MEETING OF SETTLERS.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 62, 2 August 1879, Page 2

MEETING OF SETTLERS.

A meeting of licensed dealere under the Arm's, Act anaLeettlers m the district was held, m the Town Hall on .Thursday. . evon- . ing for the purpose of taking some steps to deal .with the grievance .under? which they labor m connection ,w?fch^th^ Arms' Act, - •• Mr. McNkxi, was voted to the chair^ and m opening .the proceedings said ■ . he felt very greatpleasure m presiding upon 6Uch an; occasion, which was to take steps against tin 1 Act which wiw calculated to place innoodnt peoplein a veryawkwariS [ position.. For hia 'own^part he '.freely confessed ithat.he of ten broken the Act, for wfiert.. he lived on Rangitikei Line it"had- been his custom to get blasting powder jB very large quantities, and wlieftrfver hir neighbors wanted any he invariably gave it to them. If that constituted a, breach, then he. had broken the Jaw; but he had done so m. ignorance. Decidedly as.the law . wm administered at present it. was nothing 'jmor^thian »; farce, and as ,the police interpreted it one way/and?the G'nlitoius another, .the resulfr was that betwepn the two stools. the unfprtutf ate dealer came tb.'the'prounoi"j ; '^.'- r ; 'V ■ii-i-r'ri'.^ ■:--&'■ X%' -'-:'■ ' ' Mr. FiBGTJSOK Baid ho did not know-how-' to: make a speech, and he did not intend to I try, B<>.he would >mereiy confine^, himself to; his experience of the working of the let For Home tim« past he had "been kept m r». continual state; of ferment m i his endpa.vort^.ina«^^.■:>h^.■^in!ilaeaoiaS; of -the mea- ! sure, wul .^. ; ha -th^n/ f gMitnd^ self a wise as ever. ! T^heoa.'.* stated th y.t tH©, permit of a J.P., was sufficient, but" thelPolice 1 Mid dii^di-eut - oi, th? Gfo

vern nieiit^ad no faith ra the men they appointed themselves. A few weeks ago he had a*nt applications to Wanganui for endorsement, arid after two days' delay the order came back that he wm to apply P° Wellington ; m oomplianc* with instruction lie cooimumcated with the Custonna at the capital, when h« waa .informed that the proper piswon to whom to make application . was Mr, Burgess, the officer as Fozton. About this time he (the speaker) thought that he had done quite enough of writing, and next time, would naye hu inatrurtiona by word of mouth, so' he took the trouble of making a, yisit to. Fofcton^oTer the matter. Upon iniemewing Mr. Bur* gesa, that gentleman asked him if he had a reoommendation from a J.P. and upon being informed m the negative, , replied . that he could not grant tho license. In reply to tha,t he was informed that the Police m Palmerston were of opinion that the' 23rd clause of the Act was obsolete $ that the powder could not be obtained by a a J.P.; and that the only, course waa to obtain a licenie first from the Customs, and then deliver theammunition. Mr. Burgess ridiculed such a proceeding, and when informed that it was for parting with a weapon before the license had been obtained that Mr. Snelson had been arraigned, he still held to his opinion and asserted its correctness.' When pressed to give that dictum m writings however, Mr. Burgess declined to do so, hut that he (Mr. Ferguson) should writ* to him on. the matter, he would refer his letter to head-quarters, and thej W:Quldjthus, settle the question (laughter) fHewMafr^ the. teat, But thai was not all. In the course of a few days, the license came , back from Wellington, when W9uid it be believed, they iftd been granted without the recommendation of a J.P. What could people make of such proceeedings ! But hehad forgotten to state that, when he went to Foxton he htppsned to meet the policeman, and wishing to know where the Customs office way upa'i telling him his badness,' the guardian of the peace asserted that, a signature of a J.P. ,;wa* sufficient. Thus it would be seen .that the Foxton polioeman held that a Magistrate's recommendation would suffice ; while the Palmerston official declared it to iii utterly worthless ; the Foxton Customs Officer, would not issue •• license without a J.P.y recommondation j the "v^ellington authorities, on the contrary, issued them without . any recommendation whatever. This {was " oonfusiou worse confounded " with a vengeance. For his own part if he were to be subjected to the worry, vexation, and loss. which he had undergone, during the past fewmpnths, he would tell out his stoak, and refuse to deal m ammunition in* the future. He would a»k what would the settlers do if all the dealers ; came, to the same conclusion, and if matters were to go on as they had been, that was really what it would go to. Sujppoae a man living m Fitz* herbert were to want powder,' it would take him the beat part of one day to come to town and give the order, at least 'two days to obtain the license,' another to get the article, and it was probable that during that time , he had hands standing idle for it. But thoy need net suppose a ease. He would tell them of a case m point. On Saturday week Mr. Armstrong, a gentleman engaged by the Government m tire survey of the Weat Coast Line, called upon him and wanted two or .three. pounds of powder. He was informed that he could not get it : until the return, of the license from Foxton and that would not, be until Tuesday. "Oh," said he, " that will not do at all," 1 want to bring it with me to camp on Monday morning. ! It's! all right s- surely -you know me well ; enopgh P" ; y But although the powder was acfcuttUy^ wanted jfor the Government, he (Mr. Ferguson) faaa^determrned to be on the sure side, and refused^to give it, A request was then made for two or three charges, hutLthat also was declined. : Mr. Armstrong said he should write to Mr. Blackett upon tbe matter, a piece of information which he was -very glad to learn. He might say that he had Mr. Armstrong's permission to publish- wjhat had taken pkoe. He would there* fore move — . - ■ - ■',-: " TUat this meeting desires to bring under the. not ice of the Colonial Secretary, the | very grea^ hardships inflicted upon settlers m the country by the stringency of the regulations with, regard to the sale of ammunition, 'proving a loss of valuable time to the purchaser, and extremely vexa- ! tious to the dealer,; and would ask «the 9ovemmerit to appoint a resident licensing officer for Palmerston." . ; Mr. MI.KBH, m seconding the resolution, should concur m the remarks of Mr. For- 1 guibn, and he might also add, intended to follow his example m refusing to deal m ammunition, if some abatement of the op-, ; preasion wew not made. Not only was | there trouble: involved m the tranaaction t ! bat very frequently loss, as when men had' to wait for three.or four days for the license, npon its arrival-they refustd to take it^ and as the law did not allow of substitution, the permit for one person would not do for another, so the fee became -a loas. The method of applying at the Customs might be right enough m Wellington, where the license might he obtained m a few minutes, but its effective working m a district like Manawatd was simply impossible. : T Mr. Sobb«t Loitdon (of Feilding) then gave, his experiences of the working of the Act jin -that tqwnshipi from - which it ap-> peared that- the regulations there and m Palmerston were as different as day from night. According to his statement the dealers of Feilding were authorised by Mr, Lundan, m charge of the Customs at Wanganui'to issue the powder first 'and obtain the license afterwards j and he said that nqt only was "a J,P.'i recommendation recognised as sufficient for the sale, but th« signature of any. respectable householder had an. equal effeot. Of -course with those rekxtiona .m Feilding, the sale of ammuni> tion^wair noir ; beset with- the difficulties whioh«eemed to surround Palmerston j still they had- their grievances, and one of them was m the amoyance experienced from the visits of the police to inspect the quantity of powder. Apoprding [- ,td the Act dealer* were/not allowed to keep more than fifty pounds upon premises, but the absrriclifcy of such an enactment was shown by the fact that thatquanfcity might be disposed of, m a day j; ' ; „ The motion w;aß^ then; put and carried. ; Mr. Brtce said he was Under the impress : sion that the laws, were made for communities, and noV fox the Egyptians. There was a very great difference, or at least there should be, m the method of administering. th«f law toward peaceable, kwrabiding sei\jAvn and> turbulent, )Nitive»... He ithougift ' what really was njki^d was ; s»me authon* tative reading • pf,; ithe A«tj ,:by whieh^tlie, fdeAlers '^ could (be 1 : guided, for aß' ; had *)- ready been, shown, its construction was 'left to the. officials m the/varioua places, not two of whoni were- of "the same opinion. It appeared to .._ him that the difficulty $id ; not/ «i> much 1 rest with the Act, as with the great t diversity of ideas about it, jbhere being utter chaos of inter-' ' pretntion,- Mr. Bruce then read a memorial frpm"thervßettleWj : ; : showing forth m p'a ; n language the absufaittes-fnnd : incon'sistenoies of the Arms' Act, and the' grievances under which they labored, after which he proposed the following resolution— ' . , ' \.-.-. , ■■/, v : ; ■-•..' • ' . " That the foregoing resolution, /with ihe' memorial be forwarded by the Chnirman to the Cqlppial'Seeretary, with a request that Ife?^^^;^ffienjo^ste be gvaftte^" ,

Mr. Daibympib Baid he heartily supported! the resolution, and cordially sympathised with the object of the meeting. It certainly appeared unaccountable that while the law should be so lax m other places, Polmerston should be singular m the restriction exercised. The regulations were •implr iniquitou*, fop whan a person wanted three shillings' worth of powder they were compelled to pay one for a license. He had to confess that his experience was somewhat similar to that of the chairman; he had, certainly unwittingly broken the Act,- in giving powder to his! neighbors. He regretted to see such a small attendance, as he considered the mat* ter one which affected the settlers even^ more than the dealers, for while the latter could simply refuse to dealt the settlers could not get put of their difficulty so easily, but he supposed it was owing to Jho want fo publicity give.o to it. .♦ The motion was then put and carried. A petition from th« storekeepers m the dtstnot to the House of Representatives was then laid upon the table and on the motion of Mr. Dalryniplej seconded by Mr. EobortSi— "It wasresqived that this meeting is fully alive to the gross grievances to which the petitioners have been subjected, by the ridiculous regulation m force with rogard to I the Arms' Act, and oordially sympathise with any movement which has for its object]their alleriation". A vote of thanks to the chairman terminated the proceedings.