MR. GLADSTONE

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 211, 11 September 1897, Page 4 (Supplement)

MR. GLADSTONE

•| 'AT HAWARDEN FLOWER SHOW.

The annual flo.A-er shoAv at Hawar-

«len held in Mr. Gladstone's park on -the August bank holiday is a great ■event in Lancashire and Cheshire,, and invariably attracts a huge concourse -of tourists and trippers. These, needless to say, are not -drawn so much by iti desire to Avitness the display of ifloAvers and fruit as by the hope of Seeing th Grand Old Man and hearing Jhim speak. Last Monday the venerJsble statesman Avas in great form. |2e appeared on the scene soon after 1"4, Avearing a Avhite hat and carrying a fgreen umbrella .and soon shoAved he |was quite his extraordinarily vivacious and energetic self. Mrs Glads stone gave aAvay the prizes, little Iftliss Dorothy DreAV winning ' one jof those reserved for children. SThen Mr Gladstone got up ;i_Avith the alert movement once so fa--Ymiliar to the House of Commons, and talked delightfully for tAventy min?ntes on fruit, flo Avers, and eggs. Some tyears back at this very gathering he ihad ,he reminded us, recommended 5-the pursuit of the culture of fruits land flo Avers aud butter and eggs to fethe farmers as a cure for the bad Jtimes. The suggestion (he might Jhave added) excited much derision at .'the moment, Mr Gladstone's "Jam Speech" affording mockers plenty of jrfood for amusing "copy." Nevertheless, some farmers took the G.O.M.'s ..hint seriously. On Monday.Mr Glad--stone read the folloAving from an . agriculturist at Wisbech: —

"Dear Sir,—Some years ago in a

: speech made at HaAAarden you suggested that under certain conditions H'armers should devote a part of their

aland to the culture of. fruit andfloAvifers, I am pleased to say that I took Syour advice, especially witli regard to SiioAvers, and that for the past three Sjyears, although I have largely infcreased my growth, I have received ginany more orders than I have been * able to supply. You will, I am sure, t-be pleased to hear that I send cut Iflowers to dwellers in our large towns |<at a cost to them of something like §50 per cent, under AA-hat they formerly .Jfhad to give, also that I am able to ■jpay my Avorkpeople 20 per cent. Stugher AA'ages than they used to re--celve when the land was worked for -^purely agricultural purposes. In addition to this, I put by a very substantial profit for myself." (Cheers.) Mr Gladstone said he considered

Ithis a very satisfactory letter, and ■j.went on to'urge further efforts in the ?same direction. Everybody, he said, £jkne%v him for a stalwart freetrader, ylt Avas his Avish that the products of |the whole world should find their way pto the tables of labouring people of |ithis country without let or hindrance. L s<\But," he said, "though I hope that fmo delusions and no quackery a\-H1 !?ever induce the Legislature of this

country to go back on the happy ex-

•'.perience it has Avitnessed, yet if any ?of those products can be better raised >at home- I delight in it. (Cheers.) If &they can be raised better and cheaper Yher'e I rejoice in it, and sometimes I find that 1,200,000,000 eggs are ilaid all over Europe—(laughter) —in

order to be imported into England, I

-.cannot help thinking it Avould be a :4.very good thing if five or six hundred Ymiillions of those eggs were laid at

-.home—(laughter)—because you may -^depend on this, that, the nearer the

egg is laid to the place where it is -consumed the better it Avill be. j(Lai.ghter.) Ido not believe that the i\egg-producing in this country is half .exhausted, or, in point of fact, is <exercised, and therefore, while I re.|^oJce that the foreigner is allowed to supply the Englishman, yet I say the ignore the "Englishman can grow that

/cheap food at home—that cheap food i-and the accessories of food such as

"are the objects of this horticultural Jqneeting to promote—the better am I '^pleased."