MR HAYHURST AT TEMUKA.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2693, 5 November 1881, Page 2

MR HAYHURST AT TEMUKA.

Mr John Hayburst addressed a meeting o£ the electors of Geraldine in the schoolhouse, Ternuka, last night. There were about 300 present, a good many being unable to obtain admittance, and these crowded round the windows outside.

Mr John Talbot occupied the chair, and at the outset deprecated the character of the previous meetings. He showed that it was of as great or greater importance to the electors to hear the candidates express their opinions as it was for them to utter them, and ho hoped the meeting would .be of a more orderly character than previous ones had been. Whether this appeal produced the effect, which is doubtful, as the room was only half full when it was made, or whatever was the reason, a more orderly political meeting could scarcely be desired. Mr Hayhurst commenced by saying that he could not hope to say much that was new, as the other candidates must have touched upon most subjects of interest, and there could not be any very great difference of opinion upon any of them. He then spent some minutes in comparing the claims of the three candidates now in the field, two of them being local men, and the third, Mr Wakefield, an absentee. During the last session he had heard Mr Wakefield s actions severely criticised by several leading electors, but these had now strangely turned round and become his strongest supporters. A belief was attempted to be forced upon the country that only a certain class of people were qualified to be legislators—that no others had any right to be in the House. But that attempt had, he hoped, been unsuccessful, and the recent extension of the franchise gave the people an opportunity of proving that they knew who were most fitted to be trusted with the guardianship of their interests—those who sought to represent them on the ground of hereditary right to sit in the Legislature, or those whose interests were identical with their own. The Representation Act of last session gave nearly everyone in the country an equal right to present himself as a candidate for the suffrages of his fellow-men, and anyone who felt himself qualified had a perfect right to aspire to Parliamentary honors. It was time the monopoly of legislative power by a small section of the community was broken through. The advantage of having a truly local representative was that if he was true to himself he could not be otherwise to those he represented. He charged Mr Wakefield with want of straightforwardness in bis addresses, and especially in answering questions. Mr Wakefield had a facility in giving answers that left his questioner as wise as he was before. Such a man was hardly to be trusted with the management of one’s business. Honesty and straightforwardness were among the most necessary qualities in a legislator. It was a false estimate to make of a politician to suppose that he must be a good one because he ®ould and did make long speeches in the House. The very reverse was the case. Those speeches wasted the time of the House, and they were very costly. They were, moreover, unnecessary. A good speech from the leaders of each side was all that was required, with, perhaps, a few remarks from members who could touch upon new points. Referring to the financial difficulties of the colony, he contrasted the amount of colonial debt, in proportion to the population, with that of the United States, and laid the blame of the present unsatisfactory state of things to the imperfect carrying out of Sir Julius Vogel’s policy. That policy, as propounded, provided for the settlement of a large population concurrently with the expenditure of loans on public works ; but a certain class of persons already in the colony frustrated that, the most important half of the scheme by grasping the lands, and thus preventing settlement. He quoted some statistics given in Mr Sealy’s pamphlet, “ Shall We Stay Here ?" to show the different results that might have been obtained had the lands been settled as the projector of the Public Works policy intended them to be. He then explained how the squatters had obtained renewals of their runs from time to time, and warned his hearers that unless they were sharply looked after similar tactics would again be resorted to, with similar results. If the waste lands were dealt with as a private individual would deal with them, striving to do the best he could with them for himself, he believed they would annually yield an amount equal to the present revenue of the colony. But if the present estate were allowed to drift into the hands of a few individuals as large blocks had been allowed to do in the past, the population would long be able to boast of owing the public creditor over £6O a head. He criticised very severely the mode of formation and present composition of the Upper House, objecting strongly to anyone who was not directly responsible to the people having any power in making laws for them. The system under which the Chamber was constituted was an anomaly in these enlightened days. An additional objection was that the persons appointed to sit in the Upper House were entitled to a salary, which they wore to receive for life, whether they were ol any real use as legislators or not. A second Chamber was perhaps necessary to revise the work of the first, but it should not be made an asylum for the incapables of the first, or for the needy friends of those in power. He next attacked the pensions system, characterising it as an imposition upon the hard workers of the community, to which the sooner a stop was put the better. The present Government had taken great credit to themselves for their economies,* but some of their economies had been most expensive. By suddenly stopping public works they had forced shipload after shipload of men who had cost £4O a head to bring to the colony, to leave for other places, thereby throwing away the money spent upon their introduction, and when the stoppage began to pjrpss upon the working classes, an inefficient system of relief works was devised, where men of all trades and callings were temporarily transformed into navvies, and though the wages paid were nominally low, they were really |h|Egh as thp workmen were unaccustomed to their work. A great deal was made of the improved condition of the finances, but nothing was more certain than that one’s financial position would improve if all expenditure was stopped while the income remained the satne. Loss and suffering must, however, accompany such a procedure. He condemned the manner of the ten pe? cent reduction, and still more its restoration. It the state of the country demanded the reduction a year ago, he could not

believe that it had improved so much in twelve months as to justify the reduction being restored. He believed that the fact that a general election was about to take place, influenced the Government in restoring the ten per cent. It was the sprat thrown out to catch a mackerel for themselves. He hoped the people would not be “ bluffed” by any device of that kind. He did not think it said much for the economy of the Government, that the last loan had been run through in half the time it was supposed to be spread over. He then referred to the position of the Governor, giving it as his strongly held opinion, that the Governor should be elected by the people. The Colonial Governorships were generally given to needy English gentlemen, who, when they came out, would scarcely speak to those who made up to them, to an extravagant degree, the deficiencies of their private incomes. It was an anomalous thing that this small community of half a million of people should pay a Governor £7500 a year, while the President of the United States, who ruled fifty four millions of people, received but £2500 a year. The appointment of a Governor from Home was a relic of the earlier days of colonization, and the custom ought to cease. If a Governor is required, he ought to be ore of the people, chosen by themselves. The position ought to be open to all aspirants, and not considered to belong by hereditary right to the members of any class. He looked anxiously for the day when class distinctions would disappear, as they had b*en the curse of older countries, and he was pleased to see that they were breaking down in New Zealand. He referred briefly to the Native difficulty, ridiculing the recent movement of the Volunteers to Parihaka “to fight a man who will not fight, who cannot be made to fight,” and condemning the previous arrest of the West Coast Natives. He believed they wore but asserting their rights in an humble way, and the Government had incurred a lasting disgrace in arresting a number of men whom they could not or dared not bring to trial, and they were incurring as great a disgrace by their present proceedings. If Te Whiti had transgressed any law he should be arrested and tried according to law and dealt with as the law directed. He strongly condemned the existing practice in respect of civil business in the lower law Courts, and the influence that lawyers exercised on the progress of business therein. A Magistrate was entrusted with power to deal with a man’s personal liberty, and he might surely be trusted to deal fairly in matters involving only a few pounds without the gentlemen of the long robe being allowed to interfere. The present system was a scandal to civilization and an insult to the common sense of the community. After speaking about an hour Mr Hayhurst sat down, intimating his willingness to answer any questions. Questions came forward slowly, but the Chairman himself was prepared with a good many. In reply to Mr W. Oldfield, Mr Hayhurst said he was of opinion that landlords should not be obliged to pay Road Board rates. It was to benefit the tenant the rates were levied, and they had power-to restrict the amount, as they were in the majority.- If landlords had to pay the rates they would add the amount to the rent, so the tenant would be no better off.

Mr Russell asked, as Mr Hayhurst had expressed himself in favour of an elective Governor, wkether he was in favour of severing all ties with the Mother Country, Mr Hayhurst said he could not see that the present or any previous Governor was much of a tie between the colony and England. He was not known to many in the colony, and to a smaller proportion at Horae. In reply to different questions from Mr Talbot, the chairman, he said he was not prepared with a system to replace the one now; in use in forming the Upper House. He briefly indicated the systems in use in France and in the United States ; one of these might be tried, and if it did not answer the other might be tried ; but once the present system were abandoned, it would never be resorted to again. He thought a second Chamber necessary, to act as a body of revision, where measures passed in the heat of debate in the Lower House might be calmly and critically considered. It was not necessary to decide upon the system to be adopted yet, for before any change in the Constitution could be made, another “ appeal to the country ” must be made. Ho considered the present mode of electing the Board of Education was a very wrong one. The Board had the whole control of the finances of the educational system in the district, and they ought to he directly responsible to the people who had to pay the money. The position of Committees was a most humiliating and painful one ; they met once or twice a month, as if to do something, but if they attempted anything they wore soon told they were exceeding their duties. He spoke at some length of the hardship imposed upon a section of the community who could not conscientiously take advantage of the secular schools, and believed in subsidising any school that fulfilled the requirements of the public system. He had fought against this system in the Provincial Council, where it originated, on account of its destroying the established denominational schools. If the requirements were not complied with, the stoppage of the subsidy would very soon bring them up to the mark. He expressed himsel strongly while on this subject, on the question of Secondary Education. The bulk of the tax-payers, the working men, could not take advantage of the system of higher education in force. He defied them to name a ploughman or laborer whose son had received any abvantage from the system. It was only the rich who could reap any advantage, and these should be required to educate their children themselves. At present the well-to-do got their children educated at the expense of the whole people, to an extent that enabled them to take lucrative appointments that gave them a superior position to tfieir poorer neighbors who had paid for fitting them for such posts, and the process was repeated with their children. He vmuld educate all children sufficiently to enable them to get their living, and if more were wanted it should be paid for by those who wanted it. He found that no one could take advantage of the higher education but those who could ai¥ord to pay for it. He was quite in favor of farmers being given power to rate themselves for the dastruciou of small birds. A measure to provide for this had passed the Lower House but was thrown out by'tlie jjpper House as unnecessary. It was unnecessary to the great landowners composing

that House, as the birdsjjdid not injure their grazing estates. In reply to a question regarding railway rates, he said the system of railway construction . here and in other countries was very different. Here he considered the people should be considered shareholders in the railway system, as they had raised the money to construct them. Unfortunately the shareholders who lived a long way from the board of management did not receive the same dividends from their investments. He was inclined to think that the produce of the soil should be carried from distant places to the ports for nearly the same charges as for short distances. The railways were constructed to open up the country, to assist in its settlement, and it seemed strange to require them to do this and pay directly also. There must be something wrong with the management. On American lines, owned by companies who must make them pay, grain was carried at one-eleventh of the cost here. It seemed as if the authorities inquired how much a farmer must pay for carrying his produce by drays, and then put on a rate just a little below that. He would go in heart and soul for a reduction of the rates on the produce of the soil. (Applause). In reply to Mr Hassell he said he would apply the same principles to public borrowing that he applied to his own private borrowing. Before ho borrowed he wanted to know what it was for and how it was going to be repaid.

In reply to Mr H. Maire (native), Mr Hayhurst said he was quite of opinion that the Maoris should he subjected to the same taxation as Europeans. They reaped equal advantage from the European laws and institutions, and they should pay their share towards their support. Mr Maire—You say we live under the same laws. I should like to know who put us under European laws. Have we ever been properly brought under British law ?

Mr Hayhurst said he was not prepared to answer questions on the early history of the colony. He referred to the Treaty of Waitangi, the basis of the English claim to the Islands. As far as he was aware the Maoris were accorded the same advantages as Europeans. Mr Maire reminded Mr Hayhurst of his objections to a nominated Governor. He thought the same argument could be replied by the Maoris to the European domination. “If the Governor had no right to come from another country to rule, the European had no right to come to rule the Maori.” As to the treaty of Waitangi, ho would ask Mr Hayhurst “ to point out any one Maori in this Island who put his title on that Treaty.” His objection to European rule was exactly the same as that of Mr Hayhursts respecting the Governor. He could rule his people in his own district, and he did not want European control. Mr Hayhurst—Do you mean to ask me whether I think the Maoris should have separate rule ? Mr Maire—That is enough ; It is no use making a long talk about it. I thank you for answering my questions. Mr Hayhurst spoke on the question a little longer, and expressed his pleasure at a Native showing so ranch interest in politics as to put questions of any kind to a candidate.

In reply to Mr Talbot, Mr Hayhurst said he would have preferred to see the Customs duties lessened rather than the property tax reduced. The reduction of the property tax did not relieve the majority of the taxpayers, but it did very much relieve the large landowners.

In reply to Mr Oldfield, Mr Hayhurst said he could not propose a scheme to remove the present stagnation, but it was gradually recovering of itself. It ought not to have been allowed to raise, and might not have arisen if the public works had not been stopped so unreasonably and unnecessarily as they were. In reply to Mr Brady, Mr Hayhurst said he was decidedly in favor of the bankruptcy laws being amended. The law seemed to be framed entirely for the debtor. He considered that a debtor should not be declared free from his liabilities until he had paid at least 10s in the £, (A voice—“ It would be hard to pay 10s in the ii now.”) He had had occasion to press a man for money, and had received the reply—“ If you’re going to drive me I’ll go through the hoop, old man.” Such a thing as that ought to be an impossibility. At present the debtor was master of the situation.

In reply to Mr Russell, he said he was in favor of compensation being given if through the operatiau of the local option principle n well-conducted house were closed. 111-conducted houses should be closed as nuisances, and no compensation given. No other questions being offered, Mr K. F. Gray proposed and Mr Russell seconded a vote of thanks and confidence, and this was put and carried, no amendment being proposed, The meeting closed at 10 p.m. with a vote of thanks to the chairman.