ANNUAL DINNER.

Evening Star, Issue 9581, 29 December 1894, Page 1

ANNUAL DINNER.

The eighth annual dinner of the New Zealand Commercial Travellers and Warehousemen's Association was held m the Grand Hotel last night. The president of the Association (Mr James Wilson), occupied the chair, being supported on the right by Mr jT. K. Harty, Mr W. flow, and Mr A. S. Paterson, and on the left by His Worship the-Mayor (Mr H, S. Fish) and Mr G. L. Denniston. The vice-chair was filled by Mr D. M'Pherson. There were about forty gentlemen present. A magnificent spread whs provided by Host Piercey. and after the" company had spent an hour in discussing the many good things on-the tables a start was made with the toast list.

After the loyal toasts had been proposed by the chairman and duly honored, Mr A. Solomon, in a happy speech, proposed the toast of " Ihe Parliament,'* making reference in.the course of a few remarks to the experimental nature of the legislation passed by Parliament last session. He coupled with the toast {he name of the Hon. Mr Bolt.

In reply, the Hon.-W. M. Bolt thanked the previous speaker for the manner in which"he had propose! the toast. Respecting the Parliament, he said that if they looked on it as an institution they must recognise that it was really a credit amongst the- Parliaments of the colonies; Mistakes had been made, no doubt, but it had to - be. remembered thati l;mt?Jb&.M. the settlement of this end of the colony was' eoncfflriga;istrl«^"3?iel i t«W years to i run before rfc reached its jubilee. Looking back on the past fifty years, he thought tney must be proud not only of themselves as partakers in the work, that had been done, but also of those who had gone before them. With regard to the present Parliament, he must say that if there wos anything- to be ditsatisfied with about it it was mainly on account of its constitution. He did not think the people who. supported the present form of party government clearly recognised the great change that had taken place in the functions of a 1 Government during the last twenty years During that time public opinion had changed completely as to what the functions of a Government were, and the consequence., was that a great many things were now tbrowifxm a Government that twenty years-agS never have been thought they should U|£djHpce. The fact was the Government"' wet#JgH|^carrying on work jvnt like the board °f dMggßS.of a public company, As things were we required in our social lifeivas done by theGovernment, but those things, he held, could not be done under the party system of government. For that reason, then, he thought there should be a change in Parliament in the direction he had referred to. No doubt a great amount of talk went on, but the conflicting interests necessarily brought that up. .As for the depression that was now. being felt all over the world, there were, of course, reasons given for it; but he did not- think that any one reason would give the clue to the difficulty. A number of gentlemen in Dunedin thought it was a question of currency, and others were of opinion that it was a - question of the advance of the efficiency of machinery. For himself, he believed it was likely that the cause would be found partly in one of those reasons and partly in the other. Lately he was reading a speech by. Mr Keir Hardie at Arbroath, in which reference was made to this question. That gentleman quoted remarks made by Sir Isaac—he forgot the name —a Eadical member of the House of Commons. Sir feaac, a large manufacturer, said be'believed the working classes were taxed up to the last shilling, and that any other taxes would have to be put on wealth as death dues. He had himself, he said, a machine which occupied forty .hands where previously 3,000 were employed, and. •he felt it would be only right if half his property went to the Government at his death, seeing the advantage he had received from them and the. benefit he had derived'from the machhvry. That was a generous offer, but, as Mr Keir Hardie pointed out, it was right that the Government should extend protection to Sir Isaac's workmen. The question was, he said, what protection was the Government to give to those 2,960 men for their loss of work, and that was the problem that every Government would have to attempt to solve. This difficulty of the unemployed was only one outward manifestation of the depression in commercial affairs, and to do away with one would do away with the other. This great problem of the age oar Par* liament had attempted to deal with. He did not say they bad done the best that might be done, but they had done the be»t they could towards it. He thanked the company for the manner in which they had received the toast. Mr D. M'Pherson proposed "The Corporation of Dunedin."

The Mayor, in responding to the toast, said he thought he was justified in saying that the present Council and its predecessors had done good work in the' City, and that the citizens ought aa a whole to be proud of the result. The monuments of the Council's labors in the last twenty-eight years—during which time he had been more or less connected with the Corpora tion—stood around them, and he thought the citizens might congratulate themselves on the fact that the rates were so low as they were. At the present time the Corporation was engaged in a work of the most important character.' which was calculated to be of great beneSt not only to the present generation, but also to succeeding generations. He could only hope that with the co-operation of the councillors he would be able to see many of the schemes now before the Council corne to fruition. He believed the work that the Council was engaged in was work which it might fairly do, and he ventured to say that if all the schemes 'which he had himself advocated were given effect to they would, if they were adopted in the way he suggested, cast "no additional burdens on the ratepayers, and when he did finally quit the scene of his labors in the capacity which he at present occupied he trusted he might be able to look back upon his labors with all the pleasure whioh they could'wish him.

Mr G. L. Denniston, in proposing "Success to the New Zealand Commercial Travellers and Warehousemen's Association," congratulated the Association on having attained to the respectable age—for colonial institutions—of ten years. Though he was very grateful for the careful management and generous benefactions which combined to make the institution what it was, he could not help regretting it had not been started fifteen years or so earlier, for trade was better then and profits were more abundant, and the traders of Dunedin would have been more inclined to give more liberal endowments than at present. They must be thankful, however, for the measure of success whioh the Association had attained, and he thought it must be a source of great satisfaction to the management to be able to submit the statement which had been submitted, especially for a year whioh had been characterised by such severe depression that many firms had sot been able to do more than make both ends meet. He referred with particular gratification to the fact that during the past year the permanent relief fund had benefited to the extent of £267, and also alluded feelingly to the sudden removal of one of the prominent office-bearers of the Association, Mr W. Secular, the manner of whose death must appeal very strongly to commercial travellers, who in the life they led were exposed to many risks. "^

The Chairman responded. In doing so he said that he thought the past year was the most successful the Association had yet had, and that was due, he thought, Jo the careful management and energy of the Committee and to the loyalty towards the Association which had been evinced by all connected with it. If the Association continued to be conducted on the present lines, and to have such a committee as it had at present, he bad no doubi that it would go on prospering to an even greater extent than in the past year, and he believed that in a short time they would attain what they had looked -upon as thengoal the obtaining of a relief fund of £1,500. Without fear of contradiction he declared that if not within the next year, that happy result would be obtained wttbin the next two years, and after that they would be able to look to the establishment of a. scholarship fund. As employers and emp'oyed they all knew what troubles theychad had to contend with within the past eighteen months. Many firms had, as Mr Denniston had sajd, not been able to more than make ends meet, and-he was afraid there were seme which had. not been able to do that. It would easily be seen, thertf ore, that the troubles of the commercial travellers had been more within the last eighteen months than probably bad been known at tpj previous time in the history of New Zealand. Though firms might not have donelra well during the past twelve mouths as might have been wished, any success they did attain was in lank' measure attributable to the energy displayed,

by the oommercW trwalfoai. K-nriogM aa • old commensal traveller/the diffiealtfai ttatthe class had to contend with, he wwt «#&_».lfrfct too much leniency could not be shown to *M» at the present time. If the merchsa— la Dm* edin and Ohristchuroh ytxMMw some mare enthusiasm into their business at the present time, and show more confidence la tbeiutttre of New Zealand, the travellers wraja have lew dimcolty in doing business than they expettV enced at present.—(Applause;) -Jn Welliagtai they did net hear the-tmjrchants eoinphtrntaof , the badness of the timet, and it was Oat net which had induced the 'Southern .joftgoods - merchants to invest their capital in Wellington, and that it was which had made Wellington. If the merchants in the-Sooth Island had more confidence in themselves, and put a better front on matters, he believed that things would be very different from what they were at the present time.—(Applause.) Mr A. Bust proposed "The Commercial and Manufacturing Interests," and pleaded for greater pluck and energy on behalf of the manu- ' factoring; and importing firms. He pointed out that the depression was not local, but existed throughout the known world. From whatever cause,- whether from bimetallism or some other ism, the depression existed, and when it ceased to erfat in other parts isf the wortdNew Zealand would share in the prosperity of other countries. Mr W. Gow, in responding, agreed with much that had been alreadyssiid, and regretted -fery nmah to hear the constant whisper of, depression. Being in a sense <ms of the ordinary.rim of trade himself, wafte able to judge of the truth or otherwise ox the statements concerning the dulneu of business. Probably there wis some truth in them, but there ' was stall ig Dnnedin - a very, healthy sound trade to be done.—(Hear, hear.) The . merchants told him that their bad debts were far fewer now than they had been for a long time. This might not be evidence of- a brisk trade, bnt it was evidence of careful trading, and with it theie was a certainty of a recovery sooner or later, and that recovery he believed to be on" foot now. The country was Bound, trade would increase, and times would again be prosperous; but, as he had said, the merchants must give up this cry of depression. If they would do that, and make the best of things, in due time there would be an ample recovery. Many specifics were put forward, one of' the moat notable of which was bimetallism. He was hot a bimetallist He recognised, as a good many of them would, "that " bimetallism " was simply another term for "reduction of wages."—(A Voio*: "No.") Well, tbs*.was his opinion, and that bimetallism would in any general sense benefit New Zealand was one of those things he could not see. There was nothing that would benefit New Zealand in relation to other countries but a general* advance in the staple products of this colony as compared, not with golch tut with the other or similar products of other countries. He could not see what benefit there would be in a general advance of prices all over the world, caused by bimetallism, or that would help us one iota, unless there was some special advantage to come to this colony; and that advantage could not come, so far as,he could see, unless there was some speeialadvance in our staple products. In conclusion, he thanked them for so heartily receiving the toast of " Commercial and Manufacturing Interests." The Mayor proposed "The Agricultural and Pastoral Pursuits," and referred to their vast importance to the community. We could not expect our great natural industries to be prosperous with the prices at present ruling in the. English market He believed, however, that '.: there was too much crying out about Hie depression, and that this colony would compare favorably with other parts of the world. For hffi part . he was no lover of the present Government, and thought the empirical policy of the past session calculated to injure New Zealand, and especially to result in injury to the working man; hut for all that the-policy of the Government had not created the depression, and the Government ought not to be blamed for its existence. He proposed the toast, coupled with the name ef _ Mr G. L. Denniston.

Mr Denniston replied briefly. The other toasts were "1 he Ladies," "The Press," and " The Host." During the evening a number of excellent songs and recitations were __________