THE PROVINCIAL ELECTIONS.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 202, 6 November 1869, Page 6

THE PROVINCIAL ELECTIONS.

WAIRAU VALLEY. The following report has been sent to us for publication;— On Monday, October 25th, the nomination of two candidates for Wairau Valley took place at the School Room, when, considering the wet day, a fair number of electors were present. After the usual preliminaries, Mr. J. Whayman proposed their old and tried member, Mr. Thomas Carter, and spoke very approvingly of Mr. Carter’s past services. Mr. W. Ocklet seconded the proposition in a concise speech, in which he referred to some of Mr. Carter’s past exertions in the Council for the benefit of his constituents, and strongly urged his re-election. Mr. Kiernan proposed, and Mr. James Carter seconded Mr. Joseph Ward as a candidate. There being no other gentlemen nominated, Mr. Thomas Carter and Mr. Joseph Ward were duly elected. Mr. Thomas Carter, after thanking the electors for the confidence they continued to repose in him, said there were a few matters of considerable importance to the Province to which he would refer. One was with reference to the future mode under which the inhabitants of this Province choose to be governed. They were all aware that during the last session of the Provincial Council certain resolutions were brought forward by Mr, Eyes, to the effect that it was desirable that we should surrender our political privileges to the General Assembly; cease to exist any longer as a Province, and praying for that body to confer on us some other form of Government more suitable to our altered circumstances. The resolutions Mr. Ward, himself, and a few others strongly opposed. They could see neither wisdom, dignity, nor justice in quietly submitting to a pressure which was being unjustly exerted with a view, as it appeared, to our political annihilation. The only evidence adduced by the promoters of this measure was that we had not sufficient funds to carry on the existing form of Government, and therefore must throw oui’selves entirely on the mercy of the General Assembly. This, we know, is what the Stafford Government had for some time previously been strr. ing for. To succeed in centralising the whole legislative and administrative powers in Wellington, they were compelled [?] to adopt such measures as would, if possible, first bring the smaller Provinces to a dead lock, and then by degrees split up the larger Provinces. The want of funds—arising from the chief por tion of our Customs Revenue being collected in Nelson and Wellington, and not credited to us —being our weakness, the Stafford Government never ceased to take advantage of it, not only retaining the whole of our Customs Revenue, but taking from us our Land Eunds, whilst admitting through its Finance Minister the injustice of its operations. Under these circumstances we considered it our duty to endeavor to resist the aggression which was being practised, and urge on the Assembly the re-consideration of the distribution of the surplus revenue, with a view of dealing more justly with this Province, and with others that may be similarly circumstanced. If the surplus revenue was divided in proportion to the population, which would only be fair and just, we could then barely hope to escape direct taxation. This, he believed, the country fully expected, and was prepared for; but as it is, with the present mode of dealing with the taxes, there is, they had reason to believe, a difference of opinion. The cry of one party, headed by the late Superintendent, is a tax over the whole country districts, to be treated as provincial revenue, and voted by the Provincial Council in the usual way. This you cannot fail to see would be unfair to the country districts. Blenheim has its Municipal Council, and Picton its Board of Works. These bodies levy their own rates and disburse them, without any interference on the part of members of the Provincial Council, and why should not the country districts be allowed the same privilege ? We may be allowed, perhaps, to hazard a conjecture why a Superintc ndent should lead the champions of such a cry, which is simply this —that unless a considerable increase from some source be made to the Provincial Revenue, and the duties of the Executive greatly increased, no one acting in the capacity of superintendent can expect, as heretofore, to have voted £4OO to £SOO annually for his services. There is another subject that it is necessary should be dealt with by the new Council as speedily as possible—and that is Education. During the past year this has been in a very unsatisfactory state; the whole system requiring re-modelling. As Mr. Ward, the other candidate, whose general opinions coincided

with his own, would address them at some length, he should occupy their time no longer, but again thank the electors for the renewal of their confidence. Mr. Ward then addressed the Electors. He thanked them for the honor they had conferred on him. Besides this honor, he had nothing more to gain by this honorable position which they had given him than what was common to them all. He had interests to promote or defend certainly, but an interest common to them all. He did not pretend to do anything very great, but should be very fortunate if he prevented mischief. The main subject was Taxation. It was necessary to arrange some plan for the making and maintaining of our roads and for the amending of our system of Education. Some experience had been gained, and he trusted the result of any future endeavours would be more satisfactory than the past. It would at once be seen then, that the first thing to be thought about was money. Whei’e was the money to come from ? The answer was simple enough : Out of our own pockets. Enough, but not more than enough must be the rule. A recently acquired friend of the late Superintendent had advocated the plan of a general rate over the Province, and instead of having a system of Local Boards, by which the works should be managed, and the money expended, that it should be left to the Superintendent to do both. As Mr. Carter has already shown you, that will not do. We must not forget the English principle, “ That he who pays the money must spend it, if not by himself, by his representative.” As Mr. Carter has said, that Council will contain men who will not contribute a sixpence. He (Mr. Ward) had never been opposed to raising the necessary funds for our roads. In passing, he would just call attention to an article in the last Expi'ess. In that article, mixed up with a week electioneering dose in a sort of a mis-leader by this same person, who last week maintained that because the waters which flooded the low lands ran down from the higher lands, that the owners of the higher lands ought to pay for draining the lower or flooded lands. What do you think of that? Foolish enough, if nothing worse. In that article is this sen-, tence :—“ The run-holders will not have roads if they can help it.” Now, in saying that, he (the Editor of the Express) was guilty of making a wilful mis-statement—-he knew better. The statement of itself uttered very little; but it mattered a great deal, to find a paper ready, spreading amongst us week after week, to write anything, truth or falsehood. He was regardless of consequences, yet hoped to get some better arrangement with the General Government, by which, the funds of the Province would be increased. The present Government had shown a fair disposition towards us, though little else. The electors were aware that half the Customs revenue is devoted to General Government purposes, and half returned to the Province in which it had been collected. Now, where we go to the wall is that a great part of the Customs we pay are collected in Wellington and Nelson. It had been said that this Province cannot be fairly considered to pay in proportion to other parts of the Colony, but that goldfields pay more. That may be the case ; but there is nothing to show that we do not pay in proportion to Wellington ; and at that rate our revenue would be from sixteen to eighteen thousand pounds. He knew from a Nelson merchant, who knew this Province well, that some time ago our consumption was greater in proportion to our numbers than Nelson, We must continue to demand our rights, and by watching the opportunity they may be gained. In this he thought our Member was to be blamed; he had not made good use of his opportunities ; he boasted of making certain reductions in expenditure, but the main poin:—that of getting our fair revenue—he had neglected. If our General Government does not learn to make “justice 4o all” its rule of action, it will not be long before Government in New Zealand will be a very difficult matter. He spoke of the desirability of opening the road by the Top House to the Upper Buller. It would be a gain not only to this district, but to the whole plain. He did not see much chance of getting the money for the purpose ; yet some moneys were being expended on the ground that they had been voted. He would do all he could in this matter. The next question, and one of most importance, was that of Education. He had heard it stated that he was opposed to all Education. That was not the case, and never had been. Some men do not know a wheelbarrow from a dray. He could account in a great measure for this mis-representation from what he had said at a meeting at Blenheim. The last Council passed certain resolutions relating to Education. After some time had elapsed, those resolutions were very roughly handled by some of the Blenheim gentlemen. One which appealed in the Express, in which they were described as “ atrocious,

unjust, and cruel.” A meeting was held in Blenheim, at which a committee was appointed to draw up a petition to the General Government, and the time appointed for another meeting to take this petition into consideration. This second meeting he attended. On arriving in Blenheim on the evening appointed, to his surprise he found no preparations whatever. He enquired of first one and then the other ; no one knew. Presently one man was seen running here ; another there; one went for the key of the Council Chamber ; another for the Mayor ; one brought candles in his pocket; and after standing some time in the street, the doors were opened. One leading gentleman had gone to Picton. Ultimately the meeting assembled, and consisted of the gentlemen who had been appointed to draw up the petition, three or four others, three or four boys, and himself. He mentioned this to show what a public meeting in Blenheim sometimes meant. "Well, some gentleman had stated at the previous meeting that “ Property ought to be taxed for the support of Education, because Education prevented crime.” He denied this, and challenged them to the proofs. He defended the Education Resolutions, knowing them to have been passed with the best intentions, and as being nothing like what they had been described. He had no hesitation in now stating that some of the gentlemen who had so fluently spouted against those Resolutions had not taken the trouble to understand them; he thought some of them had not even read them. How, how clever some of those gentlemen were in working things to their own advantage ! He distinctly stated that he was in favor of Education—that Education was a power that might be used for good or evil, and that in addition to the mere instruction in a few things generally called “ Education,” it would be necessary not to forget the most important of all knowledge, namely this, that of the Ten Commandments. The speeches of the two members were listened to with great attention, and it appeared that the Electors after hearing the addresses were quite satisfied with their choice. Erom another source, we learn that 47 persons were present, 37 of whom afterwards sat down to dinner together, UPPER WAIRAU. Ox Monday last, pursuant to notice, C. Griffiths, Esq., Returning Officer, made the following declaration of the poll: Mr. Goultei’, 33 ; Mr. Monro, 28 ; Mr. Paul, 26. Consequently Messrs. Goulter and Monro were duly elected. Mr. Goulter, being the only candidate present, thanked the electors for the honor they had conferred upon him in having elected him their representative for the fifth time. This mark of their approbation had enlarged his sympathies and kind feelings towards them, and he begged to assure them that he would do his utmost to serve their interests. It was with extreme gratification he found that he had been supported by all the electors on his side the river except one ; that he had been supported by all those who were his more immediate neighbors, and whose confidence, from their greater opportunities of knowing him, was the more flattering. On the North side of the river he had received a large amount of support from old and esteemed settlers, whose trust he hoped to repay by being able to advance works of importance in their part of the district. The support he had received from Blenheim, though exceptional, he was proud to acknowledge ; on the other hand, he regretted to find that dominant influences there brought the excrementitious portion of an impunged roll against him. To the mercenaries themselves who have no interest in the district he had nothing to say, but he would ask, was it wise of the Blenheim people to foster influences that disgust and alienate their friends? The same spirit of hostility to country interests and country representatives is re-appearing there that in the early days of the Province manifested such rancorous perversity, anA brought about results we would not wish to see repeated. The non-electors of the district, he thanked for the cordial moral support they had given him, and hoped, before another election took place, to find their names on the Electoral Roll. A vote of thanks to the Returning Officer concluded the proceedings. We were slightly in error last week in our return, the respective numbers being:— At Renwicktown —Goulter 30, Monro 26, Paul 18 ; at Kaituna—Goulter 3, Monro 2, Paul 8. KAIKOUEA. On Tuesday last our correspondent telegraphed as follows: —Nomination yesterday, poll to-morrow. At the show of hands, Gibson got 15, Ingles 7, Pasley 5. The latter came forward only at the last moment. Ingles lost ground by not putting in an appearance at the nomination. All three

candidates are pledged to oppose Mr. Eyes to the uttermost. The polling at Kaikoura on Wednesday was as follows : Mr. Ingles ... ... ... 47 Mr. Gibson ... ... ... 37 Mr. Pasley ... ... ... 18 There was six votes at the Clarence yet to come in; but these could not affect the return of the two first names. TOWN OP PICTON. On Tuesday last the telegraph informed us duly of the state of the poll as follows : Mr. Conolly ... ... ... 53 Mr. Seymour ... ... ... 52 Mr. Western ... ... ... 42 Mr. Godfrey ... ... ... 26 —Messrs. Conolly, Seymour, and Western were therefore elected, PELOKUS. It is understood that there are quite a number of candidates in the field again. Among others are Dr. Parker,of the Sound, Messrs. Douslin, and Levien, of Havelock, and Mr. Morgan, a storekeeper at the diggings. The nomination takes place on Monday next, and the election on Thursday. The contest is expected to be a brisk one.