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Southland Times, Issue 618, 14 January 1867, Page 3

Mr Wood had asked almost on his knees for 10,000 acres for general purposes, and the ans ver he got was, not a single shilling. Mr "Wood had tried again with the same result. The fact was the General Government were hard up too. The only source for help was from a reduction in our expenditure. The whole cost of the New River Harbor Department, "Warden at the Paihis and "Road Inspector might be struck out altogether, while the Gaol, Police and Hospital must be kept in a state of efficiency. It was becoming a war now between the Government officials and the people. The amount that could be saved annually would pay for the constant employment of 80 men on the roads, and it could easily be imagined the different appearance the roads would present. Besides these 80 men would be consumers of meat, bread, tea and sugar, and till we had good roads we could not send home for our relatives. The province of Marlborough got into difficulties a short time since, when the people made a noise, and their expenditure was reduced to £3400 a-year exclusive of cost of police, and now they had retrieved their position and were in a prosperous state. It had been asked, •«hat do these men want? Ist, We want the roads made passable before the winter. The Wallacetown road was worse than the East-road, and that was bad enough, and the Oreti railway had been started, finished and stopped. 2nd, The whole of the departments to be remodelled. 3rd, The Local Government, accounts to he fully and completely investigated. The accounts of the province were shamefully kept and he had no hesitation in sayinthat- this Gazette (receipts and expenditure for six months from January to June 1866) was cooked. The Superintendent mnst take notice of it. No bank would render an account like that and if it had been rendered by a clerk in a merchants office in 99 cases'out of 100 it would have been placed in the hands of the police. Then there were almost 400 Crown Grants missing. The day befor Mr Wood returned from Welligton he had been making enquiries for some, both in the Land office and in the Registrar •of Deeds, and was informed they were up North ; but Mr Wood, at a meeting in the theatre, told them he had waited on Mr Domett, who showed him all that they had in Wellington, and that was four, and they were full of mistakes. The fourth want they had was that the salary of the Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands should be withheld till the missing grants were accounted for. The members of the Provincial Council vote his salary, and that was the only way they could bring him to attend to his duties. He then read two resolutions which had been carried at large meetings in Invercargill, showing the true state of public opinion. The first was one moved by Mr Kinross, condemning the policy of the Executive ; and the other Mr M'Clure's, for a dissolution of the Council. When he first landed here 11 years ago, our debt was 7,000, or rather when we had separation, and now after years of prosperity we had got into debt, our lands pawned, aud the whole of our revenue swallowed up in salaries He thought it high time to retrench, or what account wonld they be able to give to their children if they should bring them to task. They must make a resistance now, and know how every shilling is expended, and until then he had no hope of the Province. Mr Cotjpland moved the first resolution — "That to prevent the money which has been spent in forming a part of the East-road from being absolutely thrown away, it is necessary that this work should be gravelled or metalled before the ensuing winter — this meeting would therefore respectfully request the members for the Eastern District and of the Provincial Council generally, to use their best endeavors to get this portion of the road finished in the most substantial and permanent manner, consistent with means of the Province." The resolution was seconded by Mr Habshali,. Mr Kinross said what they did to the roads must be done at once, and while the government had money to spend on useless officials, they had money to make roads. Mr Wood took an interest in the Association, though he had not taken an active part. He looked upon the improving of the roads as the greatest want of the province. The Government had expended £7000 or £8000 on the Eastroad, about .£23,000 on the North-road, and .£350,000 on railways, part of which had been voted for the roads. He had an interest in other roads besides the East-road, but as it contributed largely to the revenue, he thought it was entitled to more attention. He had a vote in nearly every constituency, and he intended to use his influence to get the Eastroad attended to. The strenuous effort being made showed him that they would be forced to do something. Though not often at their meetings, he had been to the Government offices — he had ceased to be a member of the Executive some time — and had told them there was a day of reckoning coming, and had pressed upon them the propriety of getting up some of the broken metal before leasing the railway. They could bring up at least 300 tons a week during the next 10 or 12 weeks. Then he had tried to get the time shortened for repairing the road, and a piece of the road in the middle was to have been less, but he had convinced them that a road was like a rope, only worth what it was in the worst place, and it was to he made good. Mr Dawson had been prospecting for gravel, and he thought if they had 8 inches of gravel and then 4 inches of metal they would have a good road. He had spoken to the railway engiueer who said they would have to put in asiding at the Greenhills to get at the metal which would cost about .£IOO. A person had offered to find labor for sending up 3000 tons at Is per ton. He thought the railway would make a good profit during the next two months with

passengers and goods, and he thought a portion ought to be devoted to their most I pressing want. He had laid this matter before the Executive and given them fair warning that they might he turned out and others step in who would do it. The rent of the rum might shortly be at their disposal, which is about .£9OOO a year. The amount of land sold, which had pone to reduce our debt, he estimated at ,£140,000, but still the General Government might decline to hand over the income from the runs unless they were pressed to do so by a vote from the Provincial Council, which was supported by the people. If not we may never get a sixpence of it. As soon as the Council meet he should bring forward a motion for the General Government to allocate 10,000 acres for roads, if they did not get the rents of the runs, but they had better try for both. These sums should be devoted to roads and then they should be justified in erecting tolls when they had say 5 miles of good mad out of town and thus make them self supporting. He approved of an acreage rate beinu: levied on all lands in the province sold or unsold. The main roads belonged to the province, and all should contribute. One penny an acre, and a less sum on runs might return ,£IO,OOO which would in two years make good roads and the tolls would make them selfsupporting. In reply to the chairman's remark that the General Government had threatened to take away thn ■§• of customs, ;here was no fear of that as the ministry who intended to do that had been turned •iut. and the member who had been retained by the succeeding ministry, was told he must alter his ideas on that point. They had guaranteed to divide .£318,000 among the provinces so that we shall get more than previously. He felt sure Mr Stafford would be likely to accede to any moderate request. There was a probability of the House of of Assembly meeting again shortly, when he would not forget our wants. He concluded by saying he should have next week many opportunities of speaking more to their advantage. Mr Kinross proposed the second resolution as follows — " That this meeting being desirous of strengthening the hands of any member i of the Provincial Council who may be prepared to move a motion of want of confidence in the present Executive, and accept the results of its being carried, declares that such motion would meet with public approbation." Mr Chairman and Gentlemen, — Perhaps there is no institution that in modern times has so much assisted the cause of freedom and justice as the newspaper press ; and although we occasionally find editors who are venal a,nd corrupt in their principles, and coarse and brutal in their manners and language, yet such cases are only exceptions to the general rule. Fortunately we possess a newspaper in Invercargill tbat has fearlessly endeavored to expose those unfair practices carried on by the present Executive, and has assisted us in our legitimate and constitutional endeavors to reform abuses, by fairly and truthfully reporting what has been said and done at our various meetings. On this account I have the satisfaction of thinking, that although I address myself more particularly to the settlers of the Eastern district, what I now say will receive the consideration of the people of Southland generally. Men are very apt to value lightly what has been easily acquired ; and although we have had the noble privilege of selfgovernment secured to us without effort on our part, we should never forget that our forefathers freely laid down their lives on the battlefield, on the scaffold, and in the dungeon to obtain that privilege for us. No man who properly considers this will neglect to register his vote, or to use that vote conscientiously and boldly when occasion arises, nor will he refuse to assist those who are endeavoring to benefit our adopted land, by attending meetings or helping to carry out any other measure necessary for the public good. In seeking for the redress of grievances, we cannot do better than follow the example of our native land, and we find that the people of Britain have everywhere been holding monster meetings to strengthen the hands of Liberal members and oppose the policy of the present Government. In writing of the passage of the Emancipation Bill in England, the celebrated American authoress, Mrs Stowe, says — "It was the reality, depth, and earnestness of the public feeling thus aroused, which pressed with resistless force upon the Government ; for the Government of England yields to popular demands quite as readily as that of America. It has been proved that the present Government of Southland does not yield to popular demands in the same manner that other constitutional Governments do ; but if the people of Southland show the same earnestness of feeling that has been shown in Britain, neither the present nor any other Government can resist their just demands for more roads and less loafers. It is not my place to state distinctly on what grounds any M. P. C. should base a motion of want of confidence in the members of the present Government ; but I think from the unconstitutional manner in which they totui Ly ignored the authority of the Council in the matter of the proposed Mataura railway ; from the bungling or elseinterestedmanner in which they allowed the Dalgety and Rattray claim to obstruct the progress of the railway works, from the audacious manner in which they sometimes exceeded the amount voted, and generally from the evident manner in which they have made the interests of the province subservient to their own personal ends, that sufficient grounds could be fouud for the strongest censure possible. I have frequently heard it said that the Crown Lands Commissioner has such a hold on the runholders that they are afraid to vote against him. I cannot see why these gentlemen should be afraid of their own servant. If he should be guilty of malpractices, if they only act with common sense and spirit they could soon eject him from an office which he would

I be disgracing, and a truat which he would be abusing. These gentlemen should not allow such considerations to interfere with their duty as guardians of the public welfare and the public purse. What is the possible loss of a few pounds or a few acres compared with loss of honor, self-respect, and independence. The great Sir Walter Scott wrote— " Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, -• r Thia is my own — my native land." ' : But, gentlemen, we have men of this stamp in Southland, men who neither care for their native land nor their adopted land, whose only aim is to gratify their own selfish, ignoble tastes, and unfortunately they have obtained the administration of our affairs. Before I began to enquire where money could be procured to make roads, I was quite aware that the members of the present Executive were mismanaging the affairs of the country ; but whilst I have been endeavoring to teach others I have been taught myself, and I have learned from some of the older settlers that before I came to Southland the conduct of some members of the Executive had been such as ought for ever to have prevented them from holding those honorable offices which they nQW hold. In addition to a want of public spirit, they have shown a want of tact and judgment. Neither a general nor a statesman can commit a greater mistake than to undervalue an opponent, and I hope we shall be able to show them that they have undervalued us. When a deputation from the Eastroad settlers waited on the Superintendent requesting to get something done for the road, they Were told quite curtly that the Government had no money to make a road, aud didn't want a road. If the Executive, through the Superintendent, had courteously said, "Our present means are limited, but we will use every effort to comply with your request," probably I should not now be addressing you in support of the motion which I have laid before you; but perhaps it is just as well they did not do so. I once heard a gentleman publicly say, that when the members of the ptesent Executive took office they had many difficulties to contend with ; this. remark was a true one, but I say they refused to contend with those difficulties, which still remain for better men to contend with. It has been in times of difficulty and danger that Britons have shown they possessed such qualities as have gained for them the respect and admiration of other nations; but the members of our Executive possess no such qualities. I consider the present Executive have been placed in an enviable position. Since they took office land has been sold to 'an unprecedented amount, and the General Government has taken away all care as to the public debt ; the ordinary revenue has remained so buoyant, that with proper management important road works might now have been in progress. What nobler task need man Lave wished than to have rescued this young country from poverty and disgrace and restored it to a progressive prosperity ? But the pre. ent Executive have never sought to embrace the opportunity ; they have had no lofty aspirations, but have preferred a parlor popularity to a people's gratitude. I respect an honest, independent man, to whatever country he may belong and whatever calling he may follow ; but this is a British colony, and I would ask the men of Southland to prove worthy of our noble parent. If the men of Ireland will turn to the works of some of their illustrious countrymen, they will find some more stirring appeals against wrong than any that I can address to them ; if the men ot England will think on Eunnymede, they will remember "how their ancestors forced a charter of liberty from the unwilling grasp of a king. They will also remember how the commons of England once placed themselves at the head of the people to resist the encroachments of a monarch who tried to encroach on their liberties, and how they never rested till they brought his head to the block. But the majority of the people of Southland are my own countrymen, and I should feel proud to see them prove worthy of a land that has always been the home of freedom and independence. I have heard it said that we would never get true honest voting in Southland till the ballot should be introduced. I have a touch of conservatism in. my composition, and I am sorry that I could not conscientiously contradict this statement. Ido not think the reproach rests upon the settlers of this district ; and if any man who is afraid to speak, or to vote according to his conscience, would only think how dearly the noble and good paid to secure us those privileges, he would be ashamed of his cowardice. It was not men of this stamp who held the Romans in check after they had conquered the rest of the known world ; it was not men of this stamp who, at Bannockburn, scattered the hosts of the monarch who tried to enslave Scotland ; it was not men of this stamp who preserved her independence till she was joined to her more powerful neighbor on equal terms -and with equal rights. I cannot see why the spread of civilisation and the increase of knowledge should blot out those noble qualities for which our ancestors have always been famous, and I hope that the people of Southland may yet show that they are worthy to possess the privileges of a free people. There is no part of the population more interested in the welfare of a country than freehold farmers, and there is no class who should show a firmer spirit of independence. I think I have proved that it is the custom in countries possessed of constitutional governments, for the people to. strengthen the hands of' their representatives on important occasions by public meetings, and also that it is the custom for representatives to comply with public demands, and I believe you will agree with me that the present Executive are not serving the province as they ought to do, and are therefore unworthy of the confidence of the Provincial . Council- and the people of Southland. However, I still thinfc we cannot have a

thorough reform until we get a dissolution, for if the majority of members in the present Council had the interests of the province at heart, the present Executive would never have been allowed to assume the reins of office. The resolution was seconded by Mr M'Donald. Mr Johnston wished to remind them that the way to obtain reform was by acting in a constitutional manner, and if the Executive acted without consulting the Council or the will of the people, they were acting unconstitutionally.