The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, MAY 4, 1868.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 104, 4 May 1868, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, MAY 4, 1868.

MR STAFFORD'S MEETING-. The Hon. E. W. Stafford met his Nelson constituents at the Provincial Hall on Saturday evening, for the purpose of giving an account of his political stewardship as their representative in the General Assembly. The meeting was one of the most numerous ever seen in Nelson, and amongst those present we noticed a eousiderable representation of members of the Upper and Lower Hou*es, and also of the Provincial Council, together with other notabilities, a considerable number of ladies being also among the audience. Through some misunderstanding, Mr Stafford did not make his appearance at the hour mentioned in the newspapers for the commencement of the meeting, and it was full half an hour after that time, before he entered the Hall, his arrival having been heralded by a most ominous number of Blue Books and other parliamentary documents laid on the table for reference. On the motion of Dr Irvine, his Honor the Superintendent took the chair, ami alter adverting to the indulgence which he himself had ever received from the electors of Nelson, claimed the same indulgence for Mr Stafford, who, he said, required no -introduction from him. Mr Stafford then rose and addressed the meeting in a speech which occupied upwards of two hours and a half, and of which our space will necessarily not allow of our doing more thau giving the barest epitome, a necessity to which we are the more easily reconciled, as the speech will appear in extenso, revised by Mr Stafford himself, in the columns of our contemporaries, and will also be published as a pamphlet. On rising, Mr Stafford was received with very equivocal indications of popular approbation, and at once proceeded to ceusure the observations made by the ColoDist and Examiuer, in anticipation of the meeting. Having mentioned that he bad received from the Committee of the Financial Reform League five qu;stious, bearing on finance, he went on to answer them, but it appeared to us that his replies failed to nit-et. the issues raised, with the exception of that which propounded the question whether the land fund of all the provinces would be liable for deficiencies caused by the inability of any one of them to meet the interest on its debt, to which his reply was in the negat've, though he did not explaiu, as requested, out of what fund such defect would be supplied. With regard to the Public Debts Bill, Mr Stafford repelled the accusation that the operation might have been carried out in a more judicious manner, and also that the Ministry had not prepared the public for the bill by au early intimation of their intentions. As it hud been repeatedly statt d that ho had not fulfilled an alleged promise to save £240,000 in the expenditure of the colony, he begged to remind the electors that he had never made such a promise, but that he had expressed a hope that he should be able to effect a reduction of something like that amount on the Estimates for the coming year which had been prepared by Mr Weld's Ministry, and his hope had been more than fulfilled, for tiie saving actually effected was £255.000, although he had but eight months in which to effect it. In reply to a question as to pensions, Mr Stafford stated thatonlv £1000 wasihe amount payable under that head, though it might rise to cix times that sum. Everyone could make the <:a cuiation for himself" out of the Blue Hooks, a species of literature for which we fancy that the public has a less keen appetite thau the honorable gentleman himself. As to ' Annual Loans.' he was not aware that they existed ; although he subsequently quoted one of his own speeches, in which he remarks with disapprobation on the annual deficiency of the revenue to meet the expenditure. He was altogether opposed to loans, if they could be avoided, and only a few weeks ago refused to sanction one applied for by the Otago Government, although of a most justifiable character. He found fault with newspaper writers for indulging in a great deal of fanriiui blame as U> the rnrasurus of the Government, winch they 3!>],>ht bave steered clear of by mukinjc themselves btt-t-r informal on ssjch hUfijeci's by iut-iiua ci 1 thb pubjicatiomj supplied to thuat by

the Government. He anticipated the revenue this year would be adequate to the demands upon it, notwithstanding that the Customs had fallen off £80,000. Referring again to the Public Debts Bill, the Premier commented adversely upon a recent letter from Mr Seweil, mentioning that the Bank of Kew Zealand held only £300,000 worth of the Provincial Debentures, and protested energetically against the practice of using hard names, which was 'as easy as lying,' whereas it was often very hard to refrain from calling hard names. Alter cutting out some work for the Financial League, he threatened tliat if they did not take kindly to it, he would withdraw his name and support from it, for he was tired of acting while they were talking, though he afterwards contrasted the action ot the Nelson League with that of similar associations iv other provinces, for while thot-e latter had contented themselves with uttering Miiy and vague diatribes ayainst the spenumy of money, liie Nelson Association had endeavoured to fathom the causes of our iarge expenoiture, and had produced tour paper.-' ot remarkable anility on tho Mibjeet. Mr Stafford theu rcl erred to the measures ol economy wiiich lie had curri.d on;, e.-peei.uiy to a reduction oi the employes of tlie Government. m> the number of- B'i'.), ayaaisi which he h.td ma-ie but one new appointment, thai- ot Comptroller of the Revenue, whicli should have beeu created long ago. The tact '.v-vs that the p-ople of New Zuland did not want an ec nome! Government. La fact, they detested it. and hi- Govei.-iuent was unpopular si.oply iiccuuse it had attempted to carry out ec .Domical measures [T'.d- am.ouncoment was received wilh laughter and dt-ri-ive cheers, j As to the Panama her vice, it lu.t been forced upon the Government b> ihe peopie, ( anterbury and O ago especially threatening to carry it out on their own responsibility if it were not taken up by the Government, thougUjihey turned round when they found Wellington was to tie the port of call. He had taken off the Sydney and Melbourne steamerat the out:-et of his administration, and had saved £28.000 in postal services, aud i for which he had received nothing but abuse from the public. He went ou to quote from the speech delivered at his last meeting, as reported in the Examiner, to prove that he had distinctly told the eleeiors that increased taxation would be required, and that he was personally iv favor both of an income tax tmd of stamp duties. On that occasion only two papers backed him, of which j the Colonist was one ; the Examiner ' damned it with faint praise.' The Local Government Bill, which his Mmi -try had introduced last session, because it was considered too cumbrous, containing - , as it did, about 400 clauses, had been thrown out. He added sarcastically, turning to the Chairman, that he believed that gentleman was rather in favor of ' skeleton bills," measures wliich might be largely filled up. He had introduced the Municipal Corporations Act, with 370 clauses, which, he was glad to say, had passed, and had .been adopted already by six or seven Municipalities. He considered it a mere question ot time how soon one or two of the provinces would collapse. Mr Stafford '.hen promised an income tax next session, and said he made this announcement knowing that the statement made by him that evening in that Hall would be regarded with the greatest interest, not only by the audience present, but by the colony at large. He was glad to be able to state positively tliat the province of Auckland, lately threatened with a large exodus of its population, had b.-en enabled to retain it in consequence of'the breaking out of the Thames goldfield. He concluded hi« speech by recognising in grateful terms the uniform consideration with wliich for 14 years he had been treated by tlie electors of this city, for whatever reflections I they might have indulged in at his expense during his absence, he had never had reason to complain of what had passed between them when brought face to face. We fancy, however, that the audience hardly relished this latter compliment, if indeed it was irit.nded as such, and more probably regarded it as a complacent reference to the honorable gentleman's feebly disputed victories on previous similar occasions. From the Press he had received no support; there was no newspaper in the colony which dealt with general questions, the natural consequence of there being no large centre of population. The peroration of the hon. member's oration consisted of an eloquent, but bitter summing up of his experience as a statesman, wiiich he appeared to hold up as a warning to any man who, possessing ability and patriotism, should attempt to carry out measures tor the welftre of'the colony, in the presence of the universal selfishnes> and widespread jealousies wliich characterise the normal state of Kew Zealand. Mr Stafford then sat down amidst applause, whi -h, however, would bear but Taint comparison with the tumultuous p audits with which he had been greeted on previous occasions. A guerilla warfare then ensued, in which the Editor of the Colo-dst, and two oilier knights errant took part, the tormer of whom made some home thru -its with regard to the Native expenditure, Mr Stafford's alternate abuse of and fraternisation with Alessrs .Fitzherbert and J. C Richmond, the former of whom he had characterised as no more fit to be Colonial Treasurer than a babe a day old, whilst the latter had stigmatised him (Mr Stafford) as an anthropomorphous ape, both these gentlemen being now members of his ad tninistr.it i n. Tlie veteran warrior parried with his cu>totnary dexterity the blows levelled at his political coiisi.-tency, and vindicated Mr Fitzherbor.'s financial ability, wliich, he said, wus quite eon si* tei it. wilh his probable inability to sum up correctly a column in .simple additiou. Tha meeting, whicn broke up without" j.assin-; a vote of thanks for tbe ' exp'niia; ion ' afforded by the Premier, merely comeming its.':ii' with conferring that compliment upon the chairman, was on the whole a very orderly one, though Mr Stafford several times protested agains f the interruptions, or rather interpolations, \»hk:h occasionally arose during the delivery of his address. It may, however, be observed that the honorable gentleman apparently entertained no such scruples with regard to the convenience of his opponents, for he repeatedly interrupted Mr. Luckie during his remarks.