THE PREMIER AND DEPUTATIONS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3676, 28 February 1899, Page 7

THE PREMIER AND DEPUTATIONS.

TRADE WITH CAPE COLONY. OTAGO CENTRAL RAILWAY. STRICTURES ON ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETIES. ' ' . PP.ES3 ASSOCIATION. Dunedin, Monday. .The Premier was engaged most of today, in receiving deputations. One from the Chamber of Commerce urged that it was possible for the colony to do a ' large trade -with the '-ape. There was no direct means of sending produce, and it was thought the Government might'render assistance by bcai.ug a portion of the expense in setting up the . necessary communication. , They only asked that trade bo initiated, as they felt confident once started it would stand on its own bottom. The Government might find out what subsidy one of the linos running between Australia and the Cape would require.to. come to New Zealand ports. They believed that a moderate subsidy was all that was necessary. . . - The Premier replied that he wauled to help Iho deputation in the' matter, and would ascertain ' whirl prospects there wpre of the Aberdeen and Lund lines conjing to the colony. . A: deputation from the Otago Central Railway League urged tho taking Jn. hand of another section of the lino. The Premier said he had visited the district, and the opinion he had formed was that .the railway itself iron'd do some good, hut unless something else was .done to .increase the productiveness anjd population.of Central Otago, the railway would .be, one of the biggest failures in the country., An irrigation scheme and the railway should go hand in hand. He had found country, -.in Central • Otago in a worse position for carrying stock than it was seven years ago. J They miist have irrigation and tree, planting. , , ‘ A deputation from the Gun Club urged that the shooting season should be opened on tho Ist of ..’April instead of on the Ist of May, as arranged by the Acclimatisation Society! ._ , . -i. j . The Premier said,' speaking personally, he did not mind saying that he was not much in sympathy with the game laws as a’whole. He read of a case at Feilding the other day, where a boy shot a bare, and was fined £3,, as the alternative to being deprived of his liberty. If much more of that sort of work went on in this country, he would make short work of'the' Acclimatisation Societies. What with tho charges made for carrying a gun and so forth, it was only the select few who ever got a shot at all. . If they thought to play that game on here they were making a great mistake. ‘