POLITICAL MEETING AT WAKAPUAKA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 8, 10 January 1871, Page 2

POLITICAL MEETING AT WAKAPUAKA.

Oue of the largest meetings, ever , held 'in Wakapuaka assembled last night in response to au advertisement bearing the signatures of Messrs. Wastney and 'Collins., - . Mr. T.', Mackay. having, been elected to the chair, called- upon Mr. Wastney, I who said that before commencing the proceedingshe would explain' how the meeting originated. After the late meeting*, called by Mr. Richardson, he had re-' marked that the electors should beinvited to express an opinion on the course that should be pursued in the next session,, to which Mr. Collins agreed. On the Monday following he had called on Mr. Collins'\ with * the advertisement writteu out as it-appeared in the newspapers, with the exception of a blank which was left for the*. .date.: This,- it was agreed, should be fill-ed up ' for- the 9th iust. '* Mr. Ooll&s wished to, ask if his name was appended ] to the advertisement at the time it "was shown to him. ■-■**. .:• .x, Mr. Wastney. Yes itwa's. ". -. '■'•'*•-••"-' : Collins lam ready to take my jO'ath that'T saw no names' on the paper. ;T -assent to", what -Mr." Wastney saya* 1 abpuf; my having, agreed i'to the'desirsibijity ,o^cal)i;ng'a,meeiib,g, "IjwtX/inostr'iCar^fully iguardedirflyself against. allowing my name to appear.- "'I feel -it my .duty j and. 1 am al*w_iys glad*,' to meet. thC public,' but I :cpn'la')io[ii; > .b'e,^a)c;|i.'a misguided dqnkey , as ito'caih.ai meeting -for the express purpose of upsetting the candidate whom I'-sQp-jpotft..l-Isdeefarei 'off my l Ifdiihv -that T ueyer'agreed to have my -name appeudeti td the 'advertisement, and never saw it there. ; Mr. WASTNEr^^n-^oc^eded^ to offer pome remarks ibS the' poli6y Wtlie-pfesent jGoyernmenU'/soWUh.^eggcdtitQ "the Loan :andi . Public Works. ;s(iherao,, it tya

unanimously agreed that sorao such plan had become absolutely, necessary to the prosperity of tlie colony, and that proposed by the Government was the best yet brought forward. Mauy pegple objected to contracting a fresh loan, ou the ground that it would swamp the colony, and lead to repudiation, but that was beyond the mark, as Governments did not repudiate their debts in these days, and such a thing was not likely to occur in New.. Zealand.. It was a well-known fact that, the colony had prog ressad greatly since 1860. (Here Mr. Wastney produced stads-* tics to show that while in 10 year 3 7A millions of borrowed capital, in, addition to 3£ millous of lacd rovenue had been expended, the taxes had only increased at . the rate of os. per head). People, might say that much of the proposed loan would ■be expended in finding billets for han/geYs on 6f the Government. Probably it might, ■ but it was for the representatives of the people to say how it should be spent. A great deal had been said about the class of members that should be elected, but hitherto the house had been composed of but one class, and there could be no mistake about the way they had managed affairs, and they now wished to shift the burdens on to the shoulders of the producers. The electors should take care to remedy thi?, aud not to vote for men who would never notice them except at election times. With regard to railways^ it was sometimes objected that they did not pay, but he believed that their construction was the ouly way to secure prosperity, to promote settlement, and to unlock the lands of the colony. A railway to Cobden, for instauce, would be most advantageous, as it would tend to the development of our coal fields, which could never be opened without, as there were no harbors on the West Coast. If construe'ed on the principle of guaranteed interest, it would induce at least 10,000 people to settle on the lauds that would be opened up, and these people would, by their share of taxation, pay the whole of the interest required. The native policy of the present Government showed clearly that ifc had gone a long way towards securing peace. He theu spoke ia laudatory terms' of the system of Life Assurance instituted by the Government, and spoke of the Land Transfer Act, which he had studied, but failed to understand. The payment of jurors was a step iv the right ; directiou, and he might take credit to himself for having been the first to call attention to it in the jury box iv Neisou, for which he had been snubbed by Judge Jjohnston, who, however, afterwards apologised .to him: for having dove so. For the new. mail service, the Government was entitled to every credit;, as ifc was 'far better and cheaper than the old Panama service. Mr. Wastney then alluded to the alteration of the payment to provinces, the Non-payment of Rates Act, and the Ballot, of all -of which he entirely approved. All the measures to which he alluded had been introduced and carried out by ihe Government, and the electors should take care to choose men who would keep them in office, as it was highly advantageous -that those .who Liaised the money should have the spending of it. The pernicious results of srn opposite course being pursued had been clearly showu when Mr. Domett was turned out of office, and a new Ministry elected to spend the money he. had raised. If a majority of members of the opposition were returned, they would be sure r tp try to turn out tht? present Ministry. A. Voice : ' I- hope they won't send Parker and Baigent back, for I don't think much of them. "Mr. Wastney went oh to speak of immigration,: of which he highly approved j .-..as no progress would ever be made by the colony without a large accession to its numbers, besides, w,ith immigrants would bo introduced capital, iv addition to that which was borrowed. Protection was a subject which was much misunderstood, but he thought the conditions here were 1 very different to what they were in Eug- : land, where he had always been a strong : supporter of free trade.. For his part, however,. he would like, to seethe whole" of the Customs' duties "abolished, except on a few articles, .and in place thereof a Property and, .lncome: Tax levied, and he would -also like to see some means of reaching the absentee capitalist, wbosp ; money wasan interest in the colony, and ifro'rri 'which*' they* derived handsome in- ! comes. He ;then proceeded ...to give a [slight "sketch 1 of. Nelson, as' it was 21 : years ;^go, ::; when. thiere were no.Ja^es, j after which he proposed*— \X* That' this meeting'; while 'approving generally . jof the policy introduced, by the present Ministry, would earnestly" recommend the following sug-igestiOfl's-aS'Well'cfa,l(iulated to promote the future' .progress -and* prosperity of "the Colony :— The* -to.taj, ..repeal., of-all Customs duties,.; except tfeow dgyied I .'_oai the following, list of articles, :^Wines ; of **{iil'kin^s; apiritous ljq uors ;; . imVo^dfales'.and tobacco ', cigars^ and snuff ; jewellery. <ib\ all -kinds; carriages, ,. not required for agricultural , purposes. .*< l)d. ma!&ev"'upitbSe : deficiency Rn the jrevenue caused .adaption r,*of "the above {recommendation, a Profier'ty atid'-Ihconie Tax be substituted, - pt '.•'.*''■".■■

After some considerable*delay, Mr. Gilbert seconded the resolution pro forma, as he could not altogether agree with it. Mr. Collins wished to say a few words oa the subject. Two years ago he had supported Mr. Fox, as he thought Mr. Stafford was ruining the country. The House aad the country were alarmed at the defence expenditure, when Mr. Fox came forward aud made great promises, among others, that the defence expenditure should be met out of the revenue, but this, -like all his other cardinal points, he threw over as soon as he got into office. The Government, shortly after they got into office, made, a terrible mess of the proceedings against the natives. They upset the plans of Colonel Whitmore, a brave and able officer, who was then doing remarkably well, and they recalled, the expedition to Lake Waikaremoana which would have crushed the natives. It. was true this might have involved us with the -"

" **1 * ■' c Tr J ' , ** - -i llHil■ li 1 1 ■■» *+* ■_■ ■■rr i-.__i_fc-u -itoft4*W»a^.- r,d_w6-**^»-i-.-*r*__^*w*-*t^^ . -w- » 4* *<-«■*-_»■ king natives but we -had thet(a force, and .a man at their head, who were quite able to cope with them. Now we had a small army of fine looking men that cost us £100,000 a year, but they never showed at the front, and we had to pay natives to do the fighting for us. It was all bosh to say that; 1 the 'war was at. an end, on the contrary, all the mouey that had been spent on it was entirely thrown away, owing to • the* action of the present Ministry. Part of the Government scheme was that out of the 4 millions lo be borrowed £400,000 "should be spent in the North Island iv making roads, and another £200,000 in purchasing land from the natives. What -■was the meaning of this, hut that those sums should be handed over to Mr. Maclean for him to spread in a beneficent shower -on the dusky niggers, in order to keep them quiet. That was the policy of the present Ministry. Auother thing which was antagonistic to all good policy "was, that the Qovernrnent had obtaiued a vote for defence purposes for five years, thus taking out of the hands of the House the dealing with the money for the whole of that time. That could uot be right * One thing ' the members' of the present Government had done; they had taken good care of themselves. They were actually giving one another £2000 a year and sending each other home to enjoy their' incomes ; feathering their nests and dividing the profits. Every one of their moat prominent supporters had been well paid. O'ns of these had actually received £1000 a year for so far forgetting what was due to himself as to break- his pair. No Government ever came within cooee of Ithe -present one in" their aptitude/for - creating jobs. He quite agreed with Mr. Wastney that the taxation should be, ' lowered, but that gentleman must not forget -that he was one of those who, ih the last Provincial Council , voted fqr an increase in the honorarium of members. Ten shillings a day was not; sufficient for hintij and yet what did he do for his money except get himself chosen as chairman of several committees and write * various reports, which all had to be rewritten before they could be presented to the Council ? Mr. Collins then proceeded to defend. Mr. . Richardson against au attack made upon him in the Colonist _.. where he K had been called a cephalopod. i/.-Now ; therei -were two kinds of cephalopoda, there wasT that which lived in an atmosphere of "its own creating, an atmosphere of abuse. and backbiting, in which it enveloped itself. The head and - front of Mr. Richardson's .offence was that he had express*! no opinions, but" he thought this was most unfair, iind quoted from that gentleman's speech to prove to '-'.the contrary.. On the question of direct ''taxation, he quite agreed with Mr. Wastney, but there was this difficulty, as shown" by Mr. Richardson, that the Maoris would escape altogether, in addition to whiclf».the diggers, as well, would get off scoijree, and, as a representative of that, eioss he could say that it was not their desire, to escape from a fair shareof taxatr<*ra. *He entirely approved of direct taxation if -it could be shown how these difficulties were to be got over. As to protection, he was altogether opposed tent, as he believed it meant worse articles and higher prices. One slight exception he might make, namely, in the case of some new, industry which might 'be fostered for a short time in order to prove whether ifc" was likely to answer. He should like to say a few words with reference. to*she loan. One -of tbe cardinal points of the' present Ministry on first taking .office was that _f^ more money should "be borrowed, and 'yet, no sooner were they in their. seats,, than they, initiated Provincial borrowing, that roost perni '■ cious of all descriptions of loans. When* the colony borrowed we knew what we were about.' but "when small sections of it were allowed to go into the market for sums which tlie whole colony would even-; tually jhave to payywe could have no idea what our liabilities were, and, than this,' he could conceive nothing more disastrous, When he. heard .what. they. .proposed doing he** went* confidentially to' certain members' of the Ministry and expostuja'ted with them, and their ouly reply was, ! .never.;; mind. ; this time, ; . Collins, . add . *we won't dp it again;'' But he did mind, a„d from that time he" left them and joined. the : party?; that. was known. as. the "Cave," and; a.niost. useful, party to 'the country he conceived it to be, and he took a pride inbelonging to, "it, He jthen thanked - £he i meeting for the patient hearing they had; given .hirii, and in_.icohclusio_i _ would ftsk, i is a country which for two years has ; money to. pay;itsin:terest,.ih _i fit position to double its loan? f Such .conduct wa'ii not ho_e_t,; and .^therefore. he C9*9sero.ned jt^^Gp^ernmeut;; policy most" strpn'giyTl., Mr, jbollius J ug,,iresumed his'seat "amidst loud-applause, '.'" _"*'**'''' ppMr. G-t&BE'RT said he felt bound to npake a*.fe*w\r?in^kßi- 'i He hadlfailed/f o gather % r >;frpi^>*Mr. .Collins' * long . ..and rambling '^^^.o^^^. hjad gath^re^r was that

Mr. Collins belonged to no party, and was in a state of uncertainty as to the proper* course to be pursued*. His argumeuts against the defence policy were based on upauthen*ticated intelligence/ ani^-ne had no reason ; for asserting that fijg^war was not .'it ah' end, and that jaU^the expenditure on it had been Ju^^-feT f He did not wish to assert 'tfM^roffr. Cdllins had wantonly or intentdj^fffly attempted to deceive the*meet|ing^but he himsllf had said that he did not understand sojne of the proceedings of the House, and. therefore his opinion must be taken for what|it was worth. Mr. Bungate here addressed the meeting in -what, judging from his qction, was. a most vigorous speech, but owing to the noise of retreating feet, our reporter was unable to catch his wordsgppMr, WASTNEiinM|_#^a few remarks, and conclu.ded^Prsayiug that in his opinion, i^f-ras far better. . to pay the Maoris tokeep qliefc, than to pay men td fight, them. # By this time tpe meeting had graduallydissolved and no one was left to adopt the resolution, which, consequently, fell to the ground. : .. . *_. *•* - - \