MR D. H. MACARTHUR AT PALMERSTON.

Manawatu Times, Volume X, Issue 1232, 1 July 1884, Page 2

MR D. H. MACARTHUR AT PALMERSTON.

The first election address to the electors of Manawatu was delivered m the Town Hall, Palmerston, last evening by Mr D. H. Macarthur. I The Hall was crowded at the appointed time. The chair was occupied by His Worship the Mayor. In introducing the candidate Mr' Snelson said the work of the coming Parliament would be of the most vital importance to* the electors, who should be represented by a practical man to help to govern this highlyfavored land. He considered Mr Macarthur was arepresentativu man, and be was personally known to the electors as a man of great ability. The Chairman alluded to a meeting of the Road Board held that afternoon at which Mr Maeart.hur's counsel had proved highly serviceable to the district m a manner he detailed. He was a man who would do good service and who would carry weight iv tbe HOIIS9. Mr Macarthur, who was received with applause, said he proposed first to deal with general questions occupying the minds of the electors, aiid:then with local matters. Of the lat.er, however,, he only proposed to refer toj vjz., the Gorge Railway and the Fitzherbert Main Road. Before proceeding to general politics he would say that the past condition of the electorate had not been a satisfactory one, though he did not wish to cast a stone at the late member. A local man, however, even if he had only one«tenth of the ability of Mr Johnston, would have served the district far better, and it would not have been necessary to agitate for the Gorge railway, or for a company to huve had to undertake the formation of the West Coast railway. The majority of the electors, he believed, recognised the fact, and the disadvantages under which the district had. labored m having an absentee member had been greatly deplored. Even since the electorate had been made smaller, the drawback had been felt. The cause of an absentee representing the district was the local feeling tha existed, but he hoped to prove the idea unfounded that a man from one part of the district could not re- . prepent the whole. He then detailed ; the action be had taken some mpnth.S ago when a rumor was current that _£r N JoVnsLQii was about to resign. He then eatne to two of the leading men of Palme, ston, Mr Linton and Mr Snelson, and asked eaoh of them to stand, promising his support if either did so, but they both declined, a:d pressed him to peek election, telling him they would ' give hjm tlieir entire and hearty support." He "had ftgfced-two ot the representative men of*'Palmepiton to stand before coming before them ! on the piesent occasion.- He did not mean to infer that these gentle- ; men should say who should be mem-' I oer.for the 4jsj>ript; but he had come ' to : them sinipiy because he thought ; they vfere two who wove better $tted; ito contest the se&t than any but?; sider ? ' Ije hoped the 1 ' present elec'- ; ; tion would p'lt an end tptbe system by which a ' W/ellington merchant or lawyer, by stimulating local jealousy made a POCSET BOROUGH OF THE MANAS WATTJ. He did not intend tg bring fort ward any new scheme for bringing the Colony out of difficulty. He did notlay claim to being an original thinker, but he believed that on gef neral questions his opinions/ would coincide'wjif'h tbose o| the majority of tie electors of Umwhi Q n ; the question of ! .' EDUCATION, he was m favor of secular and free; primary education up to the, fourth standard. As for secondary education that was quite another matter, life considered .the State vvas m much the 'satue position as the father of a family, that was' 1 it should m jirovid-, .ing- education, do so according to its njj.ans.' At present.the means of the ; State wereoyerstrained, and 'the vote; for Secondary" education Ulusfc be; dropped.' Pi s beneftts were" pria<?H pgj4y secured by the dweljerg m | ta'-ge fcowufy au<f he thought- higher education should - sfcaj}d PR. its own resonrcesr-that those who reaped the benefits should pay for them. As to the reserves for secondary education, it wos difficult to get information as to their real position. The pevenue derived from them was large ? and would be a great relief if it could be applied -to tlie jgurposes of primary education, but "he syasj not aware whether the State had made any pledge m regard to, them the breaking of which would entail sompensation, If no- pledge had been given the revenues should certainty be deypted to prim try education. ' Aether questipu was the injpositioiji of school fee's after a certain standard, and he was pre* pared to agree %q this if, after apply * ..ing. the' revenues from- reserresythe funds were not sufficieno to provide for primary , edu cation,, Another suggestion for limiting the co_t of education was that the school age should be raised from five to seven years, but he did not agree with thjs, because,- if . carried out, many ' country spbopls wo^ild have to be closed, on account of the'jWs amount of capitation that would be received whilejihougb children might not gain "much knowledge till seven years of age, the habits of discipline instilled into them m tbe interval t'roi# fiye to seven proved very useful m their after studfe^, " THE LAND QUESTION. On this subject ■' there ' were a number of new ideas 'current,' He alluded to Mr Henry George's " pro* gre'ss and Poverty," and Mr Wallace's proposal for" land natipnalisa* tion, which he said Tyere very pretty theories vyell worked out, but with fallacy at bottom. In the first place he believed it WSiS the instinct -of every man to become a freeholder, if possible, however small and humble the holding might be, and' it was a noble and useful instinct, for it was that had led men to colonise \ New Zealand. It had brought out settlers from the old country because they desired to acquire homes of* , their own, and any action of the legislature m the direction of stifling that instinct would be a grave mistake. He alluded to Mr Bolles* '

ton's scheme for perpetual leases to condemn it, pointing out that if it were adopted, a time would come when,in the natural course of events, the leaseholders would become a political power, and at some crisis they would demand their freeholds and get them. He would oppose sales for cash of good agricul« taral land at auction, as he thought this was only another means of getting men to pay higher prices for land than it was worth. He would prefer to have such land leased m moderatelyssized blocks, with a purchasing clause, the lessee to be bound to reside upon the land and to improve it, or if he did not reside npon it to improve it to a greater extent m proportion. It had been stated that the adoption of this plan would lead to the aggregation of large estates by capitalists purs chasing the leaseholds, but he did not -think so. On the contrary he considered that m this country where there was no entail, and where the law of primogeniture would shortly be done away with, the tendency was to' get the land into smaller blocks. Under a system such as he alluded to, men would know exactly what they had to do, j and -that they would not have to invest, all their capital m the land before they made it turn m profit, nor would they have to fall into the hands of the mort« gagee. The State should not endeavor to gain a large revenue out of land, but the terms for settlement should be' the easiest possible, and all revenue derived from land should be spent on roads and similar works. railways, He was m favor of the appointment of a nou^political Board of Management for the Railways, the members of which should be remov* able only m the same manner as judges of the Supreme Court, Certain fixed principles should be laid down also to prevent the undue raising of the tariff. He believed the management of the railways had been the cause of the fall of the Atkinson Ministry. Some time ago the Ministry reduced the tariff m Canterbury, but it was after the farmers had sold their grain, and the merchants were therefore the only ones who benefited by the reduc* tion. Political pressure, had been brought to bear on the Ministry and this year, though the farmers had disposed of their produce on the basis pf tfye existing tariff, the rates were raised again. This was a matter which did not greatly affect Manawatu, Out it was no doubt severely felt m Canterbury, There were some who advocated selling the railways, but he did not agree with ■ this proposal. If any company or syndicate bought them it might be ; taken for granted that they saw ther way to a dividend, either by giving a lower price than the lines ■ cost us, or by raising the rates. It J had been said that, m conseqnence of competition by water carriage tho rates could not be raised beyond a ; pertain limit. He was not prepared : ito coniest this statement, but m that 1 c&s'e ho company would buy unless i it could do 'sq- for a low-price."' : •"" 1 BORROWING. He would be m favor of bqrrowing for the conrpletiqn of main trunk lives, and the .one to Auckland was one of the most * necessary." He Would, however, iiko to see a more thorough exploration of the Oroua Valley route made. He was also m favor of the early completion of the Gorge Railway — that is, of the GORGE RAILWAY, JOINING AT PALMERSTON. ; He wag $pt m fayqr qf the con* < struction qf so -caUed ; ' trunk lines, m ; ths South Island, : i_t regard to one of : which be mentioned that the Goinmittee of a Company bad reported thatjthere was no prospect of it pay- I ing, and that the best thing to do was to bring pressure upon Govern* j inert t to make it undertake its | ' corfefcructio:., The fact w^s that the 'j ; South Islahd bad'ha'd a lai'^e slice of j : thd loan ' expenditure; l and' iiow ; i wished'to keep pace also with'expeiiiy i diture m the Nortti Island. ' \ 90ADS ' £Nn BRIDGES ' 'CONSTRUCTION j ! ' ' " W?' ' ' '\ This w%s $ t&itiw pf greaJG local { interest. Though, »pt quite a »ij- ] ui'B th.p scheme had not been quite a ! success, though a good slice 'pf the ; money had been secured for ebfs dis* trict. The cause of the partial failure was principally a want of funds. Before the Bill was passed, Major Atkinson had shown him a , dneft of it, when he said he ( Mr Macarthur)' thought the scheme was a good-one. bnt^ -£20(£OG_ J Was not , enough. Major Atkinson then 'said '■ that if it was not enough more would be got, to which he had replied that the scheme would prove satisfactory if enough money could be obtained. Last year however only #7Q,OQQ was available, and the lo^al bodies were put oft with one-fifth 'of the amount applied fpr. The applications m this district amounted to which were put down, to 45.0Q0, and only 4900... bad been received. He thought the prinoiple of the Act m making a distinction between main and niatrict roads was a wrong one, and that instead of Parliament deciding which were main roads the matter should be left to the local bodies whq W e £§ W tbe qes.t pqsition to kndw. It was 'also a mistake to make the grant depend upon the surplus land fund, the amount of which was necessarily fluctuating Last year the sum had proved utterly inadequate, and he thought it would be perfectly legitimate for Government, -.m order to carry out the Act, to raise a special loan. - NATIVB MATTERS. Ife was glad tp be able to say that t^e native question was now of far less importance than forrqerly, He thought the Atkinson Governmentdeserved credit for the firm policy pursued with the natives, and that if Mr Brype had been Native Minister long ago an immense amount of money would have been saved. The main question now was the method of dealing with native land. Tn the past *he natives had been at the mercy of land sharks and speculators, and it would have been better if Government had never given up the pre-emptive right it was now proposed to resume.

FEDERATION. If the colony could afford to join m the proposed Federal Council, there could be no question of its value. It had boon said that Feelers .ation was an attempt to curtail the powers of local legislation, but it appeared to him that> it would' extend them. It would certainly be better for intercolonial legislation to- take place on such questions as extradi* tion, criminal law, &c, as colonies could not make treaties. The mat* ter was simply a question of expense but- he would not be prepared to suport the proposal until ne saw the way moie clearly m this respect, INSULAR SEPARATION. j To this proposal he was quite op* posed, and believed the cry had been simply raised to bring pressure to bear upon Government. NATIONAL INSURANCE. This scheme he denounced as quixotic and impracticable, and thought it would never become law. He would not be prepared to sup*port the proposal, and if carried be thought it wculd be a calamity to the country. THE CIVIL SERVICE. He thought it possible that very considerable reduction could be made m the expenditure under this head, and would be prepared to support a scheme with that objact m view. THE PARTY HE WOULD SUPPORT. If he had been standing for the House just dissolved he would have been a supporter of the Ministry, but recently a new aud powerful factor had entered New Zealand politics m the person of Sir Julius Yogel, His believed that no great difference existed between Sir Julius aud Major, Atkinson on political questions, and that- theie would be a coalition between them m the new Parliament, He would be prepared to support this. He would not support either Sir Gaorge Grey or Mr Montgomery, because the, former was not practical, and he had a yery low opinion of the ability of the lat ter. He thought, however, it was a mistake to think that any Ministry could care the depression. If the prices of wool and grain went up the depression would vanish, no matter what Ministry was m power. Government had perhaps not done euough m the way of stimulating new industries. He was not an advocate of protection but he thought some stimulus might be effectively applied otherwise. THE GORGE RAILWAY. Ife wished to give forth no unoertain sound m regard to this matter. He would support the construction of the Gorge Railway from Palmerstoh to Woodville. He was free to confess that -he once held that the. junction "should be at, Bunnythorpe, but since then the West Coast Railway Company had beon formed and the lines should now .°i n n Palmerston. He jthen ' alluded to the interview he and Mr Linton had with the Minister' of Public; Works oh this subject, going over much the same* ground as on previous occasions. He Said that, if elected, he would do : his utmost to haye the construction proceeded with- without delay, aud would make the matter a yery strong question m giving his support ts any Ministry, „ THE OROTTA VALLEY ROUTE. The question of the railway route was one which aff voted the i ate rests of Palmerston to a certain extent, bus those of Feilding more. He would allude to the matter more fully at Feilding. He would press for a more thorough exploration. He wanted nothing unfair, but simply that thoroughly reliable reports should bp obtained. THE FITZHERBERT MAIN RQAD.A deal ofy capital .had laeen made pf the' statement that he. had done his best to stop this road. Where it ran through the Manchester Road district, however, it went through only one ratepayer's property, and it could not be constructed Without his consent. The Manchester Road i^oard'ha'd' not ,eufficiei}t funds to .obstruct ft, aud -he:on]jr" o'tjier way was to raise the money under the lioads and .Bridges Construction Act.' In defining the district to be raWd, ho^eye^, Cotter's property would liaye/ fcq he taken m, and as fye 'rpai'' would entail similes of fenciug upon hiriq, and he believed it would be. np' benefit to him, he would naturally' vot j against ij;^ and. the, proposal would 5Qt b^e carried. Mr. Macarthui* alkM te this mztiw 9* considerable iength, saying that u« the Fitzherbert representatives desired to h,ave the road, why did they , not gpend the £§00 which had been ; alloted to" Fitzherbert riding upon it, instead of expending it ' somewhere else, possibly iiear their own doors. He explained that at the timejthe motion was brought on m the Coira* cil for declaring the road a County rqad, suspension wag all but effected, and a hitch iqight have occurred had they gone to the Governor- with a suspension petition iv one hand and a petition for a County road m the other. The Council was elected pledged to carry out suspension, and he was determined nothing should occur to prevent it. Alluding to his position as Chairman of the Manchester Road Boad Board, he said he intended to resign that, if elected, as soon as. its finances were dear, as he. thought it would be incompatible with his pqsifcion as a representative of the whole district. •-' I ' ': HIS PERSONAL POSITION. Speaking of the V cry of Feilding versus Palmerston, he said if he were base enough to accept a trust with the intention of betraying it, they had however strong material guarantees against his doing 50... If fie did 'not serve the, interests of the whole district as its representative, they could, wben he sought re-elec* tion, snuff out his political life at once, He had an ambition, which he thought was a laudable one, of serving the - distriot m the House. He had represented a good many sections 01 the district m the past and had never been afraid to- go back for re-election. He thought his past,carj3er would be a guarantee that he would serve' them faithtully with a larger .rust. A lower but still more material guarantee was that he now held A LARGE S_AKE~ttT PALMERSTON. He did not allude to thi» obtru-

S ively, but to show that he was ttiorb^ , likely to watch over and lnrther ; their interest than a Wellington merchant or lawyor, who worked ou focal feelings and managed oa previous occasions to slip into the J House. The electors would have J to place confidence m some one, andfl it would undoubtedly be better tefl place it m one who had a stake-in^ the place, and whom they could rea . legate to obscurity if they desired ! A number of question* were put to the candidate to which he replied stating he had never offered the slightest objection to the construe tion of the Fitzherbert Road, that as the County Council/ was only created to be suspended the management of local affairs had been hauded over to the councillors for the various ridings ..nd he could not be held responsible for their short comings. He would not. be m favor J iof giving State aid to Catholic schools. He had uo wish to coa j quette with the Catholic vote, but if j his election depended upon the proposal he would not support il They had had a Catholic mem* ber for ten years; and what had he done for them? He would not support it because it would be letting m the thin end of the wedge for denominationalism. He denied that he had ever. agreed to support the pro* posal to place the District Court ia Palmerston, and then worked, to have it m Feilding. He had no interest m Palmerston at the time, and had worked hard for the inter* ests of. Feilding. He was mno way responsible to the Palmerston people then, but the circumstances were now changed. He would utterly decline to be responsible • for anything Mr Halcombe had said' or done. In regard to his position with the Corporation, if he was Jiot entirely free to deal with public matters he would not have sought election. , He did not think Sir Julius Yogel and Major Atkinson would be found m opposition, but if the late ministry did meet the new Parliament on a question of want of confidence and if. the Yogel party were m direct opposition, he would vote for the Atkinson Ministry. ' He did not see that it was inconsistent for him to seek election and at the same time retain his position with the Corporation j any more than a private owner should sell all his land before going into Parliament, He would go into the House ' quite . free from any trammels, and would not be called to account for anything antagonistic to. the interests of the ] Corporation,- If such a tH_ng~a r _d occur he would resign one or other of the .positions. He would not be m favor of taxing unimproved _afldi_; He would uphold -the property taxi though he did not like it. In regard tp charitable aid he knew of no bet-1 ter scheme than .subsidising ; local bodies. He would not be working against the interests of the Corpora ation by endeavoring to settle the waste lands of the. Crown, as any benefit to New Zealand wijuld re»_ss on the Corporation. _le would __cf_ be m favour otfabolishhig the honor* arium, though it should be reduced! when'the colony cpuld not Afford/ it, He cpuld npt jddfend: the action of the late IJonse on this matter, but upheld tbe hpnprar-ium hecause it ehabJedinen with ability but ne means to enter the House. He would vote for the abolition of honorarium to Legislative Councillors'! He thought the French ought to take precautions to prevent their convicts irom stray* ing, He thought the principle of local option was good, but it was an expensive way of getting at the opinion of the people. He would not support a Bill for the establishment of distilleries. Would use his utmost; endeavors to have the road* toyi___srt gataiuoko; construe edy and' w^ld] give an. annual-, account of .his stowi ardship. Mr Linton at some length alluded • to Vlr Macarthur's claims for elec-! . tion, and proposed a vote of confi** ''ende m him as a representative which was seconded 1, -v Mr I).Buielsy • - Mr J. ,R. "Pprster Pratt proposed as an •'• atie'ndnienr, 5 : that-, 'Mr: Mabarl tbur is not a fit and proper pereott to repr^ent- this electoral district; which Was seconded by Mr Pergju; SO E: --.■.,. Amidst some coqfus^ori the Ghairmail declared the resolution, carried, by 44 to "27-, and the ■ meeting conn eluded m the usual manner^ '$' \\ P «l: '.'.'.'-''