COMPLIMENTARY BANQUET TO C.A. DE LAUTOUR, ESQ, M.H.R.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 403, 2 December 1876, Page 3

COMPLIMENTARY BANQUET TO C.A. DE LAUTOUR, ESQ, M.H.R.

The- banquet at the Town Hall, Naseby, ori Wednesday night was very enthusiastic, aud should be allowed to be an entire refutation of the report so generally circulated that public feeling in the district was dead. At about 9 the Chair was taken by Mr. L. W. Busch, the Mayor, the guest of the evening sitting on the right of the Chairman. The supper was got up in a very excellent manner, the tables being decorated with the choicest flowers, the whole reflecting great credit on the Volunteer Committee, Messrs. Pinder, Horswell, and Hall, who had undertaken the very difficult duty. The Brass Band played capitally throughout tho night selecting appropriate mttsic to each toast, and members of the Band vied with others later in the evening in contributing many excellent aongs. " ' , When'the tables wera cleared, the Chaihmah read the following letters and leJegrttminJ apologising for unavoidable absence: ■ - Colinwoocj, uiovcinber 25th, 1876. Dear Sir, —Many thanks for your telegram inviting me to the banquet to Mr. de Lautour on Wednesday next. I regret, however, that I cannot manage to be present on the occasion. I need'not say that it would afford me very much pleasure to be with you, J and to congratulate the people of Mount Ida ' on their good fortune in having chosen Mr. de Lautour as their representative. He has taken a position which has seldom been attained by members of Parliament in New Zealand during their first session, and I feel assured that he is destined to exercise great influence upon the affairs of the Colony. ! I may say that, in my opinion, those aff-irs are at present in anything but a healthy condition, and that, unless the policy which Mr. de Lautour ao ably and intelligently advocates acquires the ascendancy, this Province will shortly find itself under the very worst description of oligarchy, and may bid fare- | well to the hopes of progress which it might fairly indulge in if permitted to manage its own affairs without the interference of tho North, and to apply its own resources to its ■own benelit.—Yours faithfully, J. Maoandrkw. L W. Busch, Esq. L. W. Busch, Esq., Mayor, Naseby. Sir, —allow me to tender you and the Committee my sincere thanks for your invitation to attend the complimentary bouquet to Mr. de Lautour, the member for tho Mount Ida district. I regret that my other engagements will not permit me to accept your kind invitation. 1 regret this more because of the position your member has taken up in the House of Kepresentatives. Indeed he fought for local self-government as hard as any, and he proved himself to bo what many of us in Otago knew he was—an able politician and an eloquent debater. I am glad to see his constituents appreciate his services, and hope that your banquet will be an enjoy>ble one, and a spur to other members to "go and do likewise"— Yours faithfully, Kobfrt .-Stout. Hamilton, November 29. Pear Sir, —With respect to Mr. de Lautour's conduct in the Assembly, I may say for myself that he has fairly ieffected my views, and ably and energetically advocated my interests But to banquet Mr. de Lautour, and to dance at the wedding of his brother and his comely bride are very dif ferent things Much as I admire Mr. de Lautour, and old and rheumatical as I am, I must prefer the latter, I am, dear sir, yours truly, Thomas Foster. L. W. Busch, Esq. Lawrenco, 29th. L. W. Busch, Esq., Mayor, Naseby. Am very sorry I cannot attend banquet in honor to your member, C. de Lautour, Esq. Would have given me great pleasure to be present, J. C. Brown. Dunedin, 29th. Chairman, de Lautour's Banquet, Naseby. Regret not being able to leaye town in time to Vie at banquet to-night. You have my hearty wishes for its success. John P. Armstrong. The Chairman then gave the first toast. " The Queen and Family," the whole room standing while tho Band played the National Anthem. Then came the toast of the evening. In proposing their guest tho Chairman said : I am very glad that an opportunity has been presented this evening for an expression of the satisfaction we feel at the manner in which tho various interests affecting our district havo been watched over and encouraged by our respected member in the House of Ilepresenfatives, Mr. de Lautour. It has been a source of great pleasure to me, and I am sure to all present, to bear testimony to the able manner in which all matters affecting the well-being of the district have been advocated by him, not only in the Provincial Council, but also in Wellington. I may lice observe that Mr. de Lautour has been the first representative for Mount Ida locally interested in the district. I am sure we all feel proud at having selected him as our representative, and no small amount of credit is due for the interest lie has taken in all matters affectting the progress of the district. It is superfluous for mo at this time to mention all ho has affected, ns this is well known to you. In Parliament ho has made tho district to be known, aud its wants and grievances to be ventilated. The necessity for, and the advantage to be derived by railway communication in opening up the Plains and rich valleys of the Interior have not been overlooked, find, although unsuccessful in his efforts in tho past, the time I think is not far distant when his advocacy for the construction of these important works will be crowned with success. He has been in a great measure instrumental in causing greater attention being paid to our main roads, which have been vastly improved, nnd dangerous places avoided Bridges have likewise been erected, both across the Taieri and thcKyeburn Rivers, to the great convenience of the travelling public and the residents, and land has been thrown open in various parts of the district nnd settled upon. Before concluding I would liko to draw your attention to the tact displayed by Mr. de Lautour jn fixing the boundary's of our new county, so as to exclude yrout lengths of main road, which would be a heavy (ax upon this County to maintain and keep jn repair. Gentlemen,—l have much pleasure in proposing the health of the Member for the l)istrict, Mr. de Lautour. Mr. dr Lautour, in rising to respond, njiid : Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — \n treating the toast jou havo so enthusiastically received as n tribute to the Opposition with which 1 have the privilege to fce connected, I must ask those lew kindly present who do not fully coincide with fh« r p< , l' r y *■'-' k*' ar w ''- n ,n *' H "d tin l

think worse of me for sticking to my colors., J caunot roncea) from myself that an.-opinion is generally afloat that, in recognising those publicly who have been iu Opposition, the recognition is a kindly one, actuated perhaps by a wish to rcognise pluck, even though beaten—in short, that the Opposition have failed. They have been blamed even by their too sensitive friends .for having failed, for having protracted the session—the fact that the work done, be it bad or good, was double that ever done before, being forgotten ; blamed even for the imperfections of the Government measures, for which at least one would have thought they could not have been responsible. Those who so blamed them must have had a different chart of success. What was expected. Was it loaves and fishes, a repletion of good things at the public expense—a reign of power ? Sir George Grey and Mr. Macandrew sought none of this. What was sought was to purge the corruption with which our Government is overlaid, and- to rebuild a Constitution—the most liberal ever granted to a Colonial depen-dency-T-which, after 23 years possession, New Zealand, in a moment of apathy or folly, bad declared herself to be unworthy to possess. The very fact that the Opposition did not seek office kept the political sharks—those who so kindly intend to j help the Counties to initiate the comity system, from sailing "in their waters. Where the carcase is there will be the eagles. The Opposition declined any carcase, and the birds of prey, after one look of expectancy in fear and trembling, adhered to what appeared to be the sinking ship. The work they »-et themselves to do was a work of purification. It mattered not to them who were the administrators. Under lheir attack one Government fell; (he leader deserted the country, and took refuge in a claim as a civil servant, in the seat of one who before he would have displaced had he dared, and who, but that death entered into the conspiracy, New Zealand would gladly have seen her servant still. Sir Julius vogel's successor in the Premiership—his own nominee to her Majesty's representative —had no option but to confer the coveted place, the price he had to pay tor his own advancement. Yot even he had to league himself with one who had joiued the Opposition only, as it would seem, to betray them. Gven then, with this foreign strength, he had to break up his Government, because the gross abuse of the law in buying with office the necessary support to command a majority was so scathingly denounced. Two administrations in one session—the one actually corrupt, the other founded in corruption —fell before the Opposition, while the Government we now have is already in fragments, with three of its members forsaking it because of the troubled waters ahead. The Native Office, with its numerous channels of mystery, reserving to itself and its officers the sole right to traffic in Native lands, has, through its chief, fallen unswept. A new broom is indeed promised from Hawke's Bay, which shall sweep and garnish. Nevertheless the work of destruction begun by Sheehan and Grey is nearly complete, and the devils of corruption will be driven out, sweep Or m on never so deftly. The sweeping w< *k of reform of abuses undertaken by the Opposition has been a work of purificat'o .. The rebuilding of our Constitution has as yet not been possible, although a good foundation at least in the Union between Otago and Auckland has been put in. The Provinces are in the meantime—not by the Counties Act, but by the Abolition Act of Ix7s—deprived of their right of self-government, and no substitute is found. A substitute will be found, and it will be found by the Opposition, supported by the people, not only of Otago, but of New Zealand. Our work is only begun. In the very beginning we are condemned because we have not already completed. It is true that the Centralists at the elections professed to rebuild—to supply a substitute. That was their cause. If they have succeeded I ask, where is the substitute ? It is not the Counties Bill. In the Assembly they s : iid openly they wished no substitute. The best substitute was, they said, the Abolition Act—an Act of blotting out merely. A substitute for our Constitutional rights was never intended, and such substitute we do not possess. There are three parties in the Assembly—the Provincial party ; the party representing local works for our districts—tke bloodsuckers of the Colony ; and the Nationalists. The Nationalists are represented bv the Abolitionists pure and simple and Mr. Stafford. That name stands alone. Like the oak struck by lightning, and left desolate except for a solitary bunch of parasite, maybe in the tops, he stands useless now for public good—a monument, a name. He, the author of our Land Compact, must now be a Nationalist ; but first the pastoral leases must be secured to himself and others in Canterbury, the land revenue must be left to Timaru and Gladstone, and the very land itself secured for Timaru Harbor. This purest of seltism is the gospel of Nationalism according to Stafford. This tho man who, because in spite of Government pledges thwarted at every turn by the Opposition, ventures to insinuate he is ashamed to be called upon to reply to the toast of tho General Assembly, and would prefer to respond for bullocks at a show. Let me give you another phrase for Nationalist—" Myself, my pride, after that my country." The Provincial party were divided, so it is said ; they were too extreme; they would not bo wise, and accept what tliey could get. It is true that those who should have been leaders declined the battle for such a reason. They saw wisdom in accepting defeat at first onset. What cause wus ever won, however grand, however noble, without endless battle made truly by a minority. Is it statominship, is it patriotism, to consent to what is known to be disastrous? It may be humility of judgment, abnegation of self. So be it. Let us take it at that, and respect as a misplaced virtue what otherwise we would regard as a crime. The late Superintendent of Canterbury, tho Lite Provincial Secretary of Otago should have been of sterner stuff than to fear the taunts of the unthinking that they were struggling for the continuation of an annual salary. Tho country that trusted them had a right to expect that they would act out their own expressed convictions, Instead of that by their tacit acquiescence there can be no doubt they did more harm to the Opposition than the combined talent of the Government majority would do in a century. What have they gained. The one the offer of a sickening approval and promise of patronage from men whom in his heart he must despise ; the other, the being publicly ac. credited with having at hi» will a »wt in

the Ministry, or a lucrative appointment as Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands—more tinfortunatoly still, with being the acknowledged best man far either post, yet if prevented from taking either ouly so prevented by being unable to justify himself to himself and to his triends, the whole people of Otago. It has been said, what whs Provincialism ? what use was it ? what was worth preserving ? We possessed as a Province the right to choose our own administrators from our best men. That right has been transferred to a Governor in Council. We possessed the right, till it was taken from us, through our elected administrators, to nominate the Commissioners of our Waste Lands Board, and so indirectly control the Board's proceedings. That right we have transferred by two steps to a Governor in Council. We possessed the control of our educational reserves ; we could rest assured that the education •of our children and their children after them should not be altogether Unprovided for by want of thrift or temporary extras-• gence of other Provinces. That control,, that confidence, we have given up to a Governor in Council-*—the Ministry of the day, when no secret is made ;that in a ■few-, years these reserves are to be trenched upon for general Colonial purposes'.' We possessed railways not constructed by us, but at our cost, at an expense we ourselves never would have thought of, yet which promise to pay handsome revenues. Wff- have elected to retain, the co3t, bui to distribute the proceeds amongst th.3 Provinces, because a Governor in Council cannot keep accounts of profits, but onlyof'liabilities. Wepossessed sixteen million of acres of waste lands, which, under most solemn compact, were to be vested in the Province, partly as compensation for Southern money spent in the North, and partly as a guarantee that the interior population of Otago should not be without roads and bridges. By assenting to fictitious charges, made equally, whether there is anything to charge against or not; by assenting to asystem of Treasury Bills, not charged against Provinces, for they are not, but against accounts, every shilling of proceeds of our land is taken from us, except a residue we are asked to believe will be £'1240 os. 7d. Every shilling ; for the £60,0U0 supposed to be required to supply £1 for £1 out of land fund as subsidy upon local taxation is only to be paid if we ourselves, out of our private means, find an equal sum to add to the wealth of the Colony — to the increase in value not appreciably of our own homes, but of the public estate. We were given the power of framing our own domestic laws. If we were a temperate people we could have temperance laws. If we were a democratic people our measures could be moulded upon a democratic platform. We have considered ourselves unworthy of these powers—we have disendowed ourselves, and have already tasted the first fruits in a franchise given to us for local government in Counties and Municipalities, in which £SO of property represents a man; and a class, but for a chance majority of two votes out of 88, were to endow themselves with the whole pastoral estate of Canterbury, nominally for ten years, but really in perpetuity. Do I say we have considered ourselves unworthy of being possessed of these powers. I spoke to her shame of New Zealand. It was not Otago. Otago as a distinct Province, endowed from without not within the Colony, repudiates tho sacrifice. As a Province, through iier representatives, elected to preserve aud maintain her Constitutional rights, she abhors it. As a district of the Colony her representatives, with few exceptions, were returned to protest against what they were powerless to prevent. Although pubiic feeling is yet obscured in part by misrepresentations, yet she is as a Province true to herself, and, true to those wise men's faith in the past, who conferred upon her her liberal institutions, and have rejoiced with her in her prosperity. What are the gi i is ? To me they are imperceptible, unless indeed they be County Chairmanships for Government claquers, County Towns, to absorb and relieve Municipalities, plunged hopelessly by mismanagement into debts they cannot stagger under. For these and suchlike bribes, JN'ew Zealand has sold her birthright, and Otago, as a portion of New Zealand, is askod to say Amen. There are many who sympathise with the Provincial party in Otago, who have struggled in vain io defeat the Abolition Bill, yet whunowar 1 quiescent and look for protection for Otago by her influence in the Assembly. As to Otago's members protecting Oiago's interests and her funds, so long as Otago has anything to lose it would be better i\ r her that her representation should be weak, instead of strong. The stronger Otago is in the House the more she is dreaded, the more she is plotted against. If she were weaker she might plot and counterplot to the defraudal of one if there were such more strongly represented. If justice to Otago is to be got in the Assembly by even a fair repre? sentation of the people there must be no question o" accounts as between Provincial Districts. The only logical conclusion to the argument of those who look i for justice and defence by means of Otago representation must be the support of one common purse for the whole Colony. When there is nothing exceptional to gain from one Province at the expense of the other, where no exceptional charge has to be made, then common justice may be meted out to one an I all alike. Such a communism of goods would be infinitely better for Otago and Canterbury than the position their Abolitionist party have now driven them into. As it is, they have every fraction of a possible charge struck on against their revenues. The other Provinces are all treated similarly, with this difference, that their deficiency of £IBO,OOO per jearismet by Canterbury and Otago, findingfivceighths of the money. A simple sum in arithmetic would show that with ODe liability, one purse, Otago and Canterbury would eontribute less to tho public debt than they will do under this designedlyf: !-9 syst -m of localisation of Provincial revenues. For poinding out this result to the people" of Otago who elected him their Superin tendent; for exposing the falseness and the treachery of the Abolition programme, Mr. Macandrew has been branded as an agitator, as a rebel against the Queen, as one prepared to countenance armed re ! sistance. It is the policy of the Abolition pai ty to tread out the man whose brains they dread, who has exposed their false pretences, and in some parts even of Otago men there are who have fawned upon his hand, who have taken the pay of tho Province to fill sinecures created for them as, cypher Ministers without office —there are such who now, while the lunt crumbs of Provincialism are even bt>-

l'."een the teeth, cry down Macandrew. and hold lip for worship t!ie county calf that the Centralists have set up. We are now told by a great authority in Otago that our path now as representatives of this great Province is to accept everything, and agitate for increased representation ; to bide our time, and initiate a policy of reprisal to get back our share and more of the plunder. "What a policy this for a great authority—that district may beset against district; that the strong may hope in time to plunder the weak, when divided. For my part I decline altogether to take up any such position, to recognise that I am elected by this constituency to scramble for money. I would rather a thousand times see Otago poor and free, in the enjoyment of its liberties, than drunken with the spoils of the North, even though we.jmay.be/ forced to contribute unduly to'its wealth. ! As to the future, I would s^yihatjvicftory must be and is close tat hand fqr 'the: cause of the people. . The people have : their dutyiriitlrematter. "Representative light eanonly-be dryhghj; when it filters through a educated public opinion. There is hope that the Government of 'New Zealand will, although a Conservative one, at least be an honest one—a Government of which we may be proudi the Conservatism of which one day even we in Otago may hope to reform. _ [We regret that we find it quite impossible to give even a summarised report of the excellent speeches made by the Eev. E. Eoyer, Kev. J. M'Cosh Smith, also by Messrs. Dillon, Shannon, Glenn, Hertslet, and others. "We hope, however, next week to be able to do justice to the speakers. Although somewhat late, we are sure our report of the wise and liberal views expressed will be most acceptable to our numerous readers.]