MR J.C. RICHMOND AT NEW PLYMOUTH.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 745, 3 December 1870, Page 2

MR J.C. RICHMOND AT NEW PLYMOUTH.

Mr J. C. Richmond addressed a large audience on the evening of the Lifch ult. He made a speech of about two hours' duration, and depicted a very gloomy future for the colony if the money authorised by the Assembly during its last session should be obtainable in England. He characterised the policy of the present Government as a gambling policy, and said that Mr Vogel's sanguine mind saw nothing but success for his scheme, whereas there were ninety-ninechances of failure to one of success. He was making the colony into a species of joint-stock company, in which every member of the community was compolled to be a shareholder. He (MiRichmond) stated that the revenue was falling off, and that as the Act providing for the capitation grant compelled the Q-overnment to give the provinces a certain sum, Ministers would find that their revenue for carrying on the government of the colony would run short. He blamed the members of the House of Representatives for the part they took in supporting the scheme, and hoped the colony would return members who would check the Ministry, so that the colony might not be brought to a state of bankruptcy, which, he predicted, would result from the present line of policy. He distinctly told the electors not to re-elect him if they did not agree with his ideas on this question. He devoutly hoped that the Q-overnment would not get the loan, but if they did get it then he would like to go down to the House to see that it was wisely spent. But if they did not wish him to do so—if they thought that he had put the last political nail in hiscoffin—thenhecould quietly rest in retirement. They must not blame him, however, if this great scheme failed, as he thought it was a hundred chances to one that it would do so, and that the colony would gradually sink from bad to worse until it was in a state of bankruptcy. He also spoke of the Native Department, and the dangerous policy adopted by the Native Minister, who was lavishly spending the public money, and would continue to do so until the loan was gone. He (Mr Richmond; therefore pitied the next Native Minister who should be in office when the money was all spent, and the time for retrenchment had come round again.