THE ELECTIONS.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 462, 7 December 1875, Page 2

THE ELECTIONS.

MR S. P. ANDREWS AT CHRISTCHURCH. Mr S. P. Andrews, one of the candidates for the three seats in the General Assembly for Christchurch, addressed the electors at the Oddfellows’ Hall last evening. His Worship the Mayor occupied the chair, and there was a very good attendance, the room being well filled. The chairman said that, in his official capacity as Mayor, Mr Andrews had asked him to preside that evening. He did so with very great pleasure, as there was nothing that was of so much importance as the discussion of public questions by the electors of Christchurch. He would now introduce Mr Andrews. Mr Andrews said he would try to make himself clear on the several questions he should lay before them. There were many questions which of necessity would have to be left aside for that evening, but any points upon which they might wish to have information, he should be happy to speak at length later on. To many of them his opinions on general topics were unknown. He had served them during the session of the Provincial Council, and he was now aspiring to the prouder position of their representative in the General Assembly. He should therefore tell them plainly what he intended to do, if he was elected, in the Assembly. As regarded the two candidates now on the platform, Messrs Richardson and Stevens, he might say that they were on the most friendly terms, and he had the very highest possible respect for them. | Hear, hear.j As regarded the other two candidates. he would not now say anything. It had been said that they should have got some one else to come forward to represent them, but he might say that it was not always pos. sible to get the men they wanted. He had sought round and round the city, and he had been unable to persuade gentlemen who he thought should come forward to represent the city of Christchurch as it should be. Amongst others, he had gone to Mr Wynn Williams, knowing his indomitable persererence and ability to discuss public questions, but Mr Williams had declined to do so. He (Mr Andrews) had received many requests to come forward, and hehad at last acceded to the request. He did not stand before them as a nominee of Mr Williams, tut as a free and independent man, one who would, to the best of his ability, represent the electors of Christchurch, They would recollect that some years ago a financial reform association had been formed, which had been productive of great good, and he regretted in view of the great changes which were impending that they had not formed ft

reform association. [Hear, hear.] If this had been done they would have had better men coming forward —men capable of grappling with the great questions of the day. [Hear, hear.] There would be such an amount of log-rolling when they got to the Assembly—[laughter]—he begged their pardon, whoever got to the Assembly would find that there was such a diversity of opinion as to the best mode of Government, that it would be very puzzling to them. [Hear, hear.] From the speeches he had read it was evident that there were a number of persons both North and South who were going in therewith certain plans of government under the present impending changes, which would make it very difficult to select the right ones. Some time back when he was asked to stand for the Provincial Council, he had refused to do so, as he was an abolitionist not perhaps so much of a centralist as Mr Stevens,—but still an abolitionist, and therefore he thought the Bill brought in by the Government was a right one so far as the abolition went. He felt sure that the result of the present elections would show that the people of New Zealand were of opinion that the Bill was a right one, and brought forward at the right time, [Cheers.] He would now tell them where he disagreed with the Bill. First, then, he thought the Bill was too good in promising them too much ; because he thought that the provisions could not be carried out. In clause 14 it was Stated that all the license fees, &c., should be the property of the municipality. He would just look at this to see if this could be carried out; if it was, as had been stated, a bait. It had been said that this Bill was a bait held out to the electors by the Government, and he would, after he had spoken briefly on it, leave it to them to decide. Now, clause 19 of the Bill provided that £1 per £1 should be given to mu icipalities, and £2 for £1 to Eoad Boards. How was it possible that this could be done ; that the consolidated revenue should be robbed to that effect ? Ke thought that it was not practical, and he would tell them why. He read on to clause 23, and that said —“The costs, charges, and expenses of police, gaols, harbors, hospitals, lunatic asylums, charitable institutions, and of education throughout the colony, shall be borne on the consolidated fund, so far as such costs, charges, and expenses are not otherwise by law provided for,” Now, if all this was going to be taken out of the consolidated revenue, what were they going to put into it to stand these calls? He should refer presently to the matter of education, and also as to the matter of the abolition of provinces. He now came to the Local Government Bill of the Government, containing a large number of clauses. And here he said that this was not practical. It was, without doubt, a noble attempt to give something to the people, but the draughters had been so narrowed by pressure of business, that they were unable to look at the matter in a broad sense. He would refer to this Bill at greater length further on. If any one would look at the matter of the government of nations, they would see the difficulty which would arise to put anything in the place of what they were going to sweep away. There was the great difficulty. If they swept away the provinces they must build up something to take their place, and in his opinion that would take years to do. If they had a scheme of Government which was already in force which they could accept there would be no difficulty ; but this was not the case. Governments were peculiar to the people for whom they were projected. Some years back he lived in Victoria, and he then thought no Government was equal to that ; but he had lived long enough to see that he had made a mistake. Plainly, he told them that he was in favor of a united colony with local administration, [Hear, hear.] But what that local administration was to be was just the question. Some advocated insular separation, and he, for some time, had thought that this was the best thing. But when he came to look at the debt of twenty millions resting on them as a united colony he saw the difficulty. How was this debt to be allocated ? There was very little sympathy between Auckland and Otago and Canterbury, and besides, they must also recollect that there was some one else to be consulted, and that was the pu'lic creditor. With this staring them in the face how were they going to arrange insular separation ? No doubt many were clamouring for it, but he for one could not see how it was to be done. The public creditors made no distinction. They would come to the provinces who had the money or the land fund, and say iothem “Oh, the North has repudiated her debt; we don’t know anything about separation, we shall look to you.” [Cheers,] Therefore it was that they should look closely into this mailer. It had been left to the people to decide, and it was for them to send men to the Assembly whose views on this question accorded best with theirs; He bad heard a great deal said about this matter, about sweeping away the provinces, but no one had yet come forward and said what was the constitution which should replace them, and yet be for the benefit of the colony of New Zealand. If be were eketed, he could promise them that he would seek every means of instruction to make himself thoroughly competent to deal with the matter, [Cheers.] The question of surveys, he might say, was one which deserved the very greatest consideration, as the surveys never would be what they should until the General Government took them in hand. The next great question was what was to be be done with the runs in 1880. There was no doubt now that the squatters had the best of the bargain, and in order that they might understand the matter he would read them a short extract out of the Waste Lands Regulations. The legal gentlemen were of opinion that the runs ceased in 1880, but he could not find anything of this under the Land Regulations. The clause read as follows:— [Mr Andrews then read the clause referring to the occupation of the runs, and the schedule of price to be paid per acre.] If he understood anything of these clauses, it was not possible to dispossess the holders of these runs in 1880. He knew this was not a popular idea but he held it. Certainly they could put on any price they liked per acre —[hear, hear 1 —but he did not believe that the runholders could be dispossessed. He knew he was not alone in this belief, but he said this, that he did not for one moment think that the same scale of prices now in force would continue. It was not so much who occupied the runs, but the price which must be paid for them—l hear, hear]—on this he was of opinion that they should act fairly by all. But if he were wrong, and the runs could be taken, he said that the runs should be put up by auction, looking forward say for two years. He was sure of this, that if the runs

were put up by auction two years before 1880, the arrangement would be found to be a practical one. He would not for one moment leave the matter off to the last minute, as this would be unfair. The Government had also foreshadowed a policy as regarded education, and he said that no one had stood forward so strongly as regarded education as himself. Some time back he had announced himself in favor of free secular and compulsory education, which he was in favor of now. Mr Stevens had spoken in favor of this, but he (Mr Andrews) had seen that this required modification somewhat. He considered now that this was not practical. The reason of the Government stepping in to educate the children had been because the parents had neglected to do so. [Hear, hear.] But while they should not allow the innocent children to grow up uneducated, it was to be stated what amount of education should be given. He thought that the State should see that the children received a good elementary education. [Hear, hoar.] But he asked those in favor of free education where the line was to be drawn ? They would find that they had to give a free education in classics or astronomy ; therefore it was necessary for those who supported free education to say |how far they should go. What he said was this, that if the Government were to go beyond elementary education in the matter of free education, they made a mistake. He believed it should be free up to a certain standard, say a good English education, and beyond that it was a luxury. When they had done this, the State should say that it had done its duty, and tell any toy who wished to go further that there was the means for so doing. [Cheers. | There were public libraries and other means of self-education, and he thought the State had done its work when it had done what he said. Now, while he agreed with Mr Stevens and Mr Montgomery that education should be charged on the consolidated fund, then he came to the question, how was the fund to bear all these burdens? Again, he objected to the ratepayers being taxed to erect buildings for school purposes, and then hand them over to the Government to do what they liked with them. There was a case in point in the Normal School, for the erection of which the ratepayers had been taxed, and yet the building was open to the whims and fancies of the Provincial Council to do as they liked with it. One proposed that it should be used as a college, and another as a museum. It might be asked if they could not support denominational schools, but he said most decidedly no. It was the duty of the Government to see all children educated, and hence it should be free and compulsory. When the late Education Ordinance came into force, he had expressed his intention of opposing the creation of nominated Boards. He believed if the Board of Education had been an elective one that it would have been living now. [Cheers. [ He had divided the House on the question, but only Mr Maskell and himself went into the lobby on it. If elected his voice would always be raised against any nominated Board being substituted for elective. [Cheers ] Here he differed from Mr Stevens, in that he believed they could have elective Boards of Education, Superintendents, and heads of shires, [Mr Stevens—“l must request Mr Andrews if he refers to me to state my opinions correctly. I never opposed elected heads of shires.”] He begged Mr Stevens’ pardon. He meant with regard to elective Superintendents, and made a mistake when he referred to heads of shires. He (Mr Andrews) would like to see the members of the Waste Lands Board elective, as at present they carried out their views irrespective of the opinions of the people, [Cheers.] If this was done he believed that they in Canterbury would be better off than they were now. An attempt ha I been made with regard to the Domain, where some persons were allowed to occupy the ground for archery and croquet while the gates wore locked and the general public kept o it. [Cheers.] He had raised his voice ag iinst this, and the result had been that the obnoxious restric tions had been done away with. Then again, there was an attempt made to get the College put in the Domain, and he (Mr Andrews) thought they were greatly indebted to the indomitable perseverance of Mr Wynn Williams and others for the check put ou this. [Cheers.] Another point was as regarded the representation. He was in favor of manhood suffrage, not mobocracy. not the rushing in of a crowd of men to one given point,but a resident ial manhoodsuffrage. [Cheers] He was of opinion that every man who was amenable to the law should have a voice in the making of those laws. [Cheers | Therefore he thought that under proper restrictions every man should have a vote. [Cheers.] In respect to the registration of the, vote s also, he said that if they elected him, his best efforts would be directed towards effecting a much-needed reform in this direction. He saw in the Bill of the Government that the hours of polling were fixed from eight a.m. to four p.m. Now, how many men could get away from their work to record their votes. He said that the peo.ple should have every opportunity of recording their votes without having to apply lib their employers for leave to go to do so. [Hear, hear.] Why should not the time of voting be extended to six p.m, so that men when they left thei’ - work might go and record their votes ? There was no reason in the world why it should not be so. The official declaration of the poll need not be made until the next day. He would tell them that at the last election over one hundred votes were unable to be recorded for him simply because the hours of the polling were inconvenient, [Cheers ] They would recollect that on a former occasion, when addressing them on the Drainage Bill, he had referred to the objectionable clauses appearing therein, which he had been then assured by tbe Mayor had been removed. Now, in the Government Gazette for the province of Canterbury, just issued, he found the appointment of returning officers for the election of representatives at the Local Drainage Board, and there he found a clause, in which it stated that the name of each voter} and the way in which he voted should be recorded by the returning officer. [Cheers.] Now, where was the ballot ? This was a complete sweeping away of the system, and he only mentioned it to show that they, by hurried legislation, had swept away what they had fought for, viz, the ballot.

Elis Worship the Mayor said it was necessary that he should state what had taken place. The Bill had been considered by the conference, and when they came to the clauses referring to open voting, it was unanimously decided to instruct the solicitor, Mr Cowlishaw, who drafted the Bill, to

strike these clauses out. The conference, therefore, were very much surprised to see on the second reading of this Bill that these clauses had been retained. [Cheers.] It was necessary that he should state this, as without this being done it might be thought that he (the Mayor) had been guilty of a breach of’faith, [Cheers.] Mr Andrews was quite sure that his Worship was correct in what he had said, but he desired to point out that this was a most mischievous clause, and one which should never have passed. [Cheeers.] He would now possibly to save questions refer to several social questions which would be brought before the Asssmbly. There was one on whieh they had a right to have an expression of opinion from him—viz, the Female Protection Bill. In this there was an inroad upon the good management of households, when the Bill allowed girls of a certain age to be worked at all hours of the night, not continuously, but not exceeding eight hours. By that Bill social morality would be sacrificed, or rather, by the amendments introduced into it. If he was elected he would support a provision that no female should be worked for more than eight hours during the prescribed hours of labor. A Bill had also been introduced for the protection of friendly societies, and this was one of the the subjects which would receive his earnest attention. They were now passing from a state of provincialism to that of centralism, and they should see that the very best men were sent in to represent them. He had had a few questions sent into him, which he would read. They were from Mr W. Snedden. They were, first, whether he was in favor of triennial Parliaments 1 He said yes, as he thought that it would be a very good thing. The second question was whether he was in favor of the land laws of the colony being assimilated to those of Canterbury as to price and selection ? To this he answered most certainly, yes. The next question was, was he in favor of a national system of education, by means of which their colleges should be thrown open to all children who had passed a certain standard. He said he was most decidedly in favor of this being done. The last question was whether he was in favor of the establishment of schools of design in the various towns of the colony in connection with a national system of education, and to this he said most decidedly, yes. [Cheers J He had received an anonymous question, but he did not intend to take any notice of it. [Cheers,] He was now ready to answer any questions. A gentleman here got on the platform to ask a question, but after a short and excited discussion with his Worship he retired without having done so. In reply to questions,

Mr Andrews said that if a schoolmaster had a pet pupil and attempted to bestow too much attention on him, he was decidedly opposed to this. [Cheers,] He was in favor of affording every facility for pupils to attain the highest proficiency, so that parents need not send their children away to England and elsewhere. He wanted to see a New Zealand University, where New Zealanders should be taught to love their country and to grow up amongst them. [Cheers.] The pernicious effects of sending away children to be educated was most apparent in Tasmania, where these children had not returned. He was decidedly in favor of the Government subsidising the higher branches of education amongst us. He was in favor of a tax on absentees, as he felt that they must come to a property tax, whether they liked it or not. As regarded the tar ff, if they were to have all these claims on the consolidated fund they could not expect to see duties reduced. If they had the Road Boards receiving £2 for £l,and the municipalities £1 for £1 they would find that the consolidated fund would not bear it. [Cheers.] The Abolition Bill did not provide that the municipalities should receive any amount out of the land fund. The Road Boards recoived £1 from the land fund, and £1 from the consolidated revenue, while the municipalities were to receive their £1 from thi! consolidated revenue. He held the opinion at present that the consolidated fund could not bear the strain it was intended to put on it. If the Treasurer could so much the better, and he knew they would only be too glad. Decidedly, if elected, he would would endeavour to see that the municipalities were placed in the position of the Road Boards and to receive a certain amount from the Land Fund, which they were entitled to He was opposed to free-tra le in the matter of public-houses, as he thought that it would be a great public calami y. There were certain conditions to be c implied with, and when this was done, there was no reason why the applicant should nrt be granted a license. He was of opinion that the present electoral rolls were most imperfect and incomplete, and he should vote for the alteration of them. He would be in favor of any man whose name appeared on the rate roll voting, although his name did not appear on the electoral roll. If a man had a receipt for the payment of his rates, he should be allowed to vote, if his name did not appear on the rate roll, under cer tain co iditions. The system of voting which they had in the city had now been extende 1, so that the person voting did so cumulatively up to six votes under the Local Government Bill introduced by Sir Donald McLean. There was no provision that the tenant could vote when the landlord paid the rates. For the General Assembly of course it did not matter who paid the rates, the householders had a vote, but it was not so as regarded the election for Shire Councils. He was not in favor of the large number of votes given by this Bill, but in the matter of administration affecting property, he thought that it was only right that large property holders should have more votes, because it was for the improvement of property, and therefore those who paid the largest amount should have the greatest voice in spendingthe money. [Hear,hear.] He thought that the colony should not incur any further liabilities at present. The Abolition Bill provided that bankrupt provinces should be empowered to raise loans, but he was most decidedly opposed to this being done. Clause 17 provided that—“ If in any case it shall happen that the land revenue raised within any provincial district for any one year shall be insufficient to meet the charges imposed thereon by the last preceding section hereof, it shall be lawful for the Colonial Treasurer, in the manner provided by the Treasury Bills Regulation Act, 1868, to borrow and raise such a sum as shall be sufficient to make up the deficiency in the land revenue of such provincial district for any such year.” His opinion agreed with Mr Montgomery that this would give to bankrupt piovinces the power to be a burden to the colony, [Hear, hear.] As regarded the question whether he would be prepared to oppose any extension of the

liquor traffic, his conduct for the past thirteen years was before them, and he should act in the future as he had done in the past. The Local Government Bill had not passed into law, but still they must remember that they were looking forward somewhat. He could not see why the Load Boards should have £2 for £l, and the municipalities £1 for £1 only. He saw no fairness in it. As regarded Sir Julius Vogel’s visit to England, it was for the Government to defend their action as regarded their colleague, and not for him, and he said that, so far as he now saw, he could not support the extravagance of Sir Julius Vogel’s visits to England. [Cheers.] He was decidedly of opinion that the people of New Zealand were very heavily taxed, and he should be prepared, if elected, to support any measure that would be feasible for lightening the taxation on the people, As regarded his vote on the question of the increase in the child tax he had voted and raised his voice against it, but itjwas useless for one member to keep on wasting time when it was seen that the House was determined to have it. It had been said that it was useless to put a working man into the Council as no one would listen to him, but he desired to say that he had received very great attention and respect from the Council, and had so conducted himself as to deserve it. \ Cheers.] Mr Andrews then moved a vote of thanks to his Worship the Mayor, for the able and impartial manner in which he had occupied the chair that evening. The motion was carried by acclamation, and the meeting dispersed.