MR PRICE IN LONDON

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6487, 6 April 1908, Page 6

MR PRICE IN LONDON

A BANQUET GATHERING OF REPRESENTATIVE MEN.

THE TIES OF KINSHIP,

By Tclrsraph—Press Association—Copyrisht (Received April 5, 1.1 p.ra.) LONDON, April 4.

Air T. Price, Premier of South Australia who is at prceeut in London as tho representative of his State at the Anglo-French Exhibition, was entertained at a banquet yesterday by Air J (1. Jenkins, Agent-General for South Australia.

Tho Earl of Dudley (who has been appointed to succeed Lord Northcote as Governor-General of Australia), tho Earl of Jersey (ex-Govcrnor of New South Wales), and a representative gathering of commercial men were present.

In responding to tho toast of his health, Air Price said Englishmen should cultivate sentiment towards tho colonies. If sentiment were dead the ties binding tho Empire would fall asunder. South Australia tried to work in harmony with the Federal Government. All tho talk about separation ivas only humbug. There was no party in Australia that would talk of repudiation, or that was disloyal to tho Empire to which they were all proud to belong. A, reception was subsequently held, and was attended by about two hundred personsCLOSER COAIAIERCTAL RELATIONS. SPEECH AT MANCHESTER. LONDON, April 4. The Premier of South Australia, addressing the Association of Importers and Exporters at Manchester, urged closer commercial relations.

Australians, he said, felt that they wore more alive to the Imperial interests than the people of the Motherland. They asked whether it was true that decadence had begun in Britain. Ho urged that tics between Britain and the colonies should be based more or. sentiment and kinship than on pounds and shillings. ALWAYS "TOM" PEIOE. Mr T. Price was at one time employed on the erection of the Parliament House in which ho now sits as Premier. He is described a<3 being a man of the people, a Welshman, and an orator. Ho is quaint in his speech, with more candour than culture, but he is animated with a rugged fervour and ho sways his audiences to a remarkable extent. Ho was born In I>onbighshiro in 1853. but grew up m Liverpool. Education bo obtained at a penny school and at a night school connected with tho Presbyterian Church in Shaw street, Liverpool. "When I was about twelve years old ” ho said while giving some ccnees lately, "someone told mo I should go to Sunday school. I had no coat to ■wear, hut I saved 6d a week until I had enough to buy a second-hand one from a pawnshop. Tho sleeves were rather too long. I went to tho school, and was placed in a class with a number of older boys—sons of landowners and wealthy men. One of them mado remarks about my coatsleeves. Whctn school was coming rat I struck him on the jaw and in the eye and down ho went to the bottom of the' stairs. Next Sunday tho boys produced a bigger hoy to 'Batten J finished him. I kept on at that echoed until I became teacher and then superintendent—a position I held for three years. Then I married tho prettiest girl fn Hie school, and she is my wife to-day. I was Tom Prioc when I went to Tom Price as superintendent, and I am Tom Price as Premier."