ELECTION ITEMS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2690, 2 November 1881, Page 2

ELECTION ITEMS.

Mr Wakefield speaks at Hilton this evening, and Mr Postlethwaite at Rangitata,

Mr John Manchester addressed the electors of that place last night. He said he did not esteem it a very great honor to be a parliamentary representative, for the great risk of wrong interpretations of their acts made the “ honor ” very doubtful. Among the views he enunciated were these ; The waste lands, the leases of which would presently fall in should be disposed of in small blocks, whether by sale or lease, so as to secure the settlement of people. Taxation could not be avoided, but those who had reaped the greatest benefit from the borrowing that made the taxation necessary should pay the greatest share, and all who had barely enough to live upon should be exempt altogether. Every man interested in land should pay,including foreign mortgagees. Lawyers and doctors, who were not touched by other forms of direct taxation, should pay an income tax. He would confine public works in the immediate future to the improvement of the facilities of those lands already opened up, and would construct no branch railways but such as would be likely to pay. He was in favor of subsidising a direct line of steamers to England. Immigration should not be resumed until the colony really wanted more people of the classes contemplated in immigration schemes, and he blamed the indiscriminate acceptance of applicants for the grater part of the demand for charitable aid in the colony. He would give local bodies more power of managing affairs. Hospitals and charitable aid should be administered by local elected bodies, but the funds should be provided from the general colonial revenue. The bankruptcy law needed amendment, one direction being the forcing of unsound men to announce their unsoundness to their creditors sooner than at present. He would be in favor of considerable amendments in the education system. The local committees should have more power ; a portion of the cost should fall directly upon the parents ; and any schools that educated children up to the Government requirements should receive a subsidy, perhaps a little less than that paid to public schools. At the conclusion of the meeting an unanimous vote of thanks was passed to Mr Manchester. Mr J. R. Andrews, a candidate for Sydenham, shows that the new Repreentation Act has not done its work too well. The various electorates under the old Act were unequally represented. So it was now. Sydenham, with 8460 residents, had one member, and so had Timaru with 6566, Lyttelton with 4127 and Port Chalmers' with 4662. He was opposed to the property qualification altogether. Property contributed about £219,716 to the revenue, while the Customs contributed £1,607,634, and as the leasehold qualification had been abolished, so should the freehold qualification. He believed in manhood suffrage, pure and simple. In his opinion a country depending entirely on agriculture could never be very rich or populous. Local industries were required to promote wealth and population. He objected to the movement against the Maoris, he would never consent to spend a single pound to drive the Maoris into the bush.