Page 3 Advertisements Column 1

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 441, 16 March 1875, Page 3

tu am u.ay.ttijhE< v^-tt** J^.y.u.

SIR, — We, the undersigned, Electors of the Province of Auckland, hereby request that ypu will allow yourself to be nominated as a Candidate for the office of Superintendent of the Province, vacant b^ the death of John Williamson, Esq., and we ple%e ourselves to use our best exertions to secure .ur return. (Signatures,)

TO THE GENTLEMEN SIGNING iHE REQUISITION.

f~~^ ENTLEMEN, — In reply to your requisition \_j I have the honor to state that if elected Superintendent of the Province of Auckland, I shall accept the office, and do my best to fulfil its duties in such a manner as to promote the happiness welfare of the inhabitants of the Province. I consider the position of Superintendent of this Province as a most honorable one, and as reflecting credit on any man who may hold it. Yet, if lam elected to the office great personal sacrifices will be euftailed on me of many kinds. I si^LtJierefore, not feel myself 'called on to make toe eflbrts usual in suc&cases^to secure my election ; \ut\f I am chosenlfcuperintendent a sense ofttje duty I owe to yourselves and to the people I hare' so toHg striven to serve will make me forego all personal considerations, and devote my whole time and energies to fulfil the duties the public call on me to perform. I shall strive to show that it is the desire to serve one's country and fellow-men which gives dignity to a public position, not the title by which that position may be called. Generally, I would state to the inhabitants of this Province that I consider the office of Superintendent to be an Executive and not a political one. If elected, I will, therefore, not use the position for any political purpose. I will faithfully administer the laws, and any means placed at my disposal, in the manner that appears to me*) be best for the general good, and 1 will by all becoming means strive to obtain their rights whether pecuniary or of any other nature for the people of the Province, and then see that they are allowed to exercise and enjoy those rights in the manner most advantageous to them. v Although attached, and strongly attaciredto Provincial Institutions I well know thaTSt rie the duty of every man to yield to the views anH^wishes of the majority of his fellow-countrymen, when those views and wishes are ascertained by Constitutional means and are clothed with the authority of law. Whatever form of Government may be thus introduced into New Zealand, I shall at all times endeavour to make a success and conducive in all respects to the peace, satisfaction, and prosperity of the people of the colony. I believe that it is clearly the duty of the Government to state in detail the nature of the institutions they propose to take the place of the existing Provincial ones, and to allow the people of New Zealand ample time to consider them, and to express their oj&nions upon the subject. But if Provincial Iw3uftutions are to be swept away in any part of the cpji»|-, I should desire to see such a change made a general one, and to have such Institutions estab^she* in the place of the existiag Provinces as wofia secure to New Zealand generally at least those extensive rights in regard to legislation, and othsr matters which the Provinces now possess, ancHo xhe*\arious country districts a larger share of self-government, and a greater and more direct' contjroT over local revenues, than is now given to them. To derive full benefit from the system of immigration and public works now being carried on, fvom which if judiciously conducted, such great advantages must flow to the country, I should consider it the duty of the Superintendent to assist, to the utmost of his ability, the Colonial Government in br'nging that policy to a successful issue. The Sup*a*intendent, upon his part, will have a right to expect from the General Government the expenditure within the province of that share of the moneys borrowed for public works, to which it is justly entitled, its due proportion of immigrants brought out by public funds, the prompt payment of all revenues and other monies lawfully belonging to it, a rigid economy in the expenditure of the monies devoted to immigration and public works, a strict prevention of all extravagant personal expenditure from these funds, and theimmediate relinquishment to the Provincial Government of all lands purchased from the natives in the Province, for the benefit of its people, for it is only by a rigorous, attention to these details that the immigration and pliblic works po. licy can attain to that success to which it is so justly entitled. The Superintendent should, in my opinion, see that all requisite steps are taken to provide for the reception of immigrants for their comfort and well doing on their first arrival, and that enei'getic measures are taken to secure the permanent location in the country •-of the population now here, and of the immigrants who may arrive, by holding out inducements to take up lands in the best positions which can be secured to them, and thus lead them to become permanent occupiers and cultivators of the soil. Active steps should be taken to induce people possessing capital sufficient to enable «them to undertake the cultivation of the soil and, the employment of labour to again resort to this province, and means might also be advantageously taken to eilable children of established settlers to occlipy farms of waste lands, and thus to contribute as their fathers have before them to establish the prosperity of the colony on a lastiug basis. Believing that the mining interest in this great Province is as yet only in its infancy, I think the Superintendent should always remember how industrious a portion of the community the miners are : how largely they contribute to the permanent wealth and to the revenue of the Province and colony : how trained they have been in the habits and hardships of colonial life : and how important it therefore is to the colony to retain them here. To attain this desirable object measures should be devised by which they could occupy freeholds while still engaged in mining pursuits. Eestrictions at present placed upon them should be -modified and relaxed, and the unjust taxation to which they are now subject should be re-adjusted and equitably distributed over the entire community. I do not think that the piinciples which control ] and regulate general public education in this Province, as they have now been settled, need be reopened by the Superintendent : but Ido think that the system of taxation established for educational purposes should be re-considered. All who draw wealth or revenue from this country are interested in seeing the rising generations grow up educated and well-conducted members of the community 3 but it is the duty of all to contribute wiljji some reference to thair wealth, and it seems haid to oblige the struggling labourer to pay largel/ from his small means for this purpose, whilst those who ,^raw great incomes from New Zealand, pay but a trifle in proportion to their ability, or, if they be *bsente«s, pay absolutely nothing. I originally devised and introduced into this Province a system of Hundreds, presided over by Wardens, which has since been elaborated into the present Highway Board system. I am glad to know that these local bodies have well earned and deserved each fresh concession that has been made to thfc >u in the direction of local self-govern-ment j'^a I think the Superintendent should