THE ADDRESS IN REPLY.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 59, 23 July 1879, Page 2

THE ADDRESS IN REPLY.

The Addbbss m Reply -to the , Governor* 1 Speech , was moved, by Mr. Shanks, m. tiheC ' uiual"stefebty^d mann^er^ and seconded by Mr. Reeves, when ;SIR WILLIAM FOX rose, and said he congratulated the two hon. members for the manner m which- they had performed their, no dou,bt very pain^uj, du(jr. * (Laughter,^ He had, an amendment to propose^— (Chtersy —but he. was not going to* speak on the. measures of the Government, r £hoy ihew ar_ great deal about; those measures, .because' they were before, the House last year, and before the country during the stumping tourC of the Premier. J Many of >i tioßeJineasuret would hSiVe been parsed butfo^th*! capri\ cious will of the Prejnier, who' might have, given their - rights " ah'd liberty t6- 70,0ft0\ .degraded serfs. Ahd yet it wat. proposed to bring forward a similar ejcellent measure tins year j and tjhe same might !be said of f 'the Bribery "BiU, which wa» an' pld;friend u,nder a new faro. He would not discuss this question of policy v but'he'coul* not understand the action of > the, Govern-* ment. They had no doubt a tot' fine prp? ! gramme, biit they did not carry it Out.' Tno. ; fact of the matter was that the. funeral^ ■ baked meat's of 'last session were'^to furniib^ ; forth the marriage feasts for this. It.re-. , minded him; very much of the fair which 1 they had all- se^t ao many times, aiid thei»! I showman was -billing to tak.e as much : h.lml 1 could get, so far as -the standing orders of.. the.House.would allow him. But it was a' •very senoiis^ 'matter ," "The colony was sta^- . ing upon a precipice, and it was nefeiia^L that they should look w.elljto their Miuistry.!^ The Prejnief. himself had told them they, were upon the.iihminencp of a Maori war. He. stood thereto arraign the Government. pn a. variety ot chafg'es^ incapacity, unconstitu-' tional conduct, and osiers, but he had .no, intention then of entering fully into them/ No time must bplps^ if they wished tosecure the prosperity of,the ? cbuntnr, and, placing other benches. (Cheers and! counter cheers.)' What had the Government don;e ? Why, nothing that they haft promised.' They had passedaLaa'd Tax Sill, and a Bijlto gitp v seme extra advantages to Maoi^i children. And yet they had up Opposition last sessipiu and the consequence was that thej^ had* brought down the same hiU 9^ fare. thi|i session, and he had no hesitation m saying, that if they remained m ofßps the result" would be the same: In the matter ofj- rail-, ways they had promised them ajl over the, country, and at their promises th^ey had stayed. Failure and incompetepce ha^u characterised their management of the. native Taee aud many : other question^. (Cheers.) And they had set aside m many, instances the cehstitutipnal rights of the, people. He would refer to the Waste Landji Bill, which had quietly been kept back frofijl the Marquis of Normanby like a earn that had been shuffied . for' certain . purposes. That Bill was not the property of the Premier, but of the people, and the action of Sir George Grey m keeping it back was a fraud. (Cheers* and laughter:) He nextj; referred to the Tapanui radway^wMch was entered upon m an extravagant xny, -without any authority from the Parliament (cheers: and cries of No), and not only that— but he, repeated the sanxe thing up North. |[r

referred to the Thames and Waikato railway, which was to 'run .30' miles for a sum of £180,000. . What did the hon. member for the Government do ? Why, wishing to conciliate his constituents he had commenced ithe railway at the wrong end, turning the iod with great eclat. He had no more right o-make a railway than he (the speaker) had to make a railway through the island of Kawau. The House authorised the railway to be made from Hamilton to Te Aroha, and not commenced at the other end at Grahamstown. What then became of the constitu-tional-rights of the House over the purse strings. The speaker next referred to Sir .George's attempt to rush the Address m through the House. The emergency Which was said to 'exist— and which he did l»ot believe did exist— must have been known to the Government a long time ago. (Cheers.) What theh biiglit to have been the duty of the Government? Why, to call the House together ; instead of which he waited till the hut minute, whan the steamer was coming m, and then came to them and asked them to raisa a loan of £5,000,000 at a priuUte's notice. (Cheers). He Was getting mors' autporatic *very -day. A' (The speaker here claimed the proeection of the chair '. against the interruptions ? of one of the hon. members.) He could not possibly conceive, anything more unconstitutional than to make the appointment of .Speaker with the view of getting certain favor from the gentleman holding the appointment ; and yet ha had heard rumors on this subject, although the hon. Speaker was far too well ""known for them to suppose for a single moment that he would, have anything to do wiff^such a scheme. ■ (Cheers.)- Then, — «far|f, the -way m which the Cabinet Council meeting was 'held was most unconstitutional. Sir George Grey was to be the lather of his people. All he could say was what a nice family they would be. (Cheers and laughter.) Another charge he would bring againt the Government was the disorganisation of the public service. Why men who had been for years m the service had been swept away without compersation, and boys put m their place. The result of . this was that the ■•rvicf was now becoming a eaoff and a byword, and the energetic young men of the country would not now enter it. He referred to two or three special cases. The postmaster 'and telegraphist of Wanganui was a most efficient servant, 'and' a" man of the highest personal character. But the post was wanted to reward political services, and the postmaster was disrated to an inferior position for this political friend to take hii place. A similar thing, happeaed at the same place m connection^ with the public seryica to a man who had gone through thrilling scenes ; on bahalf of the country. Aoharge was got up against that Mr. Booth on th* , strength of a scurrilous lit. la news gaper published m the district. An investigation was held, and the charge dismissed. But afterwards on a certain gentleman joining the: Ministry Mr. Booth was suspended, and a- commission was appointed,, who acquitted him of every particle of the charge. And so the public service deteriorated. ' During/ th» suspension certain praptices had taken place which resulted m ahlock of land costing (iha^country £140,000 more than it need? haw J1 ddiie had Mr. 7 Booth'not been suspended. And whan lit was acquitted he. hag no, recompense — no compensation. He! would! next . refar' ■tothe ca»e of lilr.'Luck.e., wha_waß perfectly competent .to fUltHa almost sinecure office which he held, and draw the very handsome salary which hq d|d, Hr had nothing to say against '-Ma. ALuckie,! except that he had never before been m: the Government service. ' He said there weise. hundreds of men -who ware better entitled' to the promotion than MrA (Hear, hear.) Bttt'they mto rainember! that i/^v.. Luckir had the command of a newspaper wliich had a.yc^ry. considerable influence: on the people. "And" the" Ministry, ware also : : demoralised. ,«* Like! master like, man.' l There had been a good many scandals which now, unfortunately, had • turned out to be too true. 4»othir: disgraceful -thing took place the other day, when the Premier had rung foe a messenger and ordered h^m to drag one of the. Mimataw'pjitiby the, .scruff of the neck. (Cheers and laughter.) In the first place, he had invited- the member into his roem— it was a .case of the. spider and the fly "^and'had l 'the,n ; succeeded m . picking the quarrel, which he had, no doubt, been thinking over for nights and days. The speaker described the seeing, aq'd said that Sir Seorge had told the Minister that he had insulted him grossly, ahd iqade him • blush. (L&ughter.)'' "He should like tb see the man who, for the last fifty years, had inada him blush, not but that there were many things which ha ought to blush for. (Loud laughter.) Let .theip . picture, the scene to themselves if they could (chier#). Certain things that hadjocc^rced were said to have provoked -the wrath of c Sir ; Getbrge Grey. It seamed that the lattechad ordered one of the Ministers tp return qtonca from a certain place, ahd that he had done so m no very good humor. After his, return he a good "dressing down "—whatfver that might mean. He was not aware whether they kept Ministerial birches m • |he Cabinet, or whether the hon. Treasurer was dragged abeut the rpotn- by the messenger. If this sort of thing was to be allowed it would result m every man having to carry a pistol or a Mqjrie. fcnife. Was not. this a disgraceful scene ?, and one that would bring tha Afigistry into disrepute over' the whole/colony. Ancl they must not suppose this is » solitary cas.p. He. had -no - doubt they had a dis li of humble pie served lip every morning. .No, wpftder it was hard to get a gantlariidn 'to join the Ministry when he mifht be treated .with »uch ignominy and: such contempt.- 'H^ -v^o.uld .next refer to the miserable mismanagement oft^h*- There never i. Ministry AJjPhsuch a bad prospect befoxa it bnltha Jjatuie question as this one. When the, Ministry want into office the little din^culty with the Natives might soon hays b.e.en. fettled with careful management. ' He detailed $h# state of Maori affairs during tha ten years previous to, thei present Ministry, taking office. {The Natives lived quietly; never interfered with Europeans, and gave us nd trouble",! } Jfr'jWM "lilt; that : tha best policy was to le.ava them alone, and they would grdually coma m. The worst thing, they could haya! do,ne was to hurry them or try to cunsy fayor'with them. " Nothing was to be gained from tha. King party, and tha. Government' fiac. mad-Aa great mistake m making love, to tham m the way they had - $opp, and wTtofc ( had'-Wrne of-it ? The'Pra-; mUrhad been up to his old games for the pui p.fte of molting political capital. He hasbowed down, to, the, ; yery dust before, them . —they had held great gatherings; more nonsense and tomfpollery nad been enacted than he had listened to m his lifetime— and what had come of ifcß What, absolutely nothing; and yet a paper had ba,en stuck m the Governor's' hands saying' that at last peace had bee^ made.. The p,enny-a-lining scribes who had accompanied the. Premier, had done their best to cast' a halo of success upon-the; affair, ; but; had not been.abjje. to do so. Many dodges had been tried by the Natives but. they' would not do, and whan March arrived tha invited guests came 'and, crawled m on all-fours. And then' tbey^knew whst followed— Rewi would haye i hothhig to do with them or their doings. A HCf- did uotkri^^ more, striking, than the description of the last scene, where the King cam*, and sat opposite the hon. gentleman who was now leavfflg^V? S?^ 8 " tyWlg- <■?_*?*)• W^.

had he said.*? — " I Tawhiao, am the King of all these lapds, ajid. will have nothing to do with that man Grey — there he aits now." And this was the result of that great programme which setß forth what these two -great Mrori-tamers were about to do but which, ifc is now" well-known they did not do. He (the speaker) had read a letter tb House last sesuon from a Maori chieftain, and he would do so again now. (Letter read. It was m reference to what the writer called the "deceitf ulness of Sir George Grey.") And the Natives who had been interviewed by Sir George lately were also able te see through him. The whole thing had been a miserable abject failure. He could not understßnd how they could deceive themselves the way the did. . Why, one of the leading Natives the other -day had called him a dog that lick blood, » and; another had compared him to a rat-pit, saying .** If you fall m you cannot get out." The power of these two great Maori-tamers had almost landed tham on ithe brink of a : war. He would now say a word with regard to the Waimate Natives, where they had acted with equal' rashness They had attempted to take one di the most valuable pieces of! land m New Zealand without al- . lowing the Natives a single reserve. They must have known there W ere BUC !' I rosnreis if they ever read the bine-books. And he was prepared to say that they did knowall about it. He knew that a deputation had come to see the ; Government, and had told him (the speaker) that they would not grumble if they had the reserves. And the Government afterwards promised them the reserves, but did hot darry otnVthair promise. If tha Government had kept their word thfre would have been no trouble whatever about the Waimate Pliins. The Government had gone and surveyed the land, even -going over the gardens, and this without setting aside a single acre for reserves. Was it not a humiliation that Sir George had been called a thief, by Te Whiti; who had m the same breath told him that Hiroki was an honest man ? Tha Government had shown the. grossest mismanagement m the conduct of Native affairs. During the last two .years !they had lost caste m the eyes of the Maoris to an extent which it would be most difficult to regain. It was said tha ather day by the member for APranklyn that tha Native. Minister should be a man of moral character. He should say nothing more on that sabjaet, except that it was impossible to go through iha Maori country and hear the progress of tha Govarnmerit through tha /country without being mada to blush. The country was nngikg from end to. end .with scandalous .stories m the direction to Which. he had alluded. No wonder the Maoris were discontented. Hehadtouchsd the main points, but could heap up counts upon, counts mora. Alluding to the West Coast, where war-Was imminent, it was well known that when the people had* telegraphed through to him for arms, to the Minister of Defence, he received a reply.ih the course of a week. And that telegram stated that if Mr. Commissionsr Brown wanted any legal advice/ he could apply for it to WellipgtP n - The Premier, ; with all , ; his , sympathies for the. world, had none with the people living at his own door. His conduct was heartless m the extreme; He Ba^ thS' Hon. the Minister for public Works smiling, but he was too good-hearted a man to laugh if he knew half the sufferings ttfe people had been put to through the conduct of Sir > George Grey. The Government bad admirably shown them " how not to do it," and it was quite time the reins of government were taken from them and placed m the hands of those who. would better look after the security and the welfare of the colony. (Loud cheers.) As. an amendment he proposed to- add the 'following words to the Address ;— "■ In conclusion, we respectfully submit to Parliament that m order to secure satisfactory results to the deliberations of Parliament, and to facilitate the proper discharge of the functions of Government, his Excellency's advisers should possess the confidence of this House, and wa deem it our duty tp rjeprqsant to his Excellency that m #10 opinion, of this House his presentadvisers have so neglected and mismanaged the administrative business of the Government of the colony- that they do not possess th 6 confidence of this House." (Loud and continued applause.) .;'.'■''