THE GENERAL ELECTION

Press, Volume XLVIL, Issue 7725, 3 December 1890, Page 5

THE GENERAL ELECTION

MB BOKLESTON AT ADDINGTON.

The Hon W. Bollasfcon addressed a meeting of the H&Uwell electors last night, at the Oddfellows' Hall, Addington. There was a large attendance. Mr D. Beeae was voted to the chair.

The Bon. W. Koiaeston was warmly applauded on rising. Mc aaid he had (treat pleasure in meeting so goodly an assembly. Three years ago the elections turned on a different question to the present. Then the cry was for

RETRENCHMENT, And retrenchment was had. The present Opposition resisted what was called the " roar " for retrenchment, and the Government of which Sir Robert cJtout was Premier, said no material reductions could be accomplished. At the elections they arrived at this, that £100,000 could be retrenched. He (the speaker) and others considered that the country would not be content with less than £tfw,ooo, and now they saw that the present condition was this: —The present Premier and his Government had made reductions of nearly £300,000. • BORROWING. Another question to be decided was that of borrowing, and he was glad to be aola to say that the Parliament hud praciicallv decided that we had had enough' at the present day.

LIBERALISM. Here the question seemed to him to torn upoa whet was Liberalism. They read in the papers that the people must vote for nothing bat what was oalled .Liberalism, , pronounced Liberalism, united Liberalism. It was desirable that the electors should be clear in their minds as to what was meant by the term Liberalism. In the old .days Liberalism meant the assertion of the rights of.- the many against those enjoyed by the privileged tew. Crowned heads with standing armies at their backs had the principles of Liberalism arrayed against them. Iα later days tyranny had asserted itself in other forms. People had been taken and led captive by other forms of tyrauuy. We had had tyranny of mouopolints manifested—wealth taking the people captive, practically enslaving them to those who had money. And he ventured to think there were other tyrannies, one of which was to oppose the liberty or the individual to do, and aay, and. think what he would, provided he did not do wrong to his neighbor. (Applause.) fie thought we had nad somttthfug here of the people being taken captive by the power of borrowed money, and by Governments who had had the control and distribution of that borrowed money. He thought we had gone far wroug because we had not really realised what party meant; nor realised this assertion of the principled of true Liberalism.

RSBSONAX* He was there to ask them 60 judge from; what he had said, and from his past actions as a public man, whether hie sympathies had been ia thei o£ the classes, or whether they had been Iα the interest of the people an a whole. (Applause, and a voice—" Classes.") VHe would ask them to consider whether jbus public actions had been such as to assist in the surrender of popular rights; Hβ ventured to think that one instance of the surrender of popular rights was that of the abolition of the provinces. His action in that showed that his sympathies were with the assertion of the power of the people with whom he was brought contact —a desire to keep the government in the hands of the people, and not ailoyv it to be exercised, from a distance. (Applause.) The; would pardon him if he talked a little ot himself, because he had found his past actions had to a considerable extent been forgotten. And,; moreover/he found a new state, and a hew' era arising, not only in New Zetland, but still it was here. Feeliugs had arisen, between class and class, which was to be regretted, fie had not realised the full extent of this evil until he entered into the present contest. He regretted to see that some people had the idea that it was necessary to. put forward candidates to represent tne upper classes. Ji he went to Wellington, as he believed he should—(applause, oh's, groans, and *' you won't go )—as he felt confident he would—(renewed applause and interruption)—he would go as a representative of all classes. (Applause.) Mc would go there as what he believed was a true Liberal. As he had said, and as he believed, the feeling with regard to Liberalism was a very unfair one,. He held that the cries put forward as Liberal cries were not Liberal cries. We had the proposed repudiation of our debts, the destruction of , our national system .of education in response to sectional demands, the surrender of individual rights, we had the proposed coriuscatioa of properties put forward as v one of the planks of the Liberal profession. He yen-' tured to think that half, these planks were not believed in by those whu put them forward, and he believed better of the people than to think that they, would be l»d captive by such cries. (Applause). The cries were, in the main, electioneering cries. He was content, if these cries be Liberalism, to stand out of the ranks and cay " Oh, Labor, Labor, what wrongs are ; done in thy name. The latest development of the ao-called Liberalism was, the maddest, ihe cruelest of all. It was to see : politicians put themselves at ti.ehead of the labor movement with little sympathy for the working man. (Una and applause). He would be ashamed to have on his shoulders the responsibilities of the sufferings and wrongs which had beep occasioned in the past few weeks in thin province. He would be disappointed if he had to go to Wellington without the support of the working man. (pries of " You Won't go there old cUap,"and interruption). Oh" yes he would, and with the intelligent support of the working man. (Loud applause). But he should go with a determination, even if jihey. did not vote for him—(laughter and applause)— to show that he could act in their interests as well as those people who' called themselves Liberals,

CANTERBURY'S PAST. , Hβ waa now going to give them shortly something about the past history of this province, so far as lie bad been connected with it. When he went through the province he was pleaaed to see the results of past work, and the results showed what were the real principles which should guide Liberal Governments. (Applause.) His first entry into public life was in connection with the educational scheme of this province, practically adopted as the national education scheme of the colony. (Applause.) When he looked round he saw the public buildings of that educational system which distinguished this province from the others in New Zealand, when he saw the primary school buildings, Museum, High Schools/ College buildings, the institution for the sick and afflicted, the asylum, .the Hospital; the Jlefuge, the institution for the deaf and dumb--(A Voice—"And Addington Gaol." Laughter)—-he was proud to chink that;, whatever bis future life'may be,- his past had been associated with all classes of the community. (Loud applause.) His predecessor,Mr Moorhbttse, had obtained the Lyttelton tunnel, and hie (the speaker's) Government had taken up the harbor .works, which were to-day a memorial of the fact -■■ that they saw ; what was necessary to supplement that great work J of Mc lat>drhbuse. (Applause). Provision-was made for harbor works at Tiniara, and in whatever direction he went he could point to works ■which had been accomplished while he was in office. Take the Rakaia bridge, which he saw had lost some of its base, that was a work which "was initiated white -he was in office; and then there wai the Northern railway. Sir Julius Vogei promised to construct public works by bringing in foreign companies, but toe province saw what could be done by carrying on the works themselves. Nor was the development of the province by roads neglected. The initiation of the road system was one of the first works with which he had to do as provincial officer.' Tbe road from here to Akaroa was laid out under his directions. Subsequently roads had been made to the glacier to carry on the tourist traffic. Tbe Uanmer Plains were developed under his orders, and there was scarcely a work in this province with which he had not been connected. Now he would tell them of another instance of the principle which had guided him in his public works. He had opposed the granting of the West Coast railway line contract to Meiggs because ho saw they were likely to fail into the same evil that they had to contend against with Brogden. He bad beard It stated that he had banded over the funds) in the provincial chest to the colony. There was not a - single word of truth in the statement. = Before the provinces were abolished the Ocamcii made over every sixpence of the land revenue, and what was likely to occor, to different works In the province. Sams were appropriated after the Road Boards were satisfied, to the endowment of the Domain, to the establishment; of schools, and in 'every way the province wu left equipped in * tiamnat la which

bo other province in New Zealand *aa equipped* (Loud applon**.) What hapSneof was this, and Uffit li whew 9 mistake has arises. Those who carried but the abolition of the provinces promised that the ehftstge should be brought about without the loes of the land revenue to the province, "myself and others saw it wae not likely the promise would be carried into effect as soon as the colony had power to appropriate the revenue. What they fought for came about'quickly. The province being destroyed the Assembly at once saw that great advantage would be got by annex* Ing the land revenue of Canterbury, and he would call this fact to their mind, that the people who annexed It were the Liberal Government of the day, Sir Robert Stout and Sir George Gwy.

EDUCATION. He was told there was a misunderstanding, or rather a wane of full understanding of the part of many electors as to hie views on the question of education. He' had said it again and again ' that fee was averse to any denominational system; (Applause.) That he was averse to what was called topping and tailing. He had been asked to say whether he was I opposed to .the reduction of the education vote as a whole. He would say then, as he had said before, that he was opposed to anything of the kind; because, firstly, he believed the educational system as a whole was carried on as economically and efficiently as could be; and, secondly, he did not hold that this expenditure of money in respect of education was at all a similar vote to that expenditure of money for the payment of interest to the foreign creditor. It was not on the same footing that he wished to see ceased. Let him say something regarding that proposal known as topping ana tailing. It seemed to him that it would be perfectly suicidal on the part of the ! people of this colony, especially so on the part of the working classes, to say that they would be content with such a modicum of education as could be given up to the fourth standard. There was no doubt in the mind of any reasonable men that cultivated intelligence and brains ' were bound to rule, and he should be sorry to think that the industrial classes were so short-sighted as to act in such a manner that they wonld shut themselves out from taking the highest position ot the Government in the future. (Applause.) He was entirely averse to the Liberals' idea of taking away the endowments of secondary schools and devoting them to primary education or any other purpose. The who made this proposal said that scholarships should be given. Where were those scholarships to be held if they had no secondary sehoole* Why the thing was simply ridiculous on the face of ifc. He now wanted to tell thetn what was the position of those secondary schools. At the present time there were 2000 children educated in them, and 400 of them received education from the primary schools. He believed that - this national system of education not only affected the material prosperity of the country—it affected that In a marked manner—bat it was' impossible fora country to progress as it ought to progress, and as the world has been progressing of late years, if it neglected its national system of education. (Applause.) And he ventured to think that it was absolutely necessary to us socially, morally and intellectually. For one thing it diminished-crime, and it had been shown that with children born in New Zealand there were'less committals among them by half than among those 'who had come from tbe old country. (Applause.) The question of education had a great power among: the labor troubles which had lately • been, among them. The working classes were asserting rightly and properly— (interruption)—that their whole life should not be one of labor. They ate asserting that' they should have leisure and time for recreation, and he asked what would be the result if we gave them no ■' high mental cultivation or no higher aspirations than belonged to a life of labor. ■•'■■ V ■■ •» ■■■ •' •,• ; THi LABOR TROUBLES. He would say a few words on the Union , question, because he thought there were a good many people in the room interested in it. (Applause.) He was told that he -had not been fully understood as to what .he should do in respect to labor legislation. His answer, was that what he had done in the past he would do again in the future. (Applause and groans.) He would support well-considered,measures bearing on the labor question. He was one of the first men in Parliament before Unions existed to bring in legislation on tbe subject, and ac had . acted with Mr Bradshaw in the same matter. All reasonable men must, acknowledge that; Unions were in, the interests of men and employers alike, and he then adduced arguments in support of hie opinion., . The real question was, what was the way of: dealing with this question in the future. Hie opinion woe that we should deal with it by appointing Boards of Arbitration and Conciliation, composed of members equally representing both sides. He then explained how the system worked in England, and mentioned in respect of the iron trade in Dublin and of other.trades in, Englande,sworn Actuary reported, .before a Board of Conciliation, whft were the profits jla aoir particular branch Of the trade should a dispute have arisen on the matter. In reply to a question which had been asked him, he would say that legislation would be premature unless these Boards had teea at, 'work. Legislation must be the practical outcome of experience between, the employers and the employed. It might be that.legislation might take this form, that after i having had experience under those Boards a llnal Court of Appeal might be appointed. Legialatipn must have the power to enforce what it. laid down, and unless the decision is able to be enforced legislation would not be much good. He regretted very much to see-whttt had taken place with regard to the crisis and with regard to the actions of the leaders of the Unions. He did not wish to conceal his opinion that there had been great tuisleadings. Ik had not been confined to the leaders and the working men, but there were, public men who had been greatly to blame for the advice they had given. /Applause and dissent.) He believed that in!tbe association of the working classes in co-operation they bad to look for the solution of the problem. He was glad, however, to see that the troubles were at an end, and he hoped, nothing would be said, in the direction of raising any feeling in the matter. His hope was that in the future the Unions would see that if they .'wished to prosper they must have the sympathy of the public, that all classes wuuld combine to forget the past, and help io alleviate the present suffering, and for the future to prevent complication. (Applause,) '...,,

LAJSD RBFOBM. ... Hβ said that land reform was taken as one "of the planks of the platform of the several of alt parties. ■ Hβ claimed that Ma whole career in respect of this land question had been one which certainly coald not be called conservative, ac it had been foz , . the Interests of the public as a whole. He had long taken steps to pat an end to the system of grtdirbning, and subsequently when he bad to do as Minister of Lands in the administration of the land bis whole action was in accordance with Liberal principles!. No one had of late done" ; more than he had in the accomplishment of land reform. (Hear, hear, and dissent.) Tbe system of perpetual leasing was initiated by him, and the village settlements also. Hβ had something to say about this system of perpetual leasing. He had been spoken o£ as a supporter of ■ the nationalisation of the land. lie wished to say that he had no sympathy at all with such a cry, and those who talked about it hardly knew perhaps what it meant. It was one of those long words which conveyed a hazy idea. If they meant the State was to resume the land which had been sold by it, it must either be done on the principle laid down by Henry George without compensation—which would be robbery and fraud—or it nmet be done with compensation, and that woald be disastrous to the population. In establishing the perpetual lease system he was guided by the practical experience of the Land Department, Its objects were to distribute a permanent population over the country, to give the working man.his capital to work with, to give the holder an absolute right over his Own improvements, and farther it established the principle that there should be no such things ss rack rents. Another object he had in view was to provide permanent endowmentfor local government. There had been an alteration in respect to this perpetual lease system daring the lecent Parliament. It did not now remain In perpetuity;.if a man chose he could make it freehold. To this latter extent he disagreed with the legislation of tbe late Parliament. The scheme ol the village settlements was worked out by himself fa the Provincial Government; years before any legislation was passed to give effect: to It, and he thought credit was due to them who introduced It. Tftey established settlements in the eoath of the province and a hundred had benefitted thereby;'at Rakaia, Arowhenua, Otaio, Belffcld and other places co -far as- village settlements had been a failure, ft bid Wsea ttuit t&e

the prfoelpleT-To tflafce a ••ewenseM In the neighborhood of employmettfe JW ( "the setttere had to be men who-were , fairly adapted for agrlttltnnl »*™flf< 1 Speaking of the land legislation-of the , paati throe yearn he helcP tha* ■ the to called liberal measure of oholce ** *<« ntl ** *. was hog & liberal measure. Hβ tfoughi k a mistake that the application forperpeiual lease and lor cash should be j pieced In tbe one lucky bag. It had been shown to promote he did not think that was a liberal measure, Hβ thought that the land on perpetual lease should be distinguished from the land to be sold for cash. The : laws in this respect he considered umn»y.

TAXATION. One of the planks oi the Liberal plat form was to substitute a land and income tax tor the property tax. Those who proposed to change the incidence of taxation should supply some Sir llobert Stoat and Sir H. Atkinson had studied the point, and they had stated that the land and income tax would never produce the revenue that wae heeded* His belief was the same. Ec could m* Bβ real ground lor substituting a land and income tax for the present one. It seemed to him that auy change in that direction would press unduly on the country diatriots; it would fall on the occupiers of the land, and it would eel free from taxation a large amount ol personal property. He saw no reason wa| Sank shares and other property should not be taxed. He would like them to ooa* eider the facts with regard to the property tax. It might be a deterrent to industry, but we could not do without* t&x&tlou, and the property cax tell upon those* beat able to bo*r it. Ie amouuted to ebotta £310,000. It was paid distinctly by tIM wealthier classes of- the community. (Crie* of " No, no," and " Yea.") Jflretet all there was the exemption of property up to £500, so that the who!* <a the tax was paid by 27,000 people out of&a total population of uiO.QuO. It was. ttrerefore, quite dear that it tell on a email proportion of the population. Out of (&e 27,W)0 people who paid, some 18,000 paid leas than ££ 10a each; the reinabjdeE , fell upon the other 13,000. Of the total amount paid by the latter, was paid by Banks and monetary institutions* lee "absentees paid i>25.000, and the pastoral aud agricultural interests £81,000. There Were some few people who paid to the , ex* teutof a £1000 each. It was pure nonsense to appeal to the working classes, who did not feel the effect of the property tax. (Applause.) There was i* cry to tax absentees. A VotttM —"Quite right!) Quite right I (Loud appluuae.) How were they BQ1&8 auout it If It tuight pleaae pome people*! an election time to raise sucha cry, but it could not be given etieet to. And why should the working classes want to We abseutees I There might be halt ft down reasons for a man owning property in the colony wlehiug to live in another oouatry, and he (Mr Kolleston) could se« no reason why he should be subjected to & tax. They had abseutees living amongst them and what would they think if they were made (a pay a tax to some other colony. Anothei plank in the "Liberal" pjtttform w*a progressive taxation. le yum alleged thai when a man became possessed of a Wtaln amount of property he should pay fcaxei at a higher ratio. Such % prooeduw would not work out. In the first place, where would the line be drawn f is&me said £4000, others £5000, end so en. 'Xhe principle of all taxation should beoa AQ equal basis, aud he was very much afraid that if any departure were made pjoja that principle that they> would get into difficulties. (Applause,) No man ought to be called upon to nay taxes at a ratio three at four times as great as his neighbor* Xt,waa admitted that the customs duties U$X pretty heavily on the poorer Glasses, aod what was wanted was to establish, o&es taxes to catch those better able t$ be*J the burdens, it was her© that the perty tax came in and caught the riot* j the stamp duty also wae a tax tha& the rich mainly contributed to. A sound principle had been laid down that At WM unwise to impose penalties on those o$ the nation that worked hardest and-aaye/i; moat, Another tax which they were toljd ought be made to yield more was probaM duties. But probate was now paid on $ graduated scale and fell upon wealth which accrued to a man nobbyhUowa industry. ~.., ~-.„•■ ;

RESUMPTION OF THE £AtfD. A great deal of talk was heard about the Govern ment resuming poeaeeaiOß oJ the large estates. In principle tho Govern, ment wae entitled to resume posQeesioa of any lands when the interests of the State demand it. Do the clrcumatanoe« of the colony warrant auoh a ooureel (Cries of "Yes," and uproar). They would have to deal fairly with the owners and buy them out, and to do so they would have to borrow largely. How, the colony was not in a position to borrow, end before thinking of re-acqulriug actf uinjde it would be necessary fco deal fully wlp the estate they had at present, Hβ repeated they were not in a nqalUea tfl borrow say mote money, for Saaytteafe loans were raised fartliec taxation have to be laid on, , ,

oi tb.© colony was at present fast b&oqt four millions, and two millions warnabsorbed by providing Interest on debt* and permanent charges. The other two millions was required for the services of the country—the railways, pqat oified, education, police, defence, &c. The peojpf« were, he was sure, not prepared to snook off any of the present services, (Uproah) The whole of the revenue being pledgee}, theefore, he thought they had no right to think of further borrowing. He did no* intend to keep them much longer,* (A VbxoE— '* That s right," and uproar.) The Chairman appealed to the mes&lisg to keep order, bnfc it was several minutes before the speaker could continue. < Mr Kollkston continued.—His beliei was that they would do much better without further borrowiug. It would M necessary, he thought, that some oh,s.oQß should take place in their Parliamentary procedure, and one of the first tbingi would be to prevent gtonewalHag, a, proceeding that had .made their P&rusm.e&t during the last few sessions a byeword, Mr Molleston commented in strong terms on the way Parliament bm dealt with Judge Edwarde, and lp conclusion deplored the; position taken UB by tbe self-styled Liberal Press, who 413 not deal fairly with popular institutions, When newspapers devote thernael?aa to candidates instead of principlea, and when class was set against c!a?39, &OW coul4 the country progrees, The era ol a section of tbe Press was vote, ana vote only for your party. He would also e&j vote, ana vote at the ballot bos, ball fee would ask the electors not to let theiff Individual judgment fco be overriden py anyone. U they would vote coosdeatiousty he had no fear who would toe returned for Hals well. Mr RalleetQtt resumed big seat amid tumultuous uproar*

■ ■ ' QUESTIONS. ■' ■ -■■:■•<■' *■ Aflked whether he thought the Railway Commissioners were justified in diamlaeins the Executive for speaking &&. a public meeting, Mr Rolleston said that as far aa bs was aware the Commissioner*; did na% dismiss the men for apeakiogab apublio meeting, bub because they diaoofcytd orders.

Iα answer to whether Mr KoUetstOß thought the .Commissioners were jnafc when they dismissed ' the men at' ten minutes' notice, and, If elected,would fee do his beat to get them ?e-in»ta£ed, the candidate said be had the greatest sympathy with the men who were called oat by those four men, but the JBtailtttt? CoDonilsslonera were absolutely homaa, placed in the position they were, fco dsos they had done. In the interests of the country the Commissioners coald noS do other than dismiss tho mea when thfij refaeed duty. With regard to thetmn, he hid considerable sympathy with iaora ; they had bsen grossly misled, sad-fc© ttusted those who had brought them lot© trouble were now doing aometliiai towards maintaining their wives &ac families. With regard feo the ftmr inert, the Commisaionera were tiahk m not delaying to put them in -fclta 9»taS position as they ought to, been pitt tbetoselves when they called the others; out: that is, «« being oot o{ employment themeelyes. He did not see any rWon for attempting to remove the Commissioners. He hoped fco see the mm repeated. (Applause) , . »^ p i y tpaqueetlon m to whether he woal it 4 . b ? fr ™ vo * ot A Bo&td b<jlog appoitktefl tf enquire into grievancee In every branch ot the railway service, MsBoileeton eaid If anything like tha accueatlons made were correct he should certainly move.in the matter. In answer to a question askinpr whether he dould explain the reason inteili£oßt> working men are excluded froiii serving on Grand Juries, Mr Roixeston *t»ld the Saglieh precedent of havaug men of i>roperty as Grand Jurors wae followed hose. tie might cay that it was & very om& queettoa whether such jttriea ftife neeaea 2fe'all.- ; -' ; '-' An elector asked If Mr RolFeftton vis? aware oJt t£ie too* Oukt the LyiUUm 2 5 i»s»

made * compact witft' **J£»» e &*f\£2 him their support, if in return the bootmakers of Chjcfctchurch would vote forMr W P. Beeves?—The candidate said It seemed incredible. Hβ knew no more than what was stated in the papers. The same elector wished to know if Mr RoUeston was aware that the LytteUon Times, which is supposed to be the workin* man's friend, appears in the R.M. Court on the following day for sweating a boy on a Saturday afternoon I—Mr Bolleston said he had no knowledge whatever of tfee circumstance. .. Replying to a question in regard to tne abolitionbf the tJpper House, the candidate said he woalcfhave to consider any eraat change in our constitution very Srefully. Public opinion seemed to favor the second Chamber being an elective one. When a change did come about he should Uke to see the Upper Hoase effectively £n\ti?u£d to carTont its proper function, a check on hasty tegiejature. . . - One of the papers handed up contained theSTquerieaCTid MrßoUeston ever say that he would like to see the time when vnSes would be 2s 6d per day! Is Mr Botteston aware that the man opposing fitawas drammed out of the Volunteer force f-Mr Rolleston thought it a pity that the ma* who asked the question did Sot stand up, w that he might see nig. (Cries of -Answer" and groans). Uf coarse he would answer the questions, bat he wished the questioner would step oat. (More uproar.) He never said each a thing as was imputed to him in his life. The Question in regard to his opponent he did we think he should answer. _ -Another qaestion was—ls it ferae that yon are & large landowner in the North laJand f Mr Rolieeton did not think anyone had any right to ask about his private affairs. (Hoots.) But he would answer the Question, as he had heurd it was insinuated he wished to get into Parliament to further his own ends. He did cot own a single yard of land in the North . Replying to several questions in regard to education, Mr Roijjssion said he was In favor of upholding the present system ■in its entirety. He would uot be in favor of giving grants to any oue denomination, holding a» a matter of principle that it was not right to take revenue contributed by the people a»a whole, and give a portion to any oue section. In regard to women c suffrage, Mr jkoileeton did not think the question came within the range of practical politics. He would say he was not altogether in favor of the movement. At the same time, there were functions at present administered by some of the local bodies in connection with hospitals and charitable institutions which it might be well to allow women to take an active part in the management. _ One question was to this effect:—Did Mr RoUeston go through the Addington Workshops recently, in company with Mr Botherham, with che intention of coercing the i men into voting for him i —lv answer, the candidate said it would • nor be saying much for the working men if they could be coerced by a gentleman walking through the shops. No reply, he thought, was required to the qaestion. In reply to other questions, he said he bad seen no reasonable proposals for changing the property tax into a land and income tax. The importing merchants do sot pay the largest amount of the proDerty tax. He was not aware of the details of the Labor Bills, but he was prepared to give them the best consideration. The working day was established by custom—eight hours. He bad no objection teamen joining Onions, as he approved of Unions; what he said he objected to Vfaa coercion. Noman had to work for 4s a day When he was superintendent, and" it was Absolutely untrue tuat half a million of Canterbury money went from the Provincial Treasury and was spent in the North Island. He had been informed that the reason Addington gaol had beensbut ttpwa-jthat it was not required. reason people had to go to the North Island for land was undoubtedly that all tile «ood land ta Canterbury had bees absorbed. He disapproved of gambling in all its forms, and would do his best to pat ft stop to it. , .. Whiie Mr Bolleeton was answering the questions, the rowdies in the back of the Sail kept up a flee of coarse Interjections, aud the windows were continually being opened with the evident intention of sending in missiles. Several earthy sods were thrown in, but the windows being well guarded, those outside were frustrated in their designs, and were unable to disturb the meeting to any appreciable ' The Chabrmas stated that the meeting WftS not according Mr Kolleston fair play, but he could assure them that if they did ! Bdt care to listen to him his speech was "being reported, and would be read by the intelligent electors all over New Zealand. tOheereand uproar.) Mr Rolleston had answered all cheqaestions of a political; sature. : • •• ■ 'Mr HoDDiKorr then stepped forward end said he begged to move a hearty vote Of thanks to Mr RoilestOn, coupled with a Vot» of want of confidence. 'Ihe motion was'seconded amid cheers from, those stationed at the rear of the building. Silence being somewhat restored, Mr SfASUr said he wished to propose an amendment. This announcement was the occasion of afresh outburst of rowdyism, and the speaker made several ineffectual 'attempts to proceed. The uroposer of the hostile motion in vain appealed for fair play. Amid much interruption Mr Nairn proceeded to say that they had that evening listened to an add rens from one of the very few statesmen In New Zeataud, 'and he moved tuat a very hearty vote of 'thanks oe accorded. The interruption being continued, the Chairman left the 'ijtage without putting either motion or amendment. • ; The meeting dispersed with three 'groans forMr BoHes,tun and cheers for the candidate.