MR FOX AT WANGANUI.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 158, 13 May 1879, Page 2

MR FOX AT WANGANUI.

(per press agency.) Waxganui, Friday

The Hon. Mr Fox, M.H.R., addressed his constituents last night in the Oddfellows' Hall. There was a full meeting, and a vote of confidence and thanks was passed unanimously. He spoke for two hours, He accused the Colonial Treasurer of ■incapacity, and described him as a mere novice in finance,"Without any previous experience, and with 110 originality, of mind qualifying him .to meet any serious emergency. The abandonment of easily collected Customs duties, and the substitution of an uncertain land tax was a great blunder. The speaker quoted from Hansard to show the manner in which lie alleged the Government broke its pledge to stand or fall by its three financial Bills, and stuck to office after being.defeated in two out of three. The financial prospect for the next session, he added, was gloomy. The receipts for land would fall short of Mr Malice's estimate by three-quarters of a million, Referring to the native question, he drew a contrast between Sir Donald McLean's wise policy of allowing the King party to weary themselves of their isolation, while they remained quiet and harmless, and the action of Sir George Grey, who, for the purpose of. making political capital, had set that' party 011 its legs again, and made it formidable. The Colonial Government, he sliid, had. been dragged through the dirt by Sir George Grey and Mr Sheehan. No member of the Government had ever been insulted and made to look so small as Mr Sheehan had been by Te Wliiti and Hiroki, and now they were making themselves base in the eyes of the nation by crawling in on all fours without an invitation to the King meeting in the Waikato. What an insult their reception had been! The. King refusing to see them; Rewi declaring lie would have 110 private talk again witli "The little Parliament of two," arid nobody welcoming them except a few Ngapuhis, who were'there themselves as strangers and guests. Mr Fox then commented on the neglect of the present Government to bring in a new Native Lands Bill, which, 111 Opposition, they had declared to be of vital importance, and the total abandonment of Slieehan's promise that the Government would give over land-purchasing and leave it to private persons. These sudden and entire reversals of policy showed that Sir George Grey had 110 settled principles and none of the statesmanlike ability which tlic " Voice crying from the wilderness," was expected to exhibit. His bounce and deceitfiilness had disgusted the natives, who looked'on the Government now'with contempt and aversion, Where was the magnificent tract of land which Rewi was to give for colonial and- railway purposes ! Where was the railway through the King country for which MrMacandrewhad appropriated a million and a half of money 1 Mr Fox then commented 011 the failure of the Electoral Bill, and the deprivation of" Sir George Grey's 70,000 serfs" of the franchise he had promised them, because the Legislative Council had refused to give the Maori dual votes to enable the Government to stufl the register with bogus votes all over the North Island, aS' they had already done at tlic% of Islands, He concluded by pointing out that everything ' that the Government had, when in Opposition, blamed their predecessors for doing, they had themselves done since in office. He accused' them of vising the Hinemoa for private purposes, and even political ends of their own, and commented with much severity on their inhuman refusal to let the Marquis of Normanby have that vessel to carry his invalid wife to Australia when he offered to pay the expense, while , Messrs Ballance and Stout went pleasuring in the Government yacht, and insulted the Governor by laying.,her, alongside the trading steamer at Lyttie'ton in;, which he was leaving Tlic'Govcriiment residences which, 'in their predecessors' time, they had insisted should be sold, and Ministers'turned into lodgings, they were ,now. ocouping. withouVsha'nio at their '■inconsistency. He feared the prospect of matters next session would .be much' like the last. The Government wasted all their time in the recess 111 pleasure-trips or political agitation, They got ■ no,.measures oeady, nor oven-met'for-corisiiitation till a few:days before 'the and hence nothing but ill-digested Bill's,, which .most of them had never, seen, were brought in to be either dropped or kicked out