PARLIAMENTARY.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume 1, Issue 1, 5 October 1872, Page 4

PARLIAMENTARY.

’ANT OF CONFIDENCE DEBATE. rFRnAv Ormond reviewed the whole courst e Brod gen negotiations since last session ad correspondence showing that nndei 'infract lines to the extent of .5706.00 C icing let. No. 2 Contract was terminated

ind the Government had, consequently, return? Brodgcn's securities under it. The colony ws not, as Fitzherbert said, liable for damages to •' iot supplying the necessary data. Nearly til if not the' whole, would be ready by the re quired date, and Brodgen had got as much a: he needed, or could utilise. The Goveminei' still felt bound to offer further work, to the ex tent of £300,000, to Brodgen, and then 11 colony would be free to adopt the plan of ope 1 tender. 'The Chief-Engineer advised that al prices paid Brogden were fair and reasonable and no tender had been accepted without lie advice. 'The Engineer added that he did not) think that any undue profits would acerue to Brodgen from the contracts. Tn reference to Ihe assertion made that the price of the Hutt line was excessive, he could say that local conractors had asked Brodgen £3,572 for works for which his contract was £1,400. He denied that

(rovemmem rum recetveit any warning about ■the probable rise in the price of iron, and even . if they had, they could not harp gone into an . iron speculation. He defended the practice of Ministers visiting different parts of the colonv as highly beneficial. No Government could pong retain their seats if they did not- do so.I •i He had joined the Cabinet on flm full under-' Islanding that lie was to resign his Snperin- ' tendency, but when he returned to his province ito hand over affairs on meeting his Council, he found the native mind in the province in a highly unsettled and dangerous state of excite-! ment, owing to the practices of a designing Euro-' pcan, actuated bv motives of greed and gain. Thel 'Bishop of Waiapu, Colonel Russell. Colenso, and] ■ many leading settlers, represented, that it was! 'necessary for him to retain the Superintendency' fill the excitement was calmed. The leading! chiefs said the same. He managed to allay thel ''•xcitement till the Land Court decided the! 'matter. Tt had since done so, and its judgment! !was confirmed bv the Judge of the Supreme! 'Court. Was that individual who caused exeiteIment, and who was guilty of fraud., to discredit .the Legislature ? This man still sat in it. (Such were the reasons for retaining his Siiperin-I tendency. He stated them at the time to the! Premier, offering to resign his Ministerial seat.! ,hnt his colleagues would not accept it. He| (denied he had neglected his duties, or undulyl' (favoured his own province. Tf the House(thomdit tin' two offices incompatible, he would i not for a moment embarrass his colleagues. He J (defended the conduct of the Government and •.the Agent-General regarding immigration, read- 1 jug letters from that gentleman.showing Jlqjp the colonv was viefimfsen by ''me pres'errf ship-li •.... • T 1 . ’ .....I /i." ill

ning monopoly m London and yiasgow, and] that-efforts were being made to hny.k it up. IL‘] (believed the result would be fluff the Scotch Is-vvice would be re-established ax a large saving. The Agent-General had done In’/dnty. and done it well. Since Mnv, when immigration commenced, 2.758 immigrants had been introduced,! ■ "sT'fesTi’olT ivnllhili te?Fones, while 1.500 more were arranged for. He complained that Gillies showed no desire to promote or assist immigration to Anek'and. The Government had done] all tli-v could to form settlements in various! directions. 500 immigrants were now coming, to form settlements in tig; 70-mile bush, where Hie land was ready, rjid puhlie works were going on to- assist them. Arrangements were also made for giving land at Taormina, and on the TVcst Coast, on deferred payipents, to a better class of immigrants. They I,'ad also arranged a special settlement for /Stewart’s Island. Government had no renspn to believe fhati

Troland was neglected as a Held for emigration.; TTo thought pvopably' there were some local •in-outs tlmre. ami lv» knew Farnall had gone there. Large numbers of Irish were amongst the immigrants imported. He accused the Wellington members of trving to rush the Government into a contract for the Masterton railway before the house mot, although the] on.gipf’ers advised that it would be a great waste of jhonev to do so before the country was fullv surveyed. He declared emphatically from his experience that no Government could ever cpm-l mand continued support from !■ itzherberf and Bunny, unless is was pre]>ared to saeraffice its dutv to the rest of the colonv. T'lwy could have that support on certain terms, but thev would prefer to go out of office. He thought if ] an honest and proper course of the Government: to have brougt down Financial and Public works: Statements. He replied at length to Brvce’s] complaints about the Wanganui roads, Gillies re, the non-delegations of poxvers to purchase native] lands, Collins re the Pakipaki line, Sheehan and Gillies re the Auckland railway. If the Ministry retired, they would do so with the

knowledge that the country w in a more prosperous condition than ever before. Stafford spoke one hour and forty minutes, renlving at length to the various Ministerial speeches. He declared the reasons given by Ormond, whv he had not resigned the tendenev. were v.-v conclusive proof of the incompatibility of the two offices. ■ He referre to the accusation made of having, in his Timaru sneech. advocated the policy of confiscation. His scheme then was, and he still approved of it. to settle villages every ten miles along the; main arterial line of road from one end of the] colonv to the other. About twenty such would now complete the chain, and only OOO acres be required. He had the authorit? of the owners < f most of the land that would be needed to sav thev would he very glad to give it on th terms nronosed. He would still he glad to see ;> ifentative Permissive Bill introduced, to give the scheme effect. He concurred in the confflemanation of the wav Fox had dragged McLean’s .name into that debate. It would have been a 'gross insult, to ask that gentleman to des"vf I coll eagues. As to the impossibility of McLeaffij working with liim, he reminded the House that last session the Ministry had invited him to join them and so become McLean’s colleagues. ~He declared that the present Government had done what they accused the Opposition of i

desiring to do, —override the existing land law t£e denied, and quoted evidence to show th, falsity of the accusation, that he had twics allowed the colony to drift into war. He declared that in using the expression, two year, jigo. about the “ wretched past,” he intended (father to be magnanimous, and bury Fox’s pas' Ilian hi* own. He quoted his own speech 01 |>tagofvo4n Bill, 1861, Amendment Bill, 186” io snow tha. lie had conceived the necessity fo. i large prudent colonisation scheme, and showed rom reference to the Estimates, that he h't jdfilled nearly, if not all his promises in regard to retrenchment when he had succeeded !lr Weld. He regretted, however, as th retest blunder he ever made, having the; wed so much on the Defence item. ll< with alarm the prospect of the colony Suing left, in a few years, with exhausted credit nid a large number of unfinished and totally

j mprodactive public works. Since the debat. [uid commenced lie had received a large number pf letters from natives, who all seemed to desin [ip have a Native Minister who could not speak Maori. They also complained of the workingof the I lands Court, stating that the residt wotdd genetkliy be to drive the tribes off much of the land 'ifroviously held in common. This «a- a serious '/latter, which he would have inquired into, as iiey could not allow a lot of pauperised natives ,y be thrown on the colony. They also compained of their unused land being taxed by the. h’.Aad Board. H e would bring in a proposal tqfc-om-' mute such taxes into manual labour on the roads. They further complained of the Government resetting the exclusive right to purchase their land- '.He would promise to abolish this right , and Ir.ftp natives as free as Europeans to deal with thiir own lauds. He thought also they were entV-led to a fair share, in the management of their \wn revenue. If they were to be as one peoplevwith us, they must be treated on an equality, and, being represented in the House, he desired see a. further step taken and a native memqjr added to the Cabinet. After making due reserves for public works, villages, he., he woii/1 also be prepared to divide the residue o?'unalienated confiscated lands amongstl

(those proved to be entitled to reap advantage; ji'i’orl them. He would do this as an act of grace (anp policy. If he took office, he would make it his personal care to attend to native matters, anil would meet the Maori face to face, without intervention of third parties. , The following is the division list on Stafford’s finrt- resolution, as follows : — /1.. That, in the opinion of this house, the ad-i ininisttatioi) by the present Government of the! Public Worffirfand immigration Policy has been! unsivtisfactori. >. | Ayes. -Noes. Bradshaw Andrew Brown (Otago) Bathgate • Riyce Bluett Brandon Brown (Canterbury) Buckland Carrington Bunny Fox Calder Gisborne dark Harrison Coiiips Henderson . Curtis Hunter « Creighton Jackson L’itzl icrbert Kn t ene Gillies Kelly (Taranaki) llallnnstcin Kelly (Auckland) Ingles Luekie J oh us ton [at lai id re w Kenny McGillivray Mervyn McGlashau McLeod McLean Munro (Sir D.) O’Neill Munro Ormond Murray O’Rorke O’Connor Parker (Nelson) Parata Peacock Parker Pearce Reid Beeves Richardson (Nelson) Reynolds Rollestou Rhodes Sheehan Richardson (CanterShepherd (Nelson) bury) Stafford Seymour Swanson Shepherd (Otago) L’okainoaua Steward I'lionison Studholme \\ akeiield Tairoa Webster Tribe/ W bite Tohnie Wilson (Sir John) Vogel Wood Williamson Stafford asked leave to withdraw the second and third resolutions. Fox refused to allowit. On a division second resolution carried, 39 to 38, as follows 2. That the habitual absence of Ministers from the seat of Government during the recess, which results in their conducting important operations without frequent opportunities of each other, prevents that concert and unity of actioi between the several Departments essential to efficient direction of public affairs, either Executive or Legislative, and largely increases the cost of Government. Third resolution carried 40 to 35 as follows :— 3. That, in order to administer the Public Works and Immigration Policy in the most efficient and economical manner, the Colonial .Government should retain the.full responsibility uor the proper conduct of all works authorized, anckthe sole control over all sums voted by Parliment; and should, when practicable, avail itself of any existing Provincial or other local machinery in the supervision or execution of such works. Ic-day Fox announced that Ministers had tendered their resignation, arid now only hold office till Vieir successors were ready. They had Ldv KI the Governor to send for Stafford. Tfiey desired to express the extremely satisfaVtory relations which, during their term of •ifflce. had exist ed between the Governor and he 1 . Ministry.