PUBLIC MEETING.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 254, 22 October 1873, Page 2

PUBLIC MEETING.

A meeting of electors waa held last night, when ! the Provincial Hall was moderately well filled, but not so crowded as is usual on such occasions. On the motion of the Hon Dr ilea wick, the chair was taken by Mr Sclanders, who, after a few preliminary remarks, called upon Mr Curtis, who said that the greatest difficulty . he experienced was, not to find matter on which to speak, but to select for comment from the great mass of measures that had been introduced into the Assembly such as were of the greatest importance, either colonial or local The fact that no less than 170 Bills of greater or less length had been brought down was sufficient to show the impossibility of bringing the whole work of the session within the limits of n reasonable address. He proposed, therefore, to confine his remarks to some twenty or thirty of the greatest importance, but previous to referring to them he wished to Bay a few words upon the position of affairs at the early part of the session. Shortly j after the meeting of the Assembly an event took i place which had a considerable influence upon j their deliberations, namely, the resignation, by Mr Stafford, of the leadership of the Opposition, i Whatever views might be entertained of the opinions held by Mr Stafford, his retirement was received with the greatest regret in the House, by men of all Bhades of political opinion^ and, he believed, by the colony generally for however great might be the faith anci belief in Mr Yogel and his policy, the existence of a powerful and watchful opposition was a master of the highest importance to the welfare of tlie country. Upon Mr Stafford's resignation of the important post he had filled, the opposition at once became disorganised, as indeed did the Government party, and from that time every measure wrm treated on fldifit was called its intrinsic merits and without reffrerce to the bearing ifc had on the policy of the Government. The result of this was not flattering to the Government, as many of the measures which upon their introduction had been been stated to be essential to their policy were treated with the utmost indifferent:.-, .'md some of them so mutilated as to render them tinrecognisable by their authors. When parties would again arrange themselves in distinct ranks it was impossible to say, but he thought that they must do so soon, and was convinced that the sooner they did the better it would be for the colony. With regard to the measures introduced he would refer first to those which were passed, and taking them in alphabetical order the first that called for remark was the Customs tariff which was brought down by the Government not for the purpose of raising additional revenue — at least. so it was stated — but with the view of rendering the duties more equable fco all classes. It was clear however that the Government had been mifinformtd upon this head, or that they were not candid with the Houec Evidence was largely adduced that the new tariff would greatly increase the revenue, and also hive the effect of placing a check upon trade, and after some delay, . during which public meetings were held throughout the colony protesting against the new rates, the Government consented to reduce the duties from fifteen to twelve per cent. An attempt was made to further reduce this to 1\ per cent, for which he had voted, as it waß said thafc the object was not to increase the revenue, but this was defeated. He would not enter upon the question of the change from measurement to ad valorem duties, but he believed that the impression generally entertained that it would decrease the charges upon articles ot necessity, and increase them upon those of luxury was a false one. It was all very well to pick out the particular items of silks and velvets, but if all ordinary articles of consumption and wear were taken into consideration he believed that the proportion would be found to be actually heavier on articles of necessity. The principle of ad valorem no doubt commended itself to all in theory, but in practice it was found to be different from what was expected, Jewellery, for instance, was said to yield so little revenue upon the measurement system that some years ago it was resolved to impose an ad valorem duty ot 10 per cent , but it was contained in such small packages that it was easily concealed among other articles, and, it was he believed smuggled to a large entent, and in all probability, it would be the same with silks and satins, and such like articles. The next measure to which he would allude was the Civil List Amendment Act, the object of which was to in-., crease the salaries of Ministers. It was argued that they did not receive sufficient remuneration for their time and labor, and if the matter were considered solely from that point of view he should say that their salaries were too small, as managers of shipping companies and inspectors of banks were in receipt of from £'.GQO to -8250 b a year, whereas Ministers received only £1000. But it must be remembered that the office of Minister was one of great honor and importarice, and the subject of ambition to many men, and looking at the matter in this light, he had formed one of a very small minority in voting against the proposed increase. The next subject was the loans raised for the colony. He did not refer to the Provincial Loans Bill, but to the increase that had been authorised to the indebtedness of the colony. During the session this had been sanctioned to the amount of ;£2,750,000, of which a million and a half was for railways and other public works, half a million for the purchase of land in the North Island, and three-quarters of a million for general purposes. Of this latter sum, £300,000 was to pay interest on loans already raised. This was a question the colony should take into its earnest consideration, and on which it should express a clear opinion. It was argued that while works were in the course of constructed, the interest on money spent upon that partial construction should be viewed as part of the original cost, and that ifc would be unfair to pay such charges out of the current revenue. That companies and individuals pursued suqh a course was certain, bufc he thought it a very serious question whether it was legitimate on the part of a Government, and the Ministry of which he formed a part last year had determined to put a stop to it. Of the remainder of the amount to be raised, £25,000 were for Road Boards, £50,000 for the extension of telegraphs, £35,000 for additional lighthouses, and £115,000 for colonial buildings. The Licensing Act was, as they all knew, brought in by Mr Fox who took a keen interest in it, and had worked hard at it with the most laudable motives. Ifc was originally proposed that twothirds of the . inhabitants of any district should have fche honor of saying whether or not a license should be granted, but this order of things was reversed, and it was ultimately decided that a license should be refused only if petitioned against by ' two-thirds of the inhabitants. This was a provision that had been in force in this province for several years, but had never yet been taken advantage of. Instead of quarterly licensing meetings of the Bench of Magistrates being held, licenses were to be issued only now annually by the Resident Magistrate and a Board of Commissioners, by whom too all bush licenses were to be granted instead of by the Superintendent as at present. This was a provision which he thought would cause great inconvenience in a province with a scattered population such as that of Nelsou, Where at any time a new rash might

take place, and accomntbdatipn, hou^esi'be required, which now conld'pnljSbe licensed Offce a year. The Act, he believed, placed the'publicans^ in the awkward position that; theyv were /.how' selling without any .".uthority whatever. He had voted agninst ifc ou the ground that it was an unnecessary interference with thepxisting provincial arrangements. Tiiere were five Government Bills on Native nffiirs which had been left largely to Mr M'Lean, o f whose integrity, sagacity, and , ability with regard to Native bnsiness, the House Miad a high opinion. One of^them, however, jj.the Native Reserves 8i11.,'- possessed some interest v for the people of the town of Nelson, as it* pro-' | vided for leases! beinpr granted for CO instead of |for 21 years only, in Bridge-strset there was Jjbne of those reserves on which were several buildings of a not very ornamental class, in which an improvement would probably be effected, now that a longer lease was to be obtained. The Province of Westland Bill, he considered, was a very j udicious measure, and one which he was glad to see passed, as he thought it a pity it wasever constituted a County. The Railways Act was more especially important to this province, on account of the clauses referriug to the Foxhill aud Brunnerton lino, by which power was given to the Government to enter upo'i its construction whenever -the necessary appropriation was agreed to by the House. Of course, no long as it was dependent upon such a vote, it could not be looked upon ss a certainty, but it was a great thing to have it included in the Act as one of the main trunk linew. It was also provided thafc a complete survey of the line should be made during the recess. Previous to the passing of the Act, his own idea had been, so coon as the Ndson^and Foxhili line was fairly commenced, .w et its extension authorised, say a9,far as tlii Buller, and .to get appropriations for: a bit at a time, but the 'people of the Province were impatient of progress so slow as that, and an agitation had been got up, which resulted in the formation of the Inland Communication Committee, whose labors had been of the greatest possible valuo in bringing the matter betore the Assembly, and in strengthening the hands of the representatives of the Province, who for once were united, and on the Government declining to propose to carry the line through at once as they had led the deputation to expect that they would do, waited upon them, and endeavored to persuade theni to undertake 45 miles of it. They did not succeed in this, and therefore had to bs content with what they could get, namely, that the line should be included in the Acfc. The Telegraph Cable Subsidy Bill was a measure to enable the Government, in connection with the Australian colonies, to subsidise a Company to the extent of five per cent on a million of money, to connect New Zealand with Australia and Europe, our share of the subsidy not to exceed £17,000. He now came to the rejected bills. The first of these was the District Courts' Bill; which he T v*fas yery glad to see thrown out', as it proposed give too great powers to the bench of magistrates. The Education Bill would have been important had ifc been more general in its application, bufc as ifc was purely permissive it was of very little interest to Nelson, which was well satisfied with her own Act. One amendment he had introduced, atid been the means of carrying, namely, the substitution ofthe word -"may" for " shall" in the provision that the Holy Scriptures shall be read iv schools. The Bill, however, was thrown out, as the House could not agree to the amendments made by the Legislative Council. 'Ihe Gold Mining BiU was a consolidation of the existing Acts, ten of which were to be repealed and their provisions consoliFor remainder of news see fourth page.

dated in ifc. The Goldfields members, however, opposed it for many reasons, and it was found impossible to pass it. He had introduced a clause into it providing for agricultural leases on the goldfields being extended from seven to fourteen years, at tbe end of which period the lessees were to be entitled to Crown grants This would have had the effect of promoting the permanent settlement of the goldfields. The Provincial Loans BUI originated thus— A Bill was to be brought in to enable Wellington to borrow £110,G00, and it was feared that similar measures would be introduced by tbe other provinces. The Government, therefore, brought down a measure of their own which was supposed to be of a safer character. It would be remembered that in 1867 the provincial loans had heen consolidated, and the colony became Uable for them. This was not effected without a considerable sacrifice of money, but by it the credit of tbe colony was enhanced. Tbe result of the provinces borrowing again would be to renew the old state of things, and probably again to render consoUdation necessary at a similar sacrifice- The object of the Government measure was to enable the provinces to borrow only upon tbe security of special blocks of land set aside for the purpose, and of rents, tolls, &c, and stringent provisions were to be inserted in the debentures tbat the colony was not to be liable. He believed it was a mistake to think that this would have any effect, for although the colony might not be legally or even morally responsible, it wonld incur what he would term a political responsibility, as in the event of a borrowing province being unable to meet its engagements, it woald, for the sake of its own credit, have to take the burden upon its shoulders. Hb own idea was tbat if the provinces were to borrow, it would be better that the colony should raise the money for them, as it might obtain it at 4| per cent, whereas the provinces would have to pay 6 per cent. He should have voted against the biU on the second reading, but that there was no division. On its being thrown out by the Legislative Council a number of other bUls were introduced in the hope that the Council would agree to them in their new form, but these also were rejected. One of these he had framed for borrowing money for certain purposes in the province, and among others for building a new wharf and reclaiming land on the Haven-road for a Quay, the security being tbe rates that would have been receired. Mr Curtis then referred to the Cook's Strait route for the Suez mail, and its rejection, owing to the pressure brought to bear by the Otago members, and to the coalition between them and the Auckland representatives for an additional service to Auckland, whereby the colony was burdened with an unnecessary expense of .£SOOO a year. Another question of a somewhat similar nature was the subsidy to steamers from Dunedin to the West Coast by way of opening up the trade with that city, and diverting it from Nelson. This, he considered, was one of the shabbiest and meanest measures ever introduced into the Heuse, as two of the richest and most powerful provinces, Canterbury and Otago, united to extract from the Government the paltry sum of £2,900 to enable them to take the trade from Nelson. He did not object to competition upon fair terms, but this he thought was most unfair, however, it was carried by a coalition ofthe Otago and Canterbury members supported by those from the West Coast. The question of the constitution of the Upper House was one that had attracted mucb;attention, and would some day force itself upon the colony. There was a general opinion that some system of election instead of nomination would have to be adopted, and he would repeat now what he had suggested some three years since in addressing a public meeting that the plan adopted in Norway or something similar to it would probably answer in New Zealand. There was another matter that came before the House to which he would refer. The report of the Colonial Industries Committee recommended that the BuUer Coalfields should be placed under the control of the Provincial and General Governments conjointly instead of under that of the former alone. Thia he had strongly opposed on the ground that unless the same rule was adopted generaUy it would be unfair to apply it to Nelson. Mr O'Conor, he beHeved, was the originator of the proposition, aa he was a member of that Committee, and had made a violent attack upon the Waste Lands Board, saying that they had dealt with the Buh'er coalfield in a most improper manner, and had made false entries in the books, &c. He should not have thought it necessary to notice such a charge, but that it would probably be made public in Hansard, and should not be allowed to pass without reputation. He had therefore stated in the House that the Board was composed of the Superintendent, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, and the Speaker of the Provincial Council, and had he believed the confidence of the people, and further, that the charges were entirely without foundation. The Government then recommended that the resolution should be withdrawn,and this was done. Theattack upon the Board by Mr O'Conor was a very serious one as lt might have induced the Government to withdraw the control of the waste lands from the Province, It should be known that he had at one time put in an appUcation for a portion of the coalfield, and had offered on the part of himself or a company to construct a raUway from Ngakawhao to the BuUer, on condition that he received a bonus of 20,000 acres, snd that the whole reserve of 150,000 acres was handed over to him for a time while he was selecting five blocks in various parte Such a concession the Board did not deem it advisable to make, snd their refusal probably led to this attack upon them. Mr Curtis then referred to the route to be adopted for the raUway between the town and Stoke. The effect of the desire to have a different line selected to that decked upon by the Government had led to much delay and was likely to came a great deal more time to be lost, before the work was proft?ti ,r s?*-J sefo J e^T? n 8 Wellington he had told tiie Minister of Public Works that he beHeved, rather than submit to any further delay, the people would prefer that the Government adopted their own course. He then referred to a statement that had been made to the effect that the Superintendent of a Province was not likely to get so much attention paid to his wants if he waa not a supporter of the Government, and read an extract from a speech made by Mr Yogel in which he clearly showed that this was not 'the ease. Mr Curtis then stated his willingness to reply to any qnestion or to furnish any information that might be required, but none being asked a vote of thanks to him was on the motion of Mr Wklm eordiaUy agreed to, and with a similar compliment to the chairman, one of the quietest meetings ever held in Nelson was brought to a •lose.