REID AT NASEBY.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 104, 10 February 1871, Page 3

REID AT NASEBY.

Shortly after the termination of the ~ address of M r - Macandrew, the opposition candidate (Mr. Beid) m : ade his first, Naseby public. Mr.. John Bremner, being called to -the chair, - introduced Mr. fteid, and -asked the meeting to give him a i#ir and impartial hearing. ..,-., . - Mr. lieid, upon coming forward t said that he would endeavor: to.dispel the darkness which appeared at present to surround the Fox-Vogel financial scheme. The scheme, if carried into effect, W(Oulid be a great injustice to the Middle Island. ,At a very heavy cost railways would be constructed in the TJo rth Island,' thro ugh fruitful, perhaps, hut still barbarouH districts, whence there would or could be no ye-

i! turn. The Provincial Council of Otago s had been called obstructive ; lie denied • it.' 1 The Council'hud voted £IOO for the purpose of paying some competent gentleman to go the round of our Goldfields an,d report upon the water supply. He waa thoroughly opposed to the financial scheme, and thought that the thanks of the public were due to the Provincial Council for the stand they had made in the matter. lie was glad to hear that his opponent had stated that evening that the scheme required revising and remodelling. By the scheme, the amount of money to be expended in the North Island upon roads exceeded by an immense amount the sum to be expended in this Island for the same purpose. This was not fair. He thought both islands should be placed upon the same footing. He would support the construction of railways in preference to common roads, • where there wan a fair proMpect of traffic and where the natural features j of the country would permit. He looked j upon the £300,000 to be devoted to the G-oldfields as absurd. It failed to do ■ j justice, to,the mining interest. One million ought to be expended on these works alone. Mr. Keid Paid that bis opponents had delighted in calling him a 'non-progressive man—a slow-going coach. He was nothing of the sort, though he was sufficiently careful and cautious not to run the Province into debt and bankruptcy.. He considered that the country could not exist without the assistance of the mining community . Mr. Reid here entered at very considerable length into the iinjnigratipn scheme, and denounced, it as being Unfair and fallacious. The remarks of Mr. Reid upon this subject met with | great favor and hearty response- from | the meeting. He would like to see the i country thrown open and settled, though he would be careful to exclude auriferous land from being alienated. Mr. Keid here introduced some wellchosen and telling remarks on. the subject of progression and non-progression, and said that he was a progressionist in the true sense of the word. Of the Otago Hundred Regulations Act he altogether disapproved, and if the Act j wore called by its proper name it would ' be called the " Lands Settlement Pre- ( vention Act." He would do injustice I to no interest, squatting or other, but he certainly would be no party to the runholding interest swamping and overshadowing all other interests. Progress meant the opening up, instead of the j shutting up of the lands. Mr. Reid i here explained at some length his views ' on the subject of the Clutha. railway, and the action taken by the Government in the matter. He thought that the Goldfields had been as well administered during the last eighteen months as they were during the two and a-half previous years. other things which had been done durt ing his occupancy of office he might mention that 82,000 acres of land had been repurchased by the Government from the runholders, against 6,000 during the Vogel administration. Mr, Reid here explained at considerable length, and amid loud applause, the circumstances of the late dead-lpck between the Superintendent and the Pro-, vincial Council, and vejy ably defended the action taken by the Council. Mr. Reid here exposed the utter absurdity of the Government turning themselves into a sort of gold mining company, with a view to the employment of all the idle men in the Colony. If such a scheme were put into effect the hardy miner working in his claim- for a bare living (which ho was sorry to hear was not unfrequently the case) would lose his independence, give up his claim, and do the constitutional governmentstroke; and he believed further that many agricultural laborers w.ould adopt the same course. He looked upon the immigration scheme as a piece of refined, cruelty. To bring people from home and put 4hem down at Catlin's River, Stewart's Island, and other places without means and almost without hope, was to his mind nothing more nor less than cruelty. With regard to the great question of land, Mr. Reid admitted that he was in favor of free selection, deferred payand grazing rights. After having further exposed what he thought the fallacies of the Government financial scheme, Mr. Reid thanked the meeting for the patience and attention with wbich they had listened to him, and placed himself at their disposal to answer any questions which might be put to him. Mr. Richards proposed, and Mr. Lory seconded, a resolution " That from the (

sound logic- given by Mr. Jlqid to-night that gentleman is a tit and. proper per. son to be Superintendent o|* the Pro. vince of Otago."

A show of hands being taken, the Chairman declared the resolution to be carried unanimously. A vote of thanks to-thw Chairman brought the proceedings to a dose.