SIR WILLIAM FOX AT CARLYLE.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 453, 27 August 1879, Page 2

SIR WILLIAM FOX AT CARLYLE.

On Saturday afternoon last, Sir W. Fox telegraphed from Waverley that he intended to visit and address the electors at Carlyle on Monday evening. The notice was very short, but notwithstanding, a good number attended to hear what such a prominent politician had to say. Mr H. Williamson was voted to the chair, and introduced the speaker in a few complimentary remarks. Sir William Fox, on rising, said an explanation was due to the electors of this part for his having come to Carlyle to address them. He had not come here to interfere in any way with the ca ididab s contesting the Egmont seat ; but knowing a good many in the district were voters in Wanganui, had induced him to extend his visit from Waverley. He would speak for the good of the country at large. Sir William commenced by relating the position of the early settlers as regards politics, and the action Sir. George Grey had taken to thwart the New Zealanders in obtaining representative institutions of their own. Sir George had repeatedly told the country, in the House, and on the stump, when he made Ids political tours in the Ilinemoa at the public expense for his own benefit, that when he was a young subaltern in a marching regiment, and was stationed at Limerick in"lreland, he became deeply impressed with what lie saw of the wretched condition of the Irish people, and pained when the soldiers were employed to collect tithes at the point of the bayonet, or to evict poor starving labourers trom their cottages. At this time he had a dream, or a vision, or an hallucination of' some sort, in which the angel of liberty appeared to him and beckoned him oil to the great work of regenerating the human race. He then registered a vow that if ever he should be in a a position to do it, he would devote himself to the task of building up a new commonwealth, with such a constitution and such laws as should prevent the growth of all such social evils, and make every-body-live happy for ever after. Having made this vow, he lost no lime in getting into the service of the Colonial Office, at that period the most illiberal and narrow minded department of the British Government, which kept the colonies in utter subjection, and refused to give them the smallest particleof self-government. Here this apostle of a new democracy devoted himself to the work of his master, made himself a reputation by writing despatches conformable to the views of the Colonial Office, and received at its bands rewards and honors. But bye-oud-bye, after some dozen years or so of such service, the Colonial Office began to have some light let in upon it, and in a moment of unwonted liberality, under the Secretaryship of Lord Grey, it passed through the Imperial Parliament an Act which gave representative institutions to New Zealand. What did the great regenerator of the human race do then? He had here ihe means placed at his disposal to carry out the vision of a new commonwealth, and all the rest of it. Did he do it ?, No, he burked the constitution, and wrote home recommending its suspension for five years, before the lapse of which he well knew ..he would be out of the colony. Then followed a period when the colonists entered upon a bitter struggle with him, they seeking to obtain selfgovernment, and he doing the very best to prevent it. He wrote home describing the colonials as “ disappointed applicants for office, land sharks, aliens, various persons from the Pacific, Americans, and others disaffected towards the British, or indeed any other Government,” and he asked what advantage was to be gained by introducing self-government among so small a number of Europeans who were demanding the power of expending a revenue arising from the British Treasury, and who would probably quarrel with the natives, and involve the colony in the worst consequences, if free institutions were bestowed upon them. But though he succeeded in getting the constitution suspended, the colonists were too strong for him. The old colonists, of whom he was one, together with Sir Win. Fitzherbert, Weld, God ley, their friend Mr Walt, and in fact all the leading men, and other men o£ the period, formed themselves into constitutional associations, and exposed his falsehoods to the Imperial Govir nnent. The result was that he saw what was coming, and whipped round and

recommended that a constitution should be given, and the Imperial Parliament gave one, which, though not perfect, had the elements of self-government in it. What no,w did. Sir George do? Did he hail it with, acclamation, and set to work to construct with it hisiraaghjary commonwealth? .Nothing of the sort. He bolted from the Colony, leaving it to an old' military officer who knew nothing of politics or constitutions, td put the new CRiistitution in force, while he went home to Europe, and finally to the Cape of Good Hope, to the Governorship of which colony he was .promoted. Then some twenty years elapsed, during which he returned to the colony, first as its Governor for ihe second time, and afterwards as a private settler, living in retirement at his Island of Kawau. Then some four years ago he suddenly emerged, and rushed to the front as the regenerator of the human race, and sot about the work of carrying out his Limerick dream, some fifty years after he dreamt it. And so we have him now before us as the great Liberal leader.

Now, continued Sir W., wo will just test his .sincerity by his action in reference to the extension of the Electoral Franchise. Sir George during his stumping tour already mentioned, went about stimulating the worst passions of the working men by telling them that they were down-trodden serfs, no better than negro slaves, and that there were 110,000 of these without the franchise. At this time there were only about that exact number of adult males in the colony altogether. He has since reduced his estimate to 75,000, and more lately to 65,000. His own followers put (hem at from 10,000 to 6000. Let us see what ho has done to relieve this mass of downtrodden serfs. A year ago he met Parliament with a majority of from 15 to 20 at his buck. The most prominent measure which he proposed was an Electoral Bill which was to enfranchise his 75,000 serfs. Both sides of the House supported it, and it would have become law without opposition, but when it was nearly through, he and Mr Sheehan added to its provisions what was cafied the Dual Vote for the Maoris ; that is to say, they proposed to give an aditional franchise to the Maoris in respect to mere tribal tenure of lands for which they paid neither rates nor taxes, in addition to the franchise they already possessed, in order that he might he able to smother the European vote in all districts where Maoris predominated, as he had done already in one instance by stuffing the roll at Even with this iniquity in it he forced it through the Lower House by his Ministerial majority. But the Council struck out the Dual Vote and sent back the Bill to the Lower House in as nearly as poss’ble the same form as it had been introduced by the Government. Now, if Sir George Grey had really belitwd in the existence of his 75,000 down-trodden serfs, and had really desired to (xna icipate them, what would behave done ? lie would have said “I am sorry that. I cannot get the Dual Vote for my deir Maoris, but that will not prevent me giving tiie franchise to the down-trodden European serfs, I will accept the Bill as it stands.” If he had done so there would not have been an adult male in New Zealand, resident in the colony for one year, who might not have voted at the present election. But what did Grey do ? He tore up the Bill in a pet and threw it into the waste paper basket! And after this he pretended to be the advocate of Liberal measures and the loader of the Liberal paity. In connection with the same subject there were two other measures which ho treated in a similar way — Triennial Parliaments, and Redistribution of Representation. As regards the former a Bill was actually introduced by a Government member and only lost by two or three votes. If the Government had taken it up and made it a Government measure it would have passed by a largo majority, but though Sir George had paraded the necessity of it in his stump speeches nil over New Zealand, hejdeclined, when he could have made it law, to touch the question with his little finger. As regards readjustment of representation, which has been one of his great cries also, a resolution was moved hy another private member of his own party affirming the desirability of a Bill being brought in at an early period. A member of the Opposition moved that instead of an early period it should bo ‘immediately.’ The Government also voted against this, and the motion was lost. The fact was, it would not suit Sir George Grey’s purpose to have any of these measures passed. If they were, “ Othello’s occupation wovld be gone.” He keeps them as stock-in-trade to dangle before the eyes of his deluded followers when he mounts the stump to address the gallery, but he has no intention whatever of passing them. Sir George Grey claims for himself the proprietorship of all Liberal principles, and he calls myself and the party of which I am one, old Tories and other complimentary names. Why, we advocated these principles years ago, when he was opposing our having any selfgoverning institutions at all. Here is a summary written twenty years ago of what the men he calls old Tories proposed then, and which I quote from documents in print at the period. This is what we Tories proposed “ A Legislature consisting of two chambers, both entirely elective. A franchise universal, except as far as limited by twelve months’residence. No qulification for membership in the Lower House. Greater age and a longer residence qualification for the Upper. No civil list to be reserved. The Lower House to be elected for three years, the Upper for five. No veto to be exercised by the Calonial Office in any matter purely local and not involving Imperial interests,” These were our recommendations, and we only failed to get them put into the Constitution Act because Sir George Grey recommended the contrary. And yet he claims to be the father and the advocate of these principles now, and denounces us as enemies of the people, opposed to Triennial Parliaments and Residential Franchise.

Sir William would now refer to the land question. Sir George Grey denounced the party which he (Sir W.) led as land robbers, and accused them of having acquired for themselves enormous landed estates, of which they had robbed the poor man. Sir George would point across the House to where these supposed offenders sat (the speaker being amongst them), and say, “There they are.” Sir William had taken the trouble to analyse the list of his followers, and found that, with a few exceptions, not a man among

the forty-six held as much land as Sir George Grey did. For his own part he did not own a third as milch, and .for what he did own ha paid both rates and taxes. Sir Georg© bad contrived to get his land excluded from any County or Highway Board, and paid no rates to either ; and on a valuation of his land made by himself of £21,470, ho only paid laud tax on £1607, amounting to the enormous total of £3 Gs ll£d. By far the largest part of the big estates which > existed in New Zealand were purchased under what was known as Sir George Grey’s Land Regulations, promulgated by him just before he left the colony in 1853, Amongst the very largest owners were Mr Larnach and Mr Robert Campbell, two gentlemen who in Parliament had been the principal means of putting Sir George Grey into office. They evidently knesv that Sir George’s cry of “land for the people, and the people for the land” was all bunkum. What Sir George’s views were when he issued the regulations referred to, was clearly shown by a correspondence he had with Major Valentine Smith, who reported it in a late Wellington paper. Riding through the Wairarapa when large purshaces were being made from the natives at that time, Sir George said to Major Smith, “ Don’t you think it would be au excellent thing if these lands were so disposed of as to create a great landed aristocracy such as they have in Eng and ?” These, no doubt, were Sir George’s views at that time, and his regulations bore the part he intended in the formation of those big estates, the owners of which he now denounced as land robbers. Sir William had an aversion to speaking of himself, but it had been given out by one of the Wanganui papers that he was the enemy of small fanners and what was called cockatoos. The charge was absolutely false, and he would instance the action he had taken when he was the New Zealand Company’s agent at Nelson in support of his statement. He had there put hundreds of working men in possession of small farms, and had thereby relieved the settlement from great distress and difficulty. Those small farms were still in existence, and the occupiers had blessed the da} 7 when he had placed them there. As Land Commissioner he had opened up for sale- many small farm blocks, and he had even sold off half of all ho ever owned to the working man in small farms, by a population of whom his own house and farm was surrounded. What had Sir George Grey ever done to help the small farmers, or place land at their disposal ? In the session when Major Atkinson was turned out of office, his Minister for Lands, Donald Reid of Otago, who had been known for years as the champion of the small farmer, brought in what was by far the most liberal Laud Bill ever passed in New Zealand, making provision for deferred payments and all other methods of placing lamb at the disposal of working men. The Bili was partly through before Sir George Grey took cilice. It was not without great pressure by even his own colleagues, who considered it too good to drop, that he could'be got to take it up as a Government measure ; but at lust he did so, and the Bill passed both Houses. _ At the end of the session, when the various Bills were laid before the Governor for his assent, by Mr Macandrew, His Excellency observed that there was one absent. Sir George, like the “heathen Chinee,” who had the aces up his sleeve, had shuffled it out of Hie pile. The Governor refused to sign the Appropriation Bill till he had the Land Bill. Mr Macandrew promised to bring it up afterwardsjjif he would sign the others then ; but the Governor knew his man and refused. Mr Macandrew had to go back to Sir George, who at last had to consent to the Land Bill going up to the Governor. The thing was most unconstitutional, but it showed beyond all doubt Sir George’s insincerity. Since the Land Bill had passed, what had the Grey Government done to promote the creation of small farms under its provisions? Absolutely nothing. On the contrary, in the matter of the tail way reserves, which were admirably suited for small farms and intended for them, he was told that these sales had been so arranged that the greater part of them had passed, or were passing, into the hands of the capitalist, whilst Hie small farmer and working man was shut out.

Sir William thou proceeded to discuss the Land Tax. He described it as .a class-tax, and a vindictive one, admitted to be so by its promoter, Mr Ballance, by his friend Mr Bryce, and by a number of the leading men of the Government party. He had no objection to a Land Tax if it was accompanied by taxes on other interests also. When it was introduced it was so. There was the Beer Tax Bill and the Companies Income Bill, and the Colonial Treasurer and Attorney-General both declared positively that they would stand or fall by the three Bills, and if they lost either of the two latter they would abandon the Land Tax Bill. At the first show of opposition to the Beer Bill they dropped it and the Companies Bill, and then, in breach of their repeated pledge, they, hung on to the Land Tax ; and now, after 8 or 9 months, they had failed to collect a single penny of it, solely owing to the bungling of Mr Ballance ; it was almost certain now it never would be collected, though the attempt had already irritated the colony from end to end, and had cost some £3o,ooo—all money wasted and thrown away. A class-tax of this sort had the worst possible effect. It not only hit the large land owners who paid it, but it hit the small fanner who was exempt, and the working man who was dismissed because his employer had to pay the tax, and could not afford to keep him on. It lowered the value of land all over the country, and the small man who was exempted suffered as well as the larger man, to an extent of probably 20 per cent, on the value of his farm. It also lessened the borrowing power in the same proportion. It also prevented capitalists in England from sending money to the colony, and no one suffered more than the small farmer from that. A member of the House who was a land agent, stated a few days ago that a client of his had written to say that he intended to send out £IOO,OOO by the next mail, for investment. But when the mail arrived the money did not, a letter came in which the capitalist said that after reading Sir George Grey’s speech at the Thames, in which he told his constituents “ that the $d in the £ was only the thin edge of the wedge, and that it would be their own fault if next session it was not increased to 4d,” he should keep bis money in his own country, and not risk it

in New Zealand. These are some of tlio fruits of Sir George Grey’s and Mr Balance's vindictive Tax. What is wanted is a general tax, an all round tax which, while land would be made to pay, would fairly touch all other properties also, only exempting any class which might really be unable to pay any tax at all, if such there wore in -New Zealand. The finance of Sir George Grey’s Government had been most reckless. Mr Ballance threw away £IOO,OOO of Customs duties, easily collected, and of which no man complained, and put mi this universally obnoxious tax which he could not collect at all. The pretence of this was to give the working man a free breakfast table. It had done nothing of the sort r the only people who profited by it were the importers and retailers of sugar, who put the difference in their pockets, and the working man was not one penny the better. One ground on which the Grey Government had lost the confidence of the country, and seen its majority of 15 reduced lo*a minority of 15, has been its reckless extravagance. While Sir George Grey was in Opposition, and when he was stumping the country as he is now, in the Hinemoa, he was never weary of denouncing the extravagance of the Ai kinson Government, which was really an economical one, and he oijferred on one occasion to go into the next > room, and in half an hour return with estimates which would effect a reduction of £40J,000. But since he has been in office the cost of the civil service, instead of being reduced, is said to have been increased by £IOO,OOO, and Mr Sheehan admitted the other night that he had exceeded the appropriations of his department by £20,000, though he did not tell the House how the excess occurred. Doubtless those great meetings, and carrying about of whole tribes, while orders were showered on the storekeeper without stint, accounted for much of this. But the wastefln! jobs were without number, and some of shameful character. Take Mr Larnach’s, for instance. Sir George Grey was indebted to this gentleman for turning out Major Atkinson’s Government, and he had his first reward in being made Colonia Treasurer for six weeks. He (hen went to England to float a big land speculation, with which, by the aid of the AgentGeneral, he has contrived to mix up most injuriously the ere lit of the colony. When asked about it by his Thames constituents, Sir George Grey told them that Mr Larnach went entirely on his private business, and was not to receive a shilling from Government. When Sir George Grey was asked the same question in the House he admitted that Larnach had been paid £2OOO. This was on the pretence that bo had assisted in the negotiation of the loan, while every body knew that he had no influence in the matter, but that it was done solely by Sir Julius Vogel and the colonial agents. Another atrocious wast of money was the appointment of MrMcCulloch Reid. Tliis gentleman had been an independent Minister or something of the sort ; then an editor of an Auckland paper ; then had been taken round the colony at further expenses by Grey to report the Maori meetings and his stumpt speeches, and he finally became the editor of the Daily Times and the contributor of many' scurrilous attacks on Sir Wm. Fox and other of Sir George’s opponents. As a reward for all this he was appointed Immigration agent in England with £6OO a year : his expenses pai 1 b >th ways and an engagement for two years certain. A more glaring job was never perpetrated. No such appointment was necessary. It was no wonder that transactions such as these had exhausted the Treasury and led to a state of finance of a most alarming character. According to Mr McFarlano, Sir George Grey admited that reckless expenditure and waste had gone on, but laid the blame on his colleagues, particulary on Mr Ballance.

There was one important subject on which Sir Wm. Fox had not yet touched —the native question. If he was asked what lie proposed to do witli that his reply must be that he did not see his way. The position was extremely complicated. Sir William then pointed out several of the peculiarities of the case. It was quite free from difficulty when Sir George Grey took office, but resorting to his usual practice of making capital of native affairs, he had thrown everything into confusion, had set the King part}? on its legs, and on the West Coast had brought matters to a very serious crisis, and what might end in a Maori war. If he had followed Sir D McLean’s sagacious waiting policy, and let well alone, there was little doubt that all this would have been avoided and the gradual reconcilement of the races gone on as it was doing. Sir William then touched on the subject of native land purchases, referring to the policy declared by Mr Sheehan on taking office of the Government retiring entirely from the market and helping the natives to sell to real settlers-r-in short, to carry out the principle embodied in Mr Ballanco’s well-known amendment of inducing the natives to promote the colonization of the country and the settlement of the land by small farms. All this seemed to have been abandoned ; no such results bad followed no attempt had been made in any such direction, but the Government had lushed into competition with the private specu-Jt lator, and bought large tracts, much of it worthless land, for large sums which they had no funds to pay. The whole management of native affairs seemed to have been most unfortunate and the result in every way most unsatisfactory. It would require great care, tact, and perseverance to put things straight again, and at this moment, kept in the dark by personal Government, and ignorant of most that had been done, it was not easy to forsee any solution. _ At the conclusion of the speech, which was listened to throughout with the utmost attention, several questions were put and answered, and Sir William was accorded a most hearty vote of thanks for his address. The usual vote to the chair brought the meeting to a close.