I dare them afterwards to attack my remarks, for I feel that, owing to my inexperience, those remarks will be open to be assailed. But, Sir, with the experience I have had and the knowledge I have gleaned while serving in the position of a representative on local bodies, I shall try to convince some of those members who are on the Opposition benches that by adopting their present course they are not doing that which is right and good, and which will be beneficial to the colony at large.”
The next sentence was a justification of his action in taking to himself the right to advise members who, in his opinion, were being led in the wrong direction. Was he not a representative of a class of men who were the first in the colony to receive the right of manhood suffrage? Should not that responsibility alone give weight to what he had to say? Manhood suffrage, he explained with some pride, had been granted to the miners of the colony by the Miners’ Representation Act of 1865, and he, being purely a miners’ representative, represented that great privilege. He was responsible to a manhood suffrage constituency, responsible to 3,500 souls, and what was said by him and by the three other mining members from Hokitika and Greymouth should weigh well with members whose Parliamentary experience might be greater, but whose responsibilities were necessarily smaller.
Having made clear his right to be heard, he at once passed on to the no-confidence motion, supporting the Government and loudly and energetically stating its case:
“What is the position of affairs? When the motion was brought forward last session condemning the Government for maladministration, it was alleged that it had mismanaged the affairs of the country. What has been the response? How is it that you see so many members sitting on these benches? Simply because the voice of the people is with the Ministry. It is said that the only questions submitted to the country were those of manhood suffrage, triennial Parliaments, redistribution of seats, and other measures introduced by the Government; but I say more than that was submitted to the people. It was a question whether those principles having been enunciated by the Government, they were fit and proper persons to be entrusted with carrying them out. What has been the verdict in the large centres of population? In Christchurch we find Sir George Grey and Mr. Andrews, his supporter, returned. At Greymouth, also, the members were returned as pronounced Greyites. At Hokitika we find the same result. We go to Auckland, another large centre of population, and we find that the people there have also elected Greyites. The only centre that has declared against the Government is Dunedin; and the people there have declared against more than that.
