THE PRIME MINISTER.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 107, 2 November 1908, Page 4

THE PRIME MINISTER.

. AW .ACTIVE LEADER. N The Prime Minister, isir Joseph Ward, returned to Wellington from tho South yesterday. During his visit to Southland, he delivered no fewer than twenty-one addresses in his own constituency, Awarua. A noticeable feature of the present campaign, he states, is tho great increase in the number of names put on the various electoral rolls. Although there were no burning questions, the general interest taken in the contests was most marked. Thu steady and growing importance of the licensing question had also probably a good deal to do with the additions to the •rolls. The announcement in last Thursday's Post that the rolls would clote on or before Saturday seems to have caused some surprise in the South. In explanation, Sir Joseph Ward states that to have left the issue of the writs till Monday or Tuesday, as was originally suggested, would have only loft four or five working days before nomination day, and that was not considered sufficient. He was of ppinioa that a flexible system in regard to the day of the issue of the writs was necessaiy. The Prime Minister says that there is every prospect that the farmers in the South will have a good season, the conditions for dairying have been satisfactory, and the crops look promising. Sir Joseph Ward wil 1 deliver a public address at Carterton on Wednesday, and will leave for Auckland on Thursday, taking part on the way, and at the northern city, in the celebration of the opening of the Main Trunk railway.