COLERIDGE ELECTION.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 452, 25 November 1875, Page 3

COLERIDGE ELECTION.

A very large and influential meeting of the electors of Ashburton met at the Somerset Hotel, Ashburton, on Tuesday evening, to hear MrCathcart Wason address them. Mr Wason proposed that Mr Williamson should take the chair. Mr Williamson said he was sure those present would give Mr Wason a careful hearing. It was proverbial that meetings in Ashbur ton were most orderly, and he was sure that this one would not be an exception to the rule, and without further comment he would introduce Mr C. Wason to the meeting. Mr Wason said he would endeavor to be as brief as possible. One of the most important questions was perhaps the abolition of the provinces, although not the most important. He thought that this was a question on which every candidate should express his opinion. The over government to which New Zealand has been subject created a large vested interest in the shape of officials, Superintendents, and satraps innumerable, and thus a fictitious importance has been given to the question. It was a very important one, but not the most important of the day. [ Hear > bear.") The question was centralism versus provincialism. He must declare unhesitatingly that he was an abolitionist, but for local government under centralism. Absolute separation of the islands he believed to be impracticable; but as some propose to have a council in each island, with a federal government at Wellington, he should deem such a proposition worthy of careful consideration. The good that the provincialists were always pointing out that the Provincial Councils have done is no reasonable argument why they should exist now. It was as though one were to argue that a man eighty years of age, who had been a strong man, is therefore equal to bear the burdens which a man of forty could sustain. The provincial system of government was dead and unsuited to our present requirements. The public works policy has defaced those natural features which some men say have made provincialism a necessity. Roads, rail ivays, and bridges have made centralism absolutely indispensable. The local forms of Government are good, but there must be the power of General Government, and the Government he thought should form the counties, and not leave it to the petition of the people. He had now to touch upon the most likely form of Government that would take the place of provincialism. He advocated the localisation of revenue, and notably the land fund. The next topic he would briefly speak on was that of education, and concerning this he might say he considered it the most important subject that can demand our attention. There must be but one form for the whole colony, and he advocated State, compulsory, and secular education. By State he meaut that the State should take up the management of education, and make it practically free, for he did not think any labouring class —those in receipt of a daily wage—should have to find means for educating their children. rG ear i hear . 3 Compulsory it should be because there were some men lower than the brutes—who send their offspring to toil in the fields or swelter in the factories for their own mere gain—and for such men it is a wholesome discipline to know the State had power to compel them to act as rational beings. [Hear, hear.) He would have secular education because religious education was a matter oh which they so much differ, and was a question between every man and his Maker, and not to be settled by the State, L^ ear i bear, and cheers.] He now came to runs and runholders. He had been called the squatters’ candidate —this he absolutely denied, and gave them his unqualified denial that he was not a party to the squatters’ interest. He came forward simply in the interest of the whole community. There were other candidates in the field for this district who might much more fairly be termed squatters’ candidates. He must attribute this class cry which he had wished to avoid, entirely to Mr W, B. Tosswill, and he again stated that he came forward in the interest of the whole community. He had and would always endeavor to settle the country and oppose the policy of obstruction. He should like to see the runs put up to auction and sold to the highest bidder. There was one important subject which they should touch upon, namely, the Public Works policy. He was not astonished at the debt of twenty millions. He considered the country had security for forty or sixty millions, if judiciously expended. The National Debt of England rose to a tremendous height, chiefly through expensive wars, and jet thecountry flourished with it and will do so. Before concluding, there was one matter which he should like to touch upon, namely a meeting that was held in the Ashburton last week. In connection with the further taxation which will yet become necessary for the colony, a resolution was passed in favor of a land tax, exempting improvements, artificial or agricultural. He was prepared to exempt improvements from taxation if such improvements were simply agricultural. He was of opinion that the laud should not be unduly burdened, and therefore he could not advocate a purely and special land tax. He was of opinion than an income tax would be preferable. He also objected to education being thrown on the revenue derived from a land tax. There was another resolution that was passed at that meeting he had referred to, viz—“ That no general political questions should be referred to a body of men elected by a plurality of votes to property.” With regard to any changes that, might necessarily follow the abolition of the provinces, he should not like to see existing Road Board laws altered. He certainly believed that the agent of the Government for any district should be elected by the votes of the people, and he saw no reason why the County Boards, municipalities, and Road Boards should not successfully carry out the work of the country under the General Government. Mr Wason sat down amid loud and prolunged cheering. Mr Alfred Saunders said he had been requested by the local committee to put a few questions to Mr Wason. He would first like to ask Mr Wason if he had considered the vast difference between borrowing mom y fiom foreign countries, and, as was the case in England, when the national debt was created, borrowing from their own country’s resources ?

Mr Wason, in reply, said he would prefer to see sufficient capital in New Zealand to admit, of the Government borrowing from the colonists. This would be the best way of borrowing, but in default of this the country was absolutely justified to go to one’s parent country and borrow money, for after all they were but a portion of the great British Empire.

Mr Saunders then asked —Do you consider any body of men who have been elected under a system in which a plurality of votes is given to property is entitled to be regarded as a body representing the people on General Governmou f , legislative, or political questions ?

Mr Wason replied that he did object to general questions affecting the community at large being decided by any number of men elected on the ground of property alone. He should be glad to see a simplification in all matters of representation, whether for local or Imperial purposes. Mr Saunders—Would you support a tax imposed in rural districts, excluding or including all artificial and industrial improvement, in that tax ? Mr Wason replied, in substance, in accordance with the concluding portion of his address, and added that he did not see that large manufacturers should be exempted from taxation. He should oppose any system that had this object. He was absolutely opposed to a laud tax whatever, but was in favor of an income tax. There were grave difficulties in the way of a pure land tax, and though a check might be put upon land speculation, other and more serious complications might, and probably would, arise. He was decidedly in favor of exempting purely agricultural improvements from taxation. Mr Saunders asked —Would you if elected make it a practice to meet the electors before and after the close of each session of Parliament ? Mr Wason replied—Most certainly; and he should be only too pleased to meet the electors at any time they might require any information as to his doings or views. Mr Brown asked Mr Wason if be would vote for an elective or a nominated Upper House ? Mr Wason replied that he did not certainly think that there were two straws to choose. His leaning was rather to a nominated House as likely to prevent the recurrence of the deadlock, which occurred in Victoria some few years ago for several months through having an elective House, which stopped all business. Mr Brown —Do you vote for manhood suffrage? Mr Wason replied that he certainly did not. Manhood suffrage would only throw power into the hands of a few men who had money to purchase the votes of a mob. The evils of this system were, he thought, plainly perceivable in America, where the men who had bought the votes of the public at an enormous price, in their turn, when they had the opportunity, plundered Jthe public coffers. Mr Bullock—Would you support a Bib for making a railway direct from Ashburton to Mount Somers 1 Mr Wason replied, certainly; he should be most happy to forward any measure materially benefitting the district, and not only should be desirous of seeing railway communication to Mount Somers from Ashburton, but would most strongly support a water supply for the plains either from the Rakaia or Waimakariri, but should oppose a system of irrigation as being at present of too expensive a nature. The chairman then introduced Mr W. B. Tosswill to the meeting, who addressed the electors at considerable length, giving a general resume of his address to the electors at Courtenay, which has been already published.

Mr Jebson also gave an exhaustive speech on the subject of education, and other general matters.

Concerning the land tax which the election committee made prominent through Mr A, Saunders, Mr Tosswill at one time stated he was in favor of a combined income and land tax, but on Mr Wason pointing out that, at his meeting at Courtenay, he advocated a combined income and property tax, Mr Tosswill withdrew his statement, and said that he still adhered to a combined income and property tax. Some further discussion took place on various matters, and a vote of thanks having been moved by Mr Wason to the chairman, and seconded by Mr Tosswill, the meeting separated about midnight.