BANQUET TO THE MINISTER OF LANDS. (BY TELEGRAPH.) Palmerston, October 16.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 7269, 17 October 1891, Page 3

BANQUET TO THE MINISTER OF LANDS. (BY TELEGRAPH.) Palmerston, October 16.

me complimentary banquet at PalmerJon given to the Hon. J. M'Kenzie by his constituents was largely attended, ev( ry available seat in the local hall being occupied. The chair was taken by Mr J»mes Scott, the Mayor, supported on the right by the Premier (Mr BilIunc. ), and on the left by tho guest of the evening. Sir Robert Stout and tho Hon. Mr Ward also occupied seats of honor, and the members present included the Hon. S. E. Shrimski, representative of tho Upper House, and Messrs Pinkerton, Hutchison, Eurnshaw, Duncan, Hall-Jones, M'Intosh, Cairncross, and Pratt, the House of Representatives ; while the local supporters of tho Minister were reinforced by a strong contingent from Duncdin, Oamaru, and other centres. Apologies were received from the Hon. Mr Seddon, Mr James Anderson, Mr W. C. Walker, tho Hon. Mr Buckley, Mr J. Kelly (M.H.R.'s), Mr J. L. Gillies, Mr \V. Dawson (M.H.R.), and Mr Louis Dasler. Mr Seddon telegraphed to tho chairman, •• Extremely sorry unable to be with you and your honored guest. His colleagues and friends hero send kind greetings for auld lang syne." Mr Buckley wired, " Heartily wish you success, and am glad your constituents appreciate your exertions on behalf of the colony." Mr J. F. M. Fraser, in proposing the toasb of his Excellency's advisers, s»id, speaking from 20 years' experience, he believed no Ministry hul been moro severely criticised than the present one, and the result of that criticism was that the Ministry had & very high record among the people. The Hon. J. Balance, who on rising to reply, was greeted with a storm of npplause, returned thanks for tho wirm manner in which tho const had been received. The Government were perhaps hardly entitled to the eulogies of tho proposer of the toast, but they had tried, and it had been their earnest endeavor to meet, as far ns possible, the expectations of the people of the colony, and as to the criticism which had been referred to, a Government that was afraid of that was not worthy of its position. As to the charge that nothing had been done during the last session, if nothing else had been done but pass the Bill for changing tho incidence of taxation, tho record would h»vo been a good one. That measure had not been well received by a class, but those who professed to object were trying to throw dust in the eyes of the people. The great body of farmers must come under the exemption of L3000 improvements. Parliament had also imposed a graduated tax. Four or five yeers ago an attempt was made to introduce such a measure into South Australia. It failed, and the Government went out of office, but he noticed the very gentlemen who had proposed the want of confidence were now proposing the very tax previously rejected, New Zealand was, however, the first country in the world that had actually put the graduated tux in force. It had been Baid that the new taxation would compel people to divide their estates. He believed that the effect would be to cau*e a bursting up of many of tho large estates. That, however, was not the primary object of the tax, but rather to make land contribute a fair share of the taxation. The tax was a just one in itself, and would certainly cause more people to settle on the land. The Government had not contented themselves by preaching an abstract doctriue, but they had put their hands to the plough and done what he believed to bo good work. They asked the people to judge them by the work they had accomplished, and if this were done tho criticism to which they were subjected would have very little c fleet upon the minds of the people. It gave him great pleasure to meet the Palmerston people, because he understood they had always been loyal to his colleague the Minister of Lands, whose Land Bill was a great work in itself, and would have become law but for the Legislative Council. It had been dropped, much to tho regret of his honorable colleagues, because he would not swallow the leading principle they had introduced into ife. Whit would the country have thought of the Government if they had basely surrendered those principles at the dictation of a junto of Tories sitting in the Upper House. The people would in such a case have spurned the Government with contempt. The Government did not intend to abandon either their principles or the measure rejected by the Legislative Council, They meant to make those measures still more liberal and more acceptable to tho land owning and other classes in the country, and to introduce them agiin next session. They hoped to introduce them into the Upper Chamber under More favorable circumstances than before. Was it not an anomaly that the majority of the representatives of the people should find their measure rejected in the second Chamber by a majority that did not represent the people. The thing was unreasonable, and would not bearcriticism. It had been said that it would be utterly wrong to make fresh appointments, but if the Government wero to carry out the mandate of the people they must have the Council so constituted that they would be prepared to carry out the fiat of the representatives of the people. It might be said that in this the Government were going to impose more burdens upon the people. To that he said the only alternative was to abolish the Upper Chamber altogether. He had not advocated thab so far, but if he were under the impression that the obstruction would continue he would raise the flag at once, and proclaim himself a supporter of tho numerical system. He hoped, however, that with the alteration to seven years' tenure, and the introduction of fresh blood into the Council, it would become possible co have liberal measures carried by that body. While exorcising discretion in making the appointments tho Ministry were bound to take care to prevent a recurrence of such obstruction as occurred last session. The hon. gentleman was most enthusiastically cheered at several points in his speech, and resumed his seat amid loud cheers. The Hon. J. Ward also replied replied to the toast, The attacks levelled against the Government were mainly threefold. First— That their policy was against the Interest of the farmers ; secondly, thab it was such as to create a want of confidence in the country ; and thirdly, that it would have the effect of driving money from the colony. He regarded these objections as absurd. Farmers would be relieved by the L3000 exemption and by the concessions in regard to stock, and there was no foundation for the other chaiges. It was to bo regretted that there waB a tendency to write the colony down in the interests of party, Nothing could be more disastrous to the colony than for those who are distant to read the articles which appear in some of our leading journals, and unfortunately there was reason to believe that some of Qhose articles were written in the inter esta of party. All that the Government asked was that their policy should receive a fair trial. So far it had not had an opportunity of being fairly tried, and until it bad it wos premature to say that the Government were trying to do aoraething

' t?iat was disastrous to the colony. Tho toast of the gnesb of tho evening was proposed by Mr W. H. Williams, of Shag Point, who claimed to havekuowu the Hon. J. M'Kenzio for 30 yean. Tho Hon. J. M'Kenzio, who was received with loud und continued applause, said he believed he had got tho most arduous duty to perform that night that he had over porformed in his life, and he did not know how he could properly thank them for the very great kindness they had done him, and for tho manner in which they had honored him that night. Ho gathered from their being there that night that thoy wero pleased that ho occupied the position ho did in tho Ministry of the colony. (Applause.) Thoir presenco thoro was a sufficient answer to all the criticism that had been referred to by the previous speakers. He could safely say that he had got a fair share of criticism, but thoy would agree with him that it did not affect him much personally. (Laughter and applause.) Ifc had been said that he wanted to do away with freehold in land. Now, tho Bill that he brought before Parliament had tho full sanction of his colleagues, and it providod that anyone wishing to purchaso land for cash could do so. He could either purchase it on deferred payment, if ho had no cash to buy it with, or ho could tnko it up on perpetual lease. The \ Bill, however, provided that there should J>o no more iarge estates with very few improvements made upon them. It was intended that thero should be no more speculation in land, and he asked what possiblo hardship could ib do to anyi individual who wished to become n bona jule settler, and who wished to improve his land* The very clause of the Bill that was made so much noiso about was similar to a clsuse in the L-ind Act when he first took up land in the colony. Then no one could got a Crown grant for the land which he had taken up from the Crown until a cortain number of improvements had been mado upon the land. Settlers got on splendidly under that system of land tenure until the Sons of Belial arrived in Nlw Zoalwd. (Laughter and applause). These gentlemen, is soon as they arrived, mado the laws to suit themselves, and they euactcd that it was not necessary to nuke improvements on the land, and that \va9 the first of the creation of big estates in Otago. He notioed that tho Tory Pi ess of the colony wanted to make out that the Premier and himself had a difference of opinion as to accepting tho ii-neiid-monts made by the Legislative Council in his Land Bill, but not a word of it was true. If he had accepted tho amend" ments he would simply have got a consolidating" measure, and tho liberal provisions would have been torn from the Bill. All who knew hi'n knew that he would not be a party to anything of that sort. (Applause.) Tho Legist itivo Couucil got their instructions from the Tory Press of the colony to reject the M'Kenzie Land Bill— (laughter and applause),—and he had seen it in the papers, six or eight weeks before tho Bill came before tho Upper House, that the Council would never puss the Bill. No man of honor could any longer hold his seat as Minister of Lands if he was to be dictited to. By whom ? Who were the loading spirits in the Legislative Council in dealing with his Bill ? They were tha managers of a mortgage company, tho head of a financial firm in Christchurch, and one of the biggest hnd owners in the colony. (Applause). These were the three men who were driving his Bill to destruction. (Laughter.) Was he to accept the dictation of these men. If he had done so he should be worthy of the scorn of the people he represented, (Hear, hear.) There had been a lob of criticism about the proposal in his Bill that one man should have one run, bub he had gono very carefully into the matter, and he found that so long as the present law continued in existence, and large companies monopolised the pastoral runs in this colony, we would lose vary considerably by it. At the present time there were 163 run3 let in the colony, and they were held by thirteen lessees. These runs contained 14,638,203 acres, and carried about one million sheep. Tho annual rent was about 3d per acre, or a total rent of about lid per sheep. He was confident in his own mind that the country was worth more money than thoy got for it— (hear, hear),— and that if the land wero occupied by small owners irore revenue would be derived from it. Ho proceeded to give a number of other instances of large blocks of land being held by companies, which were only yielding a small revenue, and pointed out thu if they were in the hands of small owners it would be all tho better for the colony. He was convinced that his Bill would yet pass the Legislative Council, and that it would yeb becomo the corner stone upon which tho future land policy of this country would bo built. — (Liughter and applause.) After referring to what he had already achieved to settle people on the land, and eulogising the Liberal party for what they had done la^ session, and for the manner in which they had conducted themselves in tho House, ho concluded by saying that it would be his earnest endeavor to always bo worthy of the confidence that was re- ' posed in him by his supporters at the present time, and he hoped that he would never do anything to disgrace his constituency. (Loud applause.)