MR SHEPHERD IN CROMWELL.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 129, 30 April 1872, Page 6

MR SHEPHERD IN CROMWELL.

Mr T. L. Shepherd, Representative for Dunstan District in the General Assembly, addressed a large meeting of his constituents at the Gromwell Hotel on Tuesday evening, the 23rd hist. Mr James Taylor, Mayor of Cromwell, occupied the chair, and after stating the purpose of the meeting,—namely, to hear an account of Mr Shepherd’s votes and proceedings at the last session of Assembly,—he briefly introduced the honourable member for the Dunstan.

Mr Shepherd said he was glad to see such a good attendance of the electors ; it was commendable that they showed interest iu the political questions of the day. This being his first opportunity since his election, he desired to thank the electors for the honour they had conferred on him in electing him as their representative in the General Assembly. He was quite sure that he was elected as the miners’ candidate ; and it was one of the proudest moments of his life when he was declared to be at the head of the poll by such a large majority. Before beginning an account of his stewardship, there was one thing of which he wished to remind those present, —namely, that he would be necessitated to talk a deal about himself ; his subject ami he were inseparable. He mentioned this that his hearers might not think that he was talking in a boasting and vain-glorious spirit; such a spirit was far from him. With these few prefatory remarks, bo would at once begin his task, —to give the electors some account of the principal questions which had come up during the last session ; and some account of what he, as their representative, had said and done regarding those questions. There were many important matters to which he could not refer at all, for want of time ; and some to which he could only refer shortly and briefly. The principal question of the session had been the Railway question,—regarding which they must all have heard so much. Mr Vogel, the Colonial Treasurer, when in England, had arranged two contracts between the New Zealand Government and Messrs Brogden and Sons, for the construction of railways throughout the Colony. One contract was for the enormous sura of £1,500,000 ; and the other, —an alternative contract, —for £500,000. When the Assembly met, these two contracts were laid before them for their ratification ; hut he was glad to say that the Assembly considered and decided that Mr Vogel had exceeded his powers in making the contracts, and only ratified the latter of the two, —that for £500,000. This was done only because it was considered it would be unjust to Air Brogden,—who had come out from England on Air Vogel’s representations,—if neither of the contracts were confirmed. He believed, himself, that Mr Brogden was extremely discontented at the action of the Assembly in the matter ; and if lie had known that only the smaller contract would be accepted, would never have left England. The last session was distinguished by its “ log-rolling” ; and this had been carried on chiefly in connection with the railways. He instanced the railway which was agreed to be constructed between Wellington and Alasterton, which he characterised as a flagrant “job,” and as simply a reward to the Wellington members for their thick-and-thin adherence to the Government. He bad opposed, —and in that opposition was supported by many other members, —that railway to tbc utmost of his power. However, there was a clause in the contract by which it was specified that Messrs Brogden and Sons need only undertake the construction of such railways as they pleased ; and during a private conversation ho (Mr Shepherd) had with Air Brogden in Wellington, he had urged upon that gentleman to construct only railways he was convinced would pay. The result had shown, —and future results, ho believed, would show, —that Air Brogden had taken his advice. Ho saw no necessity for bringing contractors from England to construct railways, believing that railway contractors could be found in the Colony who would do the work much cheaper. I le instanced the case of the first V ictorian railways, for the construction of which Alcssrs I’eto, Brasscy, and Co, had sent in a tender amounting to £7,000,000 ; but the works were afterwards left to colonial enterprise, and were completed for £1,50!),000 less, and even then the contractors realised large fortunes by the venture. It had been stated by the Press that Messrs Brogden were acting as managers for the Government in connection with the railway works ; that those employed by that firm wore paid by the Government at day’s wages, and were in all probability doing what is called the “ Government stroke.” Though none know better than himself that lying statements were often put forth by the Press, he would say that the statement referred to had never been publicly contradicted. In his (Mr Shepherd’s) opinion, the only line in this Province, or indeed in tbo Colony, that would pay working expenses, and at the same time promote settlement, was a. railway through the centre of the gold-fields, "ia to Cromwell. Generally, he was favourable to the construction of railways where they would open up the country and promote settlement.—ln regard to the financial position of the Colony : unless there was within a short period a large accession to tiie population, further taxation must bo imposed in order to provide for payment of interest and sinking fund upon the loans acquired by the Government. Tbc electors of the Colony bad accepted and endorsed the policy of the Government. and must therefore bear the responsibility incurred in carrying out that policy. The

interest and sinking fund payable annually on account of money borrowedamounted to £785,000, which exceeded the total annual receipts from customs revenue. The speaker quoted a number of statistical items to show that the Middle Island was entitled to a larger appropriation of the loan under the Railway 4ct than was apportioned last session. —ln reference to the duty on gold, he had used this argument in the Assembly (and he had often used it) Gold was got by personal labour; so were wheat and potatoes : would it not be looked upon as a hardship if the producers of wheat and potatoes were taxed for the product of their labour ? So with gold production. He believed there was but little chance of getting the duty reduced by the present Ministry ; but he had, in conjunction with other members, succeeded in wringing a promise from the Government that they would consider the question during the recess.—He was of opinion that Provincial Governments must give place to Shire Councils, for the reasons that the Provincial revenues were small, the legislative powers of the present Councils -were almost nil, and that it was almost impossible to get any money voted for the gold-fields. Those who came into the field now as candidates for the Provincial Council did so with the avowed intention of becoming Provincial undertakers—to assist in burying the system of Provincial Government. The miners were the men who had raised Dunedin from the rank of a paltry fishing village to being the capital of the most prosperous portion of this nourishing Colony,—and yet the necessities of the gold-fields were set aside to make way for a lavish expenditure in subsidising road boards.—The Newspaper Protection Dill ho had opposed because he believed newspapers—and especially those on the goldfields—had already quite sufficient license. There were papers published on the gold-fields which were made tools of by the representatives of the district. He himself had been continually made the subject of newspaper paragraphs and letters from correspondents depreciating his political conduct. He accused the Ckomwell A ho us of having published correspondence calculated to damage his political reputation, and read several extracts to prove the assertion. The speaker dwelt upon this subject at considerable length, and said he hoped the electors would not allow their estimation of him to be biassed by the Press. He had always been faithful to his trust, and had laboured honestly for the interests of his constituents and the general welfare of the Colony. Considering he had always refused the “ loaves and fishes,” he could not understand why such attacks should be made upon him from time to time in the papers published in his own district. The Press should nob allow malicious feelings to interfere with the progress of the district. For his own part he declined to take instruction or advice from any newspaper as to questions affecting the public interest, Touching the San Francisco mail contract, he was of opinion that £25,000 per annum was sufficient subsidy for New Zealand to pay for the service, i and thought that by making Melbourne the ter-1 minus instead of Port Chalmers, Victoria and j the other Australian Colonies might be induced j to contribute a much larger proportion of the cost than they do under the present arrangement.—The Chinese difficulty was not so formidable as was generally imagined. Ho believed I a considerable check might be put upon Chinese immigration by limiting the size of mining i claims, and in various other ways ; but would | not advocate the imposition of a poll-tax.—The Permissive Bill (which provides that two thirds of the householders in any district shall have ; the power to place a veto on the issue of publiI cans’ licenses within such district) he was at prei sent not very strongly in favour of, but ho would ■give the subject his earnest consideration.—The ; sale of a large block of kind at Moa Flat had , boon brought about by bad Provincial administration, and was solely attributable to the fact of the Provincial Executive having allowed their j expenditure largely to exceed their revenue— I He was inclined to think that the arguments he had used, and the repeated attacks he had made upon the General and Provincial Governments as to the necessity for a new Court-house at Cromwell, had been chiefly instrumental in causing its erection.—As to the Education question, if there was any method of meeting the views of | Roman Catholics without interfering with the grand national system, he would gladly support it, and would approach the subject without bigotry and in a conciliatory spirit.—He had voted for the proposal to hold next session of the Assembly at Dunedin, but would prefer to have the Seat of Government located at Christchurch. —The Contractors’ Debts Bill had received his support. stituents that the position of a Member for the Gold-fields—one who went in for work and not for pleasure—was no bed of roses. If the electors only knew how much work such members l did they would be 1 letter able to appreciate the j value of their services. During the last session lie (Mr Shepherd) had sedulously attended to his duties as a member of various select committees, and had also filled his scat in the House regularly and constantly: in fact he had never worked harder in his life than during the three months he was in Wellington. For this and other reasons he claimed the support of his constituents, and thought he was fully entitled to it. Expressions of confidence and approval by the electors greatly cheered him, while the opposite always dispirited him. He thanked the meeting for the patience shown towards him

during liis lengthy discourse upon necessarily very dry subjects ; and closed his remarks by expressing a hope that the local paper would in future refrain from publishing paragraphs and letters containing insinuations detrimental to his political character. In reply to a question asked by Mr Kidd as to whether there was any probability of a commonage being obtained for Cromwell,

Mr Shepherd stated that a bill would be introduced at next session of Assembly which would, he believed, aiford much greater facilities for obtaining gold-lields commonage than at present exist.

In answer to Mr MaeKollar, who wished to know whether he was in favour of Aided Schools, Mr Shepherd declined to be fettered in regard to the education question. Mr Colclough moved a resolution to the following effect: —“That this meeting has every confidence in Mr Shepherd as their representative, and thanks him for his attendance and explanations on the present occasion. The motion was seconded by Mr Lindsay and agreed to.

The Chairman conveyed the thanks of the meeting to Mr Shepherd, who brielly acknowledged the compliment, and proposed a vote of thanks to the Chairman. This having been duly accorded, the assemblage quietly dispersed.