The Premier's Speech.

Feilding Star, Volume XIX, Issue 62, 10 September 1897, Page 2

The Premier's Speech.

We uike the following excerpt from the Wellington Tints' report of Mr •-"efldon's speech in rop!y to various addresses of welcome The Hon. gtntieman said : M: Act. rig-Mayor, pecretaries and chairman of committees, ladies and gentlemen presenting addresses, to one and ali of you I offer my sincere thanks for the kind feelings therein conveyed. I here are times when the lips will not give utterance to the feelings of th« heart, that is my position at the present momout. Continuing, Mr Seddon said he had travelled round the world since he had met them last. They had seen the beauties of the new world and the wonders of the old, the beauties of the new in America, which was all freshness and beauty and charm, and in the Motherland they had seen the solidity, firmness, grandeur, strength and greatness of the Empire to which they had the honour to belong. (Cheers) But he could a&sure them that, notwithstanding all that he had seen, nothing to him was so splendid as that mom«nt, as he stood in the presence of the thousands assembled to welcome him back to New Zealand. (Cheers,) He regretted that they had been so long kept waiting. It was no fault of his. He had been with them in spirit days before, but. as his old friend would have said " We are here all the same." It waa to him the greatest pleasure he could experience to receive the addresses. He felt sure that the cordial welcome accorded to him was a national one, and not one alone from those who were present, but from erery tnan and women in New Zealand. (Cheers.) He had been, as had been stated in one of the addresses, their ambassador. He had been representing this favoured, this beautiful, this grand and progressive country in the old laud in an event unsurpassed in the history of the nation. (Cheers), He could tell them that it would never be effaced from his memory, nor from the memory of all who had had the pleasure of witnessing it. The deafening cheers given on that great day were still ringing in his oars. They were ringing in his ears almost until he heard the ringing cbtera on the wharf en his arrival that day in Wellington. If they asked him the question be would gay these were the people, portion of that great race whose pageant be had been witnessing and their cheers, as the eh sera of those at Home had been wafted to the colony, would be wafted Home across the waters of the ocean, and would tell that the people were pleased with what had been done, and exactly as the addresses and doings of the colonial representatives had been wafted to them on the day of the Jubilee, so would the answer of the colonies be carried back They little knew what a scene it was on that Jubilee day. They little knew what it was to travel through seven miles of cheers. (Laughter.) Whether it be in joy or whether it be in sorrow, the human voice had its peculiar in* tonations, and when listecing to those cheers it was easy to see how close they were to the people of the colonies. It was easily understood that there was real affection for them ; there were thousands in the Mother Country — fathers and mothers and other relations who had their friends here in the colonies ; there were young New Zealandera who had never seen their relations in the Mother Country and who still lived and revered them and when cheering the representatives of tha colonies that day, those at Home were really wafting to their relatives and kin acroas the sea a cordial and hearty welcome by those representing them. (Cheers.) Mr Seddon then referred to the Queen and the affection with which the sovereign was received, and gave her reply to the address from the New Zealand Parliament as follows : — " I thank the Legislative Council and the House of Representatives of New Zealand for their loyal and dutiful address. I have been greatly touched by the many manifestations of loyalty and devotion to my Throne which have been expressed on the occasion of the completion of the sixtieth year of my reign ; and I am much gratified by the warmth with which your Parliament has joined in them. I request you to convey my hearty thanks to the Legislative Council and the House of Representatives of New Zealand." Continuing, the Premier said that, notwithstanding his travels and the many placed he had visited, he had come to the conclusion that New Zealand is the finest country on the tace of God's earth. (Cheers, and a voice then called for three cheers for New Zealand, the call being responded to right heartily.) The Mother Country was not fading, im they had been told by some, or as they, might have read. He believed that to-day it stood firmer than ever it had stood before ; but while next to New Zea land and the colonies came the Mother Country — first it really was in the Old World — jet there was room for improvement. But that improvement was steadily taking placa, and one thing of all others that pleased him most was to find that attention was now being given to internal matters, and that our kindred at Home, the great masses of the people, were having matters considered and dealt with in the manner to which they were entitled.