THE SUPERINTENDENCY.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 102, 5 November 1873, Page 2

THE SUPERINTENDENCY.

NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES. (Condensed from the Auckland Weekly News.) Mr. Williamson, who was loudly cheered, said : Mr. Returning Officer and electors, I have always regarded the hustings as a noble institution. I have defended the hustings when an attempt was made to overthrow them in this province and to make the nomination merely one by paper and by notice ; and although I shrink from prominence, I have never yet been ashamed or afraid to meet the electors of the province of Auckland face to face. I acquit my friend Mr. Dargaville of any intention to insult me, but he has repeated in my hearing to-day an insult which I cannot brook. While Mr. Dargaville has given me credit for what I have done formerly, he has nevertheless made a charge to the effect “ that I am led by the nose by Wyndham street.” I regard that as a deep insult, and I think Mr. Dargaville, after he has heard me, will admit that he has been misinformed. He is young in the community. My impression is that when this election is over, Mr. Dargaville will not only have to confess that he is younger than I am, but that he is foolish also. I will not be severe upon the other competitor, but I have never heard such a doleful dirge as that which has just emanated from the Provincial Secretary. Mr. Gillies’s administration had for a long term been Mr. Lusk’s administration, and 1 hold him responsible for all the evils that have occurred during the last three or four years. The affairs of the province are too large for his mind, and he is unfit, to be trusted with even a branch of the management of the affairs of Auckland. He believed Mr. Dargaville would have a better chance than Mr. Lusk, because the latter would guide the province into the Insolvency Court. There are large tracts of valuable country in the province still lying in a state of nature, and we may look at these things with unconcern from the green patches around Auckland; but let that eountry only be opened up by the policy of the General Government, and where there is one resident now, there will be thousands scattered over this fine province. I had no money when I was Superintendent to open up communication by means of roads, and to encourage immigration, but that money has been provided, and the Superintendent and Provincial Secretary should have made aclaim for what the province was entitled to. The fact of our not having a full share of representation operates very much against us, and last, year, after the discontinuance af the Californian mail service, if it had not been for Mr. Vogel a service would have been established, with Port Chalmers as the port of arrival and departure. If we do not encourage immigration upon the land which we are to purchase with our share of the half-million voted last session for the acquisition of the native land in the North Island, we •hall place ourselves in the position of being outnumbered in the General Assembly, for every man we bring into the province increases our claim for larger representation, while it will also

augment our capitation allowance. My views are these—open up the country to settlement, bring out multitudes of people, and have the country overspread with an intelligent population, and I say that New Zealand would become what it is destined to be, namely, the Britain of the South. With regard to the Education question, I give my friend, Mr. Lusk, credit for being desirous of providing education for the people, but he has completely misjudged his ground. This country has not arrived at that condition when the people will submit to be coerced in this way. He need not think that he can provide for compulsory education in this country. When my friend in the Provincial Council, states that he was the first to take the matter in hand, I tell him he is wrong. If there was one thing I set my heart upon more than another, it was to provide for the education of the people, and I did it according to the limited means at my disposal. There was not a block of land purchased by the Native Lands Purchase Department, and handed over to the province from which I did not set apart a larger percentage for educational purposes, and these endowments are now scattered over the province, many of them in the neighborhood of the city; so that they will prevent the rate-collector from demanding the tax. Every man has a right to private judgment, and every man who contributes to the State has a right to say how his children should be educated. I may think that it is desirable that a child should be educated for a future state as well as for a present one ; I may think it is desirable that a child should be trained in the way it should go, and that it should be prepared equally for eternity as well as for this life ; and yet I should not be coerced to send that child, because I am poor, to a school in which the name of God shall never be mentioned. We take the children out of that school, and bring them to a court of justice, and there ask them to swear upon the Holy Gospel, and they will tell us that they never heard of it, and do not know that there is a God above. I say that the principle laid down by me in the first Education Act, was a true one, namely, that while we required that a certain amount of secular education should be given to qualify the children for every day life, so should we at the same time not deprive those children of the spiritual instruction which their parents and guardians might wish to impart to them. Those who attempt to force on that system which has produced the prevalence of Atheism on the continent of Europe should not be listened to. We must not inflict on the teacher of the child the penalty for daring to mention, through science or any medium of education, the Great Source from which all true wisdom is derived. In the course of time we must have, a less cumbersome mode of Government than that which now exists. The Central Government will be unable to do the whole of the work; but if you wish to see the province of Auckland become what it ought to be, you cannot dispense with provincial institutions. I think that local boards should exist all over the country, and I should be in favor of extending their limit, as they are too circumscribed at present. But it must be remembered that these boards are, or ought to be, very much dependent upon the guidance and direction of the Superintendent and his Executive Council. They should work in unison, and should not be'often at loggerheads. The provincial authorities should endeavor to encourage these local bodies, and by encouraging them they would enable them to perform the functions which belonged to them, I say this with reference to every one of the provinces. I thank you very much for listening to me. I believe that much may be done to bring the province of Auckland from its present state of lethargy into one of activity and life. No doubt the state of the province is such as to cause a certain amount of despondency, and it may make my friend Mr. Lusk timid to think that he should have pleasure in laying it down, and covering it up, and saying, «< Best in peace.” But, I trust he will be mistaken. I take a more sanguine view of matters, and I believe that the vast resources of this province are yet to be developed by industry and hard ■work, and that the people are willing to do it. I admit that better administration is wanted, and if it be my good fortune to be again entrusted with the management of affairs, and that is my ambition, I hope that I may, before I cease from my labors, leave a mark behind me, of my goodwill to a country which I admire, and which I would not leave if I had the opportunity of doing so.