ra,te. But the** wis »\&afs tfa possibility of their notpu^feasjng, and⁡ Wfy ffb.aJ he was alluding to &b Wi£*o& fffrea he spoke of "other naea»»^ Tafc/s for instance, the qnestion of vested interests; the shareholders in the Railway Company had been guaran-eed-JT per cent on their money for 15 years, aiysUjhey might raise awkward questions, 'ik action to urging on Government the Rurcha^ of the line he would support, their pay^' fyp two rates already .levied. To an elector : The District Eailways Act Amendment Act was passefl m 1883, And ne knew perfectly well

who was really in charge of that Act in the House. Mr R. Hamilton : Mr Henry Driver. (Great laughter.) To Mr Canning: When speaking of the space the debate on the Kail-* way Act of last session occupied in * Hansard ' he should have said four inches not four pages. Mi Canning remarked: that as the purport of the Amending Act had been published in the Ensign and ' Southland Times.' Mr Cowan could scarcely urge that the electors were ignorant of the existence of power to levy such a rate. Mr Cowan said that Mr Canning's advocacy of the rate was a most unfair proceeding at his meeting. Yli Canning, at a later stage, gave jM* ' 'cw! n's assertion a point-blank ;dS ii:\l : rd said the fact that he had sig \er\ the bond to defend actions brought against any of the settlers would be sufficient to clear him from any suspicion of favoring an attempt jto levy blackmail on deserving settlers. In reply to Mr J. Mackay, Mr .Cowan said the a^sfcuu of forming lines such as that to Switzers, iand then allo'ving the work to remain until funds were available to put chase :«nd lay the rails, was an entirely i wrong one. No railway should be commenced unless there were sufficient funds to so far complete it as to make it reproductive. Great loi-s resulted from executing works in the fashion nanieJ by Mr M*ckay. To Mr Mackay : He would reduce the expenses uuder the Education Act. Still, it was the duty of the State to fitid primary Education for the country, but the Government might entirely do away with aii to higher education. — Ultimately no doubt the management of our railways would be under a non-political board, but there would be some difficulties in bringing about a change, principally because Parliament would lose its direct control of the lines. To an Elector : He was afraid the issue of a daily • Hansard ' would cost so much that the idea was unattainable at present. To Mr Lewis : It was not possible to amalgamate the railway with any other department, but there were plenty of branches of the Civil Service in which amalgamation could be carried out To Mr J. Green : If returned he would promise to meet the electors at the various centres regularly, give an account of his stewardship, and ascertain their wants. To an Elector: It was not allowable that a man in receipt of a pension from the Government should draw sane if he also was a salaried officer under the Government. The system of granting pensions should no longer continue. To Mr Jas. Hamilton : If returned he would not have a feeling averse to East Hokonui because he resided at Benmore. His action in the County Council had shown that he could deal fairly with all parts. To an elector : To an elector he did not look upon the Triennial Parliaments Act as a good measure, because Capt. Mackenzie had informed him that he i only got into the run of the business when Parliament was about to expire. — i He was in favor of all who had resided | in a district for six months being en titled to vote. AU such liberal mea sure? would have hia support. There being no further questions, Mr Squires seconded the vote of thanks and confidence moved by Mr Hall at an earlier stage of the meeting, and went on at bo me length to criticise the sayings and doingß of the Matattra. Ensign, a paper which he professed to value very much for the information it contained. It was not, he said al together consistent for the Ensign a few issues back to give them reasons for returning a local man, and then when such an one was in the field, to raise the cry of a " dark horse " and urge the electors to wait a little before pledging their votes. This was confusing, and he thought the paper should not haye departed from its first love, especially when they had such a desirable local man in the fi«ld as Mr Cowan. He had known that gentleman intimately over 20 years ago, when he was a member of the Provincial Council of Southland. He did the district good service there. Then he (Mr Squirei) had been a neighbor of Mr Cowan's, and had ample opportunities of noting that gentleman's career' ll is address that night had been an able one, his views on the railway question being very ac^ ceptable, especially to those who hud bought land since the line was constructed. Mr DoUmpre said his friend Mr Squires need remain confused no. longer. After the challenge thrown out he might announce that he had a telegram intimating the candidature of Mr J. W. Bain, of Invercargill. Mr Squires complained that Mr Bain jpas not a local man. Mr James Hamilton moved and Mr Hobbs seconded an amendment te* th,« effect that a simple vote of thankvs be accorded to Mr Cowan for his address. On being pul the motion was carried, although the greater number of tbode in fchb rooap. refrained from expressing an opinion one w^y or thG other. Mr Cowan said that as a general rule such votes were not of much vajue, but he hoped tl}e JJAversdale people woulijl show J;he sfnperjty of theirs by "rolling up '- on tfje 22p4 and piping him at the head^ of " the poll. 1 * ' " yh.e usual coflnpumenjt tp tjp cftafr £jsrminajbed the meeting.