MR EDEN GEORGE AT THE ODDFELLOWS' HALL.

Mr Eden George, a candidate, for the re- > presentation of Christchurch South, ad- | dressed a large meeting in the Oddfellows* [ Hall, Lichfield street, last evening. The , body of the hull was filled, and a number [ of ladies occupied scats in the gallcrv. : V? r }i m Crooks was voted t o t lie chair. Mr Geokoe began his speech by giving i ins reasons for not speaking at Lincoln i road, and went on to speak' of the pro- [ nuses of support he had received. Ho . knew of several names having been added L to the roll for Christehurch *-uuth which > should never have been p;it there, anil ; if one of his opponents won the elec- . tion by two or three votes he would . go to any expense to appeal .'gainst certain , votes being registered. (Applause.) He . referred to the challenge he hail issued to I the other candidates to prove any of the • rumors circulated about him. lie then [ went on at length to criticise the speeches , of Ins opponents. He made some remarks . upon Mr Thomson's being supported by an Association representing freetraders, and criticised his views on laud settlement and the railways. Mr A vers claimed to be the first in the Hold, "but he (Mr George) considered he had taken that claim away when he had addressed the electors tirst. His opponents had not dealt exhaustively with any subject, and had even been afraid to" speak on denominational education. (Applause.) He had failed to discover in Mr Avers' first, speech what that candidate's * political ' opinions were, and he had not been much further enlightened on hearing the speech of the previous evening. Mr Aycrahnd not said how retrenchment could be earned out, and he challenged Mr Ayers to show he had as much experience as he (Mr George) had. An elector hail told him he would vote for Mr Avers in preference to either Mr Perceval or himself, as Mr Ayers was the most substantial man in size. Ho had replied that if all the electors were of the same mtnd, there was no need for the ballot, but a pair of scales would do instead. (Laughter aud prolonged cheering.) Mr Ayers had been asked at his meeting the previous evening what was the National debt of New Zealand, and he replied he was unable to say at that moment. (Applause.) He referred to ft certain squib he had found in Mr Ayers' auction room and said a candidate's sanction must have been obtained before squibs were published. Mr Avers had ! said he would fight his opponents with their own weapons, but he (Mr George), would have nothing to do with weapons that were unfair. (Applause.) He twitted Mr Ayers with having a defective memory, and then went on to speak of Mr Perceval, who, he said, had not expressed ono decided opinion, and his object would bo to show that Mr Perceval was Inconsistent and that his views were not in accord with those of the Government. Mr Perceval had said he was in favor of equalisation of wealth, and yet he would discharge a few clerks from the Civil Service and pay those who remained bettor salaries. (Applause.) "When asked the. question, Mr Perceval said he would be In favor of putting tho men in Addington Workshops on half-pay instead of discharging some of them, was this, he asked, consistent with Mr Perceval's remarks in regard to the Civil servants? (Applause.) Mr Perceval saldhe was not in favor of nationalisation of the land, and yet he believed In village settlements, the land for which rnnst first be reserved by the Government, -and that was simply cuts* —fctx«v<rc;n.»M-- riucmJTuu when he said there was no possibility of a proposal for a grant being made. Ac ono meeting he said he was not in favor of a grant being made to Catholics, and at the next he said it wonld depend on the nature of the proposal as to whether he should support It or not. What wore they to think from these two answers? (Applause.) The property tax was supported by the Government, and yet Mr Perceval was not in favor of it. Mr Perceval was also inconsistent on the Eight Hours Bill, saying at ono time men were well able to look after themselves, and at another that he would support the B-11. Mr George then referred to tne number oflnwyers that were putting up as candidates around Christchurch, and went on to assert that the complexity of the laws of New Zealand was due to the number of lawyers sitting aa members in the House: Tito speaker next dealt with retrenchment, and advocated doing away with tbe San Francisco mail service, and reduction of fares on the railways, and encouragement to local industries. After speaking for an hour and forty minutes he sat down amid applause. He answered a number of questions satisfactorily, after which Mr Jewell moved, and Mr Drapper seconded, a vote of thanks and confidence in Mr George. There was no amendment, and tho motion was can-led by a largo majority with applause. An attempt was made to raise three cheers for Mr Perceval, but the leaders were groaned down. The usual compliment to the Chairman terminated an orderly meeting. SIR JOHN HALL AT BROOKSIDE. Sir John Hall addressed the Selwyn electors in the Brookside schoolroom on Thursday night. There was a very large attendance, Including a number of ladies. Mr John Boag occupied the chair, and briefly introduced the speaker. Sir John Hall, who was received with applause, stated that he must apologise to the people in this part of the electorate for not addressing them earlier in the , campaign, but it was not always advisable to address constituents too early in the season, as they were naturally Inclined to forget a candidate's ideas before the polling day, particularly so in this case when one's actions and ideas are so wrongly misrepresented. He would briefly give them his ideas on the principal topics of the day, and go more fully Into some questions than he had already done at previouM meetings. Th> principal thing before the people now was THE GOVERNMENT OF THB COUNTRY. The Government had brought down certain proposals with which the Parlia- . ment was dissatisfied, and this appeal to the country was the result. It wan now for them, as electors, to say whether they were satisfied with these proposals or not. He came before them as an Opposition candidate. His opponent was a Government supporter. (A Voice— "Not quite.") Well, he must apologise If he had mode a mistake, but be understood that this was so. He was going to speak, About tho financial proposals of the present Government, a« Sir Robert Stout hdd been brought into the electoral <; by several electors who were unfavorable, to his (Sir John Hall's) views. lie wo ild preface his remarks by stating th*. Sir Robert Stout was a personal friunn of his, and a gentleman whom he had the greatest respect for, but he could not agree with his proposals. : Tb.e Premier had tried to show when : addressing them at Leeston that the pres sent Government was a more economical > one than his Government was. Sir John ; Hall then recounted at length how the ; present Government had proposed to j effect a large saving, but, instead of this, : had increased our indebtedness.. Sir j Robert Stout had given them figures to . show that the present Government had a I smaller revenue than his (Sir John Hall's* ) Government had, but he very carefully S omitted all mention of the amount that - theyhad ceased payingoff the sinking fund. , The Stout-Vogel Government had ceased! c paying off tbe national debt by £250,000 a--1 year. Sir Bobert Stout had not shaken 1 his assertion that the present Government s was a most extravagant one, and that they z were not so economical as the Hall Goi vernment wasmus!. be apparent to every k one. (Lond applause.) The speaker went 1 on to show that the waving?, professed to '- be made by the Governincat-were very 1 trifling, and put him 'in." in hid of* biers' chant who had gone bankrupt for .£IO,OOO, c and then Informed his creditors that he would economise by leaving off taking b snuff. The savings principally consisted » of money that was "ot required for pur- > J poses of other years. T.ie Colonial Treasurer

his speeches at Ashbortooand P*P« mi: ' confecsedto having got the «_tt*?™£! ! acrfcKt* dUScaltfes, and profewed tobe able tomake great savings Aeexpeaditare, aad then make up tne deficiency by increased taxation. Tbe <^e™ n>e °Lf*<} ' not shown by their works that ' economic but jort " *»__ did not merit support. The Govern meat had tried to saddfe large expenses on the colony, and were only prevented by the House of Representative*. &r John Hall quoted, in support of this statement, several measore* rejected by the House when brought down by tise Government. The purchase ol tne D«-xict Railways on the "™ s were purchased at was expenditure. The Government_bad.become -Juddled with a lo: of non-productive nuiwav* that spoilt the our raiiwavs. and made them all not pay. Vbeathe Public <nx down by Captain B^-K"*?" 00 ' roanv Government* would tr__ued in offirv. bat we saw the present j «fvemm«n: ixtnaining in oflice and tarrying oa a> extravagantly as before. A3n7Mr. Boil-nee, tbTpresent MmitS of Land*. *-« K-ity -JJLTJ*-' onSx extravagance. When only£_K3 was voted hiL. bTspent £SO,C» unauthorised. TkiotßhU tharelore. not to be satis. _*[££_ the ' return a Government pledged to economise i_adai*oa!in>-r important consideration) a consistent oae. whom they could depend ca cat tbe economies they professed. " Ai -.bowing that these economies could be effarted, he said the Government in 1*79 had gone oat of offioe because the people-tiid they were extravagant, being Qrceeded by oiic who effected a saving of _3t3jC W a year. If economies were effected then, they could and must be more strenuously effected now. BJETKESCHIIEST. Sir -ohn Hull now went into the various bi__c_e<* of the -«rviee where economies might bs effected, lie thought the honorafiom might easily be reduced to il a day, and the 3liuUters salaries reduced 30 p?r cent, all rou-uL He was surprised to bear Sir Jmiu* Vogel say at Ashburton that retrenchment in the Government service might be effected when he was profesaiedl/ favoring retrenchment. Instead of the Colonial Treasurer only acquiescing he ■should have strongly pointed out to the people where be meant to effect the sav-ing-—that R. if be was sincere in his profeTsioas. (An Elector-"What would yon reduce tbe Premiers salary to, and what does he now receive f> He would reduce the Premier's saiarytoiiaa (Cries of "Oh. oh." applause, and howls of dissent. > When be was **n*mier before he reduced the iVemiers salary down 20 per cent., and he would advocate the same again. (Loud It was impossible to lay any c-t-aad-dried scheme of retrenchment before them, because the necessary data Were i_acces*ii>le except to Ministers , themjeJve-i. bet the electors might depend on him beia:? consistent In his expressions in fa\or of retrenchment. (A Voice— " And cut down the working men. > He knew tM-i was a charge, among many

eqoaliv as ba-M.% brought against him by his opponents during this contest, but he would refer his questioner to any of the n_nv men that had worked for him, and qcoted letters and figures showing that he always paid hi* men the highest rate of wages, and had always assisted the working man to the best of his ability. He would ask all those men to judge him by hi* doing*, and not by what other people had said about him. THE DEPRESSION. The depression is New Zealand was rnucb wor«e than Ministers allowed. The Co'onial Treasurer stated that there was not much reason to complain, but be considered that this gentleman was trifling with the situation. This reason •warn very apparent to everybody, especial y those engaged in agricultural purttaita. The depression was worse owing

to tbe spending power of the people being restricted by tne low prices for all- kinds of produce. And it behoved every man, whether in a private or public capacity, to look the matter fairly in the face. It was aB nonsense to say that with tbe proposed . extra taxation we should not be worse off than before. TAXATION. It was most probable that further taxation would be necessary, and we must consider the best means to raise this amount, mo as to come oa all classes of the coauxmnity alike. He did not think it «v right to raise the question of freetrade ai.il protection at tne present juncture, a« the revenue was bound to be made up with a certain amount of taxation. It was qnile fair to tax articles of luxury such ife^Kmrffe-J^SS^eoi^wo^ named as luxuries. (Applause.) If a man aad to pay taxation it was as well to levy this oa all articles that could be manufactured in the colony, and assist in finding employment for our population. The Government in their proposals had largely exceeded this. They proposed to largely increase the duties on the necessaries of life, and put heavy duties on agricultural impSemenus and other things used by tike farmer*. A large port ion of the duties propo-eJ to *t raised by the Colonial Treasurer w*-, on goods that were only Imported to a very small amount annuAt this utage the interruptions in the mMiem were very loud aad frequent. A BroofcsiJe elector informed the speaker and the chairman that the interruptions did not arii* from Brookaide people, but firotn outsiders who had come to make a disturbance. This had the effect of subduing the row at once. Sir John Hall stated he was in favour. .If ■eerss&ry. of potting taxation on property. He thought it was just and right that property should boar in fair proportion of taxation, but not to tbe extent as proposed by Sir J alius Vogel. If Itis graduated property tax ever came Into forte it would he'a bad job for New Zealand, and it would be increased until property woold ultimateiv be confiscated. Ha woold refer the electors to Sir Julius * oge? * Financial Statement delivered iv law, ia which toe bad stated that a rate, tfeoejch not a large oae. had been struck on property, and he looked forward to the # aae woen they woakl totally abolish the property tax, which pressed heavily on the country generally. TSLX COLPXTS IXIIEBTEnXE9«.

He woaM always endeavor, whether ejected oraot, todemotu-trate to the people tiie danger of our huge indebtedness, which amounted to 91 million*, €) millions of tha owing to people outside of the coaatry. This meant that we send away emdx working day of the year £lO,t. Gar which we have no return whatever. This was aa alarming condition, aad the country ws slowly bleeding to death. Sir John Halt showed the absurdity of the Colonial Treasurer's idea re coosom-ngall oar produce in the country. Another aame weighing down the colony «w tbe discouraging way New Zealand is spoken of by the general public in England. Our own colonists did their best to ' raftttc these statement-it, bat what could j they do to deny oar have debt t Another «•«» for lorn trf confidence w»«« the exB»rajg*_t proposal* brought down by the Government. The land nationalisation scheme h*ri a very uglr look in England, especially when it wa* advocated by our ! Pitase Minister. A man in England would '■ aataraliy nay, " I will not take my money I so sach a conntrr." The <tpcaker then ! extract* from Mr Rrodir Hoare's o^-ia—m of New Zealand, which bore out hk% own ideas on these qßesriooA. This j gesotiemaa, while admitting that oar f colony w*s the finest on the face of the i trJobe, said It was. spoilt by had and extra- i vavaatrove-mment. who seemed as If they I took every Cad that came out in journals * aad paper* for tbe -proper rating ef the caoatrv. The land nationalisation would rwaliy benefit the large landowners, but would take the moot? oat of the taxpayer*' pocket-* to do *«i He came before them *> a man that had a stake in tbe I eo-aatry. and bevan-**- He considered the j actiasau. oi the Govcrnoftat to be most in- ' feriaa*. to the coantrvj These were the > lance questions that should inrtnence their '> votes on poking day. i I_aCCATIiIN. j Ob this subject be had not changed his ! mjiaioe*. Any opinion-. that h-TEad laid before them were not taken up to gain his ejection. Hi* views now were the same 1 a* h* expressed many rears ago. When tbe present system was'introduced it was use attended to co iso far &__, it now had SPoe. He held that ottr education was j very costly, and that economies might be Verted m thU, a_, well a* other branches of the «-ervise. without impairing its effi- ! ciew-y. If this system was administered ' more economically people outside of our •' colony wcmkl the sooner mrc-gnlse its effi- t ciescj. Mr Laraach, Mr Tote. Sir J. Vogel, aad other Minister* profe*-*cd to be able ! W »*""«?* of £**&*} a year. Sir ■ Ksberi Stcsu was the only Mlnuaerwho I *-aad that no savings could be made. But - what*WT was done be wo«ld take care not . to impair tbe efficiency cf the present sys- t teaa. The present Goreraueat took ereat ; credit Jor introducing the *vj-tera. : >>at the i -TXt-e was due to Mr Bo wen. who -^ r =~V : ' r ~.", Sc ~. iJ ,or many y, „rs. "When;, ,* - . ._-?■ ,- «. i _j.,;; ~,. j*. r icU rt- . ;

Igioos teaching in schools, and would t I aeeessarr tor the well-being of the State i ►hat the mind should receive a moral and i religious training. In the School Boards t LnLondon this was done without any 1 difficulty. He aaid again that we must < 00. send our children out into the world i without a religious and moral training, Mid for the benefit of our country ne ] trusted that every elector present would i endeavor te carry this out- We should be i doing good in this direction by assisting ] denominational schools, under certain stringent inspections and examinations. If he pocketed his feelings on this subject be should be a coward, and not acting up to what he felt, and would not be worthy of their votes. (Loud applause.) the land gr-EsnoN. The candidate, in referring to the land question, showed very clearly how Bir Kobert Stoufs land scheme w°*«d m Z juriously affect the country, and tnatix was evervones ambition to become a freeholder. Sir Julius Vogel, in ISSI, had said that the land nationalisation j* the greatest humbug that could be introduced into any country. The Minister of Lands is hurrying people wholesale-on the lands when they were totally nntit tobe placed there. Instead of setthns 2000 People on the lands they were keeper t&m there with the taxpayers'money AnVtner branch of the land Wft™™ the expiration of the runs n , 1800 L there was not the slightest.truthi in the rumor that he was standing m the interns of the runholders, or of his own run iTparticular. All the country north of the Kakaia was now in the hands of'the Midland Railway except some hill runs. The claim of the; present leaseholders come to an end, and it would ne the duty of the Government to appoint quaufied surveyors to nspect and divide the runs into suitable-sized blocks according to the nature of the country, and then submit them by public auction. He must call their attention to the spread ot the rabbit plague, and unless Government and private persons look at this matter in a proper light, Canterbury would soon be overrun with this pest. On this subject he read an extract from he Chairman,s speech at the meeting of the Chamber of

Commerce. rahavat manac.emknt. The best thing to do as regards th-s question would be to obtain advice of experts and competent men on railway management, and he would suggest that this advice might be obtained from the Chairman of the Victorian railways, or some other competent outsider. As he had previously stated, the district railways were responsible, to a very large extent, for our railways not paying better than they did. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. He was not in favor of doing away with this House, as it prevented hasty legislating. Many members had no right to sit in that House, He would be in favor of each island voting for say twenty members, and then we should have the House

'■ composed of men elected by the voice of . the people, and who understood their re- J i quirements- The present Government, in- [ stead of reducing the number of members, « . had increased them during the last three f years by thirteen members. ' IN CONCLUSION, , s He had received the best possible inf r- i * mation that the Government Party would j : be the losing one during the present con- £ test. This election was the most impor- j tant one ever before the colony. The j great consideration of every elector when , 5 going to the poll should be to vote for the \ '- man who can best deal with the difficulties ( ; that beset our country. He would ask , t them not to vote for a man that agreed ( * with everything they like to ask him, but , 1 to vote for a man that had the consis- , * tency to stand to his own and expressed , * opinions. He would not refer to the ,

1 charges brought against him by his oppo- , nent, but would treat them as he treated ; the many downright and base lies used to gain influence during the contest. If he had ever broken a pledge, or not carried out his promises, then let them not vote ; for him. He was quite willing to allow his past actions to speak for themselves. Mr Hollanp proposed and Mr W. Watson Sen., seconded, a hearty vote of thanks to Sir John Hall for his address that evening. (Loud applause.) Mr G. Watson proposed and an Elect tor seconded, a vote'of thanks and confidence in Sir John Hall as their member. At this stage, the meeting got very - rowdy, the larrikins referred to previously i howling and hooting. The candidate, to a save further trouble, asked the mover not i to press his amendment, s The meeting broke un amidst loud ' MR W. P. REEVES AT MERIVALE. Mr W. P. Reeves addressed the electors * ' of St, Albans, at the Men vale school-room, : < last night. There was a good attendance, . I the room being filled. r The chair was taken by the Mayor of St. I Albans, Mr Bull. . Mr Reeves spoke at some length on } retrenchment, education, and other topics ■ dealt with by him in previous addresses. In conclusion, fie asked, if the verdict of the polls was against the Stout-Vogel Government, who would be sent for ? Why, Major Atkinson, who ! had overthrown * the Government. Did - they expect that they would get rid of Major Atkinson ? Had they forgotten that 1 Major Atkinson, with a majority of only ' two, had held office for two years. They ' were told that the new party were going in to floor Major Atkinson. But he thought he might quote a little doggrel which was apropos. It was as follows :— There was a young lady of Riga Who went for a ride on a tiger. They finished the ride with the lady inside. And a smile on the face of the tiger. Substituting the word* "major'" for "tiger," they had what would happen with regard to the Opposition and Major ; Atkinson. Mr Reeves then went on '. at some length to defend himself against < the accusation that "he was too young ; for a representative, and said if they i elected him, he should not go up ' to Wellington as a candid friend of the I Government, but as a supporter of a Gov- i eminent which had proved itself true 1 friends of Canterbury. (Loud applause.) 1 In answer to questions, Mr Reeves ' said that he was in favour of the ] voluntary scheme of Mr Ballance's Bill, ( and that the Government should as- t

-' | sist settlers willing- to purchase. H< - { was also in favour of the value of th< J land being fixed by a court of law. He ; I was not in favor of a Confiscation Bill As ' I regarded Iron and steel coming in free, > I the object of the tariff was to admit all raw materials as far as possible duty free He hoped that tbe day would come when 1 all the raw material wonld come in free ' and the manufactured article be taxed. He was in favor of increasing the duty on iron and steel manufactured, except that which they could not manufacture here. He was not in favor of reducing the j capitation to the Volunteers by one j copper. In the event of the Stout- } Vogel Government collapsing he would J not support the new Government, [ but would go Into opposition with Sir | Julius Vogel and Sir R. Stout, and do his ; liest, as a private member, to get Sir Julius I Vogel anajSir Robert Stout back. (Api plause.) _9the Stout-Vogel Government did not try to carry ont tbe promises made by them, he should resign his seat and come back to bis constituents for re-elec-tion. (Applause.) Mr F. Wildino moved a vote of thanks to Mr Reeves for hie address, and an expression of confidence in him as the future member ol St. Albans, Mr R. A. Locghxas seconded the motion, which was declared carried, amid cheers. , Mr Reeves having responded, the meeti ing terminated with a vote of thanks to Mayor.