The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1840, 22 April 1884, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

i£qnnl and exact justice to all men, Ot \vhitsoe\er st.ite or persuasion, religious or political. Here shrill the Press the People's rijjht maintain, Un.nsod by influence and unbnbed by gain.

TUESDAY, APRIL 22, JBS4- -♦

The Honourable William Kolleston, tho Minister of Lands, addressed his Avon constituents at Papanui, on Saturday evening. The Press Association informs us there were about 500 persons in the room, and as the majority of these came up from Ohristchurch with the object of making it warm for the Minister, it docs not surprise us to loam that a vote of uant-of-confidencc was carried at the close of the meeting by a large majority. And yet the speech was, judging oven by the brief report telegraphed, an excellent one, and one which must tend to elevate Mr Rolleston in the estimation of outsiders at any rate. Saturday's speech commenced with a slight reference to tho honourable gentleman's detractors, who had so assiduously abused him behind his back, and a declaration of his intention to continue the course which he believed to be right. The times, he said, wore troublesome and difficult, consequent on the diminution of the spending power of the country, which was due largely to the curtailment of borrowing by the present Government ; also to holding large blocks of unproductive, land for speculative purposes ; also to the falling otf in value of our staple products, and lastly, to the unfavourable weather, which had prevented our products from being gathered in good condition. These two last were not of course due to the action of Government. He defended the borrowing policy of the Government, and said it was identical with that initiated by Sir John Hall. They were compelled to go in for the threo million, loan, or the expenditure on a million and a-half's worth of unfinished works would have been thrown away. He had always been on the prudent side in legard to borrowing, and whether or not it was deemed necessary to raise a further loan after the expiration of the threo years he would advocate borrowing as little as possible. He spoke warmly on the subject of immigration, and contended that additions to the labouring population conferred good on all sections of the community, for the reason that much land now lying idle and unproductive would be brought under cultivation if only more labour were available. Every fresh man in the colony decreased the burden of taxation and was a contributor to the wealth of the colony. On the land question, Mr Eolleston defended his perpetual leasing system ,uid dwelt on tho necessity for pi eventing in this country tho creating of those extremes of wealth and poverty found in the older countries of Europe. He, however, condemned the " bursting up" theory as visionary and mischievous to the colony as a whole. But Mr Rolleston's \iews on the Laid question, though they are here stated with clearness and force, are sufficiently well known. What the audience at Papanui, and probably everybody else, eared most to know about was the Minister's opinion on the railway tariff question. The Christchuroh contingent cime there to scoff, but it is upon this subject, it sesms to us, that Mr KollesOon shone most conspicuously. Not that we are any more cordially disposed to the railway policy of the Government than we have been all along-. But we heartily concur with Mr Eolleston when he says that Canterbury should not receive any advantages in excess of those conferred on the people of other parts of the colony. Having regard to the freight paid upon other articles of merchandise and produce, the wheat tariff charged to the Canterbury farmers is fair and just enough. Mr Rolleston shows, too, how insane is the outcry which has been raised in the South regarding the expenditure on railways in the North, and cited some figures which ought to have shamed oven a Christchurch audience. He put his foot down firmly on the diferential tariffs idea, for which, as he is himself a Canterbury man, wecannot applaud him to loudly, but in the next breath he tells us that the railways as a whole must pay a reasonable rate of interest on the cost of construction. What Mr Eolleston may consider a reasonable rate we do not know, but it is difficult to understand how he can reconcile this opinion with another to which he gives expression in the concluding portion of his address. The only intelligent basis, he remarks, for a progressive policy of public works is the development of the county. The wealthy parts of the colony should not be made wealthier, while the thinly peopled ones are left in poverty. Exactly so,. TJUis ia fte very Hia?ij4<3 foy

which we havo fought all along. Mr Rolleston evidently recognises it and admires it, but he must know that the Railway Department has not adopted it. We aro glad to know that Mr Rolleston is opposed to any alteration in the present Education system. And now, by way of conclusion, we shall allow Mr Rolloston to sum up the record, of his> own and his colleagues' services. He is reported to havo said : — Whenever the Government left ofliee they would leave a record of reduction of expenditure, both of borrowed money and of ordinary revenue, of law and order re-established among ihe Maoris, of taxation placed on the right shoulders -on the rich and the absentee proprietors, of liberal land laws and people settled upon the lands, of the foundations of political power widened and deepened, of registration simplified, and of a franchise amounting almost to manhood suffrage.