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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4597, 14 December 1875, Page 2 (Supplement)

Electoral Notices rpo THE ELECTOIIS OS THE HUTT. GENTLEMEN',—I offer myself as a caudidate for re-election to represent you in the next General Assembly. I have served in the Colonial Parliament for twenty years, and during the greater part of that time as a representative of your district, where I have resided for a still longer period. You will pardon me for thus referring _ to my past relationship towards you ; and will not, I hope, misinterpret it into an appeal to your sympathies against your judgment; but rather as my excuse and justification for speaking to you plainly, and with the weight of one whose official relations to you have been of long standing, and whose interests are identified with yours. 1. Last session I had the honor to belong to a numerically small minority, who, after a gallant struggle, successfully defeated the Government in their proposal to enforce on this country fundamental changes in the Constitution without first expressly appealing to the people. Had I been a strong centralist by conviction of opinion, I would have voted against a proposal to subvert the Constitution, without and until an appeal had been made to the people. And for these plain reasons : Because I would have desired to secure, so far as possible, the stability of any such measure of change ; and also because I would have sought to avoid establishing the dangerous I precedent of making changes in the Constitution in haste, or in a pet, or in too_ fickle a mood of the national mind. Because, in short, I would have desired to see the change worked out as a product of the calm deliberate mind and consciences of my fellow-countrymen, and not as the effect of the sudden aim of a coup iVetat. 2. The practical consideration now is, in what way ought the right of the people thus wrested from the hands of the Government on their behalf to be exercised ? So far as I can judge by the addresses of candidates throughout the country, the question appears to have ] been too much regarded as a foregone conclusion. Instead of endeavoring to guide public opinion by adducing reasons pro or con, the interpretation of the words used seems to be, "Elect me and I am ready to adopt any opinions which may be most pleasing to you for the moment." Severe criticism has been directed against the members of the Opposition, because they have not, as a party, published any definite proposal for a new Constitution. The Government, however, having simply proposed to destroy existing institutions, and failed to produce any definite scheme of reconstruction, it is obviously unreasonable to expect any counter proposal to be made. You cannot combat an invisible foe. But Ido not desire to avail myself of this very obvious explanation ; for, amidst much that is unsatisfactory, it is a consolation to me to know that the Opposition members, as a party, have appreciated the true meaning of the position they have gained for the people of the country, viz.:—That the people should take the opportunity of talking over freely among themselves, and thinking out independently, the subject of how they would best desire to be governed in the future, instead of beinsr appealed to to follow implicitly any cut and dried political creed. The manufacture of Constitutions to order is a contemptible trade. Let a Constitution grow by and with the people of the country. It is no use to have institutions better and finer than the people who will have to work them. 3. I now offer you my individual views. I had hoped, when the question of abolition was first introduced, that it would be approached in a really national and not in a narrow, political spirit, seeking the triumph of a party and feeding fat old grudges. I had hoped that the ablest men in the country would for once have united and brought their common experience to bear on the work of framing such a Constitution as might fit the shape, condition, and habits of the country at large, without disregarding altogether the prejudices of the several groups of its inhabitants. It may not, perhaps, be too late for the fulfilment of such an aspiration. I will hope, at any rate, that the country will not be doomed to have a Consti- : tution forced on it with a high hand, and in a self-seeking, grasping, and centralising spirit. I My own conceptions were that the Provincial Institutions might have been reformed, instead of abolished, and made at once more simple and more efficient. lam one of those who : have long acknowledged that there was much room for improvement. I admit, however, that I have hitherto received little encouragement to press these views ; and if they should not be received more favorably than they have been, I shall then be prepared to do my utmost to obtaiD the reality of local self-govern- | ment in some other shape. To speak ex- ; plicitly, I shall be prepared to insist— ! 1. On the election of local executive officers by the people. 2. On the endowment of the local bodies with distinct revenues, independent of the caprice or needs of the Parliament of the country. 3. On the right of the local authorities to appropriate their own revenues, without the interfarence or patronage of the Central Government. It follows, as a matter of course, that I will oppose to the uttermost all attempt to impose on the people of this country anything like the centralised system of administration which has prevailed in Prance since her provincial institutions were abolished, and she became the prey of successive autocrats and revolutionary Governments. 4. I read in the Lyttdton Times that the Minister for Public Works is reported to say, " The main points of the policy that it is proposed to adopt in future is to preserve the unity of the colony at any price. Ido not myself believe in any attempt to divide the colony into two or four provinces." These are brave words ; but what does Sir Julius Vogel say to such a policy ? For many years, as Mr. "Vogel, he strove to split up the colony into two, and to alienate the South Island from the North. ■ln this attempt he was aided by another gentleman, now a Minister, Mr. Reynolds. Have they altered their opinions, and do they now agree with their colleague the Minister for Public Works ! If they really do, I shall be glad to know that they have at last changed their minds, and come i-ound to my way of thinking, for I was one of those who, at the time Messrs. Vogel and Reynolds made their wanton proposal (for the colony then possessed local governments), prominently and successfully combated and defeated their proposal. It will be flattering to me, no doubt, to find that Sir Julius Vogel has really adopted my views as to the alienation and disruption of the two islands ; just as he professed on his last advent to power to have adopted my views also on another great question, viz., that of the maintenance of tho Seat of Government at Wellington ; after having for years joined those who sneered at Wellington as a fishing village, and done his utmost to prevent the removal of the seat of the central administration to the centre of the colony at Port Nicholson. There is too much reason to know that on the Seat of Government question he was sound, so long as he was to be kept in office, and no longer. Let us hope that his separation opinions will not be held subject to the same conditions. The hope, however, it must be confessed, becomes somewhat faint when we recollect that by the aid of an Otago blacksmith Mr. Vogel, in his zeal to begin a provincial rebellion not so very long ago, attempted to take forcible possession as against the General Government of the colony of certain premises in defence of those provincial rights which he now seeks to destroy indiscriminately throughout the length and breadth of the colony. If the Minister for Public Works means by the words "at any price " to say "at any cost of blood and treasure" then he has indeed incurred a responsibility of the very gravest character. The most charitable conclusion probably is that he did not attach any particular meaning to what he uttered. But a Minister ought to be more careful in his public utterances on grave subjects. I desire as much as any man in New Zealand to see this colony one nation. To become that, however, it must be a uni'ed people: a rctil union cannot be effected and made lasting by mere Act of Pari will not be cemented by effusion of blood, or