THE PREMIER AT HOKITIKA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 7874, 8 January 1904, Page 3

THE PREMIER AT HOKITIKA.

Per Press Association. • y HOKIfiKA, January 7. UD The Premier opjiiei the Kohat-it 1 * Bridge to-day, On arrival the horses were removed froift hh carriage and he and Mrs Seddon were drawn across the bridge by sons of the settlers. The 'Premier pointed out that the construction of - the bridge conferred a great boon upon the settlers, and threw opeiT'an, area of some siX thousand acres -<sf C?(Vwn. lani •-■ Th© crean cry which had been established I was an additional evidence of th,e prosper- J ity of the district. He referred in, 3 foiling term* to the sudden demise 0f his 'VV friend and late cdlleague, the Heih. W. p. C. Walker, which sad svent landed to f dim the pleasant 1 reunion with his (the Ir€ Premier's) old Mends and constituents. He urged upon the oldar settlers the wisdom of seeing that their sons and daughters were sell led on the land. From his „ experience the settlers were the best-to-do people in the colony, and in all respects 2n the .nost valuable and successful colonists ware those who were on the land. Roads • and briiges wore of paramount import- JT ance to the development an.i settlement *"■ of the country, but Lhe construction of such works could rot be done without money,' and the colony was to be congratulated on the successful notation of the recent half-million loan. By finding the money in the colony, and thus showing confidence in ourselves, the colonists wera improving their credit abroad, and A( ! the more self-contained the better our I credit would be. When the Main' Trunk y1 lines of railway were completed the I I necessity of borrowing money for public V. works would be removed. The Premier, wi with pride, referred to the fact that he tir had represented the people of Kahotahi n _ for four-and-twenty years in the New " Zealand Parliament, without a single re ' break. Speaking of his old Hoard Board m colleagues, he said there were now oniv two remaining of those who originally sat with him, and of the Provincial 1 Councillors, of sixteen only five remained. He was the only member who had sat continuously in the New Zealand Parliament viince 1879. He was happy to say that he had left Wellington with a light heart/ He anticipated for the nine months of the financial year there would be an ri .increase over last year's revenue for th<; M same period of about four hundred tho 1- J sand.'. l q{

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