Mr Hutchison at Normanby.

Patea Mail, 5 December 1881, Page 3

Mr Hutchison at Normanby.

(from ouk correspondent.) Friday. Mr Hutchison addressed his constituents at Normanby last night, in the Town Hall. Mr Woolcock, who was voted to the chair, in a few well-chosen words introduced the candidate, who was received with loud cheers. The address throughout was mainly a reiteration of what has already been published. Mr Hutchison’s master!} 7 exposure and demolition of Major Atkinson’s misleading and delusive figures, were greeted throughout with continued rounds of applause, and when the candidate, at the concluding part of the questioning, pronounced these figures to be “ too often, unhappily, only figures of speech,” the statement was received with prolonged and derisive cheers.

A matter to us here of paramount importance is the immediate opening up of the Boylan road. This road is the proper andjUegitimate Mountain road, instead of the present southern portion of it, which leads only through native reserves. A numerous body of respectable settlers have taken up and are occupying lands along this road. In its present condition it is a more track, and is quite impracticable for all ordinary traffic ; and Mr Hutchison promises that if returned, so that he can have a voice in the matter, he will lose no time in directing the attention of the Government to its immediate construction.

In answer to questions, Mr Hutchison could not suggest any mode by which speculation in cash payment sections could be prevented ; but, in the case of deferred pajnnent lands, the cause was attributable to their management by Boards. He should, if elected, attend to all the wants of his constituents, and nothing—however small or trivial—would be neglected by him. The Government were not justified in asking too high a price for land, and the fictitious prices given, and which were so destructive to settlers, ought to be controlled by local bodies. He would be most decidedly in favor of having the railway line everywhere properly and securely fenced ; for, though Government had given compensation for the land, the general principle would apply that they were bound by every means in their power to prevent injury to the limbs and lives of the people, or to the people’s property. In answering a question as to the competition system in the purchase of land, which he said should not on any account be allowed, he alluded to the system of Major Atkinson calling upon electors to sec him privately after his meetings, when he would discuss matters with them at their leisure. At these conferences he (Mr Hutchison) had discovered that the Major had in private expressed himself entirely differently from what he did in public. A number of other questions were put of no general importance. Mr T. Robson proposed “ A vote of thanks and confidence in Mr Hutchison as our representative.” The motion, with two dissentients, was carried unanimously amid prolonged and ringing cheers. A vote of thanks to the Chairman concluded the meeting. DRIFT OF OPINION. Normanby, Friday. Whatever may be the result elsewhere, Mr Hutchison’s influence here is decisive and complete. Here he is considered the right man in the right place. Though Major Atkinson may be a great financier, and very high, and mighty, and distinguished, and all that, he is no earthly use to us as a representative, if he pleads

that, with millions passing through bis hands, he knows nothing of our small interests, and could not find time to attend to them if he did. When we complain that with many dozens of miles of roads impassable in winter bis attention was wanted, he answers ns by quoting fanciful and unfounded figures —impounds, or recommends the impounding, of our inheritance in the prosecution of a harbor scheme which we utterly detest, and obstinately insists upon misrepresenting us whether wo will or not. Too much greatness is a source of suffering, and whatever the Colony may gain as a whole by the Mayor’s services, it is certain that Egmont will miserably lose by this too much greatness. But we have now in Mr Hutchison a gentleman who, if returned, will attend to our wants however small, and urge our necessities however insig" nificant. There will be no pretence of having performed great undertakings which were the natural outcome of the Public Works scheme ; no assumption of planting and creating industrial homes which were due to the enterprise and wealth of the people ; no scheming for the enrichment of Taranaki at the expense of the settlers on this side of the Mountain ; and no bragging intimation that “ We, the Ministry,” successfully settled the Native difficulty, when the real fact was that, without Mr Bryce, their own mismanagement of that danger and difficulty, was the contemptuous wonder of the whole civilised world.