MR, HURSTHOUSE AT WAIMEA WEST.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 27, 31 January 1877, Page 4

MR, HURSTHOUSE AT WAIMEA WEST.

Mr Hnrsthouse addressed a thinly attended meeting at Waimea West last night. Mr Bell having been voted to the chair, Mr HuBSTHOUSE said it was usual to address the electors only at the principal polling-place, but as the district was so large anp! wide-spread, he . had thought it better to call meetings at the different centres of population. The session as they all knew commenced with* a mild cannonading over the Piako Swamp, which showed the nature of . the \ opposition to be offered tathe Government duting the session. He had expected opposition aod severe scrutiny on Sir George Grey's part, but was not prepared for the amount of abuse which was showered upon the Government. They were accused of corruption, and of having done nothing with honest motives, and so surprised was he- to- hear all these acousations, that he bad taken the liberty to say that if Sir George would prove any of them he would transfer his support to him, but Sir George bad not thought' fit to do so, and consequently he (Mr Hursthpuse) had continued to give bis support to the Government. With regard to the Piako sale, after going into the matter ..closely he .had, come to the conclusion that though it was not always advisable to sell large blocks of land, to individuals, in this case it was so.' The orovernment thought it desirable to have a road connecting the Waikato with the Thames, and this was one of the conditions on which the landhad been sold to Mr Rusaell. The sale had not been made as publicly as it might have been, and Sir George Grey haa said that the Swamp would have afforded homes for hundreds of poor families, but his opinion was that they would have been wretchedly poor homes; indeed it was quite a matter of speculation whether the bargain would prove a good one for the purchaser. The next aubject he would touch upon was Mr Whitaker's land resolutions, the object of which was to make the land fond Colonial revenue, and to some extent he coincided with these views, for he often felt that it was not right that those parts of the country where land was not plentiful should be allowed to remain so far behind those that were more favorably situated. Had Mr Wbi taker's resolutions been carried, the Colonial accounts would have been simplified, and the Colony as s whole would have been benefited. The Government, he believed, would have supported them but for local prejudices, as it was a sore, point with Canterbury and Otago. But though the Government, did not support them in a bold, way, they bad done something in the direction indicated by placing a large number of charges on the various districts, such as the interest on the permanent debt of the Colony, primary education, and the waste lands administration, so that the result would be much the same. By this arrangement, however, Nelson would be on the wrong side of the book to the extent of about £16,000, which would have to be made up by Treasury Bills, which he believed would ultimately have to be consolidated, and made part of the debt of the Colony. After this measure had been disposed of, there was still much opposition, and Sir George Grey then moved hie Separation resolutions, upon which there was a long debate. It was proposed to give a Government to the North Island, with the seat at Auckland, to the South, with the seat at Chaistchurcb, and to have a kind of Federal Government at Wellington; the South Island to pay £600,000, and the North £190,000 towards the interest on the debt ; but this he did not think would be a fair arrangement for the South, besides he had no desire to see the Colony, which bad been united for over thirty years, divided. Of the Acts passed, the Counties Act was, of course; the most important. He did oot altogether like it, but there was no alternative between adopting it and accepting Sir George Grey's Separation resolutions, with him at the head of the Government. The first Education Bill that was brought down did not meet with : bis approval, or that of the other Nelson members, and on their statin? their objections it was withdrawn, and the one now in force, which was but a temporary measure, was substituted for it. There were several other Acts of more or leas importance, but he would opt now touch upon them, for he did not believe there was much interest taken in them, — not as much, indeed, as there should be. He said this from his own knowledge, for . he was sorry to say that until be came forward for election he bad never studied a single measure. With regard to the public works and immigration policy, the. railways had paid better than was anticipated, the receipts having for the past year been £95,000 in excess of working expenses. Of this £85,000 waa from the Canterbury and Otago railways. He had been told the Nelson and Foxhill railway was payiDg, but he believed the receipts did not exceed the working expenses, or if they did it was only by a very small amount. Immigration had been largely reduced, and it was satisfactory to kuow that a large proportion of the new arrivals had beeen sent ior by their friends, which was a good sign, as settlers here would ; not bring their friends (heir frienJa out if they did not think well of the country. With reference to raising further loans it necessary, it appeared that the credit of the colony was very good and would bear a Airliner strain but he

thought the facilities for borrowing : were not of half so much importance as a more careful and economical ex- . penditure. Hitherto (here had been a large amount of wasteful expenditure, owing in a great measure to the money having been borrowed first and the direction in which it was to be expended decided afterwards. Ministers, however, now proposed to compile a ; schedule of the works they considered ; necessary, bring it down to the House for approyal, and then to borrow the requisite amount. The question 1 of retrenchment had been raised in the House, and; it! had be9D proposed to reduce tbtf Estimates by £100,000, but , this had been found impossible, for no sooner did one member rice to propose a reduction in ,jthe salary of, one particular officer than hatf-a-dosen others jumped op and said that he was the : one of the whole service who should not be reduced. It should rest with the Government to. decide where the reductions should be made, and they : had undertaken to do this during the , recess. While the House, was , clamoring for retrenchment in the Qivil Service, Jt, singularly enough, thought fit to raise the hotiorariiim of members by £50. For his part he thought that retrenchment should begin at home, and so, although the money was probably as acceptable to him an to any of them, he had voted against the increase. He was surprised and pained to hear Sir George Grey assert that the increase was necessary in order . to bring more, working men into the House. He had stood up for the working men on this point, l not < believing that they at all wanted ,to c be.. so largely. paid, and in this he had been borne out by Mr Swanson, one of Sir George's stauhchest supporters. Members had also voted themselves an additional little perquisite in the shape of free railway passes. Of this, too, he had expressed his disapproval, and had voted against it. Mr Hursthouse then referred to his action in the matter of the Motueka bridge, which , might not immediately interest j his hearers, but it was a work the construction of which would bring a good deal of money into the district, while at the same time it would largely assist in opening up the country. He might say a few words as to his impressions of Parliament. Much time, he thought, was wasted by members not being governed by party leaders. If they would allow themselves to be more guided by them much time would be caved, and things would generally be done better. Six speeches on each side were quite enough to dispose of any subject, and he did not believe that all the talking changed a single vote, as their minds were generally made up even before the debate commenced, and it must be remembered that a debate was an expensive affair, costing, as the House did, 50 guineas an hour. Although there were many men of ability and earnestness of purpose in the House a great deal of personal matter had been introduced, and there was much hard speaking on both sides. He hoped to see a better tone prevail in the next session. He thought the conntry might congratulate itself upon the men who were now at the head of affaire. He bad known the Premier in various states of life, and believed that although (here might be men of greater ability, they would. find none more honest or taking a deeper interest in the welfare of the colony, Mr Donald Reid was one of the ablest men in the colony, and he (Mr Hursthouse) had often been struck with his clear practical speeches. Mr Orniond was well known throughout the colony, and Mr Bowen was a paiostaking and. sincere man, so that on the whole he thought the Ministry was one in whose hands the destinies of the colony might safely be placed. They were preparing many new measures to be introduced at the next session, when they would be brought down in a carefully prepared manner and well digested form Mr Hursthouse concluded saying that he should be happy to reply to any questions that might be put to him, Mr Arnold rose and commenced to put a series of questions but gradually drifted into a speech, of which the following is the. form and substance; — You voted against the free railway tickets, but if you had 20 tons of potatoes to sell, wouldn't you ride to Richmond and then get off your horse and go to town by train with your ticket ? Baigent travels with his, although they do say that, each . time be goes by rail he puts by the fare to go into the poorbox. Don't you think that if Sir G. Grey was at the head of the Government we should be just as well ofi as with the present Government? You talked about the Motueka Bridge; that's all we got this session, and Parker had as much to do with that as you. How much has been spint in Nilson ? You speak about a reduction in the istimates, but when Yogel came into the House and gammoned he was going to die, didn't you vote to send him home as Agent-GeDeral ? Didn't you, now? [Mr Hursthouse: 1 did.] I Bee they are going to reduce the police pay to 63 a day; why don't they reduce other things ? When the news came of Dr Featberston's death, didn't Yogel come down to the House with a long face, and Stafford with tears in his eyes/and Grey cryiDg, and didn't you all vote a lot of money for bis family ? Ab! ye'repurty fellowa for numbers, the whole lot o' ye. Ye're trying to : make Npw Zealand as bad as ould Iraland, putting on it a big national debt, cud making the working men miserable. Six shillings a day, indeed! I'd have every man out ot the Government that had anything to do with the Yogel Ministry, and be d— *-d to them.

What good did' you, or any of our numbers ever do for Nilaon? They do well in Otago, but what do we get? I tell ya what it is, this is the poorest . settlement this side of the line. His burst of eloquence having subaided, Mr Arnold then proceeded to propose a vote of thanks to Mr Hursthouse* which was carried unanimously, and with a vote of thanks to the chairman tha meeting broke up.