MANAWATU ELECTION

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 189, 8 July 1884, Page 2

MANAWATU ELECTION

a, Mtt DONALD FRASER AT PALMEKSTOM. Mr Donald Fraser addressed the electors m the Town Hall last eventing when a good attendance was present, the Hail being full. Mr J. C. Sly occupied the chair. The Chairman m opening the proceedings said :— Fellow electors : My pleasant duty .to-night is to introduce Mr Fiaser to you, who hopes to have the honor of representing ym m Parliament. I will make a few remarks before introducing bin), by telling you why I am chosen to occupy the chair. One reason is because of my long residence m the Mauawatu. Mr Donald Frasev commands the respect &nd (jood will of all tho3e who know him best. Gentlemen, you don't want to hear me. (A voics: We would rather hear you). We should elocl the best representative, and Mr Fraset has been proved, and his political fight some time ago, with that grand old warrior Sir William Fox, shows that he can hold his own. M y idea of the people who solicit our suffrages is, tii-st, we have talkers ; second, we have talkers and workers ; third, we have workers. You had a good instance of .talkers m the redistribution of seats. The talkers on that occasion put me m mind of people who had an artesian well laid On with words, m an unlimited flow. These men went m to get a high honorarium, and to fill Hansard to overflowing; to get free passes for themselves and their families on the railways, and to get to be managing directors of companies. (Here there was a considerable disturbance). We next come to the workers, amongst whom is my friend Mr Fraser, lam not a sporting man, but would like to give you a *• straight tip." Bet your money on the old grey horse. Don't bet your money on the black horse out of the Corporation stable?. (Applause.) Mr Fraser then came forward and was greeted with applause. He said it was an unexpected honor to be called there by a number of electors of the district, and onehe never expected at all. But being called, he thought it hi* duty as a colonist to respond, and would do his best if he should be elected for the district. He would commence -with a few remarks 10 the electors present, A requisition was sent to him, asking him to come forward, and he saw another requisition which had beeD given to another candidate from elec« tors pledging t hemselves to do their utmost to secure his return. Well, he thought those people were pledging themselves to an unknown man. He thought it the duty of every elector to hear a candidato express his opinions and then choose his man. He hadn't a single word to say against the other candidates that were standing for the constituency. He had known Mr Macarthur some time and they had always been friends, and he hoped' always would be. He had also known Mr Burr. Re said this because he hoped people would judge impartially. If they thought ' the other candidate was the best man, lee them choose him, for it was to his interest us well as theirs, that the best man should go to Parliament. (A voice, "Give us your policy.") Touching upon local matters, he had been for the last 23 or 24 years at various times mixed up with, local matters such as Koad Boards, etc. He knew there "were a great many questions m a small way m connection with these matiors. Every settler wanted a load, and at the same time, It was im possible to get this. If they did get it someone would have to suffer, and very likely those who wore least able would have to pay. ROADS AND BRIDGES CONSTRUCTION ACT. This was a good measure, but could be amnnded. The people who got the benefit from it were those who lived on the roads. They hud only to pay one fourth of the whole sum back, whereon the others, ha J to pay the whole of the money back. Of course difterent districts had different requirements. This district was flat, and level country, and was cut up m to many holdings and required many roads, and was very difficult to manago m that respect. He thought it quite possible that some scheme might be provided whero^y a local body might capitalize their rates and have their roads done at once. If ihe rates m a district amounted to LI 000, the first year they could spend the whole of them, but the second year they had to keep that portion that was made m repair, and this would leave only seven or eight hundred pounds, to be spent m new roads, and for some time it would take the whole of the rates to keep the roads m repair, and no new roads could be made He had known instances of this, and yet other people would begrudge a single penny of ,the rates to help those who had no roads. Re thought that money might be lent to the local bodies, as there woiild be no better security desired, and thus the roads could be made. THE IMPOUNDING ACT. With regard to. a very small matter but one worthy of notice, the Impounding Act, it seemed a very small matter, but to some men it might be a very great matter, and he thought the Act required amending. In fact, it might ruin some as it now stood, through owners of stock not knowing that their beasts were m pound. Now, if a Gazette were published every week, and circulated m every school, then the children could all see, as they read down the Impounding Act, if their animals were m pound, and the owners would be more likely to get them back, LOCAL OPTION. In some places this Act was giving a good deal of dissatisfaction, and no doubt m many places a good deal of injustice had been done. He was no advocate for excessive drinking, and was a temperate man himself, and believed m temperate men, (voice, *• Hear, hear "), but the Government was very glad to receive the revenue from drink. If it was such a burning evil, let them sift the thing, and if they found they didn'fc require the revenue, let them sweep it away. Of course there; were too many public-houses. He thought there should be some scale i

of population on whirh to have tbo number of public-houses put up, and a man should be told before he puts his house up whether he will be granted v license or not, so that he will know how to act. As the Acfc now stood, a row might occur m a house, and whether the publican was to blame or not, the committee has power to shut up the house. Ho thought the publican should m that case get compensauon. EDUCATION. The question of education was one which every candidate was asked about, and he presumed it was simply a difference of opinion as to whether education should bo secular or denominational. He would s«ay sit ouce that anyhow the expenses of education should be reduced to at least one half, (hear, hear). He thought it quite sufficient for the State to do to educate the children to the fourth standard. Any child that. sbo\ypd special ability would find some way of get ting educated,and if parents wish their children to be further educated, let them pay for ib. In the present system instead of the rich man paying for tho poor man, the poor man paid for the rich man ; for at the time when tho rich man's child -was benefiting from the higher education, the poor man's child had to go to work for his living. He objected to denominationali«m, because there were so many different J denominations that if they favored one, they must favor everyouo of them. He would like to please every section of the community so that they could live together m harmony, but he was afraid they couldn't bring m any system of denominationalisin which would not destroy the system ' of education. If it were possible, he i would be quite,, m favor of doing it. 'I At any rate they should knock off half the expense. It towns it might be possible but certainly it could not 'be done m small places. For iuntance, m schools where only a few children attended, they might have four or five different denominations, and they couldn't afford four or five schools. That would mean a breaking np of the whole system. So that he didn't oee anything further than the reduction of education to the fourth standard, and all below that being secular education. (Hear, hear,) ' RAILWAYS. . With regard to the?e various schemes had been suggested. They, had heard of the scheme of selling the railways to companies, but he j thought no company would work a railway without allowing" a margin for profit, and if there was any profit, the people should have it. (Hear, hear). Then an opinion was held that a non-political Board should manage the railways. He didn't profess to be an authority, but it did seem to him that if the Government couldn't manage the railways, they were not efficient, (Hear, hear).' (Here there was considerable confusion, and the chairman Called for order, amidst cries of " hear, hear," " order," efce.) He would put the thing before them m a similar light. If a man lent another man a sum of money, with which to work a place, and he got someone else to look after it, the man who lent the money could not be expected to lend any more, could he? Besides there would be a difficulty m separating the railway revenue from the general revenue. (Hear, hear.) Now the railways they had got, more especially m this Island, were expensive and incomplete and not much use. They should borrow more money and: complete them. LAND. Ou the land question there were a hundred and one opinions. , Some ■were for perpetual leasing, some say sell the land cheap. Well, he was an advocate for cheap land, but there had nob been enough care taken to classify . the land. ■ Although m this district where land was more evenly classified than m other districts, still there were too many classes, and prices. First the original settlers came . and had the first choice. The I prices that aince ruled were not m accordance with the quality. He was an advocate for opening up country and settling it, bat there was a great deal to be said about land being .«<old too cheap. He was one of the fortunate individnals who were able to take up their land at 10s per acre. Now land had risen to £1 per acre, and a great deal more. If they wore going to reduce these prices they were going to lake away the value of all the land that had been already bought, and upon which people had toiled. He would not favour reducing the price of laud so much as giving people easy terms to, buy it on and plen£y of time to pay for it ill, because the land . would be good security. Then there was a great cry about cutting laud up into small sections. He believed the time would come when they would have the land m too small blocks. He didn't care how much land a man had so long as he was improving it. Tt doesn't matter if the land is m large or small blocks so. long as it . is producing something, (Applause). TAXATION. He would advocate a property tax. Some advocated a land tax, but he thought that this would be certainly a class tax. IMMIGRATION, He thought nominated immigration ouly should be supported. (Hear, hear.) NATIVE MATTERS. He thought that those who had known him for any length of time would say that he could say something on this subject. He believed m the Government having the preemptive vight, but he wouldn't believe m them having an exclusive right. To his mind the first question was, Does the land belong to the Natives or not ? The answer would be, "Itdoes," Then why do the Government take the exclusive right to this land? What he would prefer would be to briug all their land under taxation. It was difficult to do this, but he would give the Natives the opportunity of individualising their lands, and thus put them on the same footing as ourselves, and then if they liked to keep their land, let them pay taxes. VOLUNTEERS. He had been a volunteer for sometime himself, (voice, " Attention !") and he -thought ifc was a very necessary thing-, and uo young man should

grudge a few days of the week to it, and if jfc waa worth }, av j ng t j Hho.il(J receive a forger capitation than the small allowance that they were receiving Bow> (heav> hear^ w , )ich might ho given to them instead of •squandering the money over other useless things. HONORARIUM. He held himself that LIOO a year was quite sufficient for this, au only three mouths of the year were occu--pied, and he thought Parliament could begot over m less time. It did seem to be a general opinion that the honorarium for the Upper House should be done away with. Also I that the Upper House was not necessary at all. He was not prepared to say whether fc was or not, but since they were nominated and not elected, he thought the honorarium should be done away with altogether. Moreover he was of opinion' that a far less number of members would suffice m the House. There wen? ninety-four at present, and he had often been m the House watching them and had often scan a great number of them doing nothing at all. If we amalgamated some of the electorates into one, we might stand a chance of reducing the members to say 60, and putting the sixty best men m, and leaving the 30 remaining out. (Hear, hear.) And ho thought the work would be done equally as well and m less time than at present. Where there was only a population of half-a-million, they had at the present rate, a representative to every 5000 electors. Now, the Colony m course of time should have a population of five millieu, and at the same proportion of representation to the population, the House would then consist of - 1000 members, and it would take them three years to do the work of session, if the present session occupy four months. POLICY. His policy would be the strictest economy (applause) and moro borrowing for reprod uctive -works. ( » I ear, hear.) He expected that various questions would be asked as to which Government he would support.if elec--<ed, but he did not think it wise to pledge himself to support any party, but to wait and see, if elected. In fact if he were to say - *then < which Government he would support, he would support none, for there was no Government at the present time. It was generally- thought that the At—, kinson Government would take office again, and it was possible that Sir Julius Vogei would also join the leading party. (Hear, hear.) He thought that an amalgamation like that would be a good thing. Yogel was such a. man as we had not had m New Zealand before, but he would require good supporters to back him up. At the same time he would not pledge himself to any Government. (Hear, hear.) It was equally necessary to have a good Opposition as well as a good Government, and if every constituency bound their representatives to support some Goyernnient or other, there could be no Opposition. One thing he was sure of, viz., he would not support any Government with Sir George Grey at its head, and he didn't think , Mr Macandrew would head any party. (Applause.) No doubt there were a great many subjects that the speaker* had not touched upon, and was not conversant with, but his great policy was strict economy and more borrowing for reproductive works. Before sitting down he would tell them that this was the first time he had ever addre-ised » public audience from a platform, or said more than half-a--dozen words to a public gathering. (Voice : ''You have dene very well") But putting aside all parties he hoped that every elector would vote for the best man. [Applause], Mr Jessop came forward to ask a question. (Applausej rotten eggs, and great uproar.) He then enquired what wa» the candidate's opinion on the Stamp Act, and whether he didn't consider a country could do away with stamps altogether. Was it fair that they should pay 2d for sending letters to Foxtou and Feilding when letters could be sent hundreds of miles for the same money. MrFrrtser admitted that it didn't seem consistent to pay 2d for a few miles and only 2d for thousands of mile*. (Voice. « What can you ex- ; pectfor 2dT f laughter.) He would favor reducing the postage to Id for short distances. Mr Snelson asked the candidate if he was m favor of tolls being levied on bridges to go towards their maintenance. . , .Mr Eraser : Ne. (Applause.) Mr Snelson, also, m event of Mr Fraser being elected, would he endeavour to get the tolls which would be levied on the new Manawatu Bridge taken away. Mr Frasef would dp so if he possibly could, and would try and get it done whether elected or not. (Applause.) * Mr Snelson j How abont maintaining the Gorge Road? M> Dinsdale then, said that Major Atkinson had declared a deficiency of £150,000, how would the candidate pay that deficiency 1 Would he put ' it on the debt, or pay it off I (Voice. "Draw a bill for it." laughter.) The candidate said such a deficiency as that could only be provided for by soma special taxation, or else it might be saved by the reductions m Governi ment expenditure next year, for the Civil Service and other departments were going to be largely reduced, and this would enable them to provide for the deficiency. Mr Woodroofe said two petitions had been sent to Parliament by the Catholics. The, first was on the education question, the second on capitation grant*. How would the candidate votsjm those petitions— for or against) The candidate replied that if he could see his way to Toting for the capitation grants to Catholics, with. out bursting up the present system of education, he would do so, but if it destroyed the present system at all he would oppose it. (Applause.) Mr Woodroofe.then enquired as to the National Insurance scheme would the candidate support that J ' Mr Eraser thought the Government would be doing the work of Sooteties, if they did, and thought they had enough, to do to mind their own business. ,

pjr Woodroofe also asked if the' candidate would endeavour, ••€ elected, to take the valuation fee off the Societies ? The Frieudly Societies had to pay a valuation fee to Government each year. Mr Fraser would, most decidedly. (Applause.) Mr Thos. King : "Would lie favor boroughs of 1500 inhabitants and over, Laving a special representative m Parliament? Mr Eraser would nqt; because too many members would be sent into the House. Mr McNeil asked if the candidate was m favor of the system of singular electorates? Mr Fraser was not; he thought that m a case like Foxton, no member could fairly represent tho wholo electorate. He understood there had been considerable difficulty when the electorates were reconstructed on a . basis of population, because Home electorates had only half the population and yet their requirements were equally important. He believed m having just as many men m the House as were sufficient to do the work and no more. Mr Jonas then enquired whether the candidate would be m favor of having railway lines fenced m? Mr Fraser thought all railways, •whether through the town or country, should be fenced m. The Government went to the expense of makingthem, and surely they could atford to fence them. Mr Rush asked,, supposing aresolution was brought forward similar to that which the Hon. V. Pyke had brought .forward some time ago for granting a capitation fee to Catholics, how would he vote? Mr Fraser repeated that anything that could be done that way without breaking up the system of education, he would support,, but could not do so if it would burst up the present system. Mr Rush, again, after some considerable noise asked if the candidate thought it wisdom for any Government; to persist m holding a statute over a class that constituted over the seventh of the whole community? Especially as that class was chiefly the same as was giving England all the present trouble ? A voice : "Why I doo belavo he's referrin' to the Oirish." Laughter. Mr Frastr said we were all contributing to the Slate, (Mr Ru.sh knew that), and if it could be managed that each class could get their share to themselves he would support such a scheme, but he was afraid the State could not bear it; . Moreover he believed the State . wa«» one thing and the Church quite another. (Applause.) . # Mr Paul /enquired if he was m favor of taxing 1 the unearned increment on laud, also if it would apply to Native lands. Mr Fraser would not make any difference between our lands and Kative lands, as he bad already said, and would like to see a scheme brought m to individualize native lands and put them on the same footing as our lands, aud then they, would all be taxed alike. [Applause]. Mr Jessop then came forward \ again, [considerable uproar, cries of "Order" etc.] , \ The Chairman said " Gentlemen, this gentleman [referring to Mr Jessop] has been " brewing " an idea for some time. Let him bring it forward. Mr Jessop would like to ask the candidate's opinion on local industries. Mr Fraser believed every industry should be fostered, and thought Government should assist m inaugurating every industry that was of im- v portance to the colony. Mr Ferguson then rose to propose a vote of confidence m Mr Fraser, as a fit and proper person to represent ' them m Parliament. He did not wish to be invidious m what he said, but he must certainly refer to certain statements that were made last Monday. Candidates for Parliament almost always made a mistake. They talk of the town electors as if they composed the whole constituency. He noticed on Monday the questions -which were put were what would Mr Macarthur do for the town of ' Palmerston or Feilding ? It ought to be, What is he going to do for the country? Towns were the appendages of the country, and not the country of the towns, and he thought the country should have a say m it. He didn't know whether Mr Macarthur was present that night, or not, bat he was aware that any statement he might make would reach that gentleman's ears, so he didn't mind making them the same as if he were present. What he referred to was a statement made last Monday. Mr Macarthur said he had a large stake m Palmeraton. Was this true)? $ They all knew he had a considerable stake m Feilding. He thought the electors would be wiser to choose a man who was quite disinterested. (Applause.) He had made enquiries and could give them the exact particulars of the land Mr Macarthur owned m Palmerston. His total valuation was L 73 for -which he paid rates amounting to L 3 13s 6d every year. (Great applause and cheers). Capitalize that and they got L9OO, and this was the extent of his property m Palmerston. The county valuation books were certainly a little different, but they contained no properties of his at all. Not a sixpence. He would also say a word on what took place last Sunday evening. Mr Macarthur lost his temper and he had done the same. Mr Macarthur had said that three years ago he and Mr Linton handed over the constituency to Mr W. W. Johnston, Mr Macarthur told them how he and two of their Palmernton men had decided who should stand. He thought it was time when not only two or three should decide bat that all the people should do so. They talked about their birthright, but he thought if they were to keep it they must be up and stirring. They must not be badgered about just as two or three men chose. (A voice. "Uf Ferguson had said all that last Monday ho would have done better.,) (Hear, hear.) Mr Macarthur said they should have a local mau, and he thought so too. Mr Fraser was the man. He hud a large stake m the County. The fact tbat he had a large stake m another county, was »o reason why he shouldn't represent

this electorate. He was to all intents and purposes one of themselves. (Voice- "He and Jack Stevens will work woll together I") (Another voice, "and Wilson.") He did not lay much stress on what took place ut that meeting, bat. they lmd the ballot box to depend upon. He would remind everyone that nobody could ever find out how they voted, so there was no need to be afraid of voting for the man that they thought would best represent them. He knew many would not like to hold up their hands m favor of the motion, but he would rely on the ballot box. The motion was received with cheers and great and prolonged acclamation. Mr Snelson then got on the stage. (Renewed cheers.,) '" Mr Batchelar seconded the vote of confidence. Mr Snelson amidst applause proposed as. an amendment, that the meeting accord a vote of thanks only to Mr Fraser for his address. Mr Snelson would clear himself and Mr Linton from the aspersions that had been thrown upon them. (Hear, hear.) He wa? very sorry to hear Mr Ferguson speak as he bad done because he thought he was a gentleman. (Applause.) Mr MacarthurV own words had been "two or three of the leading men m Palnierston." He didn't icier to the two or three | only, and Mr Fergusson could see this by referring to the reports of the meeting m the local paper*. Mr | Macarthur said he had a stake m Palmeiiiton and which was quite correct, and he had a perfect right to expect support from the Palmerston public for that reason, as well as any one else. Mr Feegusson had made some uncalled-for remarks. (Voice, He is only a new chum.") The chairman had also made some remarks as to the reason of his being m the chair. He (Mr Snelson) was pleased to see him there. He had come to the Halt that evening to hear^Mr Fraser,; but when he heard thoae^aspersions cast about he felt bound to correct them. Mr Snelson sat down amid prolonged cheers and applauses. Mr Jessop seconded the amendment. The chairman then put the amendment, for which ; something under 30 hands were held up, and then the resolution for which more than double the number of hands were shewn. The chairman declared the vote of confidence m Mr Fraser carried by a large majority. After a vote of thanks to the chair, the meeting terminated ac about 10 o'clock, amid prolonged cheers and acclamation m favor of Mr D. Fraser.