ADDRESSES TO CONSTITUENTS.

Press, Volume XXXI, Issue 4194, 6 January 1879, Page 3

ADDRESSES TO CONSTITUENTS.

MB WAKEFIELD AT TIM ABU.

[fRO—OTJ-SP-CIS.- B_POBT_B.] " ' TiMABTTi January 5. ! Mr B, Wakefield, the representative of the Geraldine district in the General Assembly, addressed his constituents at the Volunteer Hall, Temuka, on Saturday evening. The weather was most unfavorable, but the hall was well, filled. "Dr. Bay her was voted to the chair,-and briefly requested those present to accord inpatient and quiet hearing to their representative, I who was to give them an account of the work of the past session. "' - Mr Wakefield said he was glad to meet the electors on that occasion, and could only regret that the state of the weather was such a3 to preclude a large attendance., However, he should address-imself quite as Jsarefnlly and fuuy~tO~ the various subjects he intended to; bring before them as if the numbar present were j much larger. He purposed first to touch upon \ the position of affairs when he laat; ! ad_ressed ' then to go on,'to matters'' -w—fclr had: occurred since he'me* them,'preferring to the: large politicalquestions which had arisen since ; that,- and to his ideas of the t'uture. Hewould : 'also briefly refer to matters""'of local interest, which concerned them all. At the conclusion of -hf address, he should be happy to'ansvreirany : questions that might be put, and he would a—o be much obliged to any gentleman who would raise (questions of public; interest, which he might overlook in the. course of his remarks* When he last addressed them there had been a change of Ministry, and he had assisted in putting Sir George Grey into the position which he now held. .The affairs of the country prior to this change were in. such a condition that a majority of the House considered that- an -iteration wm; necessary, and Sir George Grey was the only man who, in the opinion of that majority, was able to conduct the business of the colony, and command a majority, in the House. Under these drcunistances' he (Mr Wakefield went as far as this-V-that he gave his support to the Ministry to see what -they conjd dd, reserving to himself the right to criticise their actions, and measures. They .went .into <iarge 'promises of- administrative reform. No -finistry ever, tookioffice in New Zealand with better support, or more opportunities of doing good for the country. They the programme laid down by the ; Premier during his tour through -the .country: of the liberal measures which the Government were going to introduce." Well,' lime, wore on, and jet no sign was visible of t he great reforms to be worked by the Grey [ Government, btjll he (Mr Wakefield) hoped oh, and when Paruament met he was prepared to give the Government his support, and to aid them to carry but their proposals, " reserving - , as he had said, the right to criticise them. When, however, the me_»ures of the Government came down, which were intended to carry out all the glowing promises made by the Premier-. in various parts of 'the colony, he was disappointed. These measures were really, either designed to carry out the personal hobbies of Ministers or to enable them to retain their seate at any prise. This being the case, he thought it bis duty to at once take one side or the other, and he went boldly into opposition; SO far aa the measures brought down by the Government were concerned. He told them plainly and straightforwardly, that he should.do his best to oppose these measures passing into law, whilst doing nothing which would embarrasa the Government. He believed that the proposals of the Government weve sketches, as they were brought down, which could be' turned into useful measures in Committee, and this was what he proposed to do. Now there was a party in the House, headed by Major Atkinioh. who said—"Oh, these aTe bad measures. let the Government pass them, and the sooner the Government will be turned out of office." : He (Mr Wakefield) did not approve of this. What he said was this—That it i»oqld hp better to try to improve the Government- measures in the interests of the colony than allow them to go forth iv their then crude state. Therefore, he joined with Mr Stevens and other earnest and well, meaning politicians in the House to effect this. Their intentions, however, were defeated by the action of Mr Stout, the Attorney-General, who at this time was leading;the;House, and.whp put fiis foot down, aud said that he would not have any alteration of his measures. Therefore they were not" able to carry out whit they namely, to render the measures brought down by the Government really workable and of benefit to tha country. There was one Bill upon Which Sir G. Grey, during his tour throngh the country, had spoken most emphatically, and to the necessity for which he had referred to In glowing terms in. his various speeches. This was a BiU to introduce manhood suffrage. Now he (Mr Wakefield) when that Bill was brought in, was astonished and disappointed to find it weak-in the .extreme, and merely eqhoing the : theories; . of political economy which were a shabby of the Attorney-General, and not at all ; adopted to. the circumstances' of the colony. Thife : provisions - were? such .that a. man with ttone£ could sway elections in any part of the colony. ; The Government adopted tnis, and brought in a *B|ihe£y'B_f,Nvhich was to run.on all fours with their __.ectoral' B_l. 'But'what did they do? Why, no sooner had the' Electoral Bill pa&sei than the Government withdrew the Bribery Bill. ". Itw—s : no use d_gut9ing the fact that where facilities existed for bribery, there would men be found willing to be bribed. He knew of" ucase of an election hot long _nee >here a candidate had paid for three hundred glasses of liquor at once, which, untier the Bkibfryßili, would have been ah'of|enee'in r —.w. But, _.'s* he hail t&d : tl —to, the* Gbverhj-eafi' wi_lurew the Bribery Bill* when the' E&ctoral' Bpl w_% tossed. MrSfbiit had thai the Electoral BHI "wis '_ : thoroughly liberal one, and would put all but 500 men in |he colony on the rolla. They had five different grfalifteations in this Bill to exclude these 500 men who, for all they knew* had as much right to. be on tha ro_s as any one else. Itwas palpable that this was only sham, and he (Mr Wakefield) mo ved ah amendment which would have had the effect of pnttiieig every adult male _i the colon/Jen the rolL What wai _?e, result ?. Why, that the' G<rrern_«ai rose in arms against "this, and threw put the «28endnient. Th- ahoired t—7

.plainly, he thought, that _le'protestations of the; liovernment that the franchise should be ex- . tended to every man, was a sham and a delusion"Applause.] The Bill farther provided t—at Maoris paving rates should be eligible to be placed on the roll as ratepayers. No one objected to this. But the Government withdrew: this clause and inserted another, which enabled: every Maori in the coony to be placjdonthe: rail, if he were part proprietor of any land, though not paying rates. This simply meant the; placing of eight or nine seats in the North' Island at the disposal of the Native Minister of ■ the day* or in the hands of pakeha Maoris. This latter class, who hung round the. Maoris for what they could get, were in his bpiriion the most - contemptible and worst in the colony. They were neither - fish, flesh, nor good red herring-. Was this, he asked, a right thing to do to people , who came here to settle this country—that: they should have people who paid nothing \ towards the cost of the governmentand develop- \ ment of the country with such a preponderat-; ing influence in the elections. He said most emphatically "No," and one of the, Maori members. Mr Wi Tako, like ahonest upright: man, said, " This is not right, and I shall vote against it." [Applause.] The House rbse ; against the proposal, but the Native Minister, who had great influence in the House, carried it by. a- majority. When the Bill went up to the Legislative Council, however, they struck out this clause and restored the one originally in the Bill to which he had referred. But what did the Governff-er- do? Why, they withdrew the whole Bill. They withdrew the universal franchise, of ' which so much had been made by them, because they could; not impose the proposed domination by Maori voters, which would have had the effect he had described to them.. : It must, be remembered . that, what the, Government proposed was, that the Maoris should have manhood suffrage at. the European , elections as well as at .their own.; The withdrew the great Bill which; was to give liberty and freedom to the' down-trodden men, to enable the Maoris to have these seats at their disposal. We have, there-; fore, no Electoral Bill at all, despite the gr_nd; flourish on the part of the. Government of their; intention to grant the.inestimable boon of man- ;■ hood suffrage He believed that thi3 question of' the Maoris would be a test one in the future,, and he would tell;them what he was going to do.: He was.going to oppose the Maoris having votes at our elections, unless they pay rates. [Applause.] He said they must put'-a stop to, Maoris voting for Europeans. They had their own race represented in the. House, and were: not interfered with in any way in their selection Indeed, they had been pampered and spoilt from the beginning '"- and would; continue to be so until there was not one left' in ' the country. He how came to the Land Tax ; B3L : .The ground given by the Government far of this' new measure was that; last session thp House had given instructions to; the Government to do it. Now the H ouse did j "nothing of the kind. What it did say was that j 'tb'&time-had arrived when the incidence of tax-. ation should he changed, and 'that in their 'opinion'it was desirable that an income and property tax should be imposed. That was not; what the .Government did, : They introduced a ' land tax alone, which he contended was a penal j tax upon the rural districts. The capitalists j who draw • money from the colony, but do not j contribute towards the burdens upon it, were the j clasß they wished to ■ git at. - .[Cheers ] ' But | they"ofd not* pay' One' farthing "of this tax.*- It! | would not reach them-at all. He knew a man who drew a sum of not less .than _360,i00 a! year from interest on money lent in the colony. I Not one sixpence would they receive, in return! I from him by this tax. AlMhsk"wealthy, ' co_mercial classes were exempt; an&the tax would; fall almost exclusively upon the rural population. I [Cheers.] They tried-to get a clause inserted; ia'toMe Bill making the mortgagees, pay, the tax on the land,'not the "men" who were feafly doing the work of $he,country. -rßut the Go-j vernment would not listen to' any such proposi-' tion. The Governmentjappeared snot io'desire; to'get at the m'eh'of money," who now* contributed nothing, but brought-in a penal tax on the; rural districts. The. tax was one which let off: a man who put up buildings in which' he made all his money, and pressed very hardly ' upon the tillers of the soil.; There was an exemption np to .£500; but noiaffect < the 1 question very much,'as there were- s few ■ farmers who were not worth -3500. But this liberal Government proposes also that tenants shonld pay thatax, as thpugh the land wa3 their own, though it had to be restored with all improvements at the end of fourteen years. He (Mr Wakefield) proposed anamendment to strike .this out but it was lost by two votes, through two-of his friends and himself being lockedlbut. He should move against this in the next session of the House. Another point in the Bill was that it provided that no land in the colony of New Zealand should be valued, at 'less than £1 per acre. Mountain top, swamps, shingle beds, all were to be valued at £1, pr acre. They knew very weu that in the North Island there were thousands of acres of land,which were not worth 2s 6d per acre. However, the House Btruck this out. What struck him as being peculiar was, that the Government are trying £100,000 per annum as subsidies to local bodies, which was raised by .a.'.land ■__;"which;,cost £30,000 per annum to raise; when this sum.was raised it was* handed'over' to the local bodies in the form of subsidies. Now this land tax was one of the most-inquisitorial taxes that could be devised, as - they would find out. in a iew days when the valuator began to make his calls upon them, and the money thai-raised could be got just as,well by the local bodies through rates. All agreed that" this %as the right way, even Ministers themselves,- but the latter said they alterit 'because of: the j>ru_i_eV given in the recess. He would then tell them now that he: believed ' this would be altered next session. They were now at. the 4th of January, a_d-the:e_ oration of; this Bi-was supposed to commence on the Ist of bnt he believed,, that insuperable . difficulties, had arisen 4n the way'6f working the Act. |IWhat he said was this—that by puttinjg 1 this Act into forceiithey woulfl Incur expense 1 and* jcause annoyance throughout the:colony,-which "could all-be saved by the Goyemment telling the local bodies—"We cannot*afford',;to give you subsidies "—instead of giving the £100,000 a year, and then -dung it back'again in the shape of a land tax. He- now came to another point. The Government told them that they were going, to reduce the taxation oh'what they called the necessaries of! life; and the Premier during his tour had dwelt with great* stress on this. Tea and sugar had been decided upon, as necessaries of life, and the Government-an-nounced their intentions of reducing the duties thereon, in order that the working-man, whom the Government^seem to think is always poor and starving, might get a free breakfast; Now what was the result of''this?-i Why, that,the working'man did not get < any benefit at all from the reduction in duty oh tea or sugar, because he usually buys it in small quantities. _he result was that the ' only persons benefitted were: the; who! bought. In "large quantities, and the Maories, who use sugar largely—s an article of diet. There was, another class: also which was largely .benefited, though quite as far as; tne Govern-, ment were concerned,' 'and-" 'thatwwavs v the" brewers. He (Mr Wakefield) was , not sufficiently ' i_ J brewing to" know whatwwats t done .with but he be? lieved there was a good deal used by the brewers. 1 Then tne Government introduced a Bill to tax colonial beer. He opposed that, and d£t sOjhacauseTthis was a cokmmlindnstry, insgetting" on itslegs, and one too which consumed a great deal of colonial produce in the shape of barley. The logical sequence followed. If they taxed the rest should also pay. They would then find themselves taxing the Mosgiel tweed, flannel, and so on, : Wfyr should they select the'one article of ahpie out ref-all th§ hwa.l ?,.. The BiH was thrown out, and he believed with the concurrence of some of the Ministry, who were not agreed upon this point. He believed'that they should give the colonial industries a longer i term .before they commenced to tax them*- If ' they wanted to impose a tax, let them do so on malt and hope coming into the colony, and, not on local industries." [Applause,]] A jj excise tax was a most objectionable one, ahd all that they i could raise by T it was £10,,000 a year. Mr Fox and himself had been blamed for voting against this Bill, bnt he said this—that the imposition, of a beer tax would have made thg fjovarh ment more dependent, fn* wveaue" upon, the liquor tragic. Therefore he went boldly in and opposed the Bill. [Cheers.] The Companies Bili he regarded as quite as bad as the Beer' BUI, because it allowed one large tradirVta come in untaxed, white &n association of traders, it might be f_?'an object' which would-benefit the country by the development of it 3 resoaraes, had ' to pay a tax. These companies, were the only : means by which'Vorking men oovJtl associate | together, and get ef cajiial. He had opposed it, the Preuiier withdrew it, much ito the 'disgust of the Colonial Treasurer.Lie. wonld now go on torefer to the public wcg&a qf ! the colony. The Minister for Pusic Works had ;co-suited him (Ifr Wtt«eneld) upOn a scheme | , whistthethonghtover. to reserve land hear the inteHded lines-of railway, and to offer it by : auction when the lines" were made, as h<3 ?aiu» g 'ing in and baying Iscd, osi tjfce lines' of projected railways, foiir^■ or 'five times what the j hag pais, for tlelaua lines were completed.''"The tnotigfiff that* tne to hate a chance of buying, thb h\ad ty auctioa from the Govern-' ment, iaktead of its passing' into the hands of spes_—tors. A meeting of Canterbury member. ;was held, and it w_s fet this was a good schemg. There was, as iarhaja many of them werti aw_re, an inland line projected from Oxford in thenar north; to TeSnuka, where it would join the main ti_eThe reason for this fine was that fes ; Minister-f or Public Weeks t|at would very likely tr,T6 « geedh_rnor at and that this inland _ne would connect thereJwith. The C—ife-bury members'had agreed to -give up the branch lines, so that this iniaud line might he made. When ihe BUI came down he found, tbs* Mr Maca__rew had a«| workadoat

the idea propounded' by "Mm, but that it wast stated" in the BUI that £6.590,000"" was to< be spent by the Govern—tent where they pleasedand how they pleased. This meaai—-uid.-e said it right out before them—t—it' the .railways should be made in Otago before any other lines were made. >■■ £ Applause.] Why, there was one line in Otago which had act—ill j" been begun, before the House met. He referred to the, Tappm-Une, and the amount for, tbi3 line _it—_ly appeared in the schedule 0 to this Bill.: Tee House, made the Bill to read so that the amounts put in the i-chednle for each .work.wereto l)e devoted to that work alone. But the result was that the railways in Otago weM the only ones made or likely to be for some th—» to come. The fact was, that the finances, so fail as public works were concerned, had broken down. The proposition was mon- j strous to have such an enormous power as was 1 here asked for by the Ministry, to take the amounts arising from the sales of Canterbury land to make railways elsewhere, whilst our own oyer- The coasequence ■ was that no lines had been made in New Zealand except in the provincial district of-Otago. He [Mr Wakefield] did-not grudge Otago her railways. She had been kept back in times past. But whatfehe did object to was- that our money should be-- .used to. make, lines elsewhere and those in "Canterbury ' tfot ' be '' touched. [Applause] Now another matter in which we in Canterbury were interested was the surplus laud revehue, which the Colonial Treasurer had been told by law to pay over to the Road Boards on the 3lst March. Various pretexts for nonpayment were,made by t-e Colonial Treasurer, I and at last the Avon Boad Board joined with other Boards and sned the Treasurer, who appeared and argued the case, finally getting "judgment in his favour. • ' Some little time after this a deputation of Canterbury members waited upon the Colonial Treasurer to point out the injustice which was done to the Boad Boards. -They pointed out-the, law to the Colonial Treasurer, and he replied that the Government wanted the r r_o_ey. The matter was referred to _• par_anient—ry committee, who were decided in condemning the action of the Treasurer, and said he had no right to detain the money. The only member of the committee who voted against the decision was the Colonial Treasurer himself. He stood alone whilst the committee condemned the action of the Government. A deputation of. Canterbury members then waited upon the Colonial Treasurer, and urged on him that he should' pay the_ money over. He then came down from his high perch and said that they should.have £100,000. There wa3 also a sum of* £57,000 whioh had been taken for the re-survey of Canterbury, and the Government wished to take this amount to make the shrvey fit' in with the Land Transfer Act. The deputation told the Government that, if they wanted'to to-surv£yjC—hterbury,!thijy must do it out of the general revenue.'' They wanted Canterbury not only to pay for her own resurvey, but also to pay for the re-survey of the uther parte of the colony.< Then there was £75,000 for* arrears of survey, which was estimated to costfrom Is to Is 6d per acre. ;This he need hardly tell them was a very great deal .over-es—mated.' Ultimately, the Treasurer consented tq place the money in. the Bank at 'interest, pity the cost of survey, and then pay .over the remainder to the Boad Boards with interest. ' This did not ■ "prejudice their claim, if the matter came : up again before the House, and'it met the injustice which had been done.to us here., • Thus. they;had:got-some '£20:1,000 saved from the fire. A portion of this, £100,000, would have to be arranged for in Bn gland, under the Inscription, of btook Act) , .because 1 it - b had heen'raisid'there for harbor works in Lyttelton. At any rate a good sum would come into the Boad Boards during the year. .Another, .question, upon which Sir at great length was tha redistribution of seats, which had been rendered necessary by the increase, of population. Sir George Grey, during, -his progress through the cuohy, promised that the centres of population should be adequately represented, tanoV that' : the -pocket boroughs,- so to speak, should be abolished. This went on until the census returns were published, when it was seen that Canterbury would be entitled to have twenty-two memhersj instead of fourteen as now, and that the southern part of the colony had largely.increased in, .population, and wealth; as compared with t—ie North, in which Sir Geo. 'Grey was interested. When he found this but, I he droppedthe schemefor increased representation as though it" had burnt his fingers. He neverreferredto.it, but he [Mr Wakefield] and others dd.-'They-never lost'sight of it, and aiked to have it on any ground—number of population, amount of mtes paid, or education, that is, total,_umber of chndren attending our,public schools'' He T Mr Wakefield] moved a "resolution to the effect that it wna (desirable that a redistribution of, seats shpuld take place, particnlarly in the southern districts. But this was opposed. By whom did they thini? /Why Sir George Grey] the very'man who over and over again in the most solemn, manner ..had promised to give increased representation as the first step towards pbn~caT _berty." Tuesday was' now. fast approaching when the Assembly would recognise that the time had come when the representation sho—Ji'bVso Tedistributei'as to'place this part of the colony, on an .equal footing with others. [Applarise.J He would come now to the prospects of thf future- Haying dealt with, most of the princrp—. Bubjeets'which had comic before the House in the.past, he might say at the cutset that the Grey IG6vernmeht had lost the confidence of the colony,, [Applause,] -jltjbad had the greatest 'opportunities for "doing good ever, afforded to., any yet they 1 found that thrir tiolicy and measures were characterised by what had been aptjlv,called gross jobs and personal hobbies. 1! The" Government had neglected public affahsto go on wild goose chases after some theory.' Our gaols wire overcrowded; our lunatic asylum a perfect disgrace; aud our local in.a state of collapse. Yet they fbuud'the' Government, instead of remaining in Wellington and settling down to.the,work'of the colony, wandering about in all.diraotions. Ministers were now distributed in all parts .of the colony-r-Sir Grey was at the Thames with the : Mmister.Jfor Public Works; the. Colonial r^as''engaged in surveying aharbor bri some private estate in which he was interested; and the only Minister, left in Wellington* was the Colonial Treasurer, who had been far away from the part of the country where he resided, tmd. who, he believed, had never set foot in the Middle Island. What the country wanted was sound and .steady Govern-, ment, not to be told, because Mr GladstojiecMr Somebody else %o, thai we mist ffajjoe new laws, Ah" they were tola by ths Government was that the great question of —16 iufcure would be the contest between the'two Houses. They did not want such a contest. [ hear.] The lamentable effects of such a contest werebpfore themin Victor—l, and they didnot wan tithere. He beifeved that the country would ''calf for,, a redistribution of seats/and' tha| ,th.en & dissolution would take place. '\ti this-- were'done he felt sure the result would, be greatly against the Gray "Mijnistry, and' that they wotilct have |to ; give way to better men or bring id local mea- \ snres.baseii ;pnr good:- government: and ;:soujsd finance.' [Applause.] Wha; they wanted was not theoretical, but. practical and economical ! Government. [Applause I .J Nowi there was* a j matter on which. he desired, to speak, and it was ; tow^—tr 1 /Curtis had brought ia - a Bill to niake : the practice general in the colony for dshomraa- \ tional education to be subsidised " where; the j schools fulfilled the requirements of the Government inspectors. The Government strained the forma or the House to enable thenvto ithis Bill, but the House felt so much about it that the Bill was once mora restored to th 9 order paper- TheGqvern—ept.thjßnpronpsedtD give > day for its discussion hut did . not dp so,. arid forced; on "the discussion when several, mcfcdi—g'.himself. were ;i absett.- Even then ,\t was only lost by a majority of-six: ■ He said that this shewed very plainly that there was a change in the opinion of the House on this subject. He believed "that th_7 must return once more to edueajuon. It had been objected to. en the ground of expense; but said; that it would "be "found not to cost to much a%—iepreseid .systesv under whlta" large amounts of money wereJkhWwa away. They were now bringing, ng cbildxeri, under a system which Sept out all teaching of *-igio% % system which wnuld. land them, idi—hately in endless trouble. [_pprausc.j He was glad to, hear that cheer, because: "that a'chgnge had' taken, place in fublic opinion. Same little time hack he would ardly. have dared, to say what he haj doc* now, and a popnkr. man like the Hon. Sir Stafford had lost ha election at fh&Heaihcote for saying something similar to ihe words he had jnst uttered: ;H«;saiq this— thaj;: they shoutd Istand by ifce"Bible arm hot, substitute a system of Creak, theorising, about'whfchnfl. eseknejuany* thing,for i&hat had en&—<e2 tlirougn eighteeg centuries. [AppUase,] While he Baidthis, he" said the- sifflutd:endeavor to preventh^otrv.! Ty_ was the worst form that the question.isonldj assume, and hes-fri-ted ne\«r to ace iij here. \ [Hear, hear.]' The time would coijjfi, he felt,,sure,- whan,- haye i%| their schobfo '*cd tagi they wonjd aJso subsi*dli% tVp, <&')iju>»tional "schobls, So that the I opinions of' those peonle, who had conscientious ! scruples' ahout »en_ng their children to the ; Go\erusaeni schools, might be respected. r Ap-S-ftse.] [MrW_ke,fiay. that touched *t some gth upon purely local toglpa, *nch as the _lilford Harbor, Ac j -Im ■ conclusion, he could assure them cj one "thing, and that, waithat -tiheu; represehtativeiaShad taken a straight course, ever endeavoring to do what was right, .and-he trusted. $g§i in doing so he had merited the ccjo3d__ee of the greater sai '. I* «piry to Mr "Wakefield ifctatad that he had urged" t>-» Government time after time to in ah amendment !of the Countiea Aci, but they refuted to do' so M d|sOTst;.tfe-peii#e' , ike local instriutions, and. so return, to-'pid--yincialtsm. He had opposed the coapty sjsteni,' li, the Government had brought in a Highway Bo^i to,

the Boad Boards, t_4re 'would have been no necessity for counties at all. Ho certainly thonght that an income and property tax was the right thing to impose. The income tax he was aware was most odious in England, but it was the only way to citeh those who flrew large in omes from the colony without contributing one shilling towards the cost of the works by which their incomes wera increased. There was a clause in the Education Act waiving the compulsory clauses where children were receiving education elsewhere than at the public schools, but the point was this that the parent?, who for conscience sake did not send their children to the public school, had to pay taxes for keeping these up, as well as the cost of their children's education. Mr Talbot moved—" That a vote of thanks be given to Mr Wakefield for his able address thb evening." Mr-Franks seconded the motion.

F. Gray moved as an amendment— "That whilst the electors thank the member for the district for the manner in which he has conducted the business of the constituency, thoy yet deprecate the course taken by him in reference to the introduction of the county system into the County of Geraldine." Mr Hayhurst seconded the amendment. On being put to the meeting four hands were held up for the t—oendment, and an overwhelming majority against it. The motion was, tharer fore, carried. A vote of thanks to the chairman concluded the meeting-at 11.15 p.m. '

When ' thb Sffthes of thb Bodt, the kidneys,. imperfectly perform their office of removing from the blood the waste matter or ashes oi the system, which should be dissolved, and pass off through the bladder, the aggregated impurities infect the vital fluid, producing rheumatism, dropsy, and skin diseases. But these unpleasantconsequences may always be avoided by gently stimulating the'torpid kidney*: into activity with Udolpho Woltb's Schiedam Abomatic Schnapps.—[Advt.] ■