SOUTHLAND ASSOCIATION.

Southland Times, Issue 620, 18 January 1867, Page 3

SOUTHLAND ASSOCIATION.

The meeting of the Southland Association then took place, Mr P. Dalrymple, the chairman, said he would not detain those present by making a lengthy speech as it was getting late, but simply read the rules (these were published in a recent issue of this journal) Mr Johnston" proposed that the rules as read be adopted. The motion was seconded by Mr A. Kinboss, and carried. The Chairman" said that as the most important thing was the gravelling of that part of the road now being formed as else the present cost would be so ] much money thrown away, he hoped' the meeting would^'urge the members of the Provincial. Council to have it done. The cry of the Government that there was ;no money would no longer do. Mr Johnston had been going , into the items of the government expenditure, and he (Mr D.) was sorry he : had wasted his time because he himself had lost two months in going through them, and was satisfied that the whole business of the Provincial Government could be managed by one good man and a couple of 'clerks. Capt. Elles did the greater part of the work, and he was : 'isaid by the general Government. They had a great staff of officials who did not know what to do.: Mr Johnston had come to the conclusion that it was possible to save £10,000 per annum out of the revenue over which we had control. He saw three of their members there and he would teJl them that they had not, acted fairly in handing over the whole of our Waste Lands to the General Government which promised to pay our. debts. We received three- eighths of our Customs revenue, the General Government were threatening to take thait away-Licenses, assessments, dog , taxes &c, amounting to about .£22,ooo per annum which was all we had to spend. ' The General Government did not intend Ito help us, for they had been asked — tn6~Superuitendent" said so— to allocate 150,000 acres of land id make a railway .'to the Mataura, and they said not an acre. :Mr Wood had asked almost on his knees for 10,000 acres for general purposes, and the answer 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.. t00." The .only source for help was from a reduction in 1 our expenditure/ whole cost ofjthe rv^ew Kver^, harbor Department, Warden'at tlie 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, what do these men want? Ist, We want the roads made passable before the winter. The W'allacetown 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 be fully ' and completely investigated. The accounts of the province were shamefully kept and he had no hesitation in saying that this Gazette (receipts and expenditure for six months from January to June 1866) was cooked. The Superintendent must 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 Eegistrar 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 ' Crovra Lands should be withheld till the missing grants w.ere .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 i>l 7,000, or rather when we had separation, and now after years of prosperity we had got into debt, our lands pawned, and 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 Marshall. 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 .£7OOO. or £8000 on the Eastroady about =£23,000 on the North-road, and 05350,000 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 1 road, and a piece of the road in the middle was to have been less, but he had convinced them that a road r was like- a rope, only worth what it was in the worst place, arid it was to be made good. ]VTr 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 engineer whp~said they would have to put in asidiug at the Greenhills ; to get at the metal which would cost about JSIQO. , A person had offered to find lab6r~ for sending up 3000 tons at Is. per ton. :He thought. the jailway would make a good profit during the next two months with passengers ; and goods, and he thought a portion ought to be devoted tp : their most pressing - want. He had laid this matter before-the- Executive and given them fair warning that they might be turned put and others step in* who would do, it. The ren| [ of *the runs might shortly be at Itheir'di^ppJsaJ^ which' is about .£9OOO a year.., Tjhe; amount of land sold, which had pone to reduce our debt, he estimated at £140,000, but still the General Govern-

ment might decline to hand ore* the> mcouie from the runs. unless they wei*e' 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 shduld be devoted to roads and then they should be justified in erecting tolls when they hod say 5 miles of good road out of town and thus make therfi self supporting. He approved of an acreage rate beinsj 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 the 4 of customs, there was no fear of that as the ministry who intended to do that had been turned out, 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 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 occa- ! sionally find editors who are venal and 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 that has fearlessly endeavored to expose those unfair practices carried oh 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, wiH neglect to register his vote, or to use that vote conscientiously and boldly when 1 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 measures necessary for the public good. In seeking ifor the redress of* grievances, we cannot dtf 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— "lt was theirealityy depth, and earnestness of the public feeling thus aroused, which pressed iwith resistless force' upon the Governiment; for the Government of England ! yields to popular demands quite as readily jas that of America. It has beenprovedthat , the present Government of Southland does not yield, to popular demands inthe same I manner, that other, constitutional Govern^ Iments do ; but if the people of Southland, ishow the same earnestness .of feeling- that has been, shown. ! in Britain,,, neither the jpresent nor any other. Government can resist their just demands for r mpre_ roads and ieSs'loafers. It is not my place to state distinctly on what grounds any M. EC, 'should base a motion of Want of confidence . !in the/Thembers of the '•■' present GroyeraWehtjbutl think from the unconstitujtional manner in which they totally ignored jthe authority of the Council in the matter of the proposed Mataura railway ; •from th£ bungling or elseinterestedmanher in which they allowed -the Dalgety and JRattray claim to obstruct the progress of the railway -works,- from -the audacious manner sin which they sometimes exceeded the amount; voted, and' generally from' the: evident manner -in^ which they- have made the interests of the province subservient toitheir own. personal ends, that sufficient grounds could befouu&forihe. strongest censure possible. I have frelquently.. he.ard : s it: said that u the Crown JLands Commissioner has such.ajiold on the runholders, that. they are afraid to vote " him.' 1 ~canii.pt see : why jthese^gentl^men should be aifraicl of their own servant; If .he should.; be guilty of malpractices, if they only act with common -sense- and -spirit- they could' soon eject Mm front an office "which he would be disgracing; and -a* trust.: which lie would be abusing. ;• Ttiese ..gentlemen should not allow such considerations to interfere with '^their duty as guardians of the jpublic welfare and the' public, purse. What] is'th.6 possible loss of. ajfew Ppunds or a Jfewj acres with. ; lossi of honor, -self-respect, and independence. " Breathes there a man with, soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, Ihii is my own—my natif* land."

But, gentlemen, we have men of this stamp in Southland, men who neither dare 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 ac'-r ministration 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 now 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 ablo toshow them that they have undervalued us. When, a deputation from the Eastroad settlers waited on the Superintendent requesting to get sonieiuiug done for the road, they were told quite curtly that the Government had no money to make a road, and 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 piesent Executive took office they had many difficulties to contend with ; this remark was a true one, -bat 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 Kas taken away all care as to the public debt ; the ordinary revenue has remained so buoyant, that with proiper important road works might now have been in progress. What nobler task need man have wished than to have rescued ithis young country from poverty and disgrace and restored it to a progressive prosperity? But the present Executive i have never "...sought to embrace the opportunity ; they have had no lofty aspirations; but have preferred a parlor popularity to a r 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 turhto the works of some of their illustrious countrymen, Jihey will find some more stirring appeals against wrong than any that I can address to them; if the men of 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 thati we would never get true honest voting in Southland till the ballot should be introduced. I have a touch of conservatism in my and I am sorry that I could not conscientiously contradict this statement. I do 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 theßomans-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 knd the increase r of knowledge should blot out those noble qualities for which bur r 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. ~T think I have proved that it is "-' custom-in countries possessed- J of constitutional go v ernments, for the people to -strengthen the hands of their representatives oh important occasibhs by public meetings, and also that it is" the custom for representatives to com- ; plyowith public c demands, and I believe you will agree with me that the present Executiy.eare not i 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 thinJ? 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 manner, and if the Executive acted without consulting the Council or the will of the people, tkfy were acting unconstitutionally.