Mr. SHERWOOD’S Address.

Patea Mail, 18 June 1881, Page 3

Mr. SHERWOOD’S Address.

The following additional references to local matters could not bo included conveniently in our lengthy report of Mr Sherwood’s speech in the Town Hall: WHO GOT THE RESERVES ? Major Atkinson told you also that he got large endowments for this harbor. These were 3,691 acres of land, a large portion being bush and the rest poor and sand} 7 . But it was never intended that we should have any real assistance to carry on these harbor works. The work has now gone too far to be stopped, and I say it is beyond the power of anybody to stop that work for any great length of time. If if had been left to the honorable gentleman and those particularly active agents he has here who have endeavored by every means in their power to keep me out of that Harbor Board—if they had succeeded in that, and if they had had the manage" ment of harbor matters, I say not a single stone would have been in position at the present moment. (Applause.) I say it is ridiculous for the honorable gentleman to come and endeavor to rob me of this little credit—it is the only thing I get. . A TESTIMONIAL. A number of gentlemen in this place were good enough to present me with a testimonial, in which they give me credit for this and other works ; and they presented me with a purse of sovereigns. Will you believe that the honorable gentleman met me in the street and said I had no right to receive that testimonial ; that it ought to have been given to him ? (Applause.) THE. VOICE OP THE DISTRICT. What has been our action with regard to our member ever since he has been in the House 1 No man in that House has had more fair play. We have placed a weapon in his hand by petition, frequent petitions, which would have enabled him to represent us in our proper light before the colony. In our last petitions we put in material allegations that the extraordinary and unproductive expenditure going on in this district should stop. Yet we are told by eminent politicians that we in this district are not satisfied unless we are trafficking in the blood of the Maoris, Is the language of those petitions the language of people who wish to traffic in the blood of the Maoris ? Was it not his duty to have these petitions brought before the House again and again until he had thoroughly established the case of Patea ? Our friend the Chairman of this meeting asked the Major on his last visit here what he had done with the petitions sent to him last year, as the Chairman had heard nothing about them since posting them to the Major. What was the Major’s answer ? He said he had received them, and thought they had been acknowledged, but that a Minister’s secretary generally looked after those things, if they were not of great importance. A THIRD PARTY. I here is an old story that every politician has his day. I have no doubt the truth of that adage will come home with great force to him. We have been called rustics. There are. certain persons who can only find exponents of the people in such places as the Christchurch Club ; but I believe the time is coming when each village politician will wake up and demand the right to have his say in politics on a footing with members of the Christchurch Club. I believe a new party will spring up who will insist on having political activity, who will insist on knowing for themselves the real state of affairs, and will insist on developing the splendid resources of the country lying under our feet, and will find in them the wealth necessary to pay off the debt we have, and the heavy taxation also. —(Applause.)