MOTUEKA.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 167, 27 May 1859, Page 2

MOTUEKA.

Meeting of Electors. . ... On Friday evening, the 20th instant, a meeting of tlie electors of the above district was held at; the Motueka Hotel, to take into consideration the conduct of their representatives in the Provincial Council, on Mr. Curtis' motion of a vote of censure upon the Government! C. Thorp, Esq., J.P., on.being called : to the chair, read the advertisement calling the meeting, and said that all lie knew, himself upon the subject of the vote of cehsuve on the" Government he had read in the Nelson Examiner^ and was simply this—that a Mr. Gibbs had made application to the Government for certain1 ■ lauds at the Aorere/ which application fhe Government did not think if expedient to g;ant, for which refusal Mr. Curtis brought forward in 1 lie Provincial Council a vote of censure, which the .mstjority of the - Council had: passed, two of the Motueka representatives yotirig against tire Government, and o:ne with it Whence ■t"h'e.eallii)g'oF:lhe present meeting. Hehdped the various speakers would- be allowed a ■ fair hearing, and .then we 'might' hear and; learn .something more on the subject than we knew at present. '■- A. letter from Mr. Vyvyan'was handed to . | chair, and read as.followa :^-

.-- • •'. .. - Nelson, May 19,185i>. To the Chairman.of.the meeting. Sir,— I should have liad the greatest pleasure in attending the meeting; advertised for Friday, the 20th instant, for : the purpose of discussing the propriety or impropriety of my- recent vote in the Provincial Council on' Mi. Curtis' motion, had I any reason to suppose th.it it was the wish of the electors generally that I should do so?' but as the advertisement is anonymous, and as I have received no communication on the subfecY Tfrom the electors, I do not think II would be consistent with my duty to them, as their elected representative, to attend a meeting so suraI am, Sir, your obedient servant, .- ■■-• ■T. Henky VrvYAN. - ~Mr."HowaM) hogged to ask who called the meeting, and by what authority? . • Mr. Mackenzie .said that at the request of several electors lie had written the notices, which was the course that had been adopted on several occasions, and he saw no reason why exception should he taken on the present occasion, Mr. Jennings thought the best answer to Mr. Howard's question was the fact that so numerous a meeting of the electoi'3 had taken place, and also shewed the propriety of it. ,„.-.■ , Mr.'Mackenzie said thai, he held in Ins hand a resolution'which he rose to propose, but before formally.doing so lie felt sure he carried with him the, feelings-of the meeting in expressing his satisfaction in having Hie advantage of-Mr. Curtis' presence this evening to. aid them in arriving at a correct judgment upon the subject upon which they were met to discuss; It, reminded him also of an anomaly existing in other provinces as well as this—that'the Superintendent, who was elected by the people, was not unfrequently at issue with .his Provincial, Council elected, in a similar manner,; -;and he thought that it might be very well explained and understood from the fact, that whilst in the election of the one each elector had but one vote, in the other a plurality of votes existed, and the more wealthy classes, enjoying as they did a plurality of votes—in many 'instances votes for nearly every district in the province—were enabled to' turn the scale in the elec- I tion of members for the Provincial Council, and thus dictate to the resident electors who should be their members/ Such a defectinthe Constitution Act called for redress. But'to return to the more immediate.object for which they were met—a vote of censure had been passed by a majority .'of the Provincial' Council upon the Government for refusing to lease lands supposed to be auriferous, and he thought that they could'not better arrive at a correct judgment in '-'the" matter than acting upon the principle of doing unto others as we would others,do unto us;" and an. ■exemplification of this principle lie would suppose Dr. Monro, the prime mover, to be Superintendent; Mr. Curtis, Provincial Secretary ; with some other gentlemen, one«f \yhom would bei'Provincial Solicitor, as members of the Executive Council, that the application made by^MivGibbs was presented for their discussion ; and he would appeal to Mr. Curtis then present—could be, would he, upon the face of the adverse judgment of the Provincial Solicitor, that legally no such lease could be granted, consent to give a lease which might hot be worth the paper upon which it was written ; and whilst on the one hand there was not only the opinion of the Provincial, Solicitor that such leases could not be legally granted, but this opinion was most fully confirmed by that of the Attorney-General, an "opinion:'never in any way attempted to be upset by Mri; Curtis and his friends. Why did they not place tipon record some legal opinion to rebut these opinions? He concluded that they did not do so because no lawyer could be found to risk hisrepu-. tation by such an opinion, and he therefore thought lieiwas justified in* the conclusion he had formed, yjjs., tliat the Government had no power to grant such a lease, and really had no option but to refuse; and to censure the Government, because of their to comply legally with-the terms asked ■ fory^sV-to say?the"leastj-iitVdeseryed-and uncalled for. ;,,Tli^.-PrpyHicial-'"pouncil.liad ■ also' passed a resolution specially excepting "the leasing ofaurifei^ui land, and because the Government had acted upon this resolution this'vote of censure has been :rjassed.ya censure most inconsistent .with ,their pfbrm'e^act;swl.vich.y-the Superintendent had-only hfnlfilllp^^io^Jegged leave, to. "propose; "That itis SiU^l&fefeion of this meeting that the resolution 'in-the Provincial Gouneti;' 6»' Tuesday ■eyehirig April 26, censuring the Go-, ■vernmenr.for not granting a lease of four square miles of auriferous tend in the Massacre Bay district.was uncalled for, and that the thanks of the electors assembled here this evening are due, and are hereby given, to Mr. Charles Parker for the support be gave the Government on,that occasion.'' Mr. .M'Mahon had much pleasure in seconding tlie" rosoluf ion. He believed the censure was against men; arid not, measures. 'He also believed that Opposition was desirable; but he wislied men to come directly to the. point. -In referring to Mr. Curtis' speech, it appears that he wished the Superintendent to follow Mr. Gibbs to the Aorere, and to consult him, instead of Mr. Gibbs waiting on the Government. He wished to know on what point Mr. Curtis wished to consult Mr. Gibbs; did he .-imagine that Mr. Gibbs would inform the Government what quantity of gold might be expected ? If so, Mr. Gibbs would not act honestly to his employers. He would now refer to Dr. Moriro's speech. That gentleman at one time wished to support the dignity of the Superintendent, and had voted that his salary (perhaps he had a view to some day becoming Superintendent, and did not care to have £300) should be £500. Now, he wished the Superintendent to run after Mr. Gibbs. Tie begged to second the resolution. Mr. Curtis then addressed the meeting, saying that he ■'would begin 'by correcting an erroneous statement of the chairman, that an application was made for four square miles, and that that application was afterwards divided-into two, of two square miles each. This statement had often been made, but was entirely without foundation. He then pointed out the impolicy of the course pursued by the Government in discouraging the introduction of capital and the employment of labor, and expressed an opinion that too large a proportion of the population are already employed in the production of articles of food, and that we should be none the .worse for a few more consumers, engaged in the production of an article of export of ascertained value, such as gold ; and be could riot agree with Mr; M'Mahon that it would be injurious to the farmers to have an increased number of consumers of their produce. The speaker their went, at some length into the question of the power of. the .Government: to. grant these leases, disposing of Mr. Mackenzie's argument, that the Provincial' Solicitor had given his legal opinion in the-negative, by reminding the meeting that the Executive had themselves_.claimed to have the power not only to lease, but to sell auriferous land; in the first place, .by. offering a lease of twenty or thirty acres to Mr. Gibbs, and afterwards by advertising this very same land for sale at 10s> per acre. If they could lease twenty or thirty acres, they had quite as much right to lease any quantity allowed by the - regulations; and it required some courage on the part of the Provincial Solicitor or any one else to assert, in the face of those regulations,' that they had the power to sell auriferous' land, but not to lease it. .Mr. Curtis then read the correspondence between the Superintendent and,the General Government referred to by Mr. Mackenzie, and shewed that Mr. Mackenzie ivas incorrect in saying that the General Government had expressed an opinion that the provincial authorities had no power to grant leases of this sort; the question not having been asked, and no allusion to it having been made by the General Government. Mr. Parker would make a few observations on the reasons why he had supported the Government on the occasion referred to.' First, there had been a great deal said about the benefit that' would accrue to the province by having such a company as the Metallurgical Company at work in the province; but our experience of companies up to the present time did not prove this, and lie instanced' the Pakawau and Dun Mountain. Though he thought it advisable to lease the lands in question in reasonable blocks and under proper restrictions, yet be did not think the Government would be justified in granting Mr. Gibbs'application for four square miles—for four miles he should still call the quantity applied for, notwthstanding its having been attempted to prove to the contrary.

These were some of the reasons why he had voted Avith Government on that occasion, as he thought they ha,d acted to the best of their judgment and for "the good of the province. Mr. Hewetson would remark that he did not think the present meeting had been properly convened, and did not. feel" that he was in any waybound'to have attended, but having been given to understand that a number of the electors would come together, out of courtesy to them he was there;..but the very able manner in which Mr. Curtis had brought the matter before the meeting, which "were entirely his views and sentiments on the subject, and the reasons why he voted against Government, rendered it unnecessary for him to detain the meeting with any further remarks on the subject. Dr. Greenwood believed he was the only person in the colony that knew much of Mr. Gibbs, and recapitulated his letter that appeared in the Examiner. Mr. Jennings thought it would be much befter if the Superintendent was relieved from his executive, and himself responsible for the Government; it would be better both for the Superintendenthimself and the province, for the present form of Government was a mere sham, and the sooner.it was done away with the better. . Mr. Curtis having asked permission from the meeting to say a few words in reply to Mr. Parker, .alluded to the unfair use made by Mr. Parker of a clause in the Waste Lands Act of last session, to the effect that when the Gold-fields Act comes into operation the gold leases shall then be granted under that Act and not under the Waste Lands Act; shewing that that clause has nothing to do with the' existing state of things, and cannot take effect, and never was intendedPto take eiFect, until both these acts have come in<o operation and superseded the regulations of 1856, which they cannot do till they have received the Queen's assent. He was surprised to bear Mr. Parker say that the leases of-mineral lands already granted had done much harm. He (Mr. Curtis) would like to know in what way they had done harm. The only lease hitherto granted, excepting to small local companies, was one of two square miles at the-Dun Mountain. He really could not see how t'le province had sustained injury by the proceedings of that company; they had bought the land, with some adjoining, and paid some ,£IBOO for it into our exchequer, while they had expended^ some £20,000 more, mostly in labor; and he must confess himself unable to see that we were heavy sufferers by that, as Mr. Parker seemed to imagine, or that there were any other sufferers than the shareholders themselves. As to tbetwo or three local companies which had had leases granted to them, he coukl not make out that any harm had been done by them, excepting to their own shareholders'; although they had spent their money unsuccessfully as regarded their own interests. Mr. Curtis concluded by again shewing that the statement so repeatedly made, that the General Government had. written to the Provincial Executive their opinion that the Executive had no right in law to grant leases under the regulations of 1856, could not be supported. Mr. Sutcliffe made a few remarks in favor of the motion, and .-. Mr. Curtis said (hat he. should move an amendment, which was as follows :—" Thatjthis meeting is of opinion that ill their representatives voted on the occasion in question conscientiously, and to the best of their judgment, and this meeting does not think it desirable to express any further opinion upon a subject on which their representatives had the best opportunity to decide upon." Mr. J. G. Knyvett seconded the amendment. The Chairman then put it to the meeting, when 14 hands we*e held up. He then put the original motion—" That it is the opinion of this meeting that the resolution moved by Mr. Curtis in the Povincial Council on Tuesday evening, April 26, ,was uncalled for," &c, which he declared carried • by-a great majority-. 'The meeting was a very, numerous and ■orderly., one; the laree room at the Motiieka Hotel was' ■completely filled, and the. chair, ably occupied by . C. Thorp, Esq., J.P., to whom a'vote of thanks ■was unanimously passed at the close of the pro..coedings.;.,.'. . M . ; ..