THE Thames Advertiser. FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1874.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1779, 3 April 1874, Page 3

THE Thames Advertiser. FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1874.

.The eleotoral district of Franklin used to include within its oircuuvference the whokdistrict of the Thames, but when the goldfield had gathered upon it a larger number than will be in .Franklin for mauy ; years to come, we were separated, and received the benefit of a member all to ourselves. We still,however/ take a filial interest in the doings of Franklin, and we should like to see the farmers and Bottlers of that pleasant district select a good representativei from the ; five gentlemen'who now offer themselves. The nomination took place on Tuesday .last, when four of the candidates were present, and made' declarations of their, political creeds, the absent one being Mr. Dargaville. That gentleman's name Borne' months, ago, when he was fresh from his- plucky the Super? intendency, would have been one to! conjure with in any constituency in the province, but. somehow or other, since then he has been rapidly sinking. Without;haying done anything .very glaringly wrong, he has perpetrated, a number of petty indiscretions that have put him out of the field as a, coming politician.' The constituents of Franklin seem to have thought so,, for-.in ..that district, where he obtained .so large "a number of votes for Superintendent, he only had three bands held up for him at the nomination. Of the other candidates none of them is conspicuously brilliant, and the electors, will have to exert their minds to choose the' best one. On the whole, perhaps, Mr, Goodfellow's speech is .the best, and Mr. Woodward's the .worst, the latter reaching, a depth of absurdity which we did not think possible even in a member, of the Colonial Protection League. Mr. Goodfellow, speaking of the address issued by Mr. Woodward, says:' '*

He had to thank Mr Woodward for hiving given them an address That gentleman advocated the vigorous prosecution of public works and encouragement to manufacturing trades. Mr Vogel had been for some time in favour of moderation and caution, perceiving, as Mr Woodward failed to do, that if labour rose much higher a number of industries would be killed altogether. For instance, there were a number of mines at the Thames' and Coromandel which were at present barely returning any interest on the expenditure, and if the price of labour were increased they would have to be absolutely abandoned. A number of batteries would also have to stop, and the people who would thu3 be thrown out of employment would in all probability leave the colony, as was the custom of that class under such circumstances. - -iri

This takes. a view of the public works policy in an aspect which we have several times endeavoured to present, but which people throughout the colony at the present time simply refuse to look at. "We can all measure the number of immigrants coming into the country, and we know how much property has been raised in value, and we put down every access of wealth and every symptom of progress to the great scheme. These indications of a flourishing condition are all on the surface, and it is not so clearly seen that unless caution is used, great and permanent evils may be done to the colony. ; New industries which would have been favoured by abundance of labour and cheap, land are prevented from coming into being. And. what Mr. Goodfellow says with respect to the goldfields has been felt all over the colouy, and especially on this field, for men will not work at mining when day labour is.paid quite as high in other parts of the colony, having been unnaturally raised by the profuse expenditure on public works. On one point we think Mr. Goodfellow is in the wrong. He saya that he "isnot in favour of a railway toconnect the Thames and Waikato, because the line would pass through very poor country, 120,000 acres of which was a swamp, which had recently been offered for sale by the Government at a low figure." Mr. Goodfellow must, we think, be quite mistaken as to thejin'e by which it is proposed to take toe Thames and Waikato Kail way, or else his testimony differs from that of all others who have seen the country, and from the estimate of the committee formed here to' look into the matter, There is one point on which we do feel certain, and that is, that the country between the Thames and- "Waikato is very muoh better than that between Mercer and Ngaruawahia, through which the Auckland and, Waikato line is to run. In'Mr May's speech there is a considerable amount of sound sens'e. ) In reference to tbe Thames he saya :— f There was no' doubt that something should be done for the Thames, but he did not see how the colony could afford aity further assistance at present." Mr. Mty heremeans, we suppose, that the colony have commenced so many nearly uasltsa railways, that there is no possibility now of commencing the construc- ,'• tion a? one which would be eminently uieful.: In answer to a distinct ques- ' tion, Ml May said:—" "With regard to the Thames Valley railway he thought its construction would be of great the province, but that

the main line, ought to be completed before it was undertaken." Then comes Mr Woodward, and according to him politics may be resolved into a very short and simple formula, thus: —

The question was, would they send a man to Wellington, who would support Mr Vogel, or one who would help to gather up the tag-rag and bobtail to form & ministry under Mr Gillies. Mr Vogel told them that property in New Zealand had risen sufficiently in value under the' prospect of the public works and immigration scheme, to pay the entire amount of money borrowed for the completion of the works. If that were the case, and the statement had not been contradicted, the counsels of Mr Vogel had been worth £5,000,000 to the colony,. That was to say, they had. received a present of their railway bridges and public works direct from the brains of Mr Vogel.

—Mr, Woodward, after half a column of expressed horror of Mr. Gillies, then branches away into the utmost absurdity of Protectionism, in this style :—

They did not want more farmers but manufacturers, and if they returned bim he would.do his best towards encouragement being given to manufacturers, in which he was sure he would have the sympathy of Mr Vogel. There was no reason why £10,000 a-week ! should not be paid away in Auckland to .operatives.

—Mr. Woodward wants no more men to come here j;o till the soil, but thinks that, a market should be created for the farmers, whoiare,here. Now, if Mr. Woodward were fit to give a plain answer to a plain question, we would ask him, who does he think all,-. these people are to manufacture for 1 The present number of agriculturists .in the country will not support a large manufacturing population, and so long as our industries are supported by protective duties, we can do nothing in the way of exportation. Wo would gay to Mr Woodward that ithe true; representatives of a manufac; : turing population in a young .country are the mining population, and yet we are people' whom. Mr Woodward and his friends, "of the League cannot at. all tolerate. On every- point Mr; ward has only- one 1 resource—leave everything to ; Mr. Vogel. In regard to the Education question.he said :~." i The reason.why Mr Vogel had not brought iu a. comprehensive scheme was because his majority in the House, of Representatives had been so very slender that be had not been able to carry one through. But give him a. good following, and there would be an education scheme With the funds provided from the general revenue, and no,one-pound house-tax.. ■

—In Mr Troup's speech' there- is a good deal of sound political economy on the subject of Protection. The electors of• Franklin have; not within their choice any very able or brilliant man fitted .to take a" leading part in the politics of the colony, but Ithey may get a honest and sensible representative, if they leave Mr Woodward at the bottom of the poll.