MR. GEORGE McLEAN AND HIS CONSTITUENTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5662, 23 May 1879, Page 4

MR. GEORGE McLEAN AND HIS CONSTITUENTS.

(PER PRESS AGENCY.) Dunedin, Thursday.

Mr. McLean addressed his constituents at the Mechanics’ Institute this evening. John Duncan, o£ Cherry Farm, in the absence of the Mayor, who was confined by illness, took the chair. Mr. McLean commenced by. mentioning various business and other matters which had kept him from addressing them sooner, and stating that an accident which bad happened to him during his travels, and the effects of which he still felt on his chest, might compel him to cut his remarks short. _ He belonged to the Opposition, and last session gave the Government a trial. He did what he could to keep the Opposition from attacking the Government, and the Government supporters then became the Government Opposition. There was no material here for two undefined parties, and he held that the best member was a representative who would make no pledges but vote as he, after going to Wellington, found was best. Mr. McLean referred to the disappointment given to Mr. Montgomery, who had shown Sir G. Grey through Canterbury, and got him so good a reception there ; and who said since that he learned more in a week at Wellington than in twelve months by reading Blue Books and the subsidised papers of the party. He (Mr. McLean) appeared in a somewhat different position to what be did the last time, when he came here as the member of a Government, against which all sorts of crimes were charged. He had been quite willing to allow time to pass to show how baseless the charges were. The country had seen that the charges were falsehoods. The present Government had to swallow all these falsehoods. The charges made of stating the finances wrongfully, including Mr, Larnach’s statement that the colony was indebted £24,000,000, had been refuted. He then enumerated the promises made by the Government for the general amelioration of the human race, and then asked how they had been carried out. In referring to the Electoral Bill he stated that he had not only helped the Government with

tbe Electoral Bill, but in every other measure which he considered to be good, not considering it to be the duty of the m inhere of the Opposition to oppose everything, whether good or bad. Orders in Council had not been diminished, but increased tenfold. If ever there was a time when the House should be criled together early, now was that time, when there was financial depression, and a threatening state of native affairs. His objection to the present Government was that it was a personal Government. Each member ruled over his department, and they were tramping over the country acting each for himself, and denying responsibility on account of his colleagues. He next attributed the delay in the despatch of the Government business to the members of the Ministry going over the country instead of remaining in Wellington to attend to Government business. The special wire he characterised as an iniquitous transaction, —three newspapers combining—the Daily Times to crush the Horning Herald, the Lyttelton Times to crush the Press, aud the Auckland Herald to beep out opposition, and Sir G. Grey to crush a partner of the Press Agency. Mr. McLean next referred to the advertising business, showing that the Government, instead of having its advertising tendered for, gave it only to journals which supported them, so that newspapers instead of being independent had to support the Government or lose their advertising. Regarding a dissolution, he did not think the Government could claim a dissolution, after having exercised corruption in their administration ; moreover, in a crisis like the present, there should not be a dissolution, as the Ministry wanted to give all their time at present to their private business. He had supported the Electoral Bill, not so much because he considered it would have the effect of putting many more on the roll, but because it would consolidate the electoral roll. He, however, had opposed the clause which would permit Maoris to swamp the North Island electorates. On the Government’s fiscal proposals he showed they would have a deficiency of £163,000 on the land revenue. He objected to wholesale disposing of lands for revenue purposes, as it should be sold in such a way as would most conduce to settlement. If Government did not borrow soon they would intensify the existing financial crisis. The House should be called together early to consider the matter, aud not be called together at the last moment aud have a Bill forced down their throats with the remark, “ The mail is going, and we must have it passed.” That sort of action was not like leaving the power to the representatives of the people. He referred to the power which Mr. Macandrew wanted to get under the Railway Construction Bill, to have £8,000,000 to spend, and which his own supporters would not grant him,—A vote of confidence was passed to Mr. McLean iu a hearty manner, and his clear exposition of the financial state of the country was referred to in a most complimentary manner.