BANQUET TO MR J. SHEEHAN, M.H.R.

Otago Witness, Issue 1191, 26 September 1874, Page 10

BANQUET TO MR J. SHEEHAN, M.H.R.

[By Electric Telegraph.] On Tuesday night Mr J. Sheehan, M.H.R. for Rodney, was entertained at a banquet at Grahatnstown. In reply to the toast of his health he spoke for nearly an hour. Referring to the oppo sition offered to the Waste Lands Act by the Upper House, he said he wa3 not inclined to go to extremes regarding the Upper House, which had given evidence of a sound conservative spirit. There was one question, however, in which they were always wrong ; iv which they were ao deeply interested that they were prevented from dealing with in fairly and justly, and that was the question of land. There were very fiw members of the Upper House with' ut very large estates, and some reckoned their properties by hundreds of thousands of acres. These men jealously scrutinised every measure which had for its object the enabling of men to acquire land easily and settle down upon it. The Bill which was introduced was in the hands of such people, in the position of that person who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, who fell into the hand of certain company which he need not particularise. Referringto representation, he said that whenever a proposal was made to give another member to a North Island constituency it was met by a cry that the balance of power was in danger. He found that the southern gold-fields members always came forward manfully and straightforwardly on goldfields questions ; and the opposition to the alteration of the present representation came mainly from Wellington and Taranaki. Those Provinces knew their case was rotten, and thought that if the House ordered an increase of representation it would be made at the expense of one or other of them. The claim of the Thames to additional representation was so just that the House could no longer delay to recognise it. He thought the Native Department viewed the proposed railway from the Thames to Waikato with disfavour. The tactics of the Native Department were of an Arabian kind. For years past it had been content to let "I dare not ; wait upon I would." He believed the same Department viewed with alarm every advancing wave of civilisati n, thus hastening the time wheu their services would no longer be required. He considered the Veil ot Mystery was about to be lifted, and land at Ohinemuri opened, which, if not auriferous, contained hundreds of thousands of acres, to which, men could profitably repair and settle down as farmers.