MR CUTHBERTSON'S MEETING.

Southland Times, Issue 1738, 9 May 1873, Page 2

MR CUTHBERTSON'S MEETING.

On Wednesday evening, Mr John R. Cuthbertson , who is now a candidate for the representation of the town of Invercargill in the General Assembly, addressed the electors in the Theatre. There was a large attendance, and on the motion of Mr Wade, Mr Harvey wag called upon to take the chair. In introducing the candidate, the chairman said that in the present circumstances of the colony, it was important that every elector should take an active interest in public affairs, and give a fair hearing to candidates soliciting their suffrages. As an opportunity would be afforded for questioning the candidate, he hoped the meeting would support him in conducting the business iv a proper manner. At the present important crisis he trusted the time would not be wasted in mere buffoonery, but that the electors would thoroughly sift the views of the candidates and return the best mail. Mr Cuthbertson, who was received with applause, said — It is with some diffidence that I appear before you, it is so many years now since I addressed an audience of this kind. lam surprised to find, on thinking over the matter, that it is something like five years since I did so, and I therefore beg your indulgence if I appear tedious, because it will be from my desire to be plain. I appear before you to-night as a candidate for your representation in the House of Representatives, at the request of a large number of my fellow-citizens, and it is with great pleasure that Ido so. The position of a candidate for the representation of a constituency is an honorable one, and one which any citizen may be proud to occupy. I have no sympathy with the feeling/of the existence of which one occasionally sees signs, both among candidates and electors, that a vote is a favor which a candidate should solicit, and for which he should be thankful, and that if he is returned his constituents have conferred upon him a great obligation iv bo doing. By no means. If a man goes up to the Legislature with the intention of doing his duty to his constituents and to the colony at large — if he pursues that object with reasonable industry and with a single mmd — if he is moderately successful in attaining it — if, in short, be ia good and faithful representative in the broadest sense of the word — then I say that the constituency which he represents has more to thank him for. that his service ought to be held as a fair return for the honor they have conferred upon him. The transaction, if it is a fair one at all, Bhould be equal on both sides, and it is of quite as much importance to the interests of a constituency that they should be fairly and honestly represented, as it can possibly be to the candidate himself that he should be returned. I consider therefore that I meet you on equal terms. Should my views prove to be in accord with yourß— Bhould the side in politics which my study of public affairs has determined me to take be the side of which you approve — should I be so happy as to be honored with your confidence and to be returned as your representative — then I have no fear, on my part, of being able to make you a' fair return for your confidence, if devotion to your interests and the interests of the colony, together with a fair capacity for a good share of hard work, and a willingness to attend to it, are the qualifications required. Of that you, of course, are the judgeß. The proper basis of the relations between a constituency and its representative ought to bo one of mutual confidence. Perfect agreement on every subject is not to be hoped for or expected ; but, perfect agreement on all the leading questions of public interest is to be desired — it iB necessary, and ought always to exist. It is therefore of the highest importance that in every election the fullest and most complete exposition of the candidate's views should be given, and every elector has a right to know what his representative is doing or intends to do. For this purpose I will make my remarks as briefly as possible, and then I will with pleasure answer any questions which may be put. I do not wish to detain you with preliminary observations, aud will therefore refer at once to the topics which ace likely shortly to engage the attention of the Legislature. Some of these may not possess an immediate ' interest, but they are yet of great practical importance, and I crave your patience while I lay before you my opinions on them j and you are aware no doubt that for some time past, in the exercise of the profession of a journalist, I hare had ample opportunity of forming those

opinions The first question on which I will speak is one of the very highest importance. I mean that of public education, and I feel that you will bear with mo while I s;iy a few words ou the subject. That it is the duty of the -State to give to every child born' within its pale such, an education as will fit it to fulfil the duties' of a citizen, cannot admit of any doubt. But. some go further than this, and say that it is also the Uuty of the State to provide the means of what ia called " the higher education," by the establishment of a University, and "the furnishing of means for its support. I would not say so much as that, but I will say that it is the interest of the State to do so. It is to the honor of our owu Province of Otago that she has estabj lished already aud handsomely endowed a working University, with a staff of Professors, and I hope ere long to see a Colonial 1 University established. But this is not what is generally understood as the education question, the practical aspect of which refers to the provision by the State of the means of elementary education for all. I hold that it is the duty of the State to provide such means, to the extent at least of teaching what are called the " three B/s ;" and further, to enforce the use of the means provided. We therefore come at once to the principle of compulsory education. This view may not yet be accepted by all, but I am satisfied that it is the right one, and the one which will ultimately prevail. No man has a right to rear a family of utterly ignorant children in the midst of a community. He might as well rear a brood of noxious animals. Admitting that we have a right to make a certain amount of education compulsory, two other things follow. It must be free, and it must be secular. Free, that is, to those who cannot afford to pay, and secular, in the exclusion of direct religious teaching in the State schools. I have the highest respect for religious teaching. I would like to see the Bible read and its precepts taught, but, itrange as it may seem in a Christian land, experience has shown that in practice this is impossible. I do not think that the cause of religion will suffer in the least by such a measure. There are the Sunday schools and the home circle for religious instruction, and if the responsibility, of parents and Sunday school teachers were redoubled by the knowledge that to their efforts alone the children must look for this teaching, it is probable that even more attention would be devoted to it than now. For my own part 1 have been forced to the conclusion that the 80-called religious teaching in the day-school is of very little practical value, and I should be sorry to stand iv the way of a good national system for the sake of retaining it. In our own Province of Otago things are not so bad, but it is too well known that in other parts of the Colony, the state of matters is far from satisfactory, *and I hope that the attention of the Legislature will soou be given to the matter in earnest, .and that we shall soon eeo the day when it will no longer be possible to say that there is any reason why an ignorant boy or girl should be found within the circle of our shores. Mr Cuthbertson then spoke at considerable length on the administration of the Ciown Lands, on which he said there had been any amount of legislation already, if the quality had been only good enough. He held that these lands were in reality the property of the community at large, and should be held in trust for its benefit alone. It was objectionable to use them as a means of fiuancing, necessarily allowing large blocks to fall into private hands, in the certainty that such land would never be reclaimed, aud never support more than a few families. The use of these lands was to promote settlement, and quoting from a speech made by General Grant, President of the United States, who said it was a grave question' whether the United States Government should sell [ any more land at all, instead of reserving it for settlement under the homestead law, he (Mr C.) said he would be prepared to support any change in the land laws of hew Zealand that led in that direction. He was of opinion that they could not be too liberal in the way of encouraging bona fide settlement. This was his objection to the Otago "Waste Laud laws ; they were not sufficiently [ liberal, the conditionsof thedeferred payment system being complicated and onerous. Besides this the practical working of the Act was not taken up with any heart by the Government, the only district set apart under the deferred payments sys tern being one at the mouth of the Mataura, which was scarcely suitable for agricultural settlement. If necessary, he would give a settler 300 acres for nothing, on the simple condition of his fencing it in, and living on the ground for three years, and the Colony would be well repaid, from the consumption of dutiable goods by the settler and his family. They might not get all this at once, but, on the principle that " half a loaf was better than no bread," he would accept any change in the direction he had indicated. Jieferring to the land laws in force in the different provinces, he would like to see them simplified, so that a new arrival might select any spot, from the North Cape to Stewards Island, where, with moderate toil, he might make a free-' hold home for himself and his children. This was an aspiration planted in the breast of every man, but to Becure immigrants .New Zealand .had to compete with America and Canada, being heavily handicapped by the long voyage, in addition to the extra facilities offered by those countries. He was prepared to oppose the sale of large blocks of land for merely financial purposes, without reference to the use they would be put to, believing that in doing, so the interests and the rights of the public would thus be protected. He did not blame the .squatters for taking advantage of the laud laws — any one there • present would probably do the same if he could, and the only plan was

to alter the law, so that every acre of agricultural land should be reserved for actual bona fide settlement. The Proriacial system of government he looked upon as an unmitigated nuisance, which ought to be abated without delay. It was a source of great expense; it created jealousies ; and was a hindrance to getting anything like a true Colosiwi policy. To "reconcile the jarring interests of the niuo political centres, wh tho problem the Colonial G-overn-uent hvl to solve, instead of considering whvt was' for the general welfare. \Anot : ier evil caused by, but not necessarily ias'Jtiar ible - from, this system of' Provincial Goveratnents,' was the presenca of a lar^ number of salaried .officials in the' Assembly, men connected with the various Provincial Governments, who in the Assembly were engigel in -raising tho very taxes from which their salaries were defrayed. This was an evil which he believed would not be tolerated in any other constitutionally governed country in the world The question as to whafc should be substituted for the Provincial Councils was easily answered. Nothing at all. All the work they now did, except the mischievous work of provincial legislation, could be done by road boards, and road boards united to form a system of counties. There was an evil connected with tho Provincial system, which had probably not been foreseen when the constitution of New Zealand was framed, but which had proved a source of incalculable damage to the country — the power which the Provinces had acquired of spending money which they had not been at the trouble to raise. The General Assembly raised the taxes, and handed alarge portion of them over to the Provinces to expend, and the result was similar to what was often seen in the expenditure of money suddenly or easily acquired in private life — it was easily parted with, while that which had been earned by pains and care was economically used. Therefore be would restrict the payments to the Road Boards or County Councils to a subsidy in proportion to the amount they were willing to raise by their own direct action, and this principle, if unswervingly insisted on, would be found the best guarantee for the economical application of the funds placed in tho hands of these bodies for administration. The question of the financial separation of the two islands he believed would be the prominent question of the political future. There was no doubt that this idea had been dwelt on of late by the leading minds in our colonial politics, and it was now beginning to take hold of the popular mind, and, as he believed, not a moment too soon. Several years ago .he had the honor, as a member of the Provincial Council of Southland, of eliciting the first public and official expression of opinion from a colonial legislative body, that one government for the South Island, with federal relations to the government of the colony, would be a great improvement on the existing system. Resolutions to that effect were passed, after a sharp and animated debate, and he believed that when this change came, as come it must, it would be remembered tc the honor of Southland that the first warning 'note hud , been sounded there. Financial separation naeaut nothing short of political separation in the end, finance and politics, in a new country, being inseparably connected. The partnership accounts of the two islauds were no doubt complicated, but though difficult, they would be found by no means impossible, to adjust, by the exercise of a little patieuee and liberality. This measure was desirable, and far from impracticable. Auckland demanded it, Otago desired it, and the old difficulties, in the way of the bugbear of a Colonial Office veto^or the Bentiinent, an honorable one no doubt, which refused to leave our Northern brethren in their hour of need while the Maori war was going , on — these difficulties were now happily things of the past. The obstacles which remained were by no means insuperable ; and if they required an effort to overcome, the cause was worth an effort. The most costly and the least remunerative portion of the Public Works expenditure would be in the North Island, the land fund of the South Island would undoubtedly be levied upou to pay the debts incurred for the cost of these works if the partnership continued. The safe way was immediate separation, which might also be the means of introducing a simpler and more satisfactory system in our financial affairs. He was surprised lately to hear a man of the experience of Sir F. Dillon Bell say that financial separation, as regarded the public creditor, was now impossible. The separation once effected, and the debt fairly aud legally apportioned, the financial operation of cancelling the liabilities of the old Colonial Government by the issue of new paper by the government of each island, and buying up the old, would be a simple one, and might be made, in certain conditions of the money-market, financially profitable. The present condition of parties in the Assembly, and the state of the Public Works and Immigration Policy, was a subject, perhaps, of greater interest at the present time than any other. Briefly sketching the history of the scheme, Mr Cuthbertson referred to the attitude of the two parties into which the House of .Representatives was divided— the Government aud the Opposition — to this policy. Mr Vogei's friends bad worked ; Mr Stafford's had cavilled. The former might have made many mistakes, but these were to be expected in the management of any large scheme. But there > had been bitter complaints that, while mere mistakes had been overlooked, there had been inefficiency, dishonesty, and political gambling, in the conduct of the present Administration. The Opposition had made the House ring with these charges for weeks last session. There was a skeleton, nay, any number of them, in the closet, as they, the Opposition, were prepared to prove. But when the Ministry were turned out, and the

key of the closet was placed in the hands of their opponents, either there were no skeletons th^re, or they (the Stafford party) were not men enough to bring them out ;\nd show than up. They v/ere content to take up the <-luo where their predeec-sB mm h id dropped it, and to cflrrv on the pol ; ey in tho samo manner • which a few days before thny hud denounced. Soon alter thry met with a richly deserved fate, when they had to relinquish tke power so obtained. He was not there to be the advocate or the apologist of the party now in power, but considering that they had worked, while the others had cavilled — that to them the failure of the policy was political destruction, while to the others, even if the failure happened in their own hands, it might be in a sense regarded as a political success, and tbe accomplishment of their own predictions — considering that the party led by Mr Stafford contained within its ranks men who hated the policy in their inmost hearts, and*veiled that hatred under the name of prudence — he would, if returned, range himself on the Government side of the House, and, if a struggle like that of last session were repeated, he would vote with them to win or to losp. Mr Cuthbertson then at some length entered on the details of the "Brogden contracts, pointing out that for many tfr'ngs for which the Ministry hod been blamed, the Parliament was responsible. If returned, it would be his business to see that the Ministry which he supported conducted the public business in the best and most economical way. The immigration part of the scheme *he declared had been anything but a success, and this he hoped to see greatly altered for the better, and, if returned, he would use his utmost endeavors to secure a reformation in this direction. One other word be wished to add. In giving bis clear and unmistakable support to the party now in power, he wished it to be clearly understood that the support he would give to that or to any other party would be —to use a term which had lately been brought before the notice of the public — a " discriminating" support. If an "indiscriminate" supporter of that or of any other party was wanted, he was not the man to accept the situation. The word had been used to convey an insinuation, to the effect that he would trim his sails to suit his own purposes, irrespective of his duty to bis constituents or to the Colony. If any elector believed that, beneitherexpected nor wished for his vote. He would not go up to the Assembly as a mere delegate, or to follow in tbe track of any man, or of any party, wherever they might choose to lead. If such a representative were wanted, the electors would have to look elsewhere, as that part was one he was quite unfitted to play. He would " discriminate" to the best of his ability in every question that came before hitn, with the view of arriving at the best possible decision for the interests of his constituents and of the Colony at large. If he could not be trusted to do so, he should not be returned. He had gone in and out among them now for fourteen years, and was known to nearly every one of the constituency, and he would ■willingly leave them to judge whether it was likely that he would betray any trust placed in his hands. In conclusion, Mr Cuthbertson said thatindaysgoneby.when be was more familiar with Colonial politics than he bad been of late years, he used to think that the absence of popular interest in such matters wbb an evil, which, if not removed, would bode ill for the future of New Zealand. That apathy, he was glad to say, was less conspicuous now than it used to be, and | certainly it could not be said of the con stituenoy of Invercargill that they neglected their fair share of the political work of the Colony. If returned, he would regard it as an honor of which he might be justly proud ; and if the decision of the electors should be otherwise, he would respect that decision as being what be believed the result of every election held iv New Zealand might be said to be — tbe free and intelligent expression of the minds of the electors. He placed his candidature in their handß, and, if returned, he would feel himself in honor and in duty bound to see that they never, had reason to repent their choice through wilful neglect or fault of his. In accordance with the usual practice in such cases, a number of questions were then addressed to the candidate. In reply to Mr "Wright, Mr Cuthbertson said that, while he was no apologist for tbe Yogel Government, he would support them, notwithstanding any mistakes they might have made, because he did not believe a better government could be formed from tbe other side of the House. In reply to Mr Jaggers, Mr Cuthbertson said that he was now, and had always been, opposed to the Provincial system of government'; that he would resist any attempt to appropriate the Provincial land revenue for General Government purposes; that even if, in the event of fiuancial separation and the abolition of the Provinces being secured, some portion of the land fund were appropriated by localities, such as Nelson, which had none of their own, it would be better than having the half, or more than the half, taken away by the North Island, In reply to Mr Goodwillie, Mr Cuthbertson said that he considered the Southland Land Act had been injurious to the Province ; that he was opposed to the acquisition of large blocks of Crown lands by private persons; and that he would be in favor of limiting tbe quantity of land allowed to be taken up from the Crown by any one man. In reply to Mr D. Smytb, Mr Cutbbertson said that he bad not considered the subject of an income tax, or of an export duty on wool. He was inclined to thfnk that it . would be better to tax the pastoral land, if the tenants of that land were found not to be contributing their fair Bhare to the national expenditure, than to tax the wool, which was the produce of the land, and varied in quantity according to the skill and industry of tbe producer. He was a freetrader, and

1 would like to do away ■with dutios alike on exports and imports, as far as possible, except for the purpose nf necessary revenue. Tn reply to Mr Osborne, Mr Cuthbertson said that he would bo willing to reduce the expencli ture for civil service purposes, if possible, niher by diminishing the number of employes than by cutting down 'salaries The abolition of the Provincial Governments would tend to reduce tho cost of the civil service. The increased taxation which was feared was duo quite as much or more to the seven millions of debt which the Stafford party had incurred, as to any expenditure on public works which had yet been made. In reply to Mr Mitson and Mr Garthwaitp, Mr Cuthbertson said that he believed Mr M'Lean's way of keeping peace with the Maories was probably cheaper than Mr Stafford's. "War was costly, both in blood and money, and the indirect cost of the Maori war was greater than had ever been calculated, in retarding the progress of the country and immigration. Mr Wade then proposed — " That Mr Cuthbertson is a fit and proper person to represent the town of Invercargill in the House of Representatives," adding a few appropriate remarks, which were well received. The motion was seconded by Mr Geo. Saunders, and on being put to the meeting, was carried with only three dissentients. The proceedings were closed with the usual vote of thanks to the chairman, which was proposed by Mr Cuthbertson.. and carried by acclamation.