MR RICHMOND AT WAIMEA EAST.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 240, 9 October 1874, Page 4

MR RICHMOND AT WAIMEA EAST.

Mr Richmond held a meeting of tli electors at the Star and Garter last night* dut the attendance was very small. Mr Harkness having been voted to the chair, Mr Richmond said, Mr Chairman and Gentlemen, — I have invited you to meet me, in order that I mayexplain to you, as well as I am able, the principal events which occurred durinsr the j session < f Parliament which has just closed, | and, Gentlemen, I consider it [especially my duty to call you together on thiß occasion as the session which is just over, i hough shorter, was more important than usual, from the fac; that- resolutions were passed which will have the ultimate effect of j making great constitutional changes in tt c government of the country-. But tor the thinness of tha meeting, I should have asked you, before we separated to-night, to express your opinion whether the int nded change in the form rf gove r nment in the Norih Island should be extended through the whole colony or not For my own part, lam strongly of opinion that it would be a wise step to abolish Provincial Governments in the North Island, and to p'nee it under one form of government, and I would have liked to see the Government bold enough to carry the r reform further, and abolish the Provincial Governments in this Island as wel 1 . I am one, Gentlemen, who considers that Provincial Governments have done their work, and have done it well, but it is idle to cod tend that they can any longer carry on the work of colonisation without large loans raised at the expense of the colony, or by furas advanced by the General Government when tl>e fact is known that some of them can scarcely carry on the ordinary functions of government, much less are they able to undertake pubic works of any magnitude. This i* •hown by the demands for la' go. sums of money made at each sitting of Parliament. Then ugain, I contend, as the outying districts are being people.i, and become small communities thtmselves, that f'rovincial Governments do not give the people local Relf government in its true een-e; take, for instance ourselves. Do we not hear complaints from almost every outlying district of the email sums spent on it, and the manmr in which it is expanded ; is there not grumbling at e^ery meeting of the Council from members for the West Coast, Amuri, and < ther districts ? What caused the Wairau to s< parate from us but a des>re for local self government. an<l the expenditure of its own revenue?, wluch were being rapidly spent a**out Nelson ? Then look at Wellington. Did not Hawke's Bay separ ife from it for the same reason ? Are not Wanganui, Manawatu, Wairarapa, »nd other outlying districts constautly complaining, and even the rich and powerful Canterbury had to atop the complaints of Timaru by guaranteeing a certain portion ol its revenue teing spent locally, otherwise it would have separated. There has been a great dealof blame cast upon the Government'lor not making known what they were going to put in the plsce o f Pr> vincial Governments when done away with, and great pressure was brought to bear upm them to do so, but the reason for their silence on this point was obvious The opponents of the proposed change only wanted something to DPB3 their arguments upon, and would, ot course, have found nothing in the Bill that was good, even if it had been perfect, but plenty to find fault with, and to ho d up to the country for ridicule- I should have liked myself to have seen the Bill circulated be ore next session, but cannot see how it could prudently have been done. The intentions of the Government, so far as I understand them, are not to make this change in any sudden manner, but by degrees, so as to prevent nny public inconvenience, and giadually to establish road boards with extended powers in each centre of population, and then local boards in each portion or sub-division of the district, represented by a member of the central road board, in fu>t something very similar to our present Euu^ational system, with its Central Boird and Local Committees. This plan would ensure the spending on the spot by men residing in the district, who, of course, are best acquaint- d with its wants and requirements, all revenue raised there, besides its proportion of grants from Parliament, and advances by the General Government out of consolidated revenue. Some such system as this would free us of the double government with which the colony is at present burdened, acd of course the large expense attending it. We could then have one set of land laws instead of nine or ten; our public institutions, such as gaols, Ijmatic asylums, hospitals &c, would be all regulated and managed under one system ; our police, also, under one control and regulation ; our harbors by ? harbor boards under the immediate super- c vision of the General Government, so that every port in the colony would then have the . same regulations and charges. However, Gentlemen, I think I have now said enough on this subject, and trust I have made the nature of tbis important constitutional change '.'■ clear to all of you, so that, as I s»id before, you will be prepared to exp;e3* an opinion whether you approve of it being made or not. For my part, I will repeat again, that I am strongly of opinion that the change would be most beneficial to us, without casting any slur whatever on our Provincial GoverotLent, for I know they are doing as well as they can, with the small amount of means at their disposal. But are we, Gentlemen, in such a flourishing condition that you think no change is desirable; can we, without the aid of the General Government, carry on any large reproductive work, or any work at all. Had we not last session to a( cept £5090 in charity. You may depend upon it, that if we are under the General Government we must change for the better, for no Government can see one portion of the co ony not cnlv standing still, but getting poorer and weaker, while other portions are r.ch and prosperous It is their obvious duty to make every portion of the colony under their administration equally prosperous and cqnally progressive, so 1 say, tor this reason alone, I consider the change would be for the better. The next subject to which I will allude is the conservation of Stite Forests, as it it a matter of some importance, also affecting Provincial lands and revenue. No one could read the papers on the subject laid on the table of the House, without admiring the great ability and in dustry of the Premier in compiling them, or feeling grateful to him for the valuable information on the subject, and I was sorry I could not jtgree with the measure as originally brought down, nor do I agree with the Bill as passed, for I cannot see how it is practically to be carried out, as besides creating another large Government department, it would also, I think, greatly interfere with the vested interests in saw mills, timbered land, &c , which now exist. No one can deny that something ought to be done as quickly bb possible to protect our forests from wanton destruction, and also to encourage planting, but the difficulty in my mind is, how is it to be done ? Encouragement to planting might, I consider, be offered by the establishment of targe nurseries in different parts of the colony adapted for growing trees, and the young trees be given to the Road Boards, Corporations, and other public bodies, with the view of their planting belts, and even making considerable reserves

of wa^e land for th« purpoee? of p'nnting, and I have no doubt that if this were do .c on a large scale, thiße plantations would have ft very beneficial effect on the climate, and ultimately the income derived from them would be considerable. I think this wou>d be a cheaper an<l more feaaible plan than the elaborate propositions of the Government. Another scheme of considerable magnitude was brought forward by the Government for encouraging trade with the Polynesian Inlands, by guaranteing interest at the rate of 5 per cent to a company upon their capital of £1,000,000, making Auckland the heid quarten The Assembly and the country are greatly indebted to the Pienier for the large amount of information with reference to this trade, printed in the interesting papers laid on the table of the House, but the scheme was not looked upon favorably. It is always a difficult matter to divert trade from any channel it may originally have taken, and in this ca^e New Strath Wales has the start of us, for nearly all the trade be present goes to Sydney. Besides, Gentlemen, I think we huve quite enough on our hands at present, without going out of our way to guarantee trading companies to such a large amount, an J we must remember that although our revenue is large sn I increasing, and the colony most prosperous, there may come a day of depresßion which nrght mike it difficult and hard for us to met tour own Jegitimita pngagements. The Government, however, wisely withdrew the measure, and I hope we shall not fee it again, at least for s ime tiriie. I will not weary you by going through the numbers of Bills that were introduce 1 during the session, but will low reftr to matters more especially lelatiog to ourselves. lam sure, Gentlemen, you must have all felt the disappointment with reference to ourrailwny. I can assure you none f It it more keenly than did the members from the province, hit when we were told that it woul i cost over £80( 0 a mile, double that of any other Ine yet conFtructed in the c o'ony, we could not but agiee that it would be useless to Ksk the House to vcte, the money, and that it was nece-sary that the country should be more carefully eximinel, in order, if po-shle, to reduce the cos., and I think we are in a belter position than if we had forced the Government to phoe it on the schedule of the Railway Bill, as the House would unquestionably have thrown it out, and it would then have been done for, now it is cn ! y postponed, pending irtsli si rveys, for which a sum of £10,000 h s heen voted In the meantime, we have £50,f00 advanced from the General Government to make a road from the Grip to the Coist, and if thb money is judiciously expended, we, shall, at the same lime that the Foxhill line is opened, hare this road also completed, and it will act as a feeder, to the railway, the coach then, instead of coming to Nelson, would of course turn the other way, and convey passengers and light goods to the Lyell, Buller, &c, the same way as coaches that used to come into Wellington now stop at the Hutt, and feed the railway from up country. The same thing is also done in Australia, and I also think tl at when the traffic is once established on the line, it will very soon prove to the authorise* that it will be nece<siry to lay doirn a light line of rails-, that will be sufficient to meet its r< quiremeits I do not know whether you v ere disappointed at not getting the Jarge loan that was contemplated by the Provincial Council, and brought before Parliament at an early, period by the Superintendent. The General Government set its face against the provinces borrowing, but I do not think we have much cause of rompkvnt, as we sha'l have as much money as the province can judiciously and with care expend in one year. You will have £5000 as special allowance, £50,000 for the Buller road, £11, 1 SO for settling and giving works to immigrant,*, and about £7000, our share of the Middle Island road fund, making a total of about £73,000 or £74,000, which I think you will- admit is as m icb as the province can judiciously and reproductively expend in one year. While tpeaking on money matters I will gay a few words on the much vexed question of honorarium. I say '• much vexed," for every session it is cropping up, and no one appears to know how to me^t the difficulty. This session it was referrel to a Select Commi tee, with the Premier as chairman ; they reported that the honorarium should be increased t» 150 guineas, excepting to members residing within three miles of Parliament 'House, and to members of the Legislative Council. After a great deal of discussion, Mr Reid, a member from Otago, moved that the word fifty be ctruek out, which would have left the matter as it originally stool, the division was, however, against us, so the 150 guineas was carried. I agreed with Mr Peid that the 100 guineas was sufficient lor any average length of. session, but fora prolonged one it is hardly sufficient. I cannot sit down, Gentlemen without taking advantage of this public oscasion to express my regret that the Premier should have considered it necessary to leave the colony at this time, although he has an able and good man (Dr Pollen, the Colonial Secretary) in his pace, but I think we require the master mind that originated the policy to be here to carry it out| as the Otago Daily Times expresses it ? it is like removing the main spring of a watch, and expecting the works to go on. Of course Mr Yogel knows the requirements of the colony, and how he can advance its interetts in Eugland, but to us outsiders it appears strange, when we have an Agent-General at home, with a large staff , costing the colony about £12000 ayearthat.it siould be necessary for the Premier to leave his post and go home to interfere with him. I can only say ogam that I deeply regret.it. Gentlemen, I will not detain you any longer, but will be glad to answer any questions that you may think necessary to put to me. In reply Mr. Bahjicoat, Mr. Richmond said that he had indicated as nearly as possible what he believed would be substituted for the present form of Government, but in the absence of any official information it was impossible to say exactly what it would be. Mr Babnicoat thought the electors should reserve their decision until they knew what was to follow. Provincial institutions had done much good, and, though by no means perfect, were, he believed, yet destined to be beneficial to the colony. One of the chief charges aeainst them was their costliness", but we were not yet assured that what was to follow would not be still more costly. The idea had been broached on the bpur of the moment by Mr Voge], and up to the present time the country had certainly pronounced no opinion upon it. He would move:— "That the electors of this district, whilst recording their confidence in Mr Richmond as their representative, desire to reserve their opinion as to the expediency of the general abolition of Provincial institutions until better informed as to the character and probable cost of those that are to follow." Mr Sioley seconded the resolution, which was carried unanimously. Mr Siglet was glad to find that Mr Richmond had voted against the increase of honorarium. Mr Habkness disapproved o! members receiving any payment at all. Mr. Richmond did not think that would answer, as it would at once cloae the door of the House to all but rich wen. There were many able men in the House who, hut for the honorarium, could not afford to be there. A voteof thanks to the chairman terminated the proceedings.