MR. STEWARD AT OTEPOPO.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1052, 3 September 1879, Page 2

MR. STEWARD AT OTEPOPO.

Mr. Steward addressed a meeting of the electors of this part of the district at the Athenanim last evening. There were about 150 persons pi'esent. The candidate invited the meeting to appoint their own Chairman, and Mr. W. H. Smythies was accordingly chosen and briefly introduced Mr. Steward to the audience. Mr, Steward commenced his address by stating that he scarcely needed an introduction, as he was personally well known to almost all persons in the district. They knew that he had served them in a previous Parliament, and that this was now the third time that he had been a candidate for their suffrages. In the Old Country the electioneering cries were often on the part of one side "men and not measures," and on the other "measures and not men," but on this occasion lie thought their watchword should be measures and men. He would not take up time by expatiating on the circumstances which had led to the present appeal to the country. But as they had as a constituency to decide both as to the measures which they desired to see carried, and as to the men whom they wished to return to support these measures, he would commence by referring to the questions which were at the present time before the electors. Those referred to the constituencies by the Government were four in number—viz., the residential suffrage, triennial Parliaments, re-distribution of seats, and taxation reform. Before expressing his views and explaining the action he proposed to take with regard to those matters, he would premise his remarks by stating that though an old journalist of the district, he had, as they would see by the public prints, no newspaper advocating his cause. He had to depend upon his tongue alone to plead what he believed to be the cause of right, but that he should use to the best of his ability before the several audiences he had to address. One of the newspapers of the district had shown its classic lore by quoting the nursery rhyme '' Will you walk into my palour, said the spider to the fly," &c. But lie was not so vain as to think that if he were the spider he could spin a web which could entangle any intelligent elector against his -will,, nor did lie think so poorly of them that they could be regarded as poor innocent flies tha£ might be caught in any web which he was capable of spinning. It was insinuated, if not directly seated, that in enunciating his views in regppnse tQ a requisition, he had merely put forth what might be termed a " taking " programme, for the purpose of catching votes; but, as he would show them, the views which he announced as those which he would advocate were views which he had held and had voted for, in some instances, year 3 ago. While a member of the House in 1874, he supported, and spoke in favor of, a Bill introduced by the Hon. Mr. Reynolds, then Commissioner of Customs, intituled, The Qualifications of Electors Bill. He was (he spoke from memory) the second pr third speaker after Mr. Reynolds, an(j stated that, while supporting" the principles of the Bill, which proposed to give the franchise upon a residential qualification alone, entirely independent of whether or not the elector was a possessor of property, he should take leave to move in committee an amendment as to the term of residence required to qualify for a vote. The Bill proposed six months, which lie, the speaker, considered too short. He therefore gave notice of his intention to move to substitute the words " Two years." At that time, five years ago, immigrants were being landed in thousands at the principal ports of the Cclqny, md }w4 the Bill passed as originally drafted, and" had' fin' ejection place closely thereafter, it would Have followed that thousands of pprsQns who knew and coulil know nothing whatever as regarded the political needs of the Colony would have been able to exercise a powerful if not a preponderating influence as against those who had been resident in the Colony for vears, perhaps for many years. That Bill (Mr. Reynolds' Bill of 1874) not being intro(Juced as a Government Bill, had to give way to Governnjejit lousiness, the interrupted debate on the'secohd readjng was resumed, and late in. the session the ' Bill was discharged from the notice paper. In 1875 a similar Bill—but with an important differbrought in by Mr. Reynolds, the difference being that tljs proposed term of residence to qualify for a vote was extended from "six" months to "twelve" months. That proposal he considered very fairly pet the objection which' he' had advanced the

previous year, and if they referred to Hansard, vol. 19, p. 36, they would find a division list, in which his (Mr. Steward's) name was recorded as voting in favor of the Bill, which, however, was thrown out by a majority of eight. It was a singular fact that among the majority of eight by which the Bill was rejected were the names of Sir G. Grey, Mr. Macandrew, and Mr. Sheehan.. Had those three gentlemen and two others gone into the same lobby with himself and Mr. Reynolds the Bill would have passed its crucial stage by a majority of two, and in all probability have become law, in which case all those persons entitled to vote on the residential franchise would have been able to exercise their votes at this present election. He woukL be absolutely fair, and his mention of the name of Sir G. Grey was not intended to indicate that he (the Premier) was in 1874 opposed to a residential franchise, although he voted against Mr. Reynolds' Bill, Sir G. Grey having given as his reason for his action that he considered the Bill an imperfect one—as, for instance, not providing for the Maori race—his (Mr. Steward's) object being to show that he (Mr. Steward) was entirely consistent in announcing himself in 1879 as a supporter of residential, franchise, which he had already supported by his vote in 1874. As to triennial Parliaments, while a member of the House he had never had an opportunity of recording a vote on this question, and if his memory served him, this was the first occasion on which such a proposal was brought forward as a Government measure. If returned to the House he would support the proposal, no matter from whom emanating, because lie felt that, owing to the rapid changes which occurred in the Colony with reference to the relative positions of its various ports and to the questions which from time to time occupied public attention, it was desirable that the opportunities for choosing their representatives in Parliament should be more frequent than they were at present. Mr. Steward then dwelt at considerable length upon this point, showing how the wilderness of to-day became, comparatively, the populous city of to-morrow, and that the election cry of to-day might be next year entirely a thing of the past, instancing, as regards the latter point, that the question of the last election, four years ago, was that of Abolition v. Provincialism, and that to-day there was not a whisper about it. As regards the re-distribution of seats, he showed that in previous re-distributions the courf 2 taken had been to remedy, or endeavor t J do so, glaring discrepancies, by giving additional members where there was under-representa-tion, and reducing the number where there was over-representation. The last, though desired, was very difficult of achievement, and tlieresult was invariably, oralmost invariably, an increase in the number of members. At the last re-distributiou—in 1875 —he was successful in obtaining an additional member for Waitaki, and although he had been accused of not having allocated that additional member to the country district, he thought he should be able to show them that the action which he had taken was that best calculated to subserve the interests of the whole constituency. [Mr. Steward went into this matter very fully, and appeared to carry the meeting with him, and after referring to the difficulty of laying down any hard and fast rule, either as regards area or population, stated that he thought the time had now come when one of the two members for Waitaki should be allocated to the town and the other to the country.] As regards taxation, Mr. Steward expressed himself in favor of a general property and income tax, exempting incomes below a certain amount. These were all the proposals laid before the electorate by the Government of the day, but there were other questions agitating the public mind to which he felt bound to refer. Of these perhaps the most important was the Bible in schools question. In this matter he claimed to be a true Liberal—more truly a Liberal than those who called themselves "Liberals." In all matters the majority should rule, but should exercise their power with a due regard i to the rights of the minority. If nine men | might not compel one to act against his conscience, neither should one compel nine to do so. Now, he believed that nine-tenths of the population of this Province, and probably the rest of New Zealand, were in favor of Bible reading in public schools, and he put it to them whether it was not unreasonable that the minority should be able to deprive the majority of that which they desired to have. It seemed to him quite possible to give everyone their own way by adopting a course similar to that adopted by the London School Board, viz., to provide for the reading or teaching of the Bible under a time-table and conscience clause. The operation of this would be somewhat as follows Say the school opens at 9 o'clock, the first halfhour would be devoted to Scriptural instruction, and at half-past 9 the ordinary secular curriculum would be entered upon. Those, then, who desired that their children should be present during the Bible reading would send their children from home in time to reach the school at 9 o'clock ; those who did not so desire would take care that their children were not at school until half-past 9, and thus everyone would have his own way. (Applause.) He could see no reasonable objection to this. He saw that they approved of his views on this point, but expected there would be many dissensions with regard to another matter to which he had to allude. He referred to payment by results in Catholic schools. Though some might vote against him on this point, he did not hesitate to say "vyUat lie ttiought, and if tliey differed they must agree to differ. He held that the State, being of no religion, was bound to do equal, justice to all; he recognised that a Catholic was not able to send his child to the State schools in face of the prohibition of his Church, and as the Catholic, equally with the Protestant, contributed to- the general revenue of the State, he held that if in their own schools Catholics educated their children up to the Government standard in secular subjects it was fair to give them a capitation allowance equal to the sum wliich it would cost to raise the children to the same standard of education in the Government schools, He was not a denominationalist, but recognised a plain line of demarcation between the Protestant Church and the Roman Catholic Church, a line which could be easily drawn, and, for his part, he altogether failed to see that, if this one large section of the community were accorded that which it desired, it would be at all necessary to go in for subsidising denominational schools. Let it be shown that any other Church or section of the Church made it a matter of conscience, and refused its sacraments to the parents of children attending the Government schools, and he would recognise that that Church or section of the Church must be granted the like concession ; but this? could" not be shown, and he therefore maintained that payment by results on the secular instruction given in the Catholic schools could be given without the necessity of subsidising all and any Schools, and hence that cry that Catholic aid meant denominationalism and the breaking down of our national system was empty and vain. As regards the local option question, Mr. Steward expressed himself in favor of giving a majority of, say two-thirds, a veto against the granting of a license in any district were there was not already a licensed house, and q. like veto witU. regat-cl to any increase in the number of liceifsed houses, because thus far the majority in the exercise of their power would inflict no injustice on individuals; but if the like power were granted in respect to the renewal bf existing licenses, it was only just to provide thatwherenofault could be alleged against the licensee, he should be compensated for the loss which he would sustain. (Applause). As regards an import duty on grain and timber, Mr. Steward detailed, the action taken by himself and Mr. Reeves (member for Selwyn), which resulted in what he would term a retaliative duty tQ tjiat imposed by Victoria. He argued, that if'they were'to have free trade,' tliey slioiild' have' free trade all round, and that it" was a' very' serious"matter for thV farmer ' tjh'&t ' on all grain exported to Victoria he should pay Is per cental duty, while Adelaide flour and Californian grjiin were admitted into the Colony free of duty. For every ton so imported, a ton must be exported, which, in the case of wheat, meant, to some farmer or other, the loss of forty times 7id. The import duty, as they knew, was repealed in 1876, and the repeal was supported by the late moinbers fqr the district', '• He (Mr. Steward) thought this aiction a mistake, and be was glad to find that recently, at Auckland, Sir G. Grey admitted that it was a mistake,; and if returned to the House, he should be found a supporter of the re-imposition of these duties: (Loud applause.) There were many other matters upoJj which he should like to touch, but time fqrbad, and he would leaye

it to the meeting, if it so desired, to elicit his opinions upon these, as, for instance, immigration, the land laws, &c., but there was besides the question of measures, that of men. He waa sometimes asked if he would undertake to support every proposal brought down by Sir G. Grey. His answer to that question wa3 a clear and unmistakeable "No," and lie did not think that any constituency exercising, or claiming to exercise the privileges of free men, would lay down those privi. leges at the feet of any one man, be lie Sir George Grey, Sir Wm. Fox, or anybody else, or send its representatives to Parliament tied and bound merely to follow the behest or register the decrees of any individual. As a Liberal, he claimed for the people, and the people's representatives, the right to govern the country, and if returned as one of their representatives he would jealously guard that right. After referring to Sir George Grey's action with regard to the Land Bill in IS7S. Mr. Steward concluded by saying that, if returne/1 on this occasion, he would be found a syof the measures he had indicated, . mild honestly bring to bear as their Wta.tive his utmost energy and ability ou ufinalf of the constituency.—(Loud applause.) • A very large number of questions were then put to the candidate, and answered to the satisfaction of nearly everyone present, judging from the frequent applause received, after which a vote of confidence was proposed by Mr. Watson and seconded by Mr. VV. M'Kay. An amendment was moved by the Rev. Mr. Ryley to the effect that a vote of thanks be accorded to the candidate. On this being put to the meeting by the Chairman it was declared carried by two votes, although it was evident that a number of the persona present did not know whether they were voting for the motion or the amendment. Mr. Steward then came forward and said that votes of this sort were, after all, not a very serious matter, the poll being the proper test. He would therefore relieve the Chairman from a dilemma by asking them on Friday to record their votes honestly and fairly in favor of the two candidates whom they thought best fitted to represent them, and would now move a vote of thanks to Mr. Smythies for presiding. This having been carried by acclamation, the meeting (at about 11 p.m.) broke up.