MR. FOX AT WANGANUI.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5662, 23 May 1879, Page 6

MR. FOX AT WANGANUI.

(PER X’RESS AGENCY.) Wanganui, May 9.

The Hon. Mr. Fox, M.H.R., addressed his constituents last night in the Odd Follows’ Hall. There was a full meeting, and a vote of confidence and thanks was passed unanimously. He spoke for two hours. He accused the Colonial Treasurer of incapacity, and described him as a mere novice in finance, without any previous experience, and with no originality of mind qualifying him to meet any serious emergency. The abandonment of easily collected Customs duties, and the substitution of an uncertain land tax was a great blunder. The speaker quoted from Hansard to show the manner in which he alleged the Government broke ■ its pledge to stand or fall by its three financial Bills, and stuck to office after being defeated in two out of three. The financial prospect for the next session, he added, was gloomy. The receipts for land would fall short of Mr. Ballance’s estimate by three-quarters of a million. Referring to the native question, he drew a contrast between Sir Donald McLean’s wise policy of allowing the King party to weary themselves of their isolation, while they remained quiet and harmless, and the action of Sir George Grey, who, for the purpose of making political capital, had set that party on its legs again, and made it formidable. The Colonial Government, he said, had been dragged through the dirt by Sir George Grey and Mr. Sheehan. No member of the Government had ever been insulted and made to look so small as Mr. Sheehan had been by Te Whiti and Hiroki, and now they were making themselves base in the eyes of the nation by crawling in on all fours without an invitation to the King meeting in the Waikato. What an insult their reception had been ! The King refusing to see them ; Kewi declaring he would have no private talk again with “ The little Parliament of two,” and nobody welcoming them except a few Ngapuhis, who were there themselves as strangers and guests. Mr. Fox then commented on the neglect of the present Government to bring in a new Native Lands Bill, which, in Opposition, they had declared to be of vital importance, and the total abandonment of Sheehan’s promise that the Government would give over land purchasing and leave it to private persons. These sudden and entire reversals of policy showed that Sir Geo. Grey had no settled principles and none of the statesmanlike ability which the “Voice crying from the wilderness,” was expected to exhibit. His bounce and deceitfulness had disgusted the natives, who looked on the Government now with contempt and aversion. Where was the magnificent tract of land which Rewi was to give for colonial and railway purposes ? Where was the railway through the King country, for which Mr. Macandrew had appropriated a million and a half of money ? Mr. Fox then commented on the failure of the Electoral Bill, and the deprivation of “ Sir George Grey’s 70,000 serfs ” of the franchise he had promised them, because the Legislative Council had refused to give the Maori dual votes to enable the Government to stuff the register with bogus votes all over the North Xsland, as they had already done at the Bay of Islands. He concluded by pointing out that everything that the Government had, when in Opposition, blamed their predecessors for doing, they had themselves done since in office. He accused them of using the Hinemoa for private purposes, and even political ends of their own, and commented with much severity on their inhuman refusal to let the Marquis of Normanby have that vessel to carry his invalid wife to Australia, when he offered to pay the expense, while Messrs. Ballance and Stout went pleasuring in the Government yacht, and the Governor by laying her alongside the trading steamer at Lyttelton in whieh he was leaving the colony. The Government residences which, in their predecessors’ time, they had insisted should be sold, and Ministers turned into lodgings, they were now occuping without shame at their inconsistency. He feared the prospect of matters next session would be much like the last. The Government wasted all their time in the recess in pleasure-trips or political agitation. They got no measures ready, nor even met for consultation till a few days before the session, and hence nothing but ill-digested Bills, which most of them had never seen, were brought in to be either dropped or kicked out.

The meeting, with the exception of a certain colonel, who was, however, finally put down, was extremely orderly. The hon. gentleman was loudly applauded at the couclusion of his speech.