PRE-SESSIONAL ADDRESS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3726, 28 April 1899, Page 6

PRE-SESSIONAL ADDRESS.

MR BUCHANAN AT CARTERTON

; ’ ’ (From Our Special Reporter.) _ r T) CARTERTON; Thursday. Jur Jiucfuuuui, member for Wairarapa, addressed a large meeting here last night : ,I .°. r , ea “ a letter from Mr Richardson, in which the latter stated that he had refused. an offer, of money made by Mr Buchanan and others to assist him in clearing, himself of bankruptcy proceedings. This announcement was made in answer to a charge which had been made i locally that .£IOO would have averted the bankruptcy; . but that the .Opposition members were "too mean to raise £5 apiece to save an old and esteemed colleague Mr -Buchanan wont to a great •length in explanation of his attitude and ; that of the company with which he is con- , nected in regard- to the price of sheep. ' He denied that the Wellington Meat Com- '■ B® n y "' as merely a milch cow for the Booths; Pharazyns, Beethams and Buchanans, and'quoted figures to show that . since its inception sixteen years ago the company had only paid, one year with Snothet, .£6 2s percent; in comparison with ! 8 per cent. paid by the Belfast Company m Christchurch.,. It was not to his interest as a large farmer to keep down the price of sheep merely for the purpose of getting two. or three percentage, greater a dividend. How much-did they, think ■ (he three' per cent, dividend would mean on the -number - of sheep' ho sent away last year? The ether directors were in a similar position, but they were bound to dp their, duty -to the shareholders for l .whom- they were operating qs trustees. I The sheep which were being sent from the North Island' to Christchurch were not ‘ being exporter]-, but were .being sent to the ; locaf butphers. owing, tq the. shortage of supplies. He would'spit upon such a miser- - a ble - charge' its. had. been made that the ! directors of-the Wellington Meat Company i were getting Is a head more for their sheep , than other-sellers. i ■ '

; Mr Buchanan denied'that if the Opposi- . tion got into power it would wipe out the jOld Age'Pensions Act, although he admitted that it might 1 try to'amend' it 1 in several, ways.. : In regard to the, land question, the Op- • position' would' give -the 15,000 existing irftate-,leaseholders the; right to -acquire the freehpld' of . .their areas.. Under the .Land for Settlements Act the Government diadr spent; .£1,000,000 of borrowed money ito acquire >200,000..a0re8-of, land, thus placing the English bondholder in the position of being an absentee landlord.

,At the close 'of‘a spirited and comprehensive address Mr .Buchanan . was accorded a-hearty vote of thanks. ' ■