Sir George Grey's Meeting in the Theatre Royal..

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2160, 6 December 1875, Page 2

Sir George Grey's Meeting in the Theatre Royal..

A meeting, convened by advertisement, signed by Dr. Kilgour, and inviting the public of the Thames to listen to Sir George Grey as Superintendent of the province, was held on Saturday night last at half-past six. Long before that time every available corner of the Theatre was taken up ; numbers had to suffer the disappointment of not finding admission. Quite a crowd of influential gentlemen were present on the stage, amongst whom we noticed the Mayor and Messrs Brown, Rowe, Bagnall, Cook, Bleazard, Gudgeon, Graham, Macnab, Gibbons, Grigg, McCullough, Lawlor, Wilkinson, Chapman, Rev. J. Crump, Drs. Eilgour and Lethbridge and a great number of others. Sir George on his appearance was greeted with loud and prolonged cheers. After the excitement had a little subsided —

Mr Cowell, stepped forward and proposed Dr. Kilgour as chairman, which Was seconded by Mr Logan, and immediately ':'.'■ ; ; Mr" John Gibbons proposed His Worship the Mayor, which was vociferously seconded by the meeting, by loud calls for the- Mayor from every part of the building. . The "Mayor haying taken the chair stated the object the meeting had been called for, and remarked that he was sorrj His Honor's reception on his-arrival had been such as it had been', for ■> he quite believed, that had a public meeting been called a most enthusiastic reception would have been accorded him. He looked on Sir George as a man well able to. do his duty; as a statesman, and as a thorough gentleman; and although, spnie might differ with him in a political point of view, he had always worked well as Superintendent, and all would unite in welcoming him to the Thames.

Sir George Grey on rising was again loudly cheered. He said lie addressed them before as the Superintendent/as the person specially charged with; their welfare, and when asked to address a meeting of the people of the Thames had stated that it was his duty to addjess them in that character. When appointed Superintendent, he had explained his views, and he then had ihe pleasure of seeing

his friend the Mayor in the chair, whom he supposed they were all aware was their chief administrator of local afiairs. As their, Superintendent h», again appeared to fulfil his promise of an address, and he thought the ibest.subject to speak of would be what had been done in the last session of the Aissembl/ and ''wtijKjfo 1 thi^ Prpvineevnwgfc'irequires in the\i*QtuiiJ3{ The T&ameß./cicmiprised a mining copoimu-ii , hity■! ,par£icu}{i ! rly, and in the natter ipt epresentatidn he thought it was scandal ously treated. He had given their one representative all the assistance in his power, and although a great difference existed between them they had had none' in considering the welfare of the district. When that had to be considered they had let other political affairs alone and had no difference of opinion; they could not have done more than they did do last session. The first matter of which he would speak was. their representation — they had had another member given to them. Instead of two they were entitled to three, but it was determined by those in power that two were all they were to have. They could rely on it that in the future he would give their two representatives all the assistance within his power, so that instead of only two members they ; would virtually have three. Sir George went on further to explain his reasons for the.particular line of action he had taken with; regard to ; the Abolition of the Provinces;'! and, that: he had contended that before such' a constitutional change could be made the constituents ought to be appealed to, and the future destinies of the colony left in their hands., They would have their representatives before them and could then communicate their views to them. He thought it the duty of every good citizen to accept any form of government which the majority may choose or see fit to agree to, and that it was not for one individual ?ta say himself; what form, of government should be. |He ttien wpnt on to* point out certain' particular features to be kept in view; one thing he mentioned as being most essential, was that there should be no secrecy in Government, that every action should take place before the public eye; such was very difficult to obtain, for under the present mode of Government the population knew very little appertaining to their own interests. In such a new country as New Zealand the press was very insufficient. He did not in any way refer in a derogatory manner to the existing press proprietors of the country, but to the marked difference existing between this and the old country where they had such newspapers as The Times, and where every speech and every report interesting to the public was reported. Such reports • were obtained at enormous expense, and liere they could not expect such facilities. The necessary result was that meeting's of important committees last; year, interesting to them, were unknown. He referred particularly to one—the Tairua Select Committee—a copy of the investigations of which had not, he believed, yet reached the Thames. There was, he said, very great difficulty in getting it printed at Wellington, and even he as chairman of that committee could only get two copies. He thought adequate means should be 1, provided, and they should watch and see that the necessary information on these matters should 1 be forwarded to them without delay. The next matter of which he spoke was the land question. In all* countries he said persons knew what blocks of land they h%d a chance of obtaining, and the price, and they should insist that in any future form of Government they may have that a sufficient provision for such is made. Another question he said had occurred to him during the few days he had been on the Thames, that was, the endowments to road boards, and he would particularly call the attention of the gentlemen on the platform to-the subject, as he might say that all their future welfare depended on it, They were aware that endowments were granted to road boards, but they, consisted of taxes taken out of their own pockets, to which he should not object were it carried out under another system. In the Middle Island, for example, the country was inhabited either by farmers or ilarge property holders, and the road boards were only allowed to levy a certain amount, and not to lay too heavy a hand on the large landowners ; he. hoped to see extended power granted 1 to get more dut them.' There, in the Middle Island, for every £1 that was raised by taxation the General Government granted £2; but that came out of the pockets of the public—out of their tea, their sugar, &c. In the North Island it was different, what were they to do with a large native population? If they made taxes the natives would notallow them to make roads through their territory, so that they would get very. little and yet still have to contribute their share of the £2 endowment. He thought all this could be avoided by making the large landed proprietors pay a heavier tax. The wants of the North Island were much greater than other parts of New Zealand; at present they were on excellent terms with the native population, and nothing he thought would help so much to cement the friendship existing between them as a system of railways like they had in j:he South, let a railway be made to the Waikato, and what benefits would accrue therefrom ? A population would be attracted to these shores,, work would be provided for them, 'and future collision between the two races would be avoided. As their. Superintendent he wished to speak to them on another subject. He always thought that the Gold Duty should be taken off, and when he advocated that view he was told that his proposal was not at all popular at the Thames. (Cries of No, No). When raised first it was maintained that it would bY appropriated to public works here, but he never believed that for such it would be paid for more than one year. He always thought it an unfair tax, but was told it was a duty very easily raised, that it was only 5d a day from each tinner, this statement he -rpceived from the Colonial Treasurer, •' but vhe- pwaa afterwards informed that it was a mistake, that it was only li» a day, and he remarked then that this, argument . meant . money was taken from'■ithehi;in''thei: summer to pay back to them in the winter, and instead of convincing him it only confirmed him in his opinions against the measure and made its supporters very angry with him. A better tax;h'e.thought Was pne of a halfpenny per lb on wool, (which proposition of His Honor, was repeived with loud cheers). He was, he said, confirmed in his opinion thai the gold tax was. not $ good one, there was no excuse for making it; if; was a tax first proposed in Australia in the early days of the diggings, wliore a number of rowdy people had

congregated, and where it required aj large police force to keep them in order. Such a tax gave the people ,here, a .bad" name which was undeserVed, for they ihad only eight police laLtogether/and that force could not cost I pjnueh to keep, it was not fair to tax the let other places go free. The ;ta?x aho'ild be also taken off the necessary Uifei; and when he advocated it i^was looted Upon as a mad philanthropist; but .that had since been done at home by the greatest statesman there. The tax, he said, of £25,000 raised from this source was not all revenue, for bondage rates, and a numerous staff of collectors and clerks had to be paid out of it, while a far more numerous staff had to be kept and paid at Wellington to look after all these other clerks to see that they did nofc cheat the public. -The more taxes can be simplified the better, but he was told that by asking for these things he was making himself obnoxious to all the population of New Zealand. He believed algreat reduction could be made in their taxes and that a much larger income could be raised without the enormous ex: pense of collecting it, and he would urge them to try to have this carried out with the least possible delay. Some of them were not aware what the expenditure was and for some time he could not find out himself. , The expenditure for the.Native department was £8000 which amount was totally unexplained, he had tried to find out but could not, -the Government had never made exception to the salaries paid to their officers and the members were not told thatany additional salary was required, but after some time it was said that one officer £50 extra salary for services rendered to the Native Department, and no one knows anything of these affairs till they come before the Audit Commis? Bidn&s'.'.'; They should insist on all these sums being detailed in the estimates, for his : own opinion was that the present system, if allowed to remain in force, must grow. He. had sat in the Assembly often till 2 in the morning, and it was invariably the practice for sums of this sort to be brought forward then. As a further illustration of parliamentary abuse he referred to the constitution of the various select committees of the House, the members of which formed a majority of one particular paVtyl, ; In England the custom was the same until it, was so much abused that the power has sinde been relegated to judges; and further, there no minister sits on committees, while here the majority are selected by,.individuals. This they should direct their attention to, try to obtain an independent tribunal, for if the General Government are to sit at sueh-a .distance it was absolutely necessary that all subjects for investigation'should be submitted lo impartial judgment. His Honor then gave his opinions as to what he thought was conducive to the'future, welfare of the Thames It had been created, he said, by the discovery of gold, and a rush of miners to the pkce—gold, had always been found in a fluctuating manner here, but on the whole the yield of gold had been remarkably steady—his own conviction was tint the best places for gold bad not yet been struck, that the place had not;, yet been thoroughly prospected, and that greater quantities will be found in centuries to come. : They required greater population, but the question was how to augment it, it was no use bringing laborers here when they had no land for them to settle on; at present if they had a great number of immigrants brought here it would harm them, as wages in every trade would be reduced., He had spoken-of lands before during the evening; they .should see the large beautiful tracts of lands on the Upper Thames which would pass into the hands, of private individuals by the assistance of the Government and if the railway were not soon made to the Waikato all the lands there 1 would be taken up by two or three parties; and they should insist on the railway being made at once. Perhaps if they applied they would be met»with the answer that no money was available— let them do as other colonies had done, havea survey made* a rough estimate drawn up, and call fortenders here and in Great Britain to be sent in at ai certain date, the Government guaranteeing 6 per cent.- on cost of construction, having the privilege of examining the books, and the result he was sure would be that the Government would not have .anything to pay at all. The benefit of such a railway to the Thames could not-be estimated; if they could' only see the land they would say it should not be made away with by the Government. He supposed a good maqy present knew as much about it as about the moon, one third had not, very likely, seen it, so he hoped they would do their. utmost to aid him in getting such, a railway made. He then went on to speak of harbor reclamation. To make harbors in New Zealand was. a very difficult matter, ■ particularly in some parts, but here they had facilities, the Mayor and Council should do all in their power to aid in the work being done here directly, as the endowment had already been granted to this place it was not like taking it out of their pockets, which he had no doubt were deep, but not so deep as the sea from which the endowment was to come. It had been decided that the foreshore should be granted immediately, and they should get plans of their proposed wharfs, harbors, &c, and set to work; by that means they would employ a large laboriog population who would fall into their places at once ; in conjunction with that work they must have farms at the head of the Thames Eiver that they might keep them here. When in Otago he saw miners possessed. of large smiling farms thus keeping them in the province. . isir George went on further, to speak of the abuse of the land system, and the numbers who unjustly sought compensation. He quite agreed that the law must be re-, spficted : but where a man had no legal right, he would not give him compensation. If a man had any claim or wrong he would have his case investigated, but he objected to anyone particular individual fixing the price. Ho thought a value should be placed on the land, and any one who had the money allowed to buy it, and all who wanted land to take it up—but he objected to it being taken wholesale, for if so it was to say that the population must leave for other countries, where land could be obtained. What he had told them he could say lay next his heavt, and all their wants he would assist to carry out with the best means in his power. Sir George concluded by thanking them for his position as Superintendent, and hoped shortly to visit them again. He: resumed his seat 1 amidsfc rapturous sounds of applause, and before they quite subsided Mr Oowell jumped up to propose the following resolution, viz.: " That this meeting returns

its hearty thanks > to His Honor "Sir George Grey for his admirable address, just delivered, and having the highest opinion of his abilities as a statesman, together with full confidence in his integrity and honesty, of purpose, unanimously request him to allow himself to be nominated as a candidate to represent them in the forthcoming parliament of New Zealand." Mr Cowell, proceeded to place in Sir George Grey's hand a requisition, which lie said contained 750 names., Mr Lavlor seconded the, proposition. - This was the occasion of v tremendous * uproar. • "-i

Mr Bagnall came forward and was understood to say that he was sure Sir George Grey would not approveof-the means adopted at that meeting to force a requisition upon 1 Kirn. There was immediately an uproar, all sorts of noises and cries being indulged in, and the Mayor said unless Mr Bagnall had an amendment to propose he must rule him out of order. i

Mr Bagnall still tried to obtain a hearing, and the sense of the majority of the meeting was apparently in favor of its beinu granted, but the noisy interruption! of a few rendered it impossible. The Mayor then intimated that Sir George Grey wished to say •• goodnight," and some measure of order being restored, Sir George came forward and said,—l have only to'say good night. I must go to the steamer. You may rely upon it that all I can do to promote your interests I will do. (At this there was a. fresh outburst of cheering, during which, Mr Speight cried out, "AW he'll stand for the Thames") /i;.. V , ■• :; . Sir George Grey, then left , the stage, and the meeting broke up, without the motion of Mr Co well bein^ put; and as the/Mayor left,the chair sooe one oried for a rote of thanks to fie chairman, which was responded to bf those who heard it. Sir G-eorge Grey; wai accompanied to the yharf by a nunber of persons who cheered him agiin as he exn* barked on board the Rteam.e?. *,y