TELEGRAPHIC.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1679, 7 May 1884, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION. ■ Newplymoutii, Tuesday, John Burton,. of Hawcra, charged at the Supreme Court with making a false declaration with intent to defraud, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment. , MR MONTGOMERY AT CHRISTOHUJRCH.

CiiiusTciiUßcn, Monday, .j Mr Montgomery addressed a crowded public meeting in the Oddfellow's flail i to-night, The Mayor occupied Jjie chair, and on the platform were'MessrS' 5 J, Holmes, O'Oallaglian, Mclhvraith, and White, M's.H.li, Mr Montgomery, who was received witli much applause, said that ho had asked the audience to meet liirn that evening as a public man, so thjtt he might put thfem the opinions lie had formed after careful consideration. In a crisis like the present, both sides of a political question ought to'be henrd. In , a few months the electors would be called [upon to return representatives who-would"exercise a great influence over the future of the colony. The next Parliament would have to settle !. the questions of. Centralism and Decentralisation, of land, and income, and taxes, of State aided immigration, and whether the colony was to continue borrowing. He would not repeat his Akaroa speech, -but- was' obliged to refer to some points in it.' He wished to put himself right as to his statement tlint from the first conception of the Public Works scheme members of Parliament had been secured by votes to theii districts, for which eleven and a half millions had been spent by Sir J. Vogel, iylio afterwards deeply regretted it. Major Atkinson had denied this statement, and in reply he (Mr Montgomery. would simply read Sir Julius Vogel s words, uttered on August 24, 1874, and reported in Hansard. He (Mr Montgomery) would neither deny, retract, nor explain anything ho had said at AVaroa, Ho had said, and would say, nothing about Major Atkinson that lie would not say to liis face in Parliament, Mijor Atkinson had said that he had borrowed only 6-J- millions, while the ,Grey Government had borrowed 1\ millions. Major Atkinson had the handling of. the . four million loan of 1874} When he joined the Vogel Ministry, he borrowed one mil--lion in 1876,'; and supported the five million loan in 1877, It was quite true - that Major Atkinson had only asked Parliament to borrow 6} million but lie had the handling of'over 10 millions besido i that sum, so that he had actually allotted over 15 millions, At the time when Major Atkinson came into office,'the Grey Government had anticipated two millions of the loan then raised," Notwithstanding Major Atkinson was misleading the people of New Zealand; when he said ho had only borrowed G£ millions, lhey knew how-he blackened the previous Ministry in 1879, and that he had caused the impression made that the financial position was very bad, and that none of the five million loan was forthcoming. Nevertheless, at the •end of 1876 there were large landholders, .friends, of the Government, who had railways made through their estates., . These persons, finding they' could not easily pay their share of the cost, applied to the Government to take the railways off their hands, and the Government actually brought in a measure to do so, One of the applicants was a Minister, but certain, members of the Opposition. defeated the project, and now one of those lines in the South had to have its charge paid by a rate of in the pound. The member for Avon supported this injurious scheme, though he forgot the' West Coast railway. Mr Rolleston had spoken in a very : derogatory manner of him (Mr Montgomery), but that gentleman had himself been true ■ to one thing, viz, place, In the provincial days he was a Provincialist; new lie was a Centralist, When Major Atkinson asserted at Dunedin that the ! a wl South Islands have got a fair share of the public money, he talked about a population basis. He . Mr Montgomery) had a return from, a blue book showing the contribution of revenue, exclusive of land revenue, from each provincial district,', and the expenditure each would be entitled to out of the loan on that basis compared ;wiih the sums actually expended. Up to March 30th, 1883, Wellington 'and iTaranaki had together " received L 930,000 more, Canterbury, L1,250i000 less, and Otago, L40,0Q0 less than they

'should havo done,,"He said at Akaroa,. and. ho now ; repeated it, that Taranaki and Wellington bad absorbed four or five times as mucli money as they : should liave done. Westland had received L9Q0,000, :to which she>was : entitled, on account of the large amount she had contributed in Customs and in gold duty. This, .however, should have been charged upon the colonial revenue, and not to the Middle Island. • There were-15,000 people in the • Westland and her gold export had been 10 millions. Taranaki in ten years, had .exports amounting to only LSOOQ. . Her people lived on the large' Government expenditure. The time has now come when the people in the various localities should depend on their own resources, There was an Armed Constabulary- costing LBO,OOO or LIOO.OOO ayear, and the Customs 1 revenue went to maintain a largo Civil Service. The fiat had gone forth that whatever one railway would not pay, another must pay . for it. The Hurunui'Bluff lines open had paid last year L 3 5s 6d per cent; the Taranaki lines opened had paid LI 7s 6d. It was for , the people of Canterbury and Otago to consider whether they would pay for railways which should never have been made. The. Treasurer, seemed to have dropped Federation: but things were done iu Wellington at 2 or 3 in the morning which should not be done in ; daylight; 'Still lie '(Mr Montgomery) [ thought.jMtjthe..people,of New Zea- , 1 and [ to adopt sucli an important measure without, an 'appeal to the electors. , The works, and immigration li'&s raised the vajue of land, but had not raised .that of the improvements - one shillings therefore, the land should pay for the works, which had benefited it. The peace and good, government of tho colony also required itoney, and to provide .that he would tax incomes. Ho repeated his .remarks made at 1 Akaroa about tho evils of large blocks i of land lying uncultivated, and of t absentee proprietors. Under the j present, central Government they could not have local Government, they could not have economy in expenditure. If the cumbrous and costly method of . government now prevailing,continued • iii . full "force, .every loan in future j. jShould.be raised by local bodies, and [ after being sanctioned by the people of [ the district,' At present a great , majority, of the people know nothing 5 ; about when borrowed money was spent ( as the estimates were not placed in the . hands even of members till the evening i they were to be passed; so that mem- > bers themselyes knew very little about j them. Still, they did know that many t of the items were sums to be spent on I districts represented by Government 3 supporters;- He would like to see the . whole of the North Island under one l local Government, and the South ; Island under a similar one. The j Federal Government should deal with ; Customs, Stamps, and telegraphs, and 3 should have power to levy an income 3 tax, and to do nothing else except pass . such laws as those relating to colonial [ affairs. Such a Government need only 1 be small, and need not sit for more j than a month a'year. The provinces , Had' been-'wrecked because they > had'npt borrowed upon.the faith and [ not upoii rates!, Some of them were i not able to pay,' He had no feav.of tho , colony's future. In 1877 they had . been told' thai; they wanted political , rest; now they were told that they t needed to be frugal, and were instructed how to raise two sheep where before [ they only raised one, Major'Atkinson, j in saying these, things, reminded him . of a finger post, that pointed the way j but never went-there. People must be sunk lower than-those of New Zealand j if they needed how to be taught their farm'business. It had been asked who ' were to take tho place .of the present I Ministers ■He wanted to see an appeal . to the people on the subject, and if the electors could not find six men with as much honesty and. talent as those now in power, the representative institution of New, Zealand had failed miserably. He thought, however, that six men could bo found—men who would have the.confidence,of.the Parliament and . the people. He did not expect the present Parliament to do anything good excepE pass supply for a month or so, and dissolve. Mr Montgomery sat down amid loud applause, A motion to,the effect ;that Mr Montgomery was worthy of the confidence and respect of the electors of the colony was carried almost unanimpusly, A second motion thanking him for his address, but declining to express confidence in him as a leader till the electors had heard Sir Geoige Grey, was negatived % a very considerable majority..