ME. MUBRAY, M.H.R., AT TOKOMAIRIRO.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 133, 19 November 1875, Page 15

ME. MUBRAY, M.H.R., AT TOKOMAIRIRO.

Mb. Mtjbbay, who was well received "by a well-attended meeting, said that he took the first opportunity of meeting the electors at the closing of the session. He then proceeded to refer to the work of the sessions of 1871, 1872, 1873, and 1874, at which latter the question of abolition was first "brought forward. He stated it was not intended then, that abolition should embrace both islands. He took credit to the opposition for having left the abolition question to the electors to decide. He trusted that the people were alive to the enormous expenditure of the Government at the present time, and had looked at what was closest to them — the Provincial institutions — instead of looking at the one great source of corruption and expenditure — viz., the General Government. He deprecated the manner in which Sir George Grey had been abused, and alluded to the Press who supported abolition as literary vagrants, who knew nothing of the question they were dealing -with. After reviewing the various proposals as to the future mode of Government, he went on to say that one proposal was to have two Provinces — one in the North Island and one in the Middle Island, and there was a great l^deal to be said in favor of this, so far as the Middle Island was concerned. The boundary of Otago might go from the Ragitata River to Jackson's Bay, and the difficulty of communication "between the West Coast and Otago could then be much more easily done away with. There was a practicable route for a railway that could be made for .£4,000 per mile, from the West Coast, passing near Lawrence, through which all the traffic would come. This would make Otago the emporium for all the traffic on the West Coast, and relieve the West Coast from being what he called a mere suburb of Melbourne. After dealing with the financial position of the colony at great length, the speaker said that in a very short time the liabilities of the colony would be over £20,000,000 sterling. This would be the debt with the expense in connection with the last four-million loan, and the enormous expenditure of the Native and Defence Departments, while nothing had really been done for the defence of our harbours. There was nothing to prevent a privateer levying contributions on Dunedin, Oamaru, Lyttelton, Wellington. The Government might try to get possession of the land funds of the Provinces to meet the deficiences in the public account.