The Waikato Times. "OMNE SOLUM FORTI PATRIA" SATURDAY, MARCH 20,1875.

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 446, 27 March 1875, Page 2

The Waikato Times. "OMNE SOLUM FORTI PATRIA" SATURDAY, MARCH 20,1875.

It was perhaps hardly to be expected that Sir George Grey would commit himself to details -when ! addressing the Electors in the Choral Hall, but we certainly did look for more information on current « vents than he has, , favored us with; it mattered very little to the people of Auckland that their Superintendent belongrd to the Home Radical party. Sir George's speech was very lengthy and interesting to £UiS£.notwell informed on the early history of this coWnjV-^ rWis a pity, however, that it was not more practical ; he is probably reserving his political statement till he appears before the electors of City West. We purpose, as nearly as possible, giving the meaning of Sir George, where he has touched upon questions having reference to the present juncture. He tells an anecdote of two Superintendents, both of whom had risen by their perseverance and talent from humble spheres of life. He applies the anecdote to the illustra^o^)f the -old hackneyed saying that the provincial councils are the training schools for our legislators and debaters. After stating that he would not attack any man 'but the institutions of the country, he pointed out that it had been the rule for Great Britain to appoint Governors *<o her colonies, so long as she paid the expense of governing them, but when the people governed bore the expense of government themselves, it. "had, although not •without exceptions, been customary for them to elect their own governors. When the New Zealand Constitution Act was drawn, the Act was so framed that the General Assembly could make what law they pleased for the appointment of governor, and send it home to the Queen ; that is the existing law of New Zealand. Whether this system is to be -.adopted or not is of course a question. He asked the meeting to consider the effect of the present system and the existing state of things : where there is an hereditary monarchy, the'thgrisa. for the time being, has a strong private interest in conduct of public affairs, the Sovereign takes care to commit no mistake that may injure his subjects or alienate .their affection, far the sake of his children, but under our ciicumslances, the Governor, who is appointed from time to time, has in point of fact no interest of that kind in the country. It is a necessity forhim to stand- well with the ministry of tha day and avoid coming into- collision with the inhabitants ot the country. Therefore it is almost impossible for him to make a stand against what he may think wrong, or to appeal to the country regarding what ho may disapprove of. The jiext thing he would call attention to was the constitution of the Legislative Council, he had shown in the case of Governor that colonists had no con trol whatever, in the case of the Legislative Council we are still worse off. No such thing was seen ■until the present ago as that the ministers for the time being should have the power of calling whom they liked to the Upper House — any number — and to give them a salary for life. He asked, was it right that a minister should be able to take a man chosen "by no constituency, and put him into the council, and make him Governor of this country. As regards the Upper House, it is a most terrible .system that bill after bill may be passed in the Lower House and rejected by the Upper House, who represent jnobody- "Wo will now come to the House of Representatives, with regard to that branch of the Legislature aiyntaaferenee has taken place which is jinobt adverse t^our interest*. First of nil, it i's /frssential for any poo pie who are to bo well governed, ;«uul who return a House of Bepresentathe.s, that ■tfhey should be able, in some way, themselves to jr*waid their members, if they are rewarded at all rau'l that there should not l>e an extraordinary body represented in the, interests v>f Great Britain, because tihmv interests are not4>urM» but the interests of a .party. What he mamt was this — lately two sj.s.i.<'inr> of rewards have been created in this colony. The one is they ha\e tried to set up a peerage here,, j uvnd a peerage of a, most contemptible, and hitherto »fi'ikn»>wn kind. The peerage is this : %4- man hab j

him. for his life within the limits SWJN6\v t^ubmm ; but if he travels out of New Zealand he is nobody at all. In the Constitution Act the Queen solemnly undertook to interfere in no way with anything relating to the order, good government, and happiness of the people of New Zealand, except by joining in an Act with the General Assembly in this country. Therefore she shut herself out from creating such on order of peers." What brought him from his retirement was to a great extent the question of the abolition of provincial institutions. " What I find you were told was this, and I believe from this very platform we arc going* to sweep away your Provincial Institutions. Mind you are nob to do it yourselves ; it is to bo done by people at the other end of the country, who know nothing at ajj about you, but they are goingto do it, and the reason is that we cannot support oiu institutions, the gaols, lunatic asylums and things of that kind. In Canterbury and Otago they arXlii the most admirable order. They are not in gooa^£ter now, so we must sweep them away, and we intend to do, but wo will put them in good«judeivjbr you. We will provide life, which moans tltyff ysu will be taxe d for the purpose. You think that other people will pay for your lunatics here, whereas you ought almost to be shut up yourselves, if j r ou believe so. However, you were told that would be the case ; and then you were informed that any one who called in question the Compact of 185G would be a dishonest man, and that it would be a dishonest transaction to endeavour to do so. As to what I thought to myself, there shall be one dishonest man; If no one here will stand forward and speak, if they are cowed by expressions of this kind, falling from such very jl high authority, at least I will come out first, ai^^t^ill speak if anybody will stand by me j afterwards^ That was the first thought I had, and, to my mint^the speech that ought to have been made was to this effect : — Electors of City East, as I believe they were, — I believe your institutions here are in a very bad state — your lunatic asylum and gaol. I believe that was really said. Ido not say they were, but I only follow out the line of reasoning. Now the institutions of Canterbury and Otago are in a most excellent state. This is quite true, as I can testify from my own knowledge. WeH, what is clear is this, that under local supcrvision^y k>cal authorities, institutions of this kind are brVj^h^to the highest conditions, if the authorities have funds. That is what I should have stated if I had been making a" speech. * * * What enables us to raise the loans we are now obtaining ? The great tracts of land which I practically acquired years ago. That was the first thing that enabled the people to get on in certain provinces in New Zealand. Then there was the industry of the settlers. It was upon their farms, upon the security of their labour, that these loans were raised, and not through the influence of one or two individuals. Money lenders would not give their money except on the very best security, and it is upon your forms, upon your stores, upon your property, and the enormous wealth that you have created in the country, that these loans can be raised, and if to that security we add such portions of the land fund of the whole colony as we do not require for special settlements, we may raiso many millions more if they are wanted. Before wo do that let us reduce the enormous and wasteful expenditure that is going on. Let us spend our money economically, let u& settle in^ri?toions which may last for years, and not have the min^-of England and of tins country disturbed by sudden proposals to change the whole Constitution of the country. Let us fix the Constitution on a permanent basis, let us take stock of the great wealth we have, and then determine for years to carry on immigration upon a prudent and proper system that we may not be threatened with crisis from time to time, and be told that if we cannot get £4,000,000 loan we will be nutted." 1 What is to become of us when the £4,000,000 are expended. It will be the same thing ; wse will be in difficulties if we cannot get more money. Let us determine upon some fair line of policy by which the public works and immigration can be properly carried on for many years to come ; and, if necessary, greater additional loans raised, which we should then be able to pay, and have good security 15pr. That is what I should like to see, and I believe it is practicable and within our power. A great •sn.any statements have been made on this subject, one of 'which is to the effect that the white population has increased from five to sixfold, the revenue has increased from ,se\ en to eight fold. This statement is an exaggeration. I find on examining into the matter, that the population has increased rather more than is stated, and the revenue rather less. Ido not want you to mistake this point. Our revenue partly turns upon taxation. If you are burdened with a great- many more taxes than you were formerly, there must be more reveune. The revenue has fallen off, if you consider our liabilities, including the interest upon our delot. It must also bo borne in mind tint we are under enormous obligations to the native race. You have established a system you cannot stop, and must continue. You have come under obligations to an j enormous staff of officials, and you will have to find them pensions. You will find that if we come to j consider these things that in truth your revenue, I instead of having increased in proportion fo our population, it has done nothing of the kind. Another thing to be remembered is that revenue is really no test pf the prosperity of the masses. It would be quito probable, nay, it was quite possible, that if fclie present system is allowed to continue, that an enormous revenue will be raided in New Zealand from a population to a great degree sunk in misery as ths population i.s in England, and that the people who will benefit by I the revenue raised from these poor wretches will be I the absentees, who draw their enormous revenues.

Mr Janes Tvlackay and Ciptnin Tumor arrived at Hamilton on Tlmr.suay evening, they having ridden overland for the purpose of selecting a line of road from ila mi ton to To Arolia. We uiulei*Htand tliat these two gentlemen Avill start back to<],\y, nnrl will he accompanied by Mr, ('hirke, Resident Engineer. Uiy expected that the line of road will be, at once doyided on and and \vork commenced forthwith under the supei vision of the last named gentleman. A number of congratulatory telcgiams hove been received by Sir George Grey. Amongst others, from His Excellency the Go\einor and the Superinteu-

rimu on Thursday Afternoon on the farm of Mr Howie, who, we regret to say, is a serious loaev by the catastrophe. The steam thrashing machine was at work at the stack when suddenly fire was observed amongst the loose straw. In spite of all efforts, £200 worth of wheat was destroyed, and the thrashing machine burned. The engine, we are glad to relate, was saved. When the fire blazed up, although the horses were got ready they could not be induced to approach the fire, and the men on the spot were not equal to the task of removing it. Ihe machine is the property of Mr Coates, of East Hamilton, but was leased to some persons whose names we have been unable to ascertain. The lessees will have to bear the loss as the terms of their contract with the owner, were that the machine should be returned in good order and condition. We .sincerely condole with Mr Higgle, also with the lessees of the machine. The ctaastrophe will be felt by a large number of settlers, as the machine destroyed was the only one in the district. Whether the tire was started by a spark from the engine> 6^ arose from carelessness with pipes and matches is unknown. However it may have arisen it should be a lesson to all working about wheat stacks to use extreme care. A correspondent writes to a contemporary as follows :—": — " One of the questions put by the Board of Trade examiners to the candidates for certificates of competency as mates in the Merchant Service is the following : — ' What would do in order to allay thirst, with nothing but sea-water at hand 1 ' Answer : ' Keep the clothes, especially the shirt, soaked with sea- water.' This question has for many years been one of the most prominent put to each officer after he has passed the earlier portion of the examination in navigation and nautical astronomy. Yet at the present moment many thousands of our seagoing population know nothing of this simple (but truly scientific) remedy for one of the most terrible agonies the shipwrecked sailor has to endure. The action*is^n&^ Hfcie to ' filtration,' for then the crystalline salts woula pass in with the water in solution. It is in all probability an example (and an extremely beautiful one) of 'dialysis.' " A Rifle Match was fired yesterday at the butts, Hamilton, between six of the E.V.M. and a like number of the W.R.V. The following were the scores. — E.V.M. Cox, 52 ; Sandes, 36 ; Rusden, 40 ; F. Rusden, 36 ; Gallary, 3^ ; Lovett, 57 ; total, 255. W.R.V. W. Coleman, 68 ;W. Donald, 6G ; Williamson, 65 ; Pearson, 62 ; Tristian, 02 ; J. ColeWnj^OiSoW, 393. We are gfia to notice^ tri^t the committee formed to collect funds and carry out the work of erecting a church at Tajifuri have felt themselves justified in calling for tendeyfe fonjfaG erection of the building. Having already published a report ot Sir George Grey's speech at the Thames, we do not think it necessary to publish that delivered by him in the Choral Hall. In another place we publish a running commentary upon it. It is purposed to hold the following religious services in the Waikato to-morrow. Church of England. — Ngaruawahia, 11 a.m.; Hamilton, 6. 30 p. iii. ; Alexandra, 11 a.m. ; Te Awamutu, 3 p.m. ; Kihi Kihi, 7 p.m. Catholic. — Kihi Kihi, 9 a.m. ; Rangiaohia, 11 a.m. Wesleyan Methodist. — Cambridge, 1 1 a.m. and 6. 30 p.m. ; Pukerimu, 2. 30 p.m.; Hamilton, 6.30 p.m.; Te Awamutu, 11 m.a.