POLITICAL MEETING

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 147, 3 June 1884, Page 2

POLITICAL MEETING

Mil. BEES AT MAKARAKA. DISGRACEFUL SCENE. Mr. Rees addressed the electors at the Makaraka hall last night. Between fifty and sixty people were present. Mr. J. R. Hurrey moved and Mr. E. Devery seconded that Mr. T. E. R. Bloomfield take the chair, which was carried. The speaker was continually interrupted during the whole of his remarks, by a man who sat in one of the front seats named Thomas O’Donnell, and he (the speaker) was repeatedly compelled to stop and appeal to the chairman and the meeting generally to have the man put out, which was ultimately done though with the result as recorded below. • The chairman in a few remarks introduced Mr. Rees to the meeting, who said, he was sorry that for want of sufficient notice the meeting for that evening was not more widely known around the neighbourhood of Makaraka. He did not know until that afternoon that the papers were not regularly distributed to the people about those parts. He had heard that most of the settlers only got the papers at certain times during the week. Such being the case, of couiso they did not have the information of that meeting given them in time for them to attend it. However, he saw that the majority present wore voters, and he would take as much pains in addressing them, and in answering any questions they might pul to him, as if there were five times the number present to hear him. lie then referred to Sir Julius Vogel, and his candidature for the East Coast seat, and gave his reasons for not giving a decisive answer till his return here from Auckland to the various requests asking him to retire in Sir Julii’.'’ favor, was, that having once placed hi.ir < If before the electors as a candidate for their votes, he felt that it would place, and those favorable tn him, in a false position, if he did so without first ascertaining tivir feelings on the matter, because if they put their local men aside for a stranger they would be heavily handicapped when Parliament again sat, for by so doing they would arm both sides of the House again.’ tlu r.c ■••vc\ as Sir Julia.’. 0..1y w; liel to make use of the constituency to urge an old claim of his against the Government of some £7.000. Tie said that in Auckland he had sworn always to fight Sir Julius whenever they came face to face, and for thos ■ reasons ho could not retire in his favor. There wore three candidates in the fi 11, Me. Locke, Gannon and himself, and only two parties the Liberals. 'lie ’.r‘ v of . and the Co iservatives, the party which was all for the holders of property, which represented sheep and not men. There was this difference in political parties wh«re they had representative institutions, they found the lines of demarkation sometimes clear and distinct, and sometimes confused, bat there were always the two parties as he had mentioned. lie claimed if they looked at the different speecches, that they would see that neither Mr. Locke nor Mr. Gannon had de-

I dared themselves on what side they were, and ho defied them to say which side they were going for. Ho wanted to point out clearly what he considered was right, and ho did not care whether he caused offence by so doing or not. There was danger in men promising their votes to one man, because that man an l hie friends solicited and button-holed them privately, in order to get theis, support. Such a thing as that was politically dishonest. The power they had of voting was given to them by. the party he represented, as a sacred trust to return the man who was best cp-lculuted by his principles and his practice to advance their welfare. Therefore, he was grieved to hear that one of the candidates had been obtaining promises, irrespective of everything else, ever since the last general election. It had often happened that a man who had obtained promises like that had been returned and had been unable to advance the place he represented. As far as Mr. Locke was concerned, that gentleman told them that he was a supporter nominally of the present Government, and if, on one point, his vote.

was asked against the Government he would give it, but only for this session. Mr. Locke was really a supporter of the present Government—always had been. He had been a paid servant of the Government for the past twenty years, and whatever he did would show that he was a supporter of the present Government —a Government which was in its last stages of existence and which would.soon give up its political ghost. This place had for very many years been in the opposition to the Government, and were they now going to change round to the other side. No it was the duty of the constituency to stick to the same party. He believed that the main bulk of the votes given to Mr. Locke would not be given on account of his fitness, nor because he was supporting any particular party; but would be given him for one of two reasons—either by those who had promised him and did not like to break their word, or by the class of conservatives in the district, who were obtaining large tracts of Native Lands, and who would support him only because he was. a supporter of the present Government. Referring to Mr. Gannon, the speaker repeated that he was put up to split the votes of the Liberal party. Irrespective of that he understood that Mr. Gannon would receive a large amount of support from many because they liked, him. He spoke of him as a clover man, who would take a very respectable position in the Legislature or in any other place. But he would ask the electors on what they based their favor to him. Was it because Mr. Gannon was pledged to any political party ? No, because he was not. He (Mr. Gannon) spoke of Mr. Locke as being upon a rail, and if he fell off that rail, he would fall on the side of the greatest attraction. But he (the speaker) would ask was not he on the same side as Mr Locke ? (Noice : No). Well, which side was he on ? lie might be on one side but his speech did not show it (Voice: sensible man) He might be a sensible man, but the electors ought to know under what flag he was fighting. The speaker then went on to explain on what side he was, and that he would stick to it, as he had done for years. That party had never been in power, but the measures it had fought for had been passed and adopted by the present Government. His party had so much power as to compel the Government to bring up their measures and pass them into law, such as in relation to Native Lands, Crown Lands, Public Works, and things of that sort. The only hope they had for the general prosperity of the colony of New Zealand lay in that party—the Liberal Party. He asked them to look at the fact that in New Zealand there were 14,000,000 acres of land sold by the Government into private hands. Half the quantity of all the land sold by the Government, 7,000,000 acres, was held by only 250 people. Now, what chance, he asked, was there for any of them obtaining a foothold on that land. If they wanted to get any of it, they had to pay through the nose for it, for many of those large holders were desirous of building up what had beel found to be such tyranny—a land territorial aristocracy. They were doing it, and would still continue to do it, unless stopped. The Liberal Party was against all that; it said, let the people’s land pay for itself. It was against letting the debt of the land rest on the shoulders of the people, when it (the land) retained its value. It was against allowing monied people acquiring immense landed estates from the Maoris. On the question of taxation, he asked, who was it paid the interest on the great debt? Not the large land-holders, not the wealthy classes, the people who remained at home, and who paid practically nothing, while they were drawing rents and profits from the lands which had been made valuable. No it was the people out here that paid the taxation, and received no advantage from it, and yet were compelled to bear the burden. If they voted for Mr. Locke they would perpetuate that sort of thing. He then went on to relate what he had done to benefit the district, and said that around the town of Gisborne there was only one block of land in dispute, as he had settled all the rest himself, and gave instance of several, such as the Whataiipoko, the property’s of Messrs. Johnston and Chambers, &c. The one block that still remained in dispute was the Makauri Block. (Great disturbance). That dispute was settled years ago when Captain Read was alive. (Interruption). Before Captain Read’s death an arrangement was made by which the Natives received a certain portion of Makauri, as also did Captain Read’s estate. That was carried into effect by Mr. Locke himself. (Continued interruption). It was taken before the Native Land Court and regular orders were drawn up, the lines were cut upon the ground, and everything was finally settled, and the Natives went into possession of their portion and so did Captain Read. After a time the portion of the latter was sold, and Mr. Locke became the purchaser, and he applied to the Native Land’s Court to receive Great disorder and confusion ensued here, by the man O’Donnell, during which Mr. Rees continued speaking, and could only be slightly understood, and wound up by saying that four distinct orders were made in the block by seven different judges. O'Donnell now became more rowdy than ever. Mr. W. Walsh went up and attempted to carry him out of the room, a struggle ensued and they both fell to the floor. At last they got into the body of the hall, where they commenced sparring at each other, and making use of most foul and abusive language, quite disgusting to listen to. This naturally drew the attention of the whole of the meeting from the speaker, and they crowding round the pugilists also began to get noisy; and thus it continued until the uproar and din became so great that Mr. Rees asked the Chairman to adjourn the meeting until Friday, the 13th instant, as it was impossible for him then to obtain a hearing. The Chairman, amidst much turbulence, announced that the meeting stood adjourned until the 13th instant, and it then broke up in a most disgraceful manner.. Three cheers were called by some one for Mr. Gannon, which were given intermingled with a few hoots.