LIBERAL ASSOCIATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5732, 13 August 1879, Page 2

LIBERAL ASSOCIATION.

La-t evening a verv largely attended public meeting was held at the Arcade, for the purpose of forming what the handbills announced to be a “Liberal Association.”' The hall was well filled, and there must have been about a thousand people present. On the motion ot Mr. M. L. Masks, Mr. G. V. Shannon took the chair. The Chairman opened the meeting bv reading the advertisement calling it. They would see by the advertisement that it was not a red Republican or a Communistic association which they wished to form, but a Liberal Association for the good of all classes of the community. It was to return men to the Legislature who would make such laws as would secure nrosperity to all classes of the community alike. It had been said they had got this up as a working man’s cry, but this was not the case. The promoters had not pledged the association to any of the candidates, therefore they were perfectly free to act in the selection of candidates who might be placed before them when the association was properly formed. He would ask them to give every man a fair hearing, no matter what his views might be. He would now call on Mr. Hutchison to move the first resolution.

Mr. Hutchison, who was well received, moved the following resolution ;—That in the opinion of this meeting, the time has arrived when associations should be formed among the people of New Zealand for the purpose of supporting Liberal principles in legislation. The gentlemen who were to follow him, would enter thoroughly into all the details of the scheme. They took as their first principle the extension of the franchise. They held that it was not what a man possessed, but what a man was himself. Every man was entitled to receive legal rights and privileges, independent of what he might possess. They meant, too, that the many should govern themselves, and not be governed by the few. The more they could embrace within the scope of law-making the more intelligent would they be, and the more would they be obeyed. Another point was the readjustment of representation. They held that good people in one place ought to have as large representation as good people in other parts of the country. Mr. Hutchison referred to Wellington, Wanganui, and Taranaki, as showing the unfairness of the present system of representation. They wanted this sort of thing changed. They wanted government by the people themselves—it was the ancient form of legislation. But they could not have that unless a place [occupied a very small area, or had a limited population. In countries with a large area such a thing became impracticable ; but they could carry out this democratic idea perfectly by an extension of suffrage, and such a readjustment as they were now attempting to get. These electoral reforms, however, were only a means to an end. This he had said before ; but he considered, from the importance of it, he was justified in saying it again. He would say again that he would not come to meetings, and would not subject himself to obloquy, if he had not the assurance that beyond the troubled sea there lay a haven where justice would predominate and triumph over class legislation of every kind. It struck him that a good many people who would give them electoral reform would give them nothing else. It was a remarkable thing, the way the Liberals of Wellington had sprung up in the city of late ; and his own opinion was that the crop would disappear as rapidly as they grew. When the elections were over they would find that some of these great Liberals would not speak to a working man, or allow him to come between the wind and their nobility. They might depend upon it that during tha forthcoming election they would be asked to vote by a good many nippers. (Laughter.) But what were they going to do after these electoral reforms? The Constitutional party would fight every inch of ground to the Liberal party before they would grant a single inch on the question of capital and labor, and some others. In England at the present time, they found an angry money class on the one aide, and a dissatisfied democracy on the other. It would require very considerable concessions in that country to prevent a state of decay, and it would require a number of new men to rise up to prevent a similar state of things from coming to pass in this country. (Hear, hear.) This feudal and patriarchal system, however, was gone, and could never come back, and they must therefore deal in a different way in the future from what they had done in the past. Capital and labor must come more hand in hand than they had done ; at the same time let them not go away and say he was preaching a crusade against capital. He was doing nothing of the kind. The association to be formed then had no quarrel with capital, nor with anything which had justice and common sense to support it. (Hear, hear.) Coming now to the land question, he would tell them that the difference of opinion between them was this, that their opponents wanted large blocks of land to be held by a small number of people, but the Liberal party wanted it to be parcelled out in limited quantities. What some of them desired was the diffusion of wealth among the many, and not the accumulation amongst the few. The speaker referred to England as the richest in the whole world, and yet she was the poorest. No country but India shows the same degrees of wealth and poverty. In England they had an immense mass of pauperism ; a single day’s misfortune and they toppled over into that gulf, and such a state of things ought to be avoided in this country. When Washington put down the system of primogeniture in the States, he was told that he would put down all the carriages and fourhorses. “Never mind,” he said, “then we shall have all the more horses-and-two.” What was wanted in this country was a people of competence—of cheerful yesterdays and confident to-morrows. (Applause.) And the state of things then existed added to the desire which he had expressed that night. They had large numbers ot people seeking work who could not find it. (Question.) He knew what the new Liberals, and the Evening Post too, as their organ, said—that they were all loafers together. But of all the loafers, their so-called autocratic loafers were the worst. (Cheers.) And ha knew there were men who would rather work their fingers to the bone If they could get work, rather than accept assistance. (Cheers.) Such a state of things was not to be tolerated, and ought not to exist in this country. They would see from what he had said a general idea of what their gospel was. They believed they had got hold of political ' truth, and they meant to stick to it. They would like to see associations like this formed in any part of the country ; all corresponding together, and wishing prosperity to one another. (Cheers.) This was no idle movement, but a movement which concerned the welfare of them all. There would be a little turmoil and noise ; but let them not fret, but be patient, and all would yet be well. (Hear, hear.) In conclusion, Mr. Hutchison told them they would hear what a wicked thing it was to set class against class. It was a delusion and a snare. He wished to see them all living together as a contented people, and unless they could come to live in this way it would never be the nation which he should like it to be. (Rubbish.) He hurled back such accusations. The people who sought to set class against class were the people who themselves tried to prevent the rest of the people getting possession of the same privileges which they themselves enjoyed. These were the people who tried to keep up class against class, and for his own part, and on behalf of those who worked with him, he hurled back the accusation withlntense scorn. (Loud cheering.) At this stage an individual mounted the platform, and attempted to address the meeting amid loud cries of “ Chuck him out.” The CHAIRMAN said he was in charge of the meeting, and the man should speak if he was sober enough to do so, if not he should be put out. Every man in the room should have a fair hearing, bat they would have no rowdyism. In the meantime he would call upon Mr, Marks to second the resolution.

Mr. Makes said they had assembled there to unfurl the flag of true Liberalism. It was a subject which had at Home been handled by the greatest of statesmen. Talk about working men ! Why, they were all working men. Hut there were great cardinal points to be explained. He stood there that evening upon his own feet-(Ioud laughterl-declanng what his principles were. It was not an idea of a month, but one which he had believed m for the last thirty years. Every man should have a perfect freedom of expression and a perfect freedom of legislation. He would ask them whether a more unfair thing was ever done than the members of the House of Assembly voting themselves £29,000 for sixteen davs work, and. then coming back again and votin' 7 themselves their honorarium ? He ' ■ ■ over the around troudcu iIT ilr. would pot , 3 . Hutchison,''hut would appeal to them upon the great cardinal grounds of Liberalism. They had not met there for any electioneering dodge. (Oh, oh.) Let that gentleman come forward and speak for himself. He had grown a family which had not required' immigration. (Laughter.) He had six or seven eons

as tall as himself. They were most of them bora in the country, and they should most of them, he hoped, die in tha country. (Laughter.) His cardinal points of Liberalism, then, were the following :—First. Free trade, in which he maintained that the poor paid much more heavily in the way of taxation than the rich. The Customs service swallowed an enormous amount of money. The heavy rates which they all paid were spent in paying salaries of officials instead of beautifying and improving the country. The next question M’as that of manhood suffrage. Labor and capital—capital and labor were concurrent, and must run together if any public benefit was to result. As for fair representation, every man who was in a country had a right to have a voice in the representation. Every man, rich or poor, ought to contribute according to his means to tha taxation of the country. Mr, Marks drew a graphic picture of the progress of a newly arrived family, showing the difference between those who dwelt in the colony and those who lived at Home but, drew a large amount of money from this colony without any corresponding amount of taxation. These were the things which this association was formed to rectify. He trusted that all would believe that those gentlemen who were promulgating these views were actuated by a desire to do a public good. He next referred to the evils of large blocks of land being locked up in the way they were in the hands of a few individuals. The time had arrived when a different state of things ought to prevail, and when the eyes of tho country should no longer be allowed to remain in the hands of these few individuals. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Marks next referred to the necessity that existed for more polling places in tha city. In reference to property and income he thought they would agree with him that they should be taxed as long as they exceeded £250. (A voice: £3OO ) Well that might be decided by the society after it was formed. He advocated the putting of a tax on land that was locked up, so that it would contribute towards paying the expenses of the country. If men would hold large blocks of land, let them pay for it, and they would soon change their cue, and ask others to come in and take a share of that laud. (Applause.) Again, ho said that Liberalism should be the flag under which they should sail. (Applause.) He hoped everyone would support the resolution which they had heard read. Mr. A. O. Pratt then said he would address them, and proceeded to do so in a half-intoxi-cated, strained, but in a good tempered way, foreign to the subject, which created roars of laughter. His gestures and facial expression were those of a low comedy man at a penny theatre. He concluded a string of inane observations by telling the meeting that if they did not like it they might “ lump V it. lie had great pleasure in supporting the resolution, (Applause.) The Chairman said they never knew when they had a friend. Mr. Pratt had, tljpy said, strongly supported the resolution. A Voice : But he’s drunk. The motion was then put and carried with one dissentient.

Mr. Crook moved the next resolution as follows : “ That such an association should now be formed in the 'Wellington Provincial District, and that its principles should be shortly as follows : Ist. Shorter duration of Parliament. 2nd. Extension of the franchise so as to place the electoral power upon the broadest basis. 3rd. Redistribution of electorates, with a view to make representation as near as practicable in proportion to population. 4th. Rearrangement of taxation upon a fair and equitable principle. sth. Laws for the sale and management of Crown land and land held by natives such as will promote settlement and prevent monopoly. 6tb. The vigorous prosecution of public works.” In addressing the meeting, Mr. Crook said, as a public man, he was bound to bo attacked. Advanced thinkers always got attacked by the public and the Press, and so he supposed he should not escape. (Loud laughter.) Whoever came on that platform to break up a monopoly of land would have to submit to stigmas. A letter in the Times that morning had called him a mob orator, and had accused him of Cockney slang. The writer himself had, however, used the words “ by hook or by crook” no less than three times —no doubt thinking it was a good little joke. It might be Latin—he did not know; but whatever it was, he might say he had never heard the quotation during his college education. (Laughter.) It was no use sending men to Parliament unless they really were Liberals. These land speculators were doing what the old woman was reported to have done —killing the goose for the golden eggs. (Confusion.) If that gentleman wanted to know what they wanted, he would tell him —it was the Island Bay Land Ring, (Loud laughter.) [There was here considerable confusion, and cries of “ Turn him out.” The Chairman appealed to the audience to keep order, and told the interrupter he could address the meeting after Mr. Crook.] What they wanted was measures and not men. With these few observations he would leave the resolution [to be seconded by Mr. George Fisher.

Mr. Fjsher, who was greeted with cries of “ Speak out,” and “ Taka a drink of water,” &c., said he should be prepared to be called in much worse terms than he had for having dared to invade the monopoly ot a certain class. He claimed that if there was any superiority it was on the side of those with whom he now stood. (Applause.) He failed to see that they would be able to find the Utopia of Moore—they might soften down the asperities of man, but they could not be perfection. They must remember that labor should always be on its guard, as capital would take an unfair advantage ot them if they pould get it. (Confusion.) He believed they would be quite able to hold the}r own when the time came. Mr. Fisher referred to the passing of the Land Act in 1877, whiph gave the squatters of Canterbury the right to occupy large tracts of land for another ten years. Ho was sorry to say they were now perpetuating the state of things existing in England in regard to matters agricultural. It was slated by Mr. Fronde that twoAhlrda qf the large estates in England were held by the Press, and that the larger estates were swallowing up the smaller. In contradiction to this, the speaker referred to the state of things existing in France, To France the peasant farmers were the great national source of wealth, as was shown at the close of the late Franco-Prussian war by the way in which they stepped forward and paid the heavy indemnity. Of course they would hear a great deal against his ideas and against the ideas of those who thought and acted with him. If the voting of the people was to be of any good, it must be one and indivisible. He was sorry to say there was in the present day too much of a hankering after the rich man—too much of the worshipping of Mammon, and that was the state ot things which they must set their faces'against. Seven ' years' ago a programme like this would have been called revolutionary, but it was not so to-day when everybody professed to be a Liberal. The one idea' alone of triennial Parliaments was of itself a very great thing, and one that would lead to great political benefits. Unfortunately at the present time they had men who utterly misrepresented them, and worse than that, men who were utterly drunk. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) Whenever they came to this great question of land, he should like to see the entire system as it existed in Franca coupled with it. (Applause.) The second resolution was then put and carried, with one dissentient. Mr. Pbatt here said to vary the monotony he would like to see them laugh. He was speedily quieted and forcibly placed in a chair amid cries of “ Put him out.’,’ The Chairman said if ho was not quiet he would get him gauged with a stick and some string. ■ (Fond laughter.) Mr. Grace moved the next resolution, as follows, —That a committee be composed of the following gentlemen, with«power bd add to their number, whose duty it shall be to frame rules for the management of the association, and to arrange for the establishment of smaller associations in the district, and further, to take such steps as may be deemed necessary for the well-being and advancement of the association, and to bring up a report at a]future meeting:—Messrs. Hutchison, Shannon, Clark, O’Longhlin, Beves, Mclntyre, Margetts, McConisky, Anderson, Warcup, H. Blundell, Poppleweii, O’Neill, Fisher, Marks, Ebden, Griffiths, Harrison, Lyon, Loubere, Senior, Keid, Hearn, Moss, Climie, Bemasconi, Wallace, junr., J. H. Wallace, Smith, and _ Hunt. In the course of a few remarks which the speaker made he impressed upon his hearers the great importance not only of agitation but also of organisation. . Mr. Poppleweli. seconded the resolution. A Voice ; Is that Hr, Hutchison’s committcs» The CHAIEifA-V : If you had been here at the von would have heard me say that Association was not for tha purpose rOs . wo.hVnlar individual. (Hear, turning any particular {.*■.- hear) The motion was then put and agreed to with only three or four dissentients. The Chairman said intending members of the association would only have to pay one

shilling entrance fee. It was men they wanted and not money. A Voice : If you’ll let me come in for nothing, you can put my name down. The Chairman : If that gentleman is so poor that he can’t afford a shilling, we will let him come in for nothing. More confusion here arose through an attempt to eject Mr. Pratt, but The Chaibman again asked the meeting to hare patience, saying, “ It is only Air. Pratt. A vote of thanks to the chairman concluded the proceedings.