MEETING AT RICHMOND.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 324, 27 November 1860, Page 2

MEETING AT RICHMOND.

MR. KELLING, AND DR. MONRO.

On Friday last, November 23rd, Mr. Kelling and Dr. Monro met their late constituents at the Star and Garter, Richmond. At first the attendance appeared likely to be very small, but ultimately as many electors assembled as the room could comfortably seat. About eight p. m. Mr. Barnicoat was called to the chair, and at once named Mr. Kelling, who had called the meeting, to fulfil the promise he had made .in his advertisement. Mr. Kelling said he had called the meeting to tell the electors of the Waimea district what he had done in the House of Representatives, as he considered it most desirable that there should be no mistake on such matters between electors and their representatives. The first subject was the war. He had supported the Governor upon that subject. There wag a great difference in the house about the justness of the war: some of the members said it was a most just and necessary war; others said it was unjust, wicked, and foolish; but when he saw that the latter only wanted to make the house believe that the war was unjust in order to accomplish their own political purposes he paid no further attention to them. As to the Working Man's Compensation Bill he had been reported in the papers to have said that he seconded it with reluctance, but he could explain to them the sense in which he said this. The house was crowded with claims of the same kind—lots of persons wanting compensation for this, that, and the other, and he regretted that a strong sense of the justness of this claim should have compelled him to support a bill of the kind whilst the house was so much annoyed and disgusted with claims for compensation from so many other quarters. He must next come to the Distillation Bill. Upon this bill he made his maiden Bpeech; the members were all ths time talking in twos and threes, so that no one could hear what he said. The Government were quite prepared to support him, but they could not hear what he said. They recommended him to appoint a committee, and-he did so; but the house was so full of teetotallers, that he happened to get on his committee two teetotallers and one man who was an importer of spirits; but, notwithstanding that, they were compelled to admit that it was very desirable, and brought up a report recommending it (he held the report in his hand, if any one would like to hear it read); but when the report was brought up those who said 'Aye' said it so very low, end those who said ' No' said it so very loud, that the Speaker declared the Noes had it,' although he believed there were more said Aye than No. He was going to call for a division, but a gentleman who sat by his side recommended him not to, as he thought it would be better to have the report lost without any one knowing exactly how than to have it lost with a division. A bill had been carried to alter the representation and to increase the number of members in the house: this he thought was an unnecessary increase of expense, but some gentleman told him that it was necessary, as there Were now only two parties in the houseGovernment supporters and Government opponents; and he was told .by; these gentlemen that the successful working of responsible Government required a third party to be called the independent party (hear, hear, and laughter). He knew that the New Provinces Act required amendment, but when the opposition party tried to repeal or suspend it, he knew that they only wanted to get the Stafford ministry out; and if they went out the Wellington men were to come in, and it would be a bad day for Nelson when those Wellington men got into power: even now they always tried to ridicule the claims of Nelson, called it the pet province, and said of course the pet province must have this, that, and the other; of course the pet province must have the benefit of the expenditure upon the Lunatic Asylum; of course the pet province must be made the port of arrival and departure of the mail steamers; of course the pet province must have the benefit from the expenditure upon all the Taranaki refugees, &c. &c. He then went at some length into the financial state of the colony, by which it appeared that £150,000 more had been borrowed, making a total debt upon this small colony of nearly £1,000,000. Mr* Horn asked Mr* Kelling if he had not promised at the time of his nomination to amend or repeal the New Provinces Act ? Mr. Kelling said he had not.

Mr. Horn.—Did you oppose an attempt to amend it in the House of Representatives? Mr. Kelling said no attempt was made to amend it. Mr. Kearns asked Mr. Kelling who was to blame for the disgraceful manner in which the war had been conducted, and remarked that there must be some great fault somewhere when English soldiers] were ordered to run away from a few naked half-armed savages. Mr. Horn : It must be the fault of the officers: the Governor had all along instructed the commanding officers to prosecute the war with vigor. Mr. Kearns said he had been informed very differently, and that the Governor had often instructed the commanding officers not to proceed against the natives. Mr. Kelling believed the Governor had done so once for a very short time.

Mr. Saunders said Mr. Kelling was perhaps not aware that the Colonist, had some time ago published what purported to be extracts from the Governor's despatches, by which it appeared that the Governor had repeatedly, and, during a period of many weeks, instructed the commander not to proceed-gainst the natives. If these were mere forgeries, he feli sure the Colonist would n<?t have

been let off so easy for publishing them, and if tljW were not Mr. Kelling must be altogether'mistaken as to the value of the Governor's despatches. Dr. Monro said the 'Governor had for various reasons and at various times, from April to June, instructed the commander not to proceed against certain natives except on certain conditions; but nothing had been done to justify the inaction and indicision of Colonel Gold, who had missed many opporthnities of punishing the rebels. Mr. Kelling had just given them such a very admirable digest of the proceedings in the House of Representatives, that he thought therewas little left for him.to say. It was very difficult to condense the proceedings of so many weeks into a speech of a few minutes, but Mr. Kelling had suceeded" admirably. Dr. Monro then went into a long statement of the war, during which he commented very severely upon the proceedings of Mr. Fox, who he said was now contradicting all his former professions. A member of the House upon one r , occasion had convulsed the House by reading extracts from one of. Mr. Fox's ancient publications, in reply to one of Mr. Fox's modern speeches^ No honorable representative of the British Government could have acted otherwise than the Governor had done; although Governor Grey /would perhaps have patched up a peace a little longer with some sugar and blankets. He next proceeded to comment upon some remarks which he found in last Friday's Colonist, and which he supposed applied to him, although he was hot exactly obliged to put the cap on his own head. [Mr. 'Horn—have you tried the cap on, Doctor ?] Well, the Colonist has been trying it on. Hewas blamed for loosing tlie Dun Mountain Railway Bill, but the fact was he never expected to beable to carry that bill in the shape it was sent up. He, was blajpe.dfor supporting the Stafford' Ministry—hei vy:9pder|^if the;ofonw« would have,r blamed him if He^hMsupported the present Pro--' vincial Government. He was also blamed for the loss of the Compensation Bill, but that Bill did not stand the ghost of a chance to be carried in the shape it was sent up from this Province. He had proposed to appoint a new commission to invest]-, gate the claims. He did not accuse the gentlemen appointed by the Provincial Government of any base motives, but it was always better that men should be appointed to such duties who were perfectly unacquainted with any of the parties interested. Then again the Colonist went on to say that "one man found time to vent his spite on an absent political opponent because the quality of mercy had been extended to him in mitigation of A very severe sentence," &c. Hecould assure them thaUie ha&'moved in that matter from no personal feelnig-whatever } /butfroni a desire to maintain the independence of the judges. As the Waimea district would now only send one member instead of two, it was not his intention to offer himself for election again j they would no doubt prefer to elect some person <vho resided amongst them, and if Mr. Kelling should again offer himself for election, he was sure they could not elect any person who would serve them more faithfully or assiduously than Mr. Kelling-had: done. Mr. Horn asked Dr. Monro if he did not think it very unconstitutional that the management of native affairs should be entrusted to the nominee council, appointed for life, and the people of this province held responsible to pay all war or other expenses, that may be the consequence of their management or mismanagement? Dr. Monro said he had made himself perfectly rediculousby the frequency with which he hadprotested against the colony paying the expenses of this war.

Mr. Horn : But that is not an answer to my question. . , Dr. Monro thought: it undesirable that such a council should be liable to frequent changes. Amongst ourselves we quite understood how one man went out and another came in; indeed Englishmen quite enjoyed new brooms and new men, but natives would not understand it, their intercourse with Government officials partook more or less of a personal character, and frequent changes were by no means desirable. Mr. Saunders asked Mr. Kelling if he cons^ dered & new commission necessary, to inquire into) the claims of the working men. Mr. Kelling : Oh! no, I opposed it. Mr. Horn asked Dr. Monro if he did not think it unjust to bring such a general charge against the working men of this settlement as he had done, when he said that "some of them ought to be brought, before a magistrate instead of being compensated,'' had Di. Monro pointed out any particular names to whom his statement applied, he would have been quite right in doing so, but such a vague and general charge was only calculated to degrade the1 settlement at large; and was the more uncalled for as it was pretty generally known that the men who perpetrated the outrage referred to by Dr. Monro, had now left the settlement.

Dr. Monro said he had never said that, although the papers reported him to have done so. All that he had said was, that if then had been a sufficient force in the colony at the time, the men would have been brought before a magistrate. Mr. Horn : Did you say that the men moved a shovelfull of earth every eight minutes ? Dr. Monro : I did not say that, I merely read a quotation from what is called the ■" Fat Book," in which W. Valley says that.

Mr. Horn Said, that he congratulated the two gentlemen who had lately been called their representatives on their safe arrival to their own homes, and he hoped they would stay at home, as he believed it was not the wish of the electors that they should go to the House of Representatives again. (Cries of hear, hear, and laughter.) The opposition and fussjabout the small compensation to the working man came with a very bad grace from those who had succeeded in getting such a large portion of the lands of this province conferred on about forty of their own body, by way of compensation, and that without submitting their claim to any commission at all. (Hear, hear.) It Was" evident even from these gentlemen's own statement that they had chosen to give an undeviating and uneriquiring support to the Stafford ministry, and this province had, and he feared would long have reason to curse the day, when Mr. Stafford came into power. (Hear, hear.) If, in the late House of Representatives there really was no alternative between supporting the Stafford ministry and those dreadfully dangerous Wellington men, against whom they had heard so much, and been so carefully; .warned, it showed the necessity of sending a different class of men to that house. He felt much obliged to Mr. Kelling for what he had so honestly informed them, about the desirability of a third party in the House of Representatives, and that the House now contained nothing but Government supporters and Government opponents. This fact had long been seen and felt by the electors of this district, and it Was their determination to bring forward a man at the ensuing election who should form the nucleus of an independent party. (Hear, hear.)

A vote of thanks to the chairman concluded the proceedings at about 11 o'clock, p.m.

ThoopsfobNew Zealand.—A deputation for the purpose of obtaining information as to the additional assistance to be rendered to the colony of New Zealand, had an interview with the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies on the 24th September, at the Colonial-office. The deputation consisted of the following colonists :--Mr. David Graham, Mr. W. S. Grahame, Mr. Wort, Mr. Nathan, Mr. Johnston, Mr. Kelham, Mr. Williamson, Mr. Pell, and Mr. John Morrison, agent for the General Government of New Zealand. The Army and Navy Gazette states~*We fear that the state of affairs in New Zealand will render it necessary to despatch another regiment to that colony. The 2nd battalion of the 14th, which sailed about a fortnight since, had been under orders before intelligence of the disturbances reached this country, being intended to relieve the 6§th Regiment, whose period of colonial service had more than expired. Although the battalion might do vety well for ordinary service, yet it is only about two years in existence, and we fear that a regiment so young is not very well calculated to contend with enemies so formidable as the rebels have, unfortunately, proved themselves to be; anda seasoned regimentfrom India or from home would be invaluaibleito the interests of the colony, which would be most seriously affected by atiy« tbjng like a prolonged contest,