Page 3 Advertisements Column 2

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 442, 18 March 1875, Page 3

SUPERINIENDES GY ELEQTION REQUISITION.

TO SIR GEORGE GREY, K.C.fl.

SIR, — "We, the undersigned, Electors of the Province of Auckland, hereby request that you will allow yourself to be nominated as a Candidate for the office of Superintendent of the Province, vacant by the death of John Williamson, Esq., and we pledge ourselves to uso our best exertions to secure your return. (Signatures,)

TO THE GENTLEMEN SIGNING IHI REQUISITION.

/^> ENTLEMEN, — In reply to your requisition \JJ 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 and -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 Ik? entailed on me of many kinds. I shall, therefore, not feel myself called on to make the efforts usual in such cases to secure my election ; but if I am chosen Superintendent a sense of the duty I owe to yourselves and to the people I have so long 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 strire 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 sta>e to. th.c 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 to be best for the general good, and 1 will by all becomt^ means strive to obtain their rights whether pebtmiary or of any other nature for the people of the Province, and then see that they are allowed to^xtocise and enjoy those rights in the manner most advantageous to them. Although attached, and strongly attached to Provincial Institutions I well know that it is the duty of every man to yield to the views and 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 opinions upon the subject. But if Provincial Institutions are to be swept away m any part of the colony, I should desire to see such a change made a general one, and to have such Institutions established in the place of the existing Provinces as would secure to New Zealand ' generally at least those extensive rights in regard to legislation, and other nratters which the Provinces now posses*; and ti(sj/he various country districts a larger^m^e--^rself-government, and a greater and moreSireoc control over local revenues than is now given toXhem. To deja^r^ull benefit from the system of immigration and public works now being carried on, from 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 bringing that policy to a successfuiissue. The Superintendent, upon his partJStwfc^ have a right to expect from the General Government the expendi- J ture within the province of that share of the moneys borrowed for public works, to wfrwli 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 the immediate 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 public 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 aice taken to provide for the reception of immigrants^ for their comfort and well doing on their first arrival, and that energetic measures are taken to I *^*^ the permanent location in the country of the* population now here, wd of the immigrants who may arrive, by holding out inducements to take up lands in the j best positions which can be secured to them, and thus lead them to become permanent occupiers and cultivators of the soil. \ , v j 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 tQ this province, and means might also be advantageously taken to enable children of established settlers to occupy farms of waste lands, and thus to contribute as their fathers have before them to establish the prosperity of the olony on a lasting basis. ..3 Believing that the mining interest in this great Province is as yet only in its infancy, I think the Superintendent should always rtoiember how in- 1 dustrious a portion of the community the miners are : how largely they contribuj^to the permanent ( wealth and to the revenue of "thfe 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 i*etairi\tkem here. ! To attain this desirable object measures' snVild be devised by which they could occupy freeholds while still engaged in mining pursuits. Restrictions 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 thai the principles 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 ; but it is the duty of all to contribute . with some reference to their wealth, and it seenis*, haid to oblige the struggling labourer to pay largely from his small means for this purpose, whilst those who draw great incomes from New Zealand, pay but a trifle in proportion to their ability, o\ if » they be absentees, 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 concessions that lias been made to them in the direction of local self-govern-ment; and I think the Superintendent should