ELECTION ADDRESSES

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 35, 1 September 1887, Page 2

ELECTION ADDRESSES

Mr McDonald At Gisborne, TREMENDOUS MEETING. ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION—VOTE OF CONFIDENCE, A OoMTLBTSIiIt packed hall greeted Mr Allan McDonald on Tuesday night, on coming forward to make his opening address to the electors ot Gisborne. The chair was taken by Mr DeLiutour, who eaid he believed his task was going W be an easy one, because they had such a fine meeting, and in such a case it was always more necessary to be orderly, recognising that the mere extended the democracy the more room there was for reason and argument. (Hebr; heir.) The reason he Had taken the chair when asked was that Mr McDonald was one who had fought by his side for many years-(Applause) —and, without being impudent, he was always glad, in Gisborne at any rate, to be able to speak an impartial Wijfd as to the utility of the candidate’s services in the past. Now, in this election, He thought we were ;ingularly fortunate; because We Had two of our best-known and most worthy citizens offering their services, and some of us were in a dilemma as to which Way WC should Vote. The mere fact that we had men of Sterling worth coming forward, should ba a matter for hearty congratulation, and,, he was sure,was sufficient to render nugatory all those personalities which the warm friends of either side were apt to indulge in. We knew that both the candidates, from their long residence in the district were honest and sterling men, (Applause.) Well bfl the 29th of the month we would have to give our decision, and all at .present to be done was to- hear Mr McDonald. His (the Chairman’s) reference to the candidate would not make him in any degree partial, and everybody should be given fair play—(applause)—first the speaker, afterwards the questioners, and then Anybody who had a motion or anything to say to a motion. That was the programme, and orderliness shotild prevail. Without further preface he would ask Mr McDonald to address them. (Applause.) THE CANDIDATE.

Mr McDonald was enthusiastically received, and said: — Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen’—Last time I had the honor to address you was on account of having to leave this place for England, and I want to say a few words to you in preface, but only a few. Ido not believe in bringing up old matters in any shape or form. This is the preliminary to an election, and I give the electors credit for more sense than to require me to bring up that I have done that and have done this. I say let the past be buried: Let’s be fair and judged by our merits. THE HERALD, when I went away from here Tories of “Dead-eyel” and laughter.] Ido not want quarter and I will give none. I want to be fair and honest: my judgment may be wrong, but my intentions are honest-. My interest is your interest—my home is on ths East Coast, and I say it is my intention to make it my place ol residence. But referring to the past, when 1 came back from the Old Country the first thing I did on account of the cowardly attacks made on myself personally was to put the matter entirely in the hands of my legal advisers. What was the result ? A cringing retraction and apology I (Continued applause.) They asked me to let the past be buried and the future only to ba looked to. I have done so, and now what have you seen in that most wretched of rags, the Poverty B.ay Herald ? (Laughter and loud applause.) What have I seen ? The other night they said that I had left my resignation in the hands 0! a hall madman I That man was my lawyer, one of the cleverest lawyers in New Zealand, Alf. Whitaker. Dare they say that to his face ? No 1 (Laughter and renewed applause.) They would do the same as when they slandered the Irishmen. What was the result tn that case 1 They have got it pretty hot in the first few words, and glancing at the reporters’ table] they will get it all the same now. When they met one of Ireland’s subjects who went for them they could neither run off or fight, but drew a knife | (Derisive laughter.) I am hero to-night a tested man, I have been six years in that House—and if ever! have done a wrong thing to any man on the East Coast, it has been done unintentionally, and I challenge any man to come forward and say otherwise. (Applause,) Whoever you return to tho House —no matter whether ft is Graham, Gannon, or myself—l say return a man that will not be afraid to speak his mind. (Applause.) If you relurn me I shall do my level best for the East Coast and the Colony as a whole. Whoever you may return I have to thank you kindly for the way you have treated me in tho past. TBUE TO HIS COLORS.

The first great cry against me was that I was a Grey its. There were three others put against me opposing me because I was a Greyite, But what do they say now ? That I have deserted Grey I I never deserted Grey or hie principles—l am still true to the same color. What did the other candidates do ? One turned round to split the votes on Bees, I do not care what you may think of Rees, but I say it is not fair for one man to turn on him so as to split the votes and let in another. That man turned out to ba a Greyite—what did he do afterwards? When he knew that Locke was sure to ba returned, he went away to the Bay of Islands with the Grey coat on him, but he soon found that he had no more show there than the man in the moon. (Laughter.) As a result he is down here splitting votes with me, trying to get Graham in. [Voices: “No, no,” —“Yes, yes,” and noise, during which the candidate singled out a person in the front seat with “ Here’s his lieutenant.” (Laughter.)] Now, having settled this matter I would ask one word of you—Have you ever seen one of these men come out and fight me fairly, one against the other?: They dare not do it—they go to split votes. They think you are not aware of it, but I think the electors can see through such rubbish. (Laughter.) Every man here studies politics, perhaps quite as much or more than I do, —they have an equal right to do so. Who gave them that right ? I say it was Grey, and, as my friend the Chairman has said, we stood shoulder to shoulder and helped to carry the measure. When the Bill was before the House, the two other candidates got up a meeting at Makaraka to pass a vote of eensure on me for supporting Grey. I say it was Grey who gave you the right to vote. THE LAND COMPANY. Now, if you remember, the next cry they got up against me was that I belonged to the East Coast Land Company. I still belong to that Company, and I am sorry to say it is to my own loss—but not yours. Whether the shareholders have made any benefit by it or not, I say the district has. Without it what would North Gisborne be ?—what would the Kaiti be ? Barker would have been running sheep on North Gisborne now and I would have been running sheep on the Kaiti. Whether we have been benefited or not you have got it now, and you know what it is. (Applause.) HARBOB BOARD NOMINATION.

Then as to the personal imputations regarding the seat on the Harbor Board. My opponents say that I was the means of keeping Graham off the Board—implying that I had the power of the Governor in Council. I only wish I had, but I have not got the influence. I did not do it, and Ido not know who did it. My opinion is that the Herald did it, through the representative of the district down in Wellington—that they buried Graham for the sake of an election; ering cry against me. What is the cry now ? After burying Locke, Graham and his friends come out and say that the latter is the min, and want to run him for the House,

LAND MATTERS. The other evening t ventured to reply to the party cry that I belonged, td the present Governnlerit. I shotiid like td asli if you remember a public meeting held here when the Native Lands Bill was before the country, and Charles Ferris and others sided with Mr Ballance when he was here. I say we must have freetrade in Native lands, and have the people settled on the land. Unlees we get this we are completely hurled on the East Coast, and if you return me I shall do everything in my power to have this course adopted. One of the other candidates said tho other evening that Ballance was the worst Native Land Minister he had ever seen, He may be, although I do not say I agree with these views. Parliament gave him a hundred thousand pounds to settle people on the land, but where are the people settled bn the East Coast tinder, this Bill ? There is not a single one. But yet one of Ballance’s friends and who is running one of my opponents now—did they ever ask for settlement here under the Act ? Not they. If I saw £109,000 thrown on the floor of the House, I would say let me have a scramble for that. I would have a settlement between here and Opotiki and along the East Coast way. As tar as the people settled to the North of Auckland—all through Ballance—are concerned, I believe to a certain extent the movement is in the right direction—that the land belongs to the people, (Mr Sandlant, hear, heat.) Why should Ibe allowed to occupy forty or fifty thousand acres ar.d see.ao many people starving around w!—what right would I have to do it ? NOT AFRAID TO ASK. I heard one of the other candidates say in his address that the day had cone by for sending “ sturdy beggars ” to Wellington. If you sUnt nib down I tkouid be.a beggat, and if I could not get a fair share for ffiy district it will not be for the want of asking for it, you can depend on it; I will do my best at that kind of work. (Applause.)

OUB WASTE LANDS. A body which we are greatly in need of is a local Waste Lands Board. Of sixty-six million acres of land in the colony the whites own only sixteen millions five hundred, while every native man, woman; and child has 412 acres each, the Europeans who are running the country,—l may sav completing railways, spending money on the land, and making roads and everything have only twenty acres for every white man, woman and child. Why should we not have free trade in native lands?—why should they not be put on the same looting as Europeans? Let them have ample reserves to live 6:1. Dei ue have a resident Judge; free trade.iu.natlve lands; and indivldualisatidd of the title, and no more U do with lawyers. [Laughter and applause; and reference to the Chairman.] I am not going to spare my friend on the right. There is another matter. There are five mil.lioi) acres of reserves in the Hands of different schools and churches. I dare say that you are well aware that Auckland has the control of an area of reserved land at Patutahi with which nothing is being done. I should like to see all these reserves put on the same footing as wastelands, giving Waste Lands Boards elected by the people power to settle then! and inveit money in Government debentures. There is the case of Parnell, at Auckland, which is nearly made up of reserves, and the place consequently has never gone ahead, while progress has been made in a different direction. The churches and schools do not get anything out of the reserves, and if they were invested they would get flvq per cent, from Government debentures, and the sooner it was done the better. Ido not believe in the Government buying native land. [The speaker then quoted figures to show the enormous expenses entailed in Government land purchase.] As you are al! aware, the natives must have money first, and you must trust to Providence to get your title afterwards. (Hear, hear.) Ido not believe in the deferred payment system, as past experience has been altogether against it. Free trade in native lands is what is wanted for the East Coast. WHat is the use of growing cabbage trees, fiax.jjand fern on the land ? It is not for the seven or ten men down in Wellington who rule to say that the land is not to be opened up—the land belongs to the people and not to tho Government. (XppaußO,) EDUCATION. I will now come to a question which is agitating many minds—the question of education—but my opinion I will stick to. I dd not care whether it influences votes or not. It was only the other evening I heard one candidate making the boast that he wits the father of six children. (Laughter.) [Voice . And they are all at home.) He is quite right* —they are all at home, and we were told he only started tha show— [Voice: When are you going to start I] He'is no great exception, and this being Jubilee year—(laughter.) But I say he has no right to try and influence you for your votes so that he may thrust these children on you snd me and ask us to educate them for him, No man who can afford to educate hie own children has ft right to ask me or any body else to do it. (Hear, hear.) If a man cannot afford to educate his children, then I say let tha State do it for him. No man feels the want of education more than I do, apd none can have a greater desire than I have to see it flourish. I was never six months under the roof of a school-house myself, (Prolonged applause.) I say distinctly that I know men worth two or three hundred thousand sending their children to be educated by the State. It is not right that a man worth only £5OO should be taxed as highly for tha education of his children as the man with thousands, and perhaps more children too, (Applause,) THE RAILWAYS. With regard to the question of railways, I believe that they should be sold, or else that they should bo managed by a Board of Directors instead of by the Government. Any member who may be able to bring the influence of a few votes to bear on the Government, can make them do what he wishes done in any particular district. Here, without participating in the benefits, we are taxed to support the railways in Napier, Auckland, and elsewhere. My own opinion is that if the railways were sold they would bring in an enormous sum, and the lines would be equally as well, if not better, managed in the hands of business people. Some benefit would then be derived from the railways. Take England, America, or anywhere else—the railways are always worked by Companies. (Applause.)

CONCLUSION —SLANDERERS DEFIED. I am not going to detain you, ladies and gentlemen, because I have had enough of it. (Laughter.) Yes, I may tell you straight, I have had enough of it. (Continued laughter.) But if any man in this hali who has voted for me in the past considers he has now reason to regret it, I challenge him here tonight to let me have it out with him. The only vote I ever regret having given was my vote for the property tax instead ot for a land and income tax. My vote would not have altered the result, but I recorded my vote for the tax, and I now feel it was wrong. Sir G. Grey did his level best to prevent my voting as I did, and I could not see the force of his arguments at the time. But I acknowledge that I was wrong—l am not afraid 10 own it when I know am in the wrong. (Hear, hear.) Another big cry which my opponents have raised against me since I came back is that I am associated with bankrupts, and all that sort of thing. (Laughter.) I say that no matter what money I may have trusted a man with, and no matter who the man may be, if that man comes to grief—if that man is in the gutter—l say God Almighty himself would not get me to roll him in the gutter ! (Applause.) If those who have trusted any of these bankrupts want to roil them in the gutter, let them do the dirty work themselves—why should they come and ask me to doit? They never consulted mi when they lent one bankrupt money or gave him credit, and yet they come to me when they want to roll him in the gutter. That is not my game—(hear, hear) —and I never saw a poor man in need of a feed come to my house that I would not give him a breakfast or dinner as the case might be, and I always will be, I hope, in a position to do the same. (Applause.)

I do not know of anything else upon which I need now speak. If there is any other question upon which you wish me to express my views, I sincerely hope you will not be backward in mentioning it. I am bound to answer you—l am as game as can be. There is not an inch of flesh in my body that is not game. In conclusion I must thank you for the cordial manner in which I have been received. (Liud and continued applause.)

QUESTIONS AND REPLIES. The Chairman invited questioner! io 00014 forward—tho candidate only wanted drawing .... Mr Sievwright—(applause)— aekod if Mr McDonald would oppose raising the eohool age from five to eeven yeare, Mr McDonald said he would, and he would like to see men who could afford to • educate their own children be compelled to do sol and not aak the poor man to do it: Would he support any eobeme which would utilise the educational endowments, so m to make higher education available to any child whose parents could flot afford it ? Mr McDo raid said he had already referred to the o- rdaerYes, He would per; tainly like to see the waste lands Utilised W aa to give every poor man’s family a chance to receive an educStfofi; Would he pledge himself to use every effort to maintain the authorisation ot expenditure in connection with the special settlement snd village schemes, so ss to extend theit operations ? > , . The candidate was glad thei question had been put, it ha had forgotten to refer to it previously. People might say what theV liked about Mr Ballance as Native Minister, but he had put four thousand psople on the land, and, Mr McDonald continued, “nd party eould drag me across that House ft 1 were returned to tutu BallgnSd oiit dud put Bryoc in—a man who associated with Te Kooti,—a man who—well, I believe he did not rub noses with him bemuse Te Kootf objected, but he slept, With,him. (Laughtu and applause.) I would support Mr BallanM apart from his native polioy." In reply to further questions by Mr Kiev, wright, the candidate said there were three million acres of tho finest land in the colony on the East Coast, and yet if a man wanted to buy a piece of UroWn land ho would hard to go to Auckland for it—whoever was ret turned riiouldjngjet dn theie being a Wastd Lands Board here. . , Any man who wanted a piece of land, for which there were no other applicants, should have it even if he only gave a shilling an acre for it— anything to have the land settled. If he had dnjr influence with the GovoriJi ment he would insist upon the Agent-General in London making every effort to get Mtlet! on the land. , .<. , He had always supported free-trade in native lands.

Mr Sandlant — (hisses and applause) — asked it Mr McDonald would be in favor of a State bank, to which the latter replied he oer> tainly would—the question was one which should be Well thodgut ovbr by eve.ydd4; He was in favor df having ndtivejldud titles placed on the same footing da Euro; pean lauds—a local Lands Board would give the people control over the laud; and prevent land-sharking. He would, not care to support native titles' under the perpetual leasehold system. TBs' Maoris held too much land as it was. Mr Sandlant, retiring: Suppose the railways are gone, and the lauds are gone, what remains for the people ?—Beggary, and pauperism I—that’s what it means 1 (Laughter hisses, and applause.) Loud and persistent calls were now madb for the eminent 8.E., who eventually responded, with the most benignant of smiles. He asked if Mr McDonald was in favor of the present Government. The candidate said the Government might be in a minority when the House met. and therefore would be no Government. He boUld not on any account support Ballance’S native land polioy. He was the first to go against Ballance, and the Herald abused him for it. Now, two years afterwards, they change their tone. No Bryoe, though, for him—he must have a man without blood on his hands. Mr McDonald, in reply to another question, said the local bodies were already under the control of Government, The 8.E.: You tried to skip the hMrbOf question. I want to know who passed tile BtU to authorise a harbor being put here ? Mr McDonald : I was the man who started it. I fought very hard for it, and then LocEe took the matter up when he was returned in my place. But he did not know how to go to work, and then he handed it over in sir <xTsjT,' vot nxwn wtiulu lie nad opposed in every shape and foftn. He had to get tha Bill passed to give you power to build the harbor. Then he gets abused for it> This is the way with these paper men, who are onl* flt to stand on their rag. Only for these people you would now have had the freehold for the Tauwbareparae block. The 8.E.; Who got the plan of tho harbor works first?

Mr McDonald; We I believe a mao ’ named Thomson. I b.aeve he brought all his [“ Energy V], - No, I don’t say that, I believe he brought all the sleepers, plant, ; horses, and everything else from Napier, and the labor from Taranaki, while there are men. women, and children starving here. (Hear, hear, and applause.) The B.E. thou went on with the old trouble of having had his plans taken, and then mt; ting referred for redress from one body to till other. Mr McDonald said he would enquire into the matter when he went down to the House, (Applause and laughter.) Mr Tharratt asked : Would you be in fetor of reducing the number of members of both Houses ?

Mr McDonald; Yes, I have voted for thlt before, and I will do it again. I should likg to »ee the Upper House elected by the people, Mr Tharratt i Are you in favor of reducing the honorarium ?

Mr McDonald ; I have voted to have it duced to a hundred pounds, as you can ael by Hansard.

In repiy to Mr Burch, as to whether th| candidate would be in favor of suppressing the street proceedings of ths Salvation Army, he said ho did not believe in interfering with religious bodies—let them worship as turn think right, #

Mr Joyoe; Ars you in favor of discontinuing State pensions? “ Mr McDonald did not believe in taking from anyone what had been allowed by the law, but otherwise pensions should bo diaeon, tinued. VOTE OF CONFIDENCE, After Mr Sandlant had been refused permission to address the meeting, and calls for " Dead-eye ” had met with no response, Mr Sievwright said he had much pleasure in proposing that this meeting should pass a vote of confidence in Mr McDonald. (Loud and continued applause.) Mr McDonald had answered his questions satisfactorily, and seemed to be sound on what the speaker considered to be the main questions for the country—the settlement of the land, education, and the native land question. Mr McDonald had the run of the ropes in the House, and although he was perhaps not the choicest man that could be got in the district, he was the candidate who most agreed with the speaker’s [views. If not a very polished speaker, he at least had what was essentialbrains. (Applause.) Mr Sandlant seconded, and the motion was carried amidst applause. Mr McDonald said he had asked Mr DeLautour to stand for the seat, and he would have gone North ot Auckland, but that gentloman had refused.

Three cheers were given for Mr McDonald, and the meeting broke up.