ADDRESS BY THE HON. R. STOUT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7302, 14 April 1885, Page 6

ADDRESS BY THE HON. R. STOUT.

TAB announcement that the Hon. the Premier (Mr. R. Stout) would address a meeting of the citizens of Auckland at the Theatre Royal last night, at the request oit the Liberal Association, was sufficient to bring together almost as large an audience as ever assembled within its walk. The body of the hall was a dense mass of humanity, and the dress circle, which was reserved for ladies, and gentlemen who accompanied them, ami for admission to which a charge was made, was vrell filled. The stage was also filled with a large number of leading citizens, membors of the Oity Council, Harbour Board, and other public bodies. Amongst them were the Hon. Sir Fredk, Whitaker, the Hon. W. Swaneon, Messrs. Thompson, Peacock, flamlin, and Dargaville, M.H.K's.

When the Hon. the Premier entered, accompanied by Hie Worship the Mayor, he was greeted with prolonged applause, which was continued as he advanced to the front and took his seat.

Hie Worship the Mayor (Mγ. W, R. Waddel) opened the proceedings by reading the advertisement and briefly introducing the speaker.

Mr. Stout, who, on rising to speak, was received with renewed cheers, said : Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,—Before I begin to address yon on the subject that I have chosen to-night, I wish to say a few words as to my position here. Some time ago the Auckland Liberal Association sent a request to .me that if I came to Auckland I should address a meeting under its auspices, and I at once assented, because I call myself a Liberal—(cheers),—and I am exceedingly glad to see that in Auckland there is still political life and still anxiety for liberal principles. (Hear.) I have not forgotten that in. years gone by—in 1875 —I was fighting on the same side as the majority of the Auckland people, fighting in favour of Provincialism, and I felt sure that the people who then had fought so nobly for local self-government were actuated by some high political principles, and had not forgotten them. I felt, however, in a difficulty in choosing a subject on which to speak. My colleague, Sir J. Vogel, had spoken to you on general politics. Your own representatives have no doubt, and others will no doubt, give you art account, of what took place in the House of Representatives, and 1 do not desire in a meeting of this kind to enter upon any question of party politico. POLITICAL IDEALS. . I thought I would be doing myself the better justice and paying you a higher compliment by seeing if I could point out iiome political ideals that I believe every true colonist should have ever before him, and perhaps help you to see how we might attain them. (Cheers.) To-night, therefore, I have chosen this subject for my address. Before I begin to speak on it I want to show you why! think it is an exceedingly practical subject. TECHNICAL EDUCATION, We have heard, and I am glad to think that in Auckland the subject is popular, and the need of technical education is felt. (Cheers.) Now what does that imply? It does not mean teaching a boy to be a carpenter or an engineer or a mason. We have various kinds of education. _We have a literary education, an education that will acquaint the boy with, perhaps, many languages and the literature of many tongues. We have also scientific education, an education that will give a boy or a lad a- biaai towards scientific pursuits. These two different kinds of education have their advantages. A literary education is a noble end in itself. It teaches culture, and it is perhaps one : of the best mental gymnastics to which any boy or lad can be put. And so with scientific education. It has a useful end in itself. A boy by it becomes acquainted with nature, with its many marvels, and he becomes also mentally or intellectually trained. . What, then, it may be asked, ie a technical education ? What does a technical education imply ? It implies that there is in the most practical work that a man can do, that there is even in carpentering, engineering, and I could mention a hundred other works that mechanics are employed on, I;hat there is lying underneath them all a principle or law, and that though you may have in a technical school a carpenter's bench or a turning lathe, that is really not technical education alone. A boy must learn the law of mechanics. He must see that in the most practical things of life there is an ideal behind by which, if he is to be a practical man, be must shape his work. That is what is meant by technical education ; and by proper technical education also we hope to see our youth having a bias towards industry, and not being ashamed of work, and of hard work too. (Cheers.) If then there is in this most practical thing of life, labour, hard labour, mechanical labour, aome law to be learned, some idea to be set before the man who is to become a skilled mechanic— is there such a thing in politics ? 7»aAOTICAL POLITIC! AND TKCHNIAL EDUCATioy. We hear people say, " Oh, politico is a practical thing; we. must have what are called practical politicians." I admit there must be practical politicians, but I say the true politician must recognise that there are laws in the political world with whioh he must become acquainted, just as there are lawn in mechanics and laws to be discovered by the scientific man ; and so, if we wish to get a ■killed mechanic, we must have him not merely taught the use of the plane or saw, but taught in the laws of mechanics, nod given what is called a technical training if he is to become a great mechanic . So in politics. ■ The politician must have an ideal before him; and if we are practical politicians we must see there is a law, and that after all politics is not what is termed mere muddledom, showing nothing to guide the politician through bis political career. /Let -me give you another example." Suppose you'want to become an expert miner,—how do you think : a man oan 1 become a true miner, a scientific miner, by merely delving in the es rth ? Of course there are geniuses everywhere, even amongst the miners, where you have a man almost of no education wh,o becomes a most skilled workman, just as you have geniuses in portrait painting, or —some one who is known, we - will say, as a born musician. He does not require, it may be, any technical training whatever. No doubt there are some such men amongst miners, but if we want to see. a. thoroughly skilled miner, who will not make blunders in carrying on his work, he requires to have technical training. In order to develop the great mineral wealth on the continent schools of mines have biien established, where the miner has to learn the science of mineralogy and engineering, &c., before he can get a proper certificate, that is, in fact, before he can be regarded as a qualified miner. Now what does that recognise ? It recognises what I have said about technical education, that there are laws to be learnt, or in other words there are ideals to be net forth. If then, in these matters, in practical things like carpentry and mining, there lire laws to be learnt, ideals to be set up by the mechanic and miner, then I nay there are laws whioh guide us in all our practical actions, and that it is the duty of the man who wishes to perform his duties of citizenship, to try and discover those raws," and to conform his political views and conduct with the ideal ;he ■ sets before him, «■ Cy'£ ; f t'plfALS TO.BB SOUGHT ATTBB.' \ ' \; > %

I therefore propose to show that there are some ideals to be discovered which would onnoble us as colonists in our political action. I go further, and say unless your practical politician has got clear ideals before him, the laws of political and social life to be remembered and kept, you will find his political action like a mariner without a compass. Hβ will be driven hither and thither with every wind, and you electors will be accusing him peihaps of insincerity, perhaps of "ratting" (laughter), accusing him of all sorts of political crimiw, while after all the blame is not so much in him. Hβ may be uincere enough, but has not perhaps set before him a true ideal, to which he i> ever striving; and you perhape for toe same reason may have been as wayward as he, and changed hither and thither by the political winde which we know exist, even in colonies. (Laughter.) Let me say before I go further one or two words about the nature of this kind of political education. Wβ hear a great deal of science nowadays!. Scientific education, as it is termed, is more popular thau classical education. Weil, what is political science;, what is social soience? I nay political science or social science, using it to express something more than is ordinarily meant by it, ia tlao grandest of all sciences. (Cheers.)

'■ , ti.rT.HK AIM OJ , POLITICS. " / What is the aim of all politics]! Do you think the aim oi politics is solely to get a road here, a bridge there, and a railway in another place ? " If any constituency or colony has only that political ideal before it, it is not fulfilling its duties as a constituency of -true citizens. - You have in this town a Free Library, free schools, and other institutions. What is. the aim of all that ? It is to strive to have a more perfect man than we have yet had, and in order that we may have a more perfect State ban we have, yet had. And if such be our ideals and aim in life, to have a more perfect man and more perfect State, , you will find that the constituency which has this ideal before it, and has - this aim before it will not only be conferring a favour upon itself, but a favour upon those who are to come after us, which will in after i years be inestimable to them. Lei; me draw your attention to some ideals we must keep before ns if we wish to have a perfect State— ideals which, though they may be termed theoretical and idealistic, are just as praci tical as technical education for our mechanics, just as practical as anything in politics can be. (Cheers.) We may start with two things. We have got what is termed the individual, and we have got the State. It has its organisation, its functions, its limitations, its rights, and its duties. ' Let me approach one ideal we mast keep in mind as a State, a State must exist. It has to look after its own existence, and also to look after, as part of its duties, .the maintenance of individual liberty, for I don't believe in Socialism. I believe if the race is to be saved and elevated, it will have to be by individual salvation. Here comes in perhaps the moult difficult question in the whole range of social science < —the rights and duties of the State as compared with the rights and duties oIE the individual. I have not time to-night to even eketoh to you the* views of some of our great philosophers on this question. Some of you have no doubt seen recent articles of Herbert Spencer and others dealing with this question. But I come to one question, a practical question to us,; and one, in fact, I intend mainly to deal with— •• THE LAND QUESTION That is the question of the land. (Cheers.) Let us see if we can discover the individual rights and the State's rights and duties in reference to this question of land; and let us see if we can agree amongst ourselves to have some ideal set before us in reference to the State dealing with this stfbjeotr. We have still in our possession as a colony millions of aores of land. There is no question more practical to us than to lay down some rule for ourselves as to how the lands we have shall be dealt with. As to the lands whioh have passed from us and been sold, that is at present out of the range of our practical politics. ("N0.n0.") I will tell you why. No Btate can afford to enter, upon a career of repudiation, or shake public credit. (Cheers.) A State that is unjust will have its members unjust, .and injustice in the end never succeeds. (Cheers.) It is misleading to those who call themselves Liberals, by setting before them an ideal out of the range of their-praotio'iK'igraep'', when there in a question within their own hauds which needs all their energy and attention to carry out. (Cheers.) , , > .-.'.""'".'."". -/' THE LAND A MONOPOLY. »■•-.; I (look upon the. land as a monopoly— (cheers)—and a monopoly the SUte has a right to control. (Cheers.) I recognise in the land no individual rights unleeu subject to the rights of the whole community. I look upon land as in one respect an heir, and no generation has a right to partition the land, or to say to the generation following, " We have decided for you how the earth's surface is to be." In fact, if some* people's views were carried out to their logical conclusion, there would happen, what a Maori represesentative in the Assembly pictured was going to happen in reference to native lauds. He said I;he land was taken ' from them , here and tb».re until in time till that would be left to the Maoris would be the main roads. (Laughter.) And so with some people's ideas of the law. I say the State has the right to look after its own existence. '.. What is meant by allowing the full right of private property in land Suppose some person were to buy up the whole of Newton, if private property in land is to be everything, he might any to the people of Newton, " Be kind enough to clear off here I want Newton for myself." Don't think that it is an absurd proposition to put. You hear of - evictions. I have seen one. I have seen a valley where men were living in the homes where ■ their ancestors had lived for nearly 500 years, and I have seen it cleared of ovary living inhabitant, on a six months' notice to quit, and the houses torn down. Y Shame.") We have, therefore, a right to take care that in our legislation for the land we have left the ills of the past,, and the wrongs done the people in other countries shall not be enacted here. (Cheers). ' ;

BEI'OEK HENRY GEOBGE. I am not elating anything now by, saying that. < I believe I was the first in New Zealand to bring forward in oar Provincial Council' a resolution that no more lands should be sold. I was the first to bring forward that proposition in the Housus of Representatives in 1875, and if yon take the trouble to refer to the speech which I made on that occasion you will find succinctly stated the reasons for each a step. Long before Henry. George had written any of his books I advocated those views, and I say still to all Liberal politicians the State should still control the land, and hare largo ownership over it. That ought to be th« ideal of every Liberal politician. '':: ' the' STATE AND the land. How can we set about that ? Well, I think that with your assistance, and the assistance of . the colonists, we may yet accomplish that with a large portion of the territory of your colony. If you are only active in this question, and support it with deep enthusiasm, you and others would not only react on your members and the House, but you would create such a feeling as would say that a State should benefit by its land. , " ■'■'<■■• til .. THE UNEARNED INCREMENT. I have pointed ' out to you what; might happen if you allow private property in land to go to its • full length. • You may have men to control the lives of the citizens, or perhaps destroy the State, for after all what makes a State put the people. (Hear, hear.) Another thing in reference. to land, which ■ I suppose you are not altogether unacquainted with. We find land is not only a monopoly— that . respect different 7 from other kinds of property, bat that it increases in value without, perhaps, the landlord doing anything to make it increase. That is not unknown even in Auckland. (Hear, hear.) A man may have a block of land. He may do nothing with it, but ' bid neighbours may improve their land aH around him,, and. their improvements may double and treble the value of his land, and that goes on as the place increases in population and as your industries increase. Why, I may. say every industrious man is doing what he can to add to the value of the land of his neighbour. It is not so in other thing*. 'It is not so with money. I remember when 17£ per cent, was the ordinary rate of interest. It i then went down to 15, then to 12£, then to 10, and is now, I suppose, from 8 to i3J. The man, therefore, who had his thousand pounds in money would derive less revenue now, although the colony has increased in wealth and enterprise. But what has happened to the man who has land near a settlement? Instead of his land being worth less, it may have increased in value a hundredfold. STATE LEASING OF LAND. Now, what would have happened if we had had a large portion of our lands leased ! What will prevent your oity from being overburdened with rates ?. Your city endowments leased. Had this' colony begun a policy of State : leasing we would huve had just as prosperous colonists, less taxation, and far better chances of bearing the additional burdens cast upon us if the progress of this colony is not to be stayed. What would have been greater advantage if we had been able to. go to the money lender or capitalist in London and say/!!,, You need not depend upon our Customs revenue or taxation, here we have millions of acres bringing in * certain rental per year. That is the best security in the world, and I hope as we have this leasing system in force to a very limited extent—only so far as goldfields and education reserves are concerned— we will have it extended. (Cheers). :?« " ::.;: ''•■: "';■■

THE INDUSTRIOUS MAN AND IBE LAZY MAN. Theje ia another matter in connection with this land agitation. Emerson beautifully expresses it in the words " Corn won't grow without protection." Hβ did not mean fences, but that unless a man shall be sure of reaping the reward of his industry he will not be industrious. And that is what I say is the weak point in our aocialistic schemes. I don't believe in the lazy man having as many good things as the active man. If a man was, Uzv and drunken then' he ought to suffer for

it. (Cheers.) I warn you, in dealing with this question, to have this before you : that anything that tends to discourage thrift or to weaken the industrial tendencies. of . the race will inevitably endanger you. The ideal before you ought to be able to stand the most severe criticism of the most severe political economists. •■ The people who till the land require to have certain tenure. You are not going to have a-. man improve land if he is not going to reap the reward of his industry. ' We must keep that in mind, and not mix land and capital together.. r / LAND AND PROPERTY. I much regret that the people of this colony do not see a distinction between land and other property. You in Auckland were all in favour of a property tax as compared with a land tax. .{" No, no.") If-you count by the members from the Auckland provincial district you will find I am not far wrong—(laughter)and it would be paying you a poor compliment and them to think they for one moment misrepresent you. (Laughter.) The state ought to do its utmost to protect the savings of the industrious man and to encourage him, while as regards the lazy and thriftless man the whole community, to use a common phrase, should have a'• down " upon him. And in dealing with this question of oourse it touches on the question of taxation. f ■ LAND TAX. You remembr that as member of Sir George Grey's Ministry I supported the land tax, and I believe it was right. (Cheers.) I felt sorry, however, for tnis, that the farmers throughout the country, I don't know by what process of logic or reason they arrived at it, thought that if their houses and improvements, their furniture and stock, and their corn, were exempted from taxation, and only their lands taxed, they were worse off than if their land and stock and furniture were all taxed together. (Cheers.) I don't know by what logic they arrived at it, but that was the decision of a majority of the farmers. If you wish to obtain this position— that land ie not like other property— will have to modify your property tax, and I. will say inoidenoe of taxation, and you will have to meet your members and explain to them that you think land is not like other property, . and they will perhaps remember that in the next session of Parliament. (Cheers.) Now, I have dealt with land as one ideal you can have before you, and that as we have millions of acres in this colony undisposed of, we as colonists shall so dispose of them that while we provide the means for colonists to improve themselves, and to reap the reward of their own industry, the State shall have sole control of the land. (Cheers.) . -■. <

FOREST CONSBBVAMON. You have—l have seen some of them in the distance—immense tracts of the most magnificent timber in the world, and I am sorry to hear from the Auckland people I meet that this one wants a railway, and that one wants a railway, so that this kauri in these blocks—extending, I am told, from 200,000 to 300,000 acres—may be cut and taken off the face of the earth.' If Auckland is to retain its prosperity; the State muat look after the conservation of your forest lands. If you are to look to a future with all your kauri gone, you will look to a f nture with lees prosperity than you now possess. (Hear, hear.) See then how this land question affects you prdctioally. I should say I was pained to see what I saw often in the short travels I made through part of your district. —magnificent young kauris utterly destroyed by fire which, if they had remained for 50 or 100 years, would have furnished magnificent timber. The State cannot afford to see itsi great wealth destroyed in this way. THK STATE. Turning to another question. The State has the - right to look after iti own existence. Of course I admit, that the State is not to interfere with individual liberty. (Cheers.) We must remember how the State hns grown, and remember that it is not y«t firmly planted, and that we cannot afford to do anything that would weaken its hands. Don't think that because in an English colony we have tjreat liberty that all is plain sailing. There are dangers which threaten a demooraoy,—just as many as threaten despotism. (Cheers.) Just let me say that I am laying down for you some principles which the State must keep in view if it intends to retain its own existence. They have been summarised by a very able Ameriaan—Abbott. He says this : A state has a right to exist and perpetuate its own existence, and that the individual is the social unit. What does this admission mean ? That the individual is a social unity." It admits that the child has a right, as well as the parent, and that the child has a right to have its rights preserved by the State as much as the parent. (Cheers.) And again, he says that the State has a right, in order to perpetuate its own existence, to establish universal suffrage. (Cheers.) And that it has a right to establish universal intelligence and social morality as a necessary condition of universal suffrage. I ask you to follow me carefully in the enunciation of these principles, because one hangs on the other. Next, he says, it has a right to establish universal education, as a necessary condition of universal intelligence, of social morality, and of universal suffrage. (Hear.) And it has a right to establish a system of public schools, in order that there may be established a system of universal intelligence, and that it has a right to see that use is made of it# schools, or that children are otherwise educated. It is on these principles that the rights of State education exist, because I admit at once that if you carry out individualism to what I might term an extreme, you would sweep away State education, and you would sweep away something more, that practically hangs perhapo on the same principle, you would sweep away hospitals. You would have the State giving no aid to hospitals, and I will show you that there are, from one point of view, stronger reasons againat the State giving aid to hospitals than to schools. Now, you may think that strange. Let us see about hospitals. If you go to a doctor who looks—l am not speaking of a typical dootor—who looks simply at the perfection of physical man, who has oo other conception of a man than as a living man, as a physical man, a strong physical man—be will tell you that hocpitali injure the race, he will tell you that all the medical scientific education has had this effect, that it is tending to preserve weak lives, and tending to produce weak lives; and if we look simply at the physical man, if the physical man was to be the only perfect type of humanity, Wβ would have no hospitals. But we look at something different from that. We have to look at the emotional side of man's nature, at the moral side of man's nature, and we see it would be injuring hie emotional nature, and his moral nature, if the State or the community were to allow the sick to die without aid and aasistance. Hence it is the States ays this, although the physical man is injured, greater injury would result to the race to at once cease all aid, and to allow the siok and helpless to die. (Cheers.) A greater moral injury would be inflicted on the race than any permanent physical advantage to be gained. Let me apply this to the schools. I nay that' if this colony J8 to make any advance on the p»st, we must have universal education. (Hear, hear.) We must recognise that it is a huge disgrace to have one of our fellow-colonists unacquainted with our literature, and even of some of our scientific faotu. HIGHER EDUCATION. .. , ~•-..>, And I now come to a subject on which, I know, there is some difference of opinion. I come now to the question of aiding eduoation. I find throughout the oolony—and I suppose it will be the aamo here—that people will say, "Oh, by all means maintain the primary schools, but as foe grammar schools and high schools, those who want that kind of education should pay for it." (Hear, hear.) I am glad to hear that " hear, hear " —(laughter),—because it nfcows me that there are some people in this room to .be convinced, and I am going to try to do so. . (Cheers and laughter.) First, I aik you, what would be involved if there were no high schools and no universities in this oolony. I do not need to prove to you that. no university could exist without Government assistance in different ways. No university in the world perhaps has ever been created without either through the beneficence of some exceedingly wealthy men or State aid. We have not an exceeding number of wealthy men, who either can afford or perhaps are willing to found universities in our midst, and if, therefore, the State is to stop aid to our higher education, New Zealand would be without high schools, and without a university. Now, what would happen? Bo far as your wealthy people are concerned, they do not even make use of your universities when you have them here. They can afford to ■end their children to England or Scotland or Germany for their education. You take up the list of students in Oxford, Cambridge,' and Edinburgh, and you will tee the natiee

of the. lads whose fathers have been able to eend them there to obtain a higher education.. So far aa the wealthy people in this colony are concerned they don't need yonr assistance, and some of them do not take advantage of it. Bat I ask you what is to happen to your youth, who, perhaps endowed with gonias, endowed with great intelligence, is yet poor and unable to obtain a higher education ? What is to happen to him ? Is he to be condemned to this lower plane and to the lower level ? What is to happen to him ? Are you to have n'o high school, no high education, and no chance for him? Do not think I am picturing something that is not likely to happen. I have been a fellow-student with lads whose fathers were poor, aye poorer than the poorest labouring man in Auckland who through our Scotch system of haying higher education attended to. (How little msiny of my fellow-colonists realise - what tho State is doing for them in this reapeot.) I have known poor places where the labouring man was content perhaps with Is a-clay, and never exceeding Is 2d, where he had to pay fees out of his earnings, ami where there were school rates also, to keep up some higher education not to keep up merely primary schools. The school I was brought up at was a school for the poor, not; a school for the rich. If it had been a sohool for the rich I should not have had a chance of being educated. (Cheers.) We were taught Latin, Greek, French, mathematics, and through these means what happened. I can point even to ,ope fellowstudout of myself' simply the of a bootmeker whose earnings, were not equal to the> earnings of any bootmaker in Auckland, and whose son finished hie education at Tubingen University through getting proper education at the pariah sohool and 'getting a bursary, and getting into the University. You do not know, some of you, what some Scotch boys have to do in order to'get higher education. In England until lately there wasve'ry little chance given to poorer English boys. I have seen the students #;£dinbargh.bringing their barrels of meaV,dn«Lfiah; and perhaps cheese, and having; fifr#ive on that, and haviDg to go and worlt«j»rherd cows during the summer in order to maintain themselves. I any we have not been driven to that .here, but if you sweep away all aid from higher education, you are condemning the sons of the poor amongst you to have no chance of rising in life, and to become distinguished. 1 any hold fast to the high schools. If I had my way I should make the high schools as froo as primary schools here. (Cheers.) I would say there should be no limit to the bright boy, the boy of genius, getting the bos'b education the world can give him. (Cheers.) What are some of those who condemn higher education. I would like to a,sk them if they should (I do not think they would) place themselves in the position of a poor boy anxious to obtain a higher education, and to be turned round on and told if you want a higher education pay for it. " What mockery that would be. Why, some of the most brilliant students I have known have been the sons of poor inert, who have had nothing but hard work and a determined spirit to bring them on. (Loud cheers.) Why even take our able Professor of Chemistry in the Otago University. What had he to do to earn his living—he who obtained the high distinction of Doctor of Science of the Edinburgh University ? He had during the summer months, in order to obtain a little money to attend the university, he had to herd cows. If we are—if thia nation is to be raised nigher in the social and intellectual scale, we will have to give opportunity to every poor boy to obtain the higheat possible education that can be given. (Cheers.) I ask yon to remember also, looking at that from another point of view, what is it makes a nation great ? Do you think it is wealth alone? (A. voice : No.) What is it makes a nation great ? After all, a nation's greatness depends on its great men. If you read history, what do you, find? The nation reckoned great is the nation which produces great men. When we look at the pages of Grecian history, what is it recalls to us the greatness of Athene, or those noble Grecians in the past ? It was its great men. And so it is always. It ia the man of genius elevates the nation more than the nation elevates the man of genius. And as one writer has said —I will quote it to you, because I thoroughly agree with it—perhaps he puts it in better language than I could put it in. He says : " But as the value of a nation to the human race does not depend upon its wealth or numbers, so it does not depend even upon the dirtribution of elementary knowledge, but upon the highwater fcark of its educated mind. Before the permanent tribunal copyists and popularieers count for nothing, and even the statistics of common schools are of secondary value." I say now, if you in Auckland are to say, Down with the higher education, down with .the high schools, it simply means this, that you are condemning perhaps hundreds of your brightest youth to secondary places in life. (Hear, hear.) How else can they obtain higher education ? Why, some will say, by soholarahips. Scholarships to what ? Where ie the schools to be established to which the scholarships apply ? You must establish ehe schools, or else what is the good of yonr scholarships. Therefore'l hope, as we are members of a democracy, we may never forget I;hia : If a.' democracy is to be grand it must have high-class educated men and have its avenues open to these men without distinction of race, distinction of creed, and without distinction of wealth. (Cheers.) Let me eay one or two -words further on the question, I have pointed out to you some ideal in reference to land, some ideal in reference to education, some ideals that we must have ever before us. Let me now see if there are other ideals that we must keep in mind. Beating on this question, I would point out that,, as a State, we mnst insist upon a secular State - (cheers) —and that I will not put it to you, because 1 have other things to speak of, and have not time ; but I would ask you, if you have time, you will likely find in your Public Library, to go and read a picture that one of the ablest Athenians drew—-namely, Pericles. You will find it in Thuoidides— Jowott's translation, perhaps, ie the beat: you will nee what he pointed out the Athenians had before them; how they gave the highest positions not to the men of wealth—although they did not despise wealth—but to the men of merit, and they cared nothing about their poverty and cared nothing about whence they had sprung. (Cheers.) In a secular State religion must be left to the individual—(cheers) —and any religion that requires the State's care is not worth muoh—(loud cheers) —and therefore in your secular schools, in your State uchools, you must lay down this prinoiple, that we can recognise no nationality, no creed, and no Mice. (Cheers.) Let me tell you what ia involved ia that. Here we have come to this colony, men from different countries, and 1 hope none of us will forget the country from whence they came—(cheers)—but wo have oome here as colonists to make a new nation and to create a new national life, and I say the very existence of the State depends on this, that we have : a national life, and we can . have upy\ national life if, we allow the old. national prejudices or any creed barrier* to interfere with us in our iictions (cheers), and I believe that if we are to have a true national He founded on universal suffrage in this democracy, we must maintain our. public sohool*, and must be careful as members of Education Boards and members of Sohool Committees to see that we have no bias in the administration of our duties. (Cheers.) I believe that which will injure our State system of schools more than anything else is if you send in—l do not know the members of your Education Board of Auckland, so there is no personal application— I am only laying down general principles, but 1 have seen in other districts this, that then) have been men returned to Education Boaids who wish to make their position a vehicle for getting their own views carried out. I hope you will not permit that thing with you. (Cheers.) I hope you will see that your members feel the high position that they occupy — there is no nigher position perhaps in a community than directing the education, of the youthful mind. .You have got to give them a literary education, a moral education, and a teohnioal training perhaps, and have got'to fit them for the various duties in life, and you can only fit them to be true citizens by teaching them that they are citizens of a nation, and must live in peace and concord with all their, fellow-citizens, giving them equiil rights with themselves, and the right to express their opinions when and how they plesise. (Cheers.) That is the only way to aany out true national life. I find, as I often find, that I will not be able to get over all my notes. I have spoken, however, of two ideals that, you may set before you. Let me now say one or two words as to hoT theiie ideals may be carried out. ' , '. POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS. I balieve in political asiociations, (Cheers.) I do not know they are always the best people in .the community that t»ko an. interest jn uoJltics. There are some people

who think everything is going to the bad. There are some people who think we are worse than they were when they were young. Whenever I huar people talking like that, who are horrified at this and »t that, and always drawing a Hue picture of what is going to happen, I often think of a worthy and able man—a bishop too. What do you think he said ? He said when he was old the fruit had mot the same bloom and taste as when he wns young. . Why, the change wan with tte Mshdp,' not the , fruit: Some people siry if you teach every person so well as this who is going to do our , manual work. I tay set your own sons to it. (Cheers.) They jastnave ae-mnch right to do it as the sons of the poor man. (Cheers.) I do not believe there would be any less manual labour '.done. I .believe people Who are afraid of demooraoy have something wrong with'their digestion. (Gheers.) I believe they suffer from some complaint, and the man who haa a healthy physical life is a man full of hope, enthusiasm, and fully permeated with the idea that the world is getting better and not worwi."' (Cheers.) Now, I say in reference to -political associations there is need of these. I do not know even the members of your political association in Auckland, but they have set a good example to you. (Hear, hear.) They have done something. They are looking after what is their own political education, and if you have different views from them it is your duty to band together and give expreiision to them—the we rid gets on by this continued dashing of opinion. I do not believe in a community in which all believe the one way, but in men of different views ready to argue and give them utter* ance, ready to apeak about them, and ready to carry them out. Of course I admit that a man has other duties besides those of citizenship. I do not believe in a man who can get up and talk about political and sooial reform who does not pay attention to his own family. (Cheers.) I say that it is his first duty to strive to make his wife and. children happy. (Cheers.) A man that oannot do that had better leave reforming the world alone. (Cheers.) But I say there is need of political associations, because after all we are a demooraoy, and as a democracy we munt have political life, and unless we have political life we will have political corruption. If you find in any community political life, the pulse beating strongly, there you will have more purity in. Government than if people are careless how their representatives act. If you have even the ideals I have mentioned, and others, you ought to be determined to carry them out, and you ought to spend some of your time in the duties of citizenship. What do you think the great Athenian I have mentioned!, Pericles, said of those who were careless as oitizens. The Greeks looked upon a person who did not trouble himself with political acts as a useless man, he was no citizen at all. He did not perform bis citizen duties; and so with you, and so with us all, we ought to pay some attention to politics. What have we come here from ? Do you think the earth is perfect ? Take and read a chapter of the social life of London. Think of the degradation, and the vice of our large cities. Wβ came to this oolony many of us, and those who are born here 1 hope are, inflamed with the same desire to "make this colony grander, better,, and to have it free from the blots of social life of older lands. (Cheers.) We can only accomplish that by having some idea of citizenship duties, by spending some of our time »nd trying to bring about proper social reform and proper political reform, and 1 often think if we were all inspired with this idea of looking forward to perfect man and trying to get rid of the evils of the world, trying to get rid of the social evils of the world, trying to get rid of the sins and vices of the world, and each of uu in our own way, however humble, bo to aot what a different world we would have. I would like to see men going to the polling booth to take part in the highest duties and functions of citizenship, inspired with some of the citizenship feeling, to have some of that beating national life. I would like to see all go to the polling booth not inflamed with nobblers of whisky or beer, but as if they were going to perform one of the most sacred duties of our lives, to vote for the man who would carry out our ideal, who is honest. If each of us were so to act we would have a different political life to any we have had in the past. (Cheers.) We would have a purer Government to any we have had in the past. Why don't you, they say, carry out these ideals you have set before you ? Why don't you get this and that done ? When I was in one of your schools— a very splendid school,, it is one. of the best, in the colony—l forget its name, but Mr. Wortbingfotr ill the toaster—l found little children had~ been doing what is called Kindergarten work. They had little things made of clsy, and solearned- the -first step ~ perhaps in * modelling, and perhaps get a' taste for that in after years. I noticed some , of their little cups and fruit baskets were broken. What was the reason of that ? It was not the fault of the moulder; it was the fault of the clay. And so, if you say to our politicians who are representing you, why don't you do this and that, you must remember the kind of clay. (Cheers.) The kind of clay depends npon you. Don't you blame the representative. I believe that every representative is just as good, as his constituency. (Cheers and laughter.) I say if any representative is bad, bis constituency is bad. (Cheers.) You have not had enough of political life; you have not had enough of association to carry out any political ideas, and perhaps have not had sufficient — I Bay it to you* plainly — political education to see that there must be an ideal in political life as well as in other life, and that you must work singlehanded for that ideal as in everything else. (Cheers.) I remember coming to this one passage in the life of Abraham Lincoln on this very question—(cheers)—one, I believe, of the grandest men of our race. He was twitted by some Northern men who were really in favour of Southern slavery. "Oh," they said, " why did not Abraham Lincoln, if he was really sinoere in abolition, at once publish a proclamation when he assumed office freeing the slaves ? Why wait until many years after, when so much blood had been spilt, and when it was practically forced upon him?" Well, his biographer gives a reason for that, and he says this, and lsay it has a practical application in New Zealand at the present, " Doubtless he had an ideal, but it was the ideal of a practical statesman—to aim at the best, and. to take the next beet if he is luoky enough to get even that. (Laughter.) It is loyalty to great ends, even though forced to combine the small and opposing motives of selfish men to accomplish them. It is the anchored cling to solid principles of duty and action which knows how to swing with the tide, but is never carried away by it—that we demand in public men, and not someness of policy, a conscientious penistenoo in what is unpractioable. For the impracticable, however theoretically enticing, is always politically unwise, sound statesmanship being the application of that prudence to the public business whioh is the safest guide in that of private life. Wall, then, that is a guide for you and for me. Itis a maxim We have to keep in mind—that it we cannot get the ideally best we may get the next best, and if we cannot get the next best we must strive to get as near it as possible. So I say you must remember this, that these statesmen, the politicians of our colony, are what you as constituents make them, and i' they are not carrying out these high ideals, if they are not able to accomplish this end, who is to blame ? I say if eaoh elector would hold his high ideal before him, and so aot by his vote you would find your politicians and members of the Government so acting that you would have no fault to find with their action. If you uend men to tho House and do not aid them and cheer them in the arduous work, and cesm to pay no attention to them, and to think they have nothing of troubles and trials, for you not to give them you enthusiastic support, not to be fired with enthusiasm to help them to carry out their work, do not grumble if they fail. Their failure is caused by you. If, however, as colonists, all of us were fired by this enthusiasm to carry out these political ideas, bo that our nation would be grander than any nation in the past, so that our own children rising up amongst.us should have cause to say that their parents acted nobly, and had a noble national life, and loved the State, then you would have no fault to find. I oftea think we are not half educated to love the State. 1 find all over the colony that people'had an idea that the Government is a great dispenser of fav urs, I say that leads to destroy the State. You ought to look to the State as the representative of you. i I would Irite to see you so fired with enthusiasm about your schools that in a district where there is no sohool you would say i We will give half a day to help to build it, and give some of our means to assist, be* oauce we know tide school would benefit our

race and our young people. And if w»ythin£ •herald threaten the i State-though..! need hardly mention, that to an Auckland " audience, remembering-how noMy you acted in the past—if war Qomee amongst us, InetoWnof argning ! with the Government for,, capitation* allowances. I hope fto see you act as your fathers did before you, and .enoW a true national feeling and love'of the State. I say. if you are inspired with this national life and enthusiasm about politics, then you. will be doing some of your duty in the world; and do not think because you may not even be electors, because you are not representatives, or because yon are not members of the Government, that therefore you have not high duties and responsibilities. Why, it has been • said—some ' ecientifia man ha* said—that each atom has ■an effeot on all atoms around it that if you throw a stone in a pool the eddies will be felt on the outer edges, however large the pool is. What do you think would be the effect of a sincere and honest man in the midst of a dozen working with him. What is the effect of one single honest enthusiastic man in the cause? I say the effect is. uelectrical, and is such as one cannot even define; and if on, as electors of this colony, having these ideals before you, were to act out that in your daily life, thinking it your duty to make the race and the State better than it has been, you would be doing, each in his own sphere, an incalculable benefit; at »U events, it would be said about you when the time came when you will be no more that you had done your duty as a citizen, and I do not know any grander epitaph that could be ascribed to any man's memory than this: He loved his family, he loved his children, that he was always helpful to those around him with kindness, though he may not have had any money, and that as a citizen, carrying out a citizen's duty, he had a single eye to the future, a single ideal to see a more perfect type of humanity and State. I say Ido not see any grander epitaph than that. ' If we were only all of us, I do not leave out myself, • fired with this enthusiasm having before us this ideal, we would be doing our duty in the world, and when we leave it, we should leave it better than we found it. (Choers.) Now, let me end by giving you one or two verses, which.you perhaps may remember—l am sorry I oannot quote it all—from a poet whom I do not think is half appreciated amongst us—a poet who has written many noble and many good things. I mean Robert Buchanan. Let me give you two or three verses from his poem, what he pictured to be a perfect State :— Vi hero is the perfect State \ * Early moat bleat and late, Perfect »nd bright? 'Tis where no palace stands ' Trembling on shifting sands Morning and night. 'Tie where the soil is free ■ :.' , 'Where, far -;s eye may see , ; Scattered o'er hill and Uβ - Homesteads abound. .. ■ Where clean and broad and tweet Market-square, land and street ■ Belted by leagues ol wheat Cities are found. Where is the perfect State, Early, most blest and late, '■''■'■■• ';;,. ;.,:■ Gentle and good ? . Tig where no lire* are seen ~.., _.' ~,■ *'•■■"} Huddling in lanes unseen, ■• Crying for food.;- ■ ■•'"■■'■ ■ 'Tie .where the home is pure, Tis where the bread is sure. 'li> where the want" ire fewer ■- • :• And each waat fed. ■ . Where plenty and. peace abide, •: : ■ j "Where health dwells heavenly •eyod, Where in nooks beautified Slumber the dead. Where is the perfect State, ■ ■ . Unvexed by wrath and hate ' ' . ' Quiet and just. < • ■ ■ ■-•■■■ ;.; r: Where to no fora of creed ?, . . ;:'.:. ;■< Fettered are thought and deed, . ' JEUaion and trust. . ". Tis where the great free mart ■ Broadens, while from its heart j■■■•', ■' Forth the great ships depart. ■ . - Blown by the wind. . 'Tis where the wile men's eyes, ' ' Fixed on the earth and skies, <■■] ■ ■ ■ *, '■:• • Seeking for signs, devise Good for mankind. . Mr. Stout resumed his seat amidst load and prolonged cheers. . . ~ : - > Mr. Shkba proposed that a hearty vote of thanks be given to the Hon. the Premier for the admirable address which he had just delivered. He was sure that the Hon. Mr. Stout was not received by them that evening only as Premier of the colony but as a wellknown member of the Liberal party, a front rank man. (Cheers.) " Captain D. H. JVlcKjenzce seconded the resolution, which was then put by the Mayor and carried unanimously with acclamation. The Hon. Mr. Stout, on rising, was received with renewed cheering. He thanked the audience not only for the vote of thanks, but for the patient, and considerate, and kindly hearing afforded him. His only regret was that .he was unable to speak to them on many other subjects, but he assured them that he left Auckland with many pleasant recollections of the scenery and climate—he would like it a little colder though, and there, ho thought, the South had the advantage of them(laughter and cheers) —and the exceedingly kind way in which he had been treated since he .came amongst them. He hoped they would acoept this expression of thanks, and if he did not write to all to thank them, it was owing to his inability to do so, his friends had been so numerous. He begged to propose a vote of thanks to His Worship tne Mayor, Mr. Waddel, for the able manner in which ho had presided over the meeting. ... The vote was carried by acclamation, and His Worship having briefly returned thanks, the meeting dispersed.