Page 3 Advertisements Column 5

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2181, 31 December 1875, Page 3

Electoral

I tions upon Which a candidate might fairly ; be excused if at a time like this he was )a —well, just a little foggy. We know that it is a test question one part of, ; our community,; ancl'l know-'that;l have lost one election already by its I will try, hpweyer.i today, to"b|^ as' clear and j distinct as I can/ I desire to see tho public and com mon schools madG fayailable : both to rich "antt poor f I desire! to 'se&| ■education-s--a good, sound,, thorough Eng r ij lish ,educatipn~aa accessible*, td ttie "rich j as to the poor, and I desire to see the : necessary funds to do this supplied oit, \ of the revenue and taxation of the conn- ! try at large,jand.not by-a 1 gold.Jtax. You; are perfectly aware that I was one of the members of the Provincial CbunciMwho voted for the present Act, and supported" it in all .its; stages. : ; The; ; Act is; not by any means a 'good one ; ibut the Provincial Council being'limited, within very narrow bounds in-its power to legislate could not make a good Act of it. Hitherto the General Assembly has carefully es,chewed this question, and has wilfully shut its eyes to the fact that if no steps be now, and soon, taken, our rising pppula-; tion runs the risk of being constituted of demi-reps and larrikins. Gentlemen I go, in thoroughly for education, Fbee/ Secular, Compulsory. We have put, our ; hands to the plough and'accused beg he who turns'back. As to —■' ■ c • -'^ PUBLIC WOEKS AND IMMIGRATION. / :-.' -AJr;.J;! Of the Public Works Policy of the late and present' "Government I am and always. have been a supporter. I am not in the least afraid of the loan, all I fear is, what we have so far .found :;to*;be, the case,;-that w : e shall riot be able to borrow enough. This is nb doubt partly our own fault. We have not tried, and our representatives have not tried, more particular!/! our representatives in the Provincial.Council, to get us. our- share. When fault is found with the Government for not doing this and that for our community, it ought not to be forgotten that we have failed to do' our own share of the. work. In obtaining grants for public works the first step has to be taken iin the Provincial Council. Dur-, ing the late session of the Council no work was .recommended, • and until so recommended the Government cannot mpve. Your' own' water-race ?is .van instance of thtef' The resolutions recommending, the .construction of the work were first passed by the ProvinciaL.Council, and then the resolutions had to be. assented to by message from the Superintendent, before the General Government could move. I may say incidentally that the Thames waterrace was the first work asked for under the Public Works and Immigration Act. 'While upon this subject, I may refer to the Thames Valley or Waikato Railway, call it which we will, and in connection with it to the Kaipara Railway. Blame has been cast on the Provincial Council for not having diverted the funds for the Kaipara Kailway to the construction of the Thames Valley Railway. I and many others tried all we knew to do this? but failed. When in,, Wellington, as your agent, Mr Vogel offered to do all he could to divert the same, to the construction of a Thames Eailway if the Northern members would ask for it. But, on consultation with the Superintendent it was .thought hopeless even to convend^fche mernfre'rs of the North for such a purpose. I was delighted when,! read in Sir George Grey's, speech to his constituents that they of. City West did not want anything to do with the terminus of the mainline of railway at Auckland; .the gift of £100,000 from the Province to start the Harbour Board,, and their magnificent harbour endowments free, they no doubt are a people very easily contested. If it should be your pleasure to elect me I have a very lively impression that I shall be infinitely more like Sancho Panga than hia waster,, for I am well assured therp are heaps of " little jobs " that want doing throughout this great district. The foreshore* question Wants settling, the Kauaeranga bridge wants constructing, and' a road to Ohinemuri want* making. We want" a railway not from the Thames to Waikato which< is something. lUce . beginning. fo\ build a^nbuseTtfronrtlie^roof downwards,' but' .from..;Tar'aru to"'- Ohinemuri, anji thence to'cut the main; line "^Wellington above Cambridge for Tafanaki, and from Ohinemuri to Kati Kati xand Tauranga. We want Gillies' Homestead Act made applicable to all the lands and the rest of the foggy Acts and Regulations put, into the waste basket. We want practical, sensible regulations, and not" so, much, per year 1 as rent by the Government from the settler, as the Government has-paid to the Natives per acre for the fee simple. And we want the rent in^hese cases to be counted at the end of a, term of years —the requirements of beneficial occupation having been complied with—as> part and parcel of the purchase money. •, I:£iTe these as a mere sample* of" the little' jobs we have on hand for a representative. LANDS 4 FOS THE* PEOPLE. .' Very,large blocks, of land have,been thrown,open for selectors within ,the past two years, but yet owing to-some hitch nothing has been really done. When men apply, for land they cannot get it, so that practically there is no,land open,.while technically, all these lands can be selected. This, to me indicates a want of adminis- ! trative ability in the Government some--1 where. The result of this want of ability has been all but disastrous to us, for peo-. pie with money and enterprise, have;left the-province to settle either'in the South or in the adjoining colonies.^. We haye a number- of Acts - almost all extremely liberal, professedly to settle the'"people upon the land, but the upshot of the matter is, you cannot get the ; land-you want, although that land be not occupied by any one else, and although it has been long purchased from the Natives, and the public money paid for it. No w, I hold that it is no use pointing out a defect without being also prepared to suggest a remedy; because if there be no remedy we must just grin and bear it, but should there be a remedy let us have it. I would suggest the American plan of having land offices in every considerable district, with officers who personally know the land. At present the officer knows wheYe the land is on the map—sometimes ; but whether that land is five, feet under water in a swamp, or at the top of a .mountain he does .not know, and this state of thing we want'altered. ABOLITION. Gentlemen, the great question at issue at the present time is, What is to happen on the day after. Jhe last day of the first session of the sixth Parliament of New Zealand ? Is the sky to fall ? Are pig's