MR. HUTCHISON'S MEETING.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4986, 16 March 1877, Page 3

MR. HUTCHISON'S MEETING.

Last evening Mr. Hutchison met the electors kt Gillespie's Hotel, Tinakori-road. There was a good attendance. Mr. M. L. Marks was moved uito the .chair, "and after a few intro-ductory-remarkscalled upon the candidate to »tate i && views, expressing a great deal of pleasure in taking the chair for so worthy a candidate. Mr.' HoicHi3bN.was received with loud cheers. He said he did not intend to speak long, for the very good reason that he .could not say something new every night, and t>e-aideß-that he was then unusually wearied owing to the - excitement of a previous meeting that afternoon. He referred to the public works of, the colony, firstly to those in the provincial district of Wellington, and said he thought the Wellington and Masterton railway shonldbe finished at as. early, a, date<aapos- ■■■• Bible. He should use f every influence he had *■ to secure the early completion of the work, as there could, be no becansie'* as long as the whole remained unfinished the expenditure on the part Completed was praci tically wasted. After dealing with the subject of education in the samestrainas he had at previous meetings, he added that he thought he ha'l a right to right to speak.with some authority on the subject, because he had' been a member of the Board for the : first three years after the inauguration of the present system, and ,had moreover assisted to pass the provincial Ordinance which had called the Board and its system into existence, though the Act was not exactly what he could have wished. In this connection he justified his career as a Provincial Councillor. It had been said by the Evening Post that he had been a useless man, but he pointed out that from the time he first went to Wanganui to the date of abolition he invariably had been elected to the' Council, so that his constituents had scarcely thought him a useless representative. (Cheers.) It was true that he generally acted with the minority, but that was the result of his having •arly imbibed the opinion that provincial institutions must go ; and though for a time he had been in the minority, it turned out that the opinions he had early advanced triumphed very soon, for provincialism had to go. It was because the present Government had grappled with that question, and had successfully overcome difficulties, that he should, if elected, support them, and givd them a fair" chance of building up the new institutions. No doubt the Government made mistakes, but it was better to keep a Government which erred occasionally, but' which' the people knew to be honest and straightforward, than to turn them out of office for a set of men of whom nothing waa known. One of the mistakes of the present administration he contddered to be-fche present;zn»il service arrangements. He was not prepared to say that a mail'Service via San Francisco was wanted at all; but putting that view of the matttr on one

sidei altogether," He" asked; why, if [we bad,to pay for two, they, were j ;not managed intiilligently, and why'instead ,'ol both mails leaving almost simultaneously, the dates of departure and arrival were not so arranged. that we. should have the benefit of a fortnightly service? (Applause.) He should like to that matter put upon-a different footing. - Speaking of faulty legislation,'he' said it was almost'to be expected. He mentioned that- even that day he had found there was no provision in the Municipal Corporation* Act as to what should be done in the case of the resignation of aCity Councillor. Ofcoursethatwasexceedingly inconvenient; but they must look to time tp remedy these matters, and they must remember that the amending Acts of every session jreally represented 'the gathering up of experience in the working of our laws when (brought -into actual operation. He then re- i ferred to the Upper House." TluWas a matter yhich afforded him the opportunity of importing something fresh into his address that evening, for he had hitherto allowed the matter to Scape his attention. Even now ! hehad not thoroughly thought the subject out- but he should state roughly the direction in which'he at present leaned. Unfortunately,' he differed from their late member, Mr. • Pearce, who, while confessing to occasional annoyance at the action of the Upper House, still on the whole thought it was right in the end: Now, he did not think the Upper House right in the end

I any more than in the beginning, and he referred to the conduct of that body last session in reference to the Harbor Bills, from which it had cut out all borrowing powers. He instanced the Wellington Harbor Board Bill as an instance of the foolish action of the Council; for while it had agreed to, establish a Harbor Board it had by cutting put the borrowing powers from the Bill rendered such a body a nullity, inasmuch as it deprived it of the means of performing its functions.. The Wellington Loans Consolidation Bill, in which was included power to borrow for wharf extension purposes, was next referred to, and the action of the Council in relation to it explained. The provision binding the Council to expend upon the wharf all proceeds of the wharf he regarded as being particularly absurd, because in the first instance the ratepayers' property had been made responsible tor the cost of the wharf, and was noa- responsible for the repayment of money borrowed for repairs, while such a provision in effect made the wharf colonial property. Strangely enough too, when the loan was sent Home it was refused admittance on the Stock Exchange until the meaning of the clause which enforced this restriction were explained. Now the Legislative Council contained some high-minded honorable men, and there were a number of them, well, who were probably the reverse, but still he thought there was a necessity for radical reform in its constitution. He was not prepared to say at once what that reform should be, but it occurred to him, speaking roughly, that it would meet the case if twothirds of the members of the Upper House were elected and one-third nominated. (Hear, hear, and no no). _ Well, he thought there sho ild be a limited number of nominations for this reason, that there were many, and there might be more as the country progressed, gentlemen well fitted to be legislators who wo Id not submit ts woo the sweet voices of the electors; and by this means such men might be brought into the Legislature ; while the fact of two-thirds being elected would make the Council to a great extent directly responsible to the people. He further said he thought reform necessary because as at present constituted the Council would never consent to taxation upon property, however many Bills the Houße of Representatives might pass. (Cheers) Passing from this subject he said he observed in the New Zealand Times' report that Mr. Travers had said he would have two votes to his (Mr. Hutchison's) one. Well, Mr. Travers was lucky, but he could not help remembering how boys, when they had a perilous jaunt, . whistled to assume confidence ; and a very funny story occurred to him top, which, as an evening paper said he was good at telling stories, he would relate. At one time, when there was. a contest for the office of Superintendent of Canterbury, there were three candidates, Messrs. Moorhouse, Lance, and Travers, and in an early part of the contest Mr. Travers announced that he had 600 pledged votes, which looked extremely bad for poor Mr. Lance, '. who thought he had but a shady chance, while even Mr. Moorhouse shook in his shoes. Well, the close of the poll showed that Mr. Moorhouse had 1200 votes, Mr. Lance had some 600 or 700, and Mr. Travers had 100 some odd—(cheers and laughter) and the worst of it was that- Mr. -Travers had paid for cab hire for 200. - (Laughter.) He did not relate this with any intention.to annoy Mr. Travers, whom he must sayjie greatly respected, and who had. conducted the election with the greatest courtesy; and he hoped it would in future also be conducted free of all personality. ' He then . referred to the misstatements made' against him by the evening papers. The Post, he was glad to see,|was less virulent than it had been, and' he thought its criticisms now fair, but the. other, evening..journal, continued to make untruthful statements in reference to the Town Hall plans. In reply to Mr.'E. H. Hunt, who inquired whether the Mayor or Councillor George had proposed that Mr. Clay ton'. should have the sole right to submit plans for the new Town i Hall, the candidate said,he had not made any such proposal whatever ;V Councillor George might have done, and. that was all that he could say on the subject. The usual vote .of, confidence was then accorded, and the meeting dispersed.