RANGITAKEI ELECTION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 195, 16 July 1884, Page 2

RANGITAKEI ELECTION.

MR JOHN STKVKXS AT MAR TON. (Continued.) EDUCATION OP YOUXG CHILDREN. Witli ro;*ard to educating young children, Mr Stevens claimed the following suggestion as ono tliat would com ruond itself. If they allowed private enterprise sufficient scope, m the way .of establishing private schools for young children, it would be a way of affording a good occupation to many well-educated people who would Otherwise be without suitable employment. If infant schools were established m this manner he was sure they would be largely patronized. All infant schools should be conducted by private enterprise by rights, nud he would much like to see ladies and gentlemen starting private I schools. If this were done, parents i could make their own arrangements as to whether religious instruction would be given, and thus they could do away with ■ the present difficulties of denominalisation. DENOMINATIONAL EDUCATION. All protestant sects of religion were willing to send their children to State schools, but he believed, although he didn't belong to that body, that tfie Jfonnan Catholics did not consider their children educated, unless ikey are brought up and nurtured m their own schools. But the only consideration they could give the Catholics and other sects was to endeavour to* reduce the cost of educatiou to one half, ami thus enable them to form special arrangements for the education 1 of their children. So lons as he could assist the sects m any way he would he willing to do so, but for the present he must say that the only alterations he would allow m the Education Act, would be m the way of reducing its costliness. (Applause.) . THE NATIVE QUESTION*. This was a thing of the past. He remembered the day when if anyone could stand on a platform and speak on this matter, he would have been listened to by crowds, with eagerness. But the Natives were now peaceable neighbors and friends to the Europeans. They had discovered that tjxny must not otter any further resistance to her Majesty's laws. The Government are going to bring m a Bill to enable them to resume the pre-emptive right over Native lands. There was a difference between the mere pre-emptive right and the exclusive right. He thought the Government should purchase all the Native lands, and get them settled with Europeans. If necessary they must borrow to open up the lands, as Boon as the Native ti'Je is extinguished. Instead of having a Native Minister, as they have now, they could have some other portfolio. The Minister of defence, too, was not | much required, nss they had no enemies to look out for m the3e times. I But the colony o»ved much to the excellent manner m which Mr Bryce had conducted his department. ; He (Mr Stevens) had opposed. Mr, Bryce m one of his measnres— not m principle, but m detail. "He considered that Mr Bryce had done this colony a| lasting good when lie settled tho Native matters so ably. But his office as a Minister of Defence was now very little required, if at nil, and he could do more m the way of acquiring Native lands for the Government, so as they could bo put m the market, at ooce. The difficulty just now was Uiat people held that the Government should resume the preemptive right, for if not, private in- | dividuals would get, hold of the Native lands*. Well he thought it befet for the Government to bandlo j the lands, but still even private individuals would do more with the land than the Natives did. The instances he had given of gentlemen ia the locality would shew that. The ridiculous cry that was going round was only "raised by people who knew nothing about, the matter. The objections they brought forward were all fallacies. It should, however, be tho duty of the Government and the Native Minister to acquire the Native land, and allow it to be settled on. It was their particular duty to at tend to the settlement of the oounuy, and thi* should be that Ofiiciars chief object. B-egarding the pre-emptive and the exclusive right, a gentleman had said there was a distinction without a difference. Tho difference was, however, very easy to see. By the pre-emptive right alone, the Government h.iva the first offer, but if that offctr is not accepted, the Natives then had the power of selling the land to anyone else. If the Government had the exclusive right, then the natives could not sell to anyone at all except the Government. There was a great difference. He woujd support die Government resuming the pverempfciye rigjifc, if for the purpose of sptfclement. Qne other groat duty which Government should do, was to e«tablish Native Land Courts as quickly as possible, so as to aid each Native to get out his individual title to his land. So soon as the native titles were individualised they would become good settler*, hut not before. Iv some parts, of the colony the Natives had built houses and were living as respectably as the English were. The who}e thing depended upon them having fchi-jr individual .titles. For instance, during the ftr-sjt session he was iv Parliament, a Bill wax passed, called tkc Native Lands Subdivision Bill. This was a good, measure, but the machinery was not perfect- In Wanganui at a land court, 300 claims were put m, and, Natives had come clown from as far as Tanpo to bring tjfese claims forward, and had been kep,t waiting there for three or four months before tj>p npurt had settled the clainjs. lie thought the Qpyernment should establish Native Land Courts m the same way as the Restjiident Magistrate's Courts were established, The Natives would have to pny all the costs, of course. These were the principal lines he held with regard to the Native question. So long as the Government resumed the pre-emptive right with the object of opeiiing up the country, (of course leaving every Native a sufficiency of land wherewith to maintain himself), he would support them m that direction. The settlement iv tho North

Island had bpen going ou v,uy k lo'w | ly, because their southern brethoin : had retarded them greatly. This would bring him the subject of. \ INSULAR SEPARATIONThe Norrh and South Islands bail j not been running hand m haml with ] one another. Those who sought tn obtain the Ministerial Benchtrs, would Wave liked to have thu seat of Govern , :rieut removed to the South island If the two islands sepaiated, they would take tho lirst step towards ruining 1 the colony. They should remain as one people, and he was < strongly opposed to the separation of the two Islands. (Hear, hear.) Mr Stevens then concluded hi* address admid.se acclamations and cheers. QUESTIONS. The Chairman then invited any electors present to bring forward any | questions that they might wish to put I to the candidate. Mr T. Awdrey asked : Will you try and bring the schedule of the Enroll ment Act to the poll qualification, which would be added to the declaration, " I being of the age of 21 years." Mr Stevens : I will support such a measure, if the Government bung it forward ; and if they do not, I will ask them to do so. (Hear, hear.) Mr A wdrey : There is also n. good deal of trouble occasioned m names being struck oft 1 the. Electoral -8011. Mr Stovchs would also be prepared to ask the Government to adopt some system whereby the rolls could be purged with greater certainty and acenracy than they were at present. Mr Howie: How much land would yjii be m favor of each settlor having ? Mr Stevens would decide that according' to the quality of the land. He would divide land into three classes, (1.) Agricultural; (2.) Semipastoral ; (3.) Pastoral. There was some land chat no mau could make a living off even if they were to make him a present of 1000 acres; and then again there were oihei qualities that would make good farms if divided into 100 acre to 400 acre blocks. (Applause.) Mr Shannon : Are you m favor of altering the present Licensing Act where it relates to Committees. Mr Stevens did uot consider himself to bean exclusive advocate of the Temperance cause, but would always be willing to give that cause every justice he could, without injuring other sections of the community. He claimed to have done nothing that had been adverse to their interests, and would act m a similar unprejudiced manner m the future. Mr Shannon : Did you slate at Bulls that you were opposed to the present system of electing the Licensing Committees? JVI r Stevens said he had stated so, aud he objected to the present system being too expensive' for the local bodies. The election of licensing committees cost Bulls L 25 last year, and this was excessive. In order. to prevent this expense he would favor the adoption of the old system again. He hud certainly said so, and t>ecause he wished to have the system cheapened. He understood since that occasion, however, that the amount to be paid annually would be much less. But he thought it mi^ht serve the interests of not only the Temperance party buh of all concerned, to have the committees elected every three years instead of one, aud he would support that. (Applause.) A voice: 'Would you fix a limit as to the quantity of land any one individual can acquire?' Ai r Stevens would favor a limit being fixed by experts m land, so that any one man could not acquire more than a certain amount, and would place a popluation on any land so long as they coiild make a good living off it. But it was* useless to put men on a small farm of poor laud, which, ax the saying was, wouldn't feed a goat and two mice. , A voice : ", You wouldn't favor large land companies sharking land?" Mr Stevens would not. Unless they wore companies like the Fuilding Corporation, which had bought the land not for sharking but for bona fide settlement. The Chairman said lie had several questions handed to him on a piece of paper, to put to the candidate. Would 'he be m favor of giving capitations to schools m the large centres? Mi'Stoveo* that he, had fully explained his view's o» that, Would he assist m getting large blocks of land cut up m small holdings suitable ior working men to purchase them ? Mr Stevens had also replied to that. - . Would he support the various denominations m educational matters? This had been fully explained. Would he favor "Mr Rollestou's land leasing system? Mr Stevens had ventilated that subject. Would he redace the cost of High Schools ? This Ija4 ljeen answered tpo. Did the candidate consider a Native Land speculator a tit person for a member of the House of Representatives ? Mr Stevens said he was prepared to shew anyone what he had done iv Native Land*, and they would have full liberty to overhaul any documents or communications with regard to them, and if he had done anything wrong m them, he would I'etire from the contest. But otherwise he would continue to contest the election. (Aplau*e,) Would he be m ftvqr of- the Government assuming the sole right to, purchase Native lands ? Mr Stevens had answered that question. A voice : Would you endeavour to j pet theroute of the North Island trunk line of railway decided upon ? flfr Steyens would, IJLe claimed to haye done alj. that was possible for;^ member to do, to have tlje rqujjo decided upon. A.ls6 l}e had put a question as to whether the Government would cause an exploration to be made on the central routo, and besides obtaining the particulars of the railway line, to find out what sort of country lay on either side of it, to a distance of 10 'miles, and any other information that would be useful, and shew whether the central route would open up much country for settlement, and whether there was much timber

iv the locality. This the Government rid tiller done, ;ind he hoped they .vouhl soon decide finally, .for he icitly wished to sec t.ho North Is-:m-i Main Trunk Railway completed. A voice : Would you try and get r.he junction at Marton? Mr Stevens had already stated that ho was unable to .say where ilie junction would be, whether at Bulls or Marlon or anywhere else. Ml he had said when speaking of it m the House, was that the junction "hould be somewhere between the Munawatu ami Wangauni Rivers. Even if he wished to influence them to put the junction at any particular place he couldn't do so, as he could not interfere wi'h the work of the engineers. Whatever they said wan the best line he would agree to being made. (Applause. ) Mr Shannon.' : Bub supposing the engineers were to say Morton was the best junction, would you support that? j Mr Stevens would. He would be entirely guided by the engineers. Mr Hunt : Are you m favour of a land or property tax ? Mr Stevens preferred the property tax to a progressive laud tax. Mr Hunt: Are you further m favour of the public railways being managed by a non-political Board ? Mr Stevens said that m Victoria they had such a scheme, of manage- . Mont, but he didn't think it enabled them to derive a very much gt cater amount of revenue. But m !New Zealand the difficulty would be the separation of the two departments, the Public Works and the Railways. We had railways woiking and some only partially made. But if it could be shewn him that any great benefit could be derived from placing the railways m the hands of anon-political Board, he would support it. He was one of the Committee appointed, m Parliament, and brought forward by Mr Wright, (Voice, "Wuab«anArkwrightT') to consider the subject, and they expected that. Mr Wright would have been prepared with facts sufficient to convince the House that the scheme could be so work«d »is not to interfere with the finances. But lie didu't know anything about it. They then waited on. the Premier and it was also his opinion that there was not sufficient evidence to *how that any great benefirs would accrue. H«v(MV Stevens) didn't think it would have the .effect of shewing the money-lenders at Home that the Government couldn't waste anymore money on railways. But if it could be shewn to be a beneficial measure, he (Mr Stevens) would support it, and nob otherwise.

A voice : Are you m favor of free passes 1

Mr Stevens was not. But he must remind them that even if he made promises, it . did not follow that the measures would be carried. He thought it unfair that member* should be allowed co make use of the public railways free. If he had any hopes of the measure being carried lie would propose that the Government issue no more free passe*. But he thought three-quarters of the members would voce against him, and stick up lor the free passes as they did for the honorarium. But he was opposed to free passes. Mr Steward asked, about the Fire Brigades? Mr Stevens said there was a. Bill onlled the Fire Brigade's Bill, whidh would give greater facilities to Fire Brigades m the matter of obtaining their implements, etc. He would support tiny reasonable measure of the kind. Mr Pawson asked if the candidate was m favor of the volunteers receiving an increased capitation. Mr Steveus thought the difference between the capitation given to town and country volunteer^ was too great, and would be m favor of giving the country volunteers a higher capitation. (Applause.) Mr Johnson then moved and Mr A, Me Beth seconded, a vote of thank." and: confidence m Mr Stevens. No amendment wan brought for ward, and on putting the motion to the meeting the chairman declared it to be carried. Mr Steven* thanked the electors present for their very patient hearing, and regretted very much to see that Air Arkwright had retired from the content, and also the reason for such withdrawal. He had particularly impressed upon his own committee thi? of ok-erving all the restrictions of the Corrupt Practices Act. tie bogged to thank the Chairman for proniding. The meeting then terminated.