MR VINCENT PYKE, M.H.R , AT TAPANUI.

Otago Witness, Issue 1751, 13 June 1885, Page 8

MR VINCENT PYKE, M.H.R , AT TAPANUI.

Mr Vincent Pyke addressed a well attended meeting of his constituents at Tapanui on Thuaday evening. The Mayor (Mr M'Kinnon) occupied the chair.

Mr Pyke commenced by apolg : Bing for having been unable through illness to address a meeting on the occasion of his last visit to Tapanui. He was not going to ask for quarter, because they migh!- treat him as the Highlanders treated the English offior at the battle o* Prostonpanß, and say "She'll no stop to quarter you, she'll just cub you in two,"— (Laughter.)

THE PAST SESSION. The first thing they were likely to ask him waß as to the proceedings of last session. Some of them had pronounced an ex cathedra opinion on the subject; at the time, but he pardoned that, because they could not know what was really going on. They had seen in the papers lately some atatementa made by Sir George Grey and others about the extraordinary incidents that took place anterior to the meeting of the House, and the speaker did not hesitate to say that anything more extraordinary had never occurred in a free country. When he went up after the last general election he found in existence — he did not like to say a conspiracy — but a combination, formed to seize the reina of government by men who had not been members of Parliament for many years If it was not a conspiracy it was an-^ invasion of the rights of the representatives of the people. Men who had been out of the House— some for five years, some for eight years or more — formed themselves into a party to "jump" the Government benches before the House met, and carried the thing so far as to go about offering office to men of reputation like Sir George Grey before they were a Government at all. Naturally the instincts of members revolted at that. It was impossible to do anything else than resent such an attempt, and had they done less than they did in helping to put out the first Vogel Government thoy would have shown themselves unfit to be the representatives of the people. —(A Voice : " Question.") The speaker did not know what that meant; he thought he was going very straight, to the question. What happened was that half the Otago representatives said the first Government should not retain office, and he was one of them. The two Ofcago members who voted for themselves, Messrs Stout and Macandrew, could not of course be counted. — (A Voice : "It is not good enough ") If.it were not good enough, let them say so at next election, What did men down there know about what was going on in Parliament ? Were members who were on the spot and understood the situation to send down and ask their constituents to convene a caucus and tell them what to do. The speaker would not for one. He^ would never subordinate his opinions to the action of a minority among his constituents. The first Vogel Government were put out because ' they were illegally and improperly in office, Then came the Thomson fiasco. Who ever supposed that Thomeojj could form a

Ministry ? — (Laughter ) He was simply a "useful tool. He waa ueed and ill URed the Hp^aker was bound to oay that. Thoo came Major Atkintson wifch his blundering attempt to £orni a Government, which consisted, afltw all his pronJsee, of tho most objecfcional members of tha old Atkinson party. Of course that could not be stood, and then the present Ministry entered offisa, legally and rightly, because they came ia by tho will of the paop'o'e repreßaatativeg. — (Applause.) Therefore they received the buppurc of a maj rity. •Ha did cot know whether he had mi»d-i it clear, b«t anyone must understand the diSereuce batween a parcel of ontaidaro seizing offioa and marabere of the House properly fcakung possession of the Government benches, fn addition to tho 11 Otago members who voted againat tho irregular Stout- Vogel Ministry, there were several men whom it was the custom to call leaders of tha Liberal party — Bnch as Sir George Grey, Messrs Dargaville, Eoaa, Shepherd, Orrnond, Moss, and laat, but not least, Mr Tole, the present Minister of Justica, voted against them ; and he had sines been received into the fold with open arms as having done no wrong. CONSTITUTION OF THE GOVERNMENT. Now, where, ib might well be aakod, was the Liberal party upon the Government beaches? So much had been said about this Liberal party that he was anxious to explain the whole position of public affairs at the preaent time. Where was the Liberal party oa the formation of the first Stout Vogel Government ? There was Sir Julius Vogel, a gentleman who had always formerly been a o >Ueague of Major Atkinson, and whom the apeaker should certainly put. dowft as a Consatvative ; there was Mr Stout, an opponent of Major Atkinßon, and a Liberal ; there was Mr Rioliavdson, a Conservative ; and Mr Macan drew, his opponent ; Captain Morru, the whip of tho Atkinson party for years ; and Mr B vllance and Colonel Wbilmoro, both mem bare of the Grey ite. following. It was a party with a "ballanco," but without a policy, Taey could so little agrae that thoy maie the Governor say in his address, "My Advisers are of opinion that it is undesirable that questions of abstract policy should at present be dealt with further than circumstances render it imperatively necessary," And they look care all the session that circumstances should not render it necessary, because they knew well that Ministers could not agree upon any qnes lions of policy whatever. Tha speaker would like to know to which parly be was supposed to belong in a hybrid Ministry like this — which party he was to support.— A. Voice;' 'Your own.") The gentleman who made that observation — no doubt intended' to b-a witty — had hit the mark. He would support his own Government, and vote for those things ho believed to bo right and proper without reforence to parly at all. The present Government wa«i a happy family, and he looktd upon it as a Government for th 3 time. At p.eaent it must be held in office, as there was, so far as he said, no prospect of a bettor one during the term of the present Parliament. And he said at once that if a direct vote was moved to put them out of office be should oppose ifc, not because they wero the best Ministry possible, but because they wore the best thut could be got at the time— (applause) — and moreover they v/ere^n such a position ' hat, they mus do what was right, or go out of office. But if the Govern menfc brought down e.oy measure which ba (the speaker) thought injurious, and ried to thrivst it down his throa , he should vote against it. even though Ministers s>nd " If you do we shall go out." Ia hal. case, theu ho should nay "Go out " But he would not be a party to putting them out upon a vote of want of confidence. He was bound to say that tho Government had done good work during tho past session, and h.id kopfc faith more fuily than any Ministry which had preceded thorn. They bad not phown such partiality for the North Island at the expense of the South, and that alone was a very important thing, bfcau-e during tho past live years the Atkinson Government had robbed the South of over two and a half millions that should havo been spent here.— (Applause.) i

THE STATE OF PAKTIKS. As to tho quoation of parties, ifc wa« quite time that people cleared thoir mtndf of the cant that had been talked upon the subject. Mr Stoufi had given a goo.l definition when he said that the essence of party Government lay in tho existence of tba " ins " and f.he " outs." That embraced all that wa? meant by pirty government in New Zeal&nd. A party to ba a party should have a platform — distinct and positive principles ; and thwe was no euch thing 1 here. He rather agreed with what Sir Julius Vogel ea;d at Christchurch : "Wa hoar a great dnal about party struggJos, and about this side and that, but it must have struck you, when you have Scan men acting together aa colleagues who a year or two befoia ware unable to say sufficiently hard things against each other, that our party system ia uomov/ha'; of a farce ; that there is no vary preafc dividing lino between the opinions of public men, and they understand that thoir common object is to promote the welfare of the Colony, Thoy may have different ideas aa to the way in which it is to be done, but tho fact of their having a common object, and of their being so few ways in which to effect it, roba so called party distinctions of much of their reality." There was a great deal of truth in this. The speaker had always held with the old maxim, that measures should be preferred to men ; that waa where the whole thing rested. He stiould never be a good party man ; loyalty to principles was the maxim he had alwaya kept before him, and be could not go out of his way to vote for a wrong thing just because it was proposed by men of whom he approved. He had no respect for men, but only for thoir actions. Let them see what party really led to. There were 91 members oft.ho House, and 50 of them were a majority. These ul) therefore governed the House. They again put into power as Ministers seven members ; four of these constituted a majority, which really reduced it to .the fact of the whole govorning power being given to four men. That was what camo of government by majorities, and if ifc were not for independent men we should have an absolute autocracy — four men governing the Colony aa they liked. Such a state of things would bring about almost a revolution. "Nihilism would be aa rampant here as in Russia, and therefore whfen people got an independent roproaentative they should hail and welcome him,

THE OOSIING SESSION. He now canio to the posaiblo future — about the haziest subject he could talk upon, bsc-inee no one knew wbe'.ho? Mr Stout sts t r Sir Julius Vogsl's " fads " wero to bo looked for. He had ahoady kj>i»l th.it the Ministiy were certain to retain offh'i during tha sessioij — that was, unleea they wibhed Lo go out ; aud he himself was inclined to think that they did •want to be defeated, and to chooss their own battlefield iv order to appeal to tho country. In that case ha hoped there would bo soixtefchiog to appeal about. He had never yet aeen •an apyoal to tho couiitiy upnu s. matter %in\ii •pas tT'onb an appeal ; it h%\ ahv^i h beeu Bi>i>

whether Sir George Groy or M, j *r Atkinson was tho fitter to hold offi "c. No principles had been iuvolved in any case, and tho pe"p'o, he thought properly, had always lafsentad this waste of tims and money by returning op poneafcs to the then existing Government. Hi did not thiuk fcho present, Government would ba guilty of this. Ha believed thiy would make some great question a tost, and he had a good idea wh«,t that question would be. There w«re two points of principle they might select. Th^ first wa=i

LOCAL GOVEBNIIENT.

IHa did nob think tint would bs the 1 chosen ground, but it might bo. The Govornment had made certain" pledges in the excitement of the patt session which they fourid themselves utterly unable to carry out. Sir Julius Vogel had said in the House: "We really Hnd genuinely do mean the revival of a scheme jof effectual local government — not in the old but in a new form — a perfect-, efficient, and executive form." Sir Julius Vogel, spaakiDg subsequently, had raide f .he largest; number of blunders upon the subject possible to conceive, clenly showing that neither he nor Mr Stout was in the le^st fUtPrt to deal with it. Aa a big boon, Sir Julius V' gel proposed to authorise the levying of toll up >n bha roa^s, a thing that had been abolished by the dictum of common sea3e, and which could be ravived now without any permission fiom the Government. The speaker sincerely hopad it never would be, as it was one of the most barbaric ways of raising revenue ever deviaed. As to tho details of the local government scheme wo were left very much in the da\k. We were talked to about assured finance, but not told what it would bp, R >spectiog this, one point struck the speaker — viz , that if there was any portion of the revenue which should ba all seated to local finance it waa tho property tax. This tax waa raised on property in a certain neighbourhood, and a moiety of tho money at lsast should be spent oa roads and bridges, to enable tfao payors of tha tax to travel in their district. This, however, waa not likely to bo the Government poli iy. H$ thought they were more likely to propoae the abolition of the property tax altogether and the increase of customs duties. It' so. 'hey would find in him one of their mo3t dstermin id opponents. Property should ba taxed, and he war of opinion that customs duties should be swept entirely away. Hn waa a Freetrader to i the backbone. — (Applause.) Witn reganl to local government there waa a great deal i f confusion. When Mr Stout; was bhe head oF an association formed in Dunedin wifch a view of promoting local government, he suggested that each educational district should be a division for the purpose of local government. That would mean, for instance, that Ofcago and Southland would ba one district. The speaker had no objection to the districts being educational districts ; but ho would begin at the other end and make the educ itional districts smaller, and then let them become local government districts, JEJuci.tional matters should be managed in tha district itself, and the preaent consfcifcutijn of fcne Education Board waa an injustice to tho members and to the public, But this did not enter into the plani of the Government. It was a remarkable thing thar, when a man was merely a member of the House his opinions wero in a certain direction, but unfortunately as 3oon as he became a Minister th<-y took a different direction altogether. He (the aoeaker) did not see any difficulty in giving loc.il government bodies confcroi of tho police, the ga<<ls, the charitable institutions, &o , without afc all destroying the present; local autonomy. So many counties might bo taken, made one distri- fc, and given considerably larger powers. This might be dooe; but it was a pity to bob men ho respected, such as Mr Macaudrewanri Mr Montgomery, attempt ing to bring back Provincialipm — a thing they could never do. It waa Useless to talk about that ; but we might have local belies with very large powers to take over from Parliament ths duty of dealing wifch a host of trumpery aff.iirs, the consideration of which would disgrace a parish vestry in England. — (Applause.) Ju order to show what an absurd thing the present avatam of local government was, ho might quote some remarks from a speech made by himself in the House: — "There are in this '.'olony the following local bodies : Borough councils 70, county councils 68, mal boarda 295, town district boards 44—477. River boards 15, harbour boards 25, land boards 10—50. Education boards 12, school committees 798—810. Licensing committees, 384 ; hospitals and charitable institutions, 51 Total number of local bodies, 1772 Taking nine metnbors as the average number in tho borough councils, county councils, road boards, and town district boarda, the total in those boards would be 4293 ; and giving eight members to the whole of the bodies I have enum'-vated would bring the total up tc 14,376, ot whom no fewer than 1920 are members of licensing committees. And those do uot exhaust the list : but I think that the figures I have given illustrate the absurdity of the syetem. Fancy all these bodies with fcheir chairmen, their Becrefcarips, their clerks, their engineers, their returning offineru, and tha rest of the official paraphernalia. I think tho Ht.uae will ba a&tonished at the outcome of theaa figure I',1 ', especially those in regard to the Licen£sng Committees, for tfa^y show that, whilst there were in New Zealand, according to to the census of 1881, only 1591 publicans, there were 384 Licensing Committee 3 , eaoh wifch five members, or in all 1920 members. That ia to say that there are 329 more persons engaged in dealing out law to ths publicans than there are publicans. Would it not, asked the speaker, be better that all thsE9 separata f unctionu should be brought together —that three cv four counties should be welded together without destroying local autonomy at all, and given larger powars. Mr Scobie Mackenzie, than whom he did not know 1 a more estimable member, or one more deserving the confidence of the general public, made a big mistake in dealing with this subject. He seemed to forget in his remarks that the larger the functions given to local bodies the more likely was it that men of larger ability would be brought forward to undertake them. Give a man a parish road to make and he cared nothing about it ; but give him a railway to make and he would rise to the occasion. He was sure that if the powers were enlarged, men of greater ability would undertake the work, and they were badly wanted. There was suoh a thing as putting an elephant to draw a whoel-b&rrow-T-(laught9r)—but it was a very stupid proceeding, Mr M'Kenzie, by hia speech, seemed curprised that elephants did not coma forward to rtriwthe wheelbarrows of O >un«.y Councils, Why there was nothing to tempt men of abi'icy to remain ia such boc3ies. It was poH'ible that, t,bn G-iveinir.t-ni would inako a ti.Uiln-grovmd of (hii local government bustr.es , but if they did f,lv y would coiue to grid. T io proposal ho should make to fcha Govern meat wan that they should bring forward tho bil', aek tho Houbo to read it a second time, i and give a pledge that they would carry it no further until the people had exure*ußd a.n I opinion npou it. A mistake was made iv paneI ing tha Abolition Act ia 1876 without consulting i tha people, fis had sees Cilia over v.uuu I 3-i'"h' il u:?i tho outcome bed not be&r. *•■• lfw,.«nl. '

ab'o a<? some people would have them believa, yetanyoth'Tguch change— local g->vernvnent,,for iastauc"— should be before tho people for aft lens's 12.month-i. For this re'>Bon any Leal government measure should recnive his support as far as tho second reading, hufc it i* were pivhed to a third reading ha should vote against it.

fcnOTECt'ION.

The Government might poasibly choose aa their baltle-grouad Protection, and there tha people would find him (the speaker) stera and uncompromising The only thing he saw in Protection was the tostoring of fe>v people at tba expanse of the mauy, In his experience Protection had never bean openly avowed. It used to be " taxation for revenue purposes," and now they called it " encouraging local industries." There ware raally only three industries in this country --the pastoral, tho agricultural, and the mining. — (A VoiOK: " And the political.") Tho gentloman who spoke bad probably not been very successful in that industry himself. A number of men had come to this Colony, and thuy said, '' Now that we are here, you must put taxaa upon Ihe whole people to enable us to make a living." Rn said to such aa the^e that the country did not want them— it could do without them, — and he would support a measure for chartering a ship to carry them back again. Of all the follies a young country could bo guilty of, encouraging indue tries foreign to itaelf that imp sed taxes upon its really native induntries waa the worst. He intended directly he reached WeHinfttoju to do the very opposite to what ho wa9 told tha Government meant to do. Ho waa told thoy intended raising the duties on tea and sugar, and he should move that the duty on tho3e, and also on coffee, chocolate, &c. should be abolished, so that the working man bhould have a frae broakfaat-table. — (Applaust.) He had tafen some trouble to accertain how we stood in the p»'~fc, and he found by tho censua of 188 L that there wore upwards of 54,000 people engaged 1 in the agricultural »nd pastoral industries, 14 000 in mining, and G4,0'.0 in ofchar industrial pursuits, exclusive of manufactures Those oagaged in manufactures were about 38,000 oniy, and by every tax placed upon imports for their benefit the comnauuity was so much out of pocket, Thfiy had to pay to eacoGM^i manufactures which o'mld not maintain them- j eelves. The distance of this place from other centres should alone be quite enough protection. He found also that wo hid nbsolutoly within 1000 as many domestic servants as persona eag vged in mannfacburos, and th.a was a moat important industry which bhould bo paid greater attention to

BtOIPROCITY.

Another " fad " we had boon hearing about lately was reciprocity. Victoria, after for many years encouraging what she was pleased to call native, but what wero really exotic manufactures, had come to tho conclusion th.it she would like to enlarge her market. She had induced Tusmania to fall in with hm* schema (although he did not believe the Tasmanian Parliament would agree to the arrangement;), and eomo of our commercial lunatics in Dunedin wera now trying to indues U3 to do the same. What Victoria wanted was to forco off her locally-manufactured goods — to arrange so hat we should be compelled by force of prioeu to receive Victorian goods. It meant our continuing to tax English and American goods, and just letting in those of Victoria duty free. Ho did not know if this wl'd scheme had supporters in the present Government ; ha did not think ~o ; but if it were attain pted they would find in him a most determined opponent. H-i would have no reciprocity of that one-bided kind no lonpc as he could raise a voice asrainbt ifc. As to Protection, if paople accepted it, they would find it the hardest yoke they ever put upon thoir nocks.

TOWN VERSUS COUNTRY',

He did not see why dwellers m the country should be subordinated to those iv to^n. This was an evil that had beeu growing rapidly. The towns for years had forced their nostrums down the throat of tha country. Eveiy measure that can? a beforo tha H' ueo h«d regard not to tho benefit of the people, but to tha interest of the dwellers in towns. Fortunately they had now got a country party determined to resist • ' he tyranny of the dwellers in town.— (Applause). .-

A FiJEK BREAKFAST TABLE. He had said that he would propose a free broakCa^t table. Thi3 was first proposed by Mr Balhcce, who ro far fell in with that view as to suggest that a. halfpenny ehould be aken off sugar and twoponcn off tea. The speaker had told him this wa«i foolish, because i<; did not; make itaelt felt. If jfc had bsen all tak°n off, the people would have felt the beußtifc; but he ventured to say that those who gained naoat by this partial measure (which showed the ba'f heartedncaa of the man) wero those who b vugh>. la'f»a quantities. He meant to go for the whole duty off sugar first, and ha also wanted il off tea. Ho thould be met no doubt with tha argument that it waH desirable to encourage tho growth of beetroot. Did his hearers ever tauts baatruot sugar? Ho had been so unlucky. It had made his tea washy, spoiled his punch, noured bis temper, and made him geuerhlJy unhappy.— (A Voice : I don't agree with you ) Baatcoot sugar did not agrse with the Hpe&ker anyhow. .And why, ho should like to know, ware the whole population to pay iv order to enable a few farmers in the North Island to grow beetroot? If an industry did not pay without special taxation, thon abolish ifc. At Home they grew beetroot largoly, and tuado ib into tthita spirit, from which other spirits were manufactured, and that would bo the end of beetroot culture here.

SIB JULIUS VOGEL'S INFLUENCE. It was a most extraordinary thing that Mr Ballance, who in 1878 proposed the removal of these dutie?, should now be the man to come forward and propose their The speaker could not always account for these changes in men's mindn ; but he did know this, that Sir Julius Vogel possessed a mesmeric influence, and ho could see its effect upon the mind of Mr Stout and Mr Ballance and all the others who came in contact with him. They soamed to lose their Belf-posseaMon, and ho was mire that if Mr Ballance wero removed from Sir Julius Vogel's influence fur 24 hours only he would see hia folly. The speaker nova? got within that sphere, he could assure them, and as long as thoy returned him he should retain his own mind, and submit to no other judgment than that of his constituents. Ah an illustration of what he had bepu remarking, thny know hoy? strongly Mr Stout with pen ami tongue had always supported the nationalisation of tho land, No sooner, . however, had he got i.ito ( ftion than ho sold »hs A.u?.kL\ud people toat tho yuL'Ption wan " onUide tlio sphere of practical p.ilitic-i." This waa tha chffarsuea between " iv" and "out." Mr Bitllauci, who in 1878 talked about jv freo breakfast-tablo, now proposed a duty. How cmld he al the same time nay that there existed suoh a thing ns a, Liberal parly, Tho speaker, for one. hnd tor years striven U» bring about some oohesiuu of Lbs indsGulto u&iliielc-u of what should fee Ul9 Lrtwmi i»»vOy, but he hjwl aH-rayi. fu-.un!

it impossible. The first thing they said ri a-ked what waa ttioir plank waa "To put out tho Government." That needed the flrst, la-it, aud only plank in the platform of tha Liberal party in Now Zealand.— (Laughter.) aS waa no use talking about, a Liberal party while that was tha 01-Ue of affairs. Another matter to be touched upon was

TFK T.AJS'D LAWS,

i- Ho asked theme present wfaotbar thoy could, in their weakest and moat stupid laoifients, pre pare anyihiDg more absurd thaa our pieaetsfc land legislation? They could not blame the land boarda and thoir officers — it was the con atf uction of tho laws, which were incongruous nad stupid enough to drive every man out of Naw Zi&tond. Ha, above all, redacted the condition of residence upon deferred-pay fflpnt land, which was dropped altogether in tha conditions of perpetual leasing. The speaker had seen oao of the best farmers in the South Island turned off his land, which was all under cultivation, because ho lived on the othef cide of the road. Was that the way to eucouraga cultivation? Ha did not want to praiae himself, but an tho father of the system ha wished to go hack to the regulations drafted by him in 1863, and called the Agricultural L'j&ae Rjgul.ilions. A man under them was allowed to take up a piece of land on condition that ho should cultivate, fence, &c. certain pjrtionß within certain periods. No man niiould bo allowed any part of the public estate except for use, but residence was of no use.

PASTORAL LANDS, A gross wrong had aleo betfti done by the manner in which pastoral lands had been dealt with. What ho waatod waa a classification of tha lands. Lit thorn give a 1 tenant of pastoral land exactly the eama privileges as were givan lo a tenant of agricultural land under the porrmtuul leasing system. Give him a lease for 14 years, with valuation for all improvements at the end of the term if ha did not purcbrtso. Wa ahould have double the number of «B9ep on tha land, because it would pay men to make improvements. At present the pastoral tenant had no SBCumy- ha might be kicked out to-morrow; and was it to be expected that be was goinp 1 to improve tho laud and exterminate rabbits? No ; his business was simply to got <s,s much out, of the land as ho could. If tlte eppakoc'B suggestion were followed they would uwn eeo a diSeronco in the a'jandipg of the pastoral tenant. Ha did not know if such a measure was to bo brought in ueKl session ; but he knew t c Premier was much in tavour of it, and if he did not bring it in tho speaker would. — (Applause.) Than, as regarded agricultural lauds, they were put up tor sale in an arbitrary way undar the deferred payment syßtem, the perpetual-leaee sya'uun, or tha sigrLultural-leaso system, and w re not ot ertvisa available to the purchaser. He would a ivocate letting Battlers take up land iv any surveyed block under whichever jyjiem suited them best.

INTENTIONS FOR THE SESSION. Ah to hi« intentions, per se he would support the proaunt Govsrnment, but bo must not ba uuisunderstood. He meant that he would vote against a direct motion ef want of confidence, but he would stand no nonsense. He would havo no "'tads" and South Sea bubbles or Protective fallacies thrust down his throat. Jf tho G overnment were content with carrying on tho bcsiae3B of the country, they would not ba disturbed ; no man in the House would move against, them, it was felt that the late Gov»ramenb had been too long in power. They wanted no more Atkinson at present. His cuusfciiuauts need not ba surprised if they found him voting to keep tho Government iv office, or votmg against certain measures even though tho Go\ eminent said thoy should rasign in eonr.-q uonce. There had been too natch bouncing in the past, and it would havo ao effect upon aim for the future.

THK RAILWAY ROUTK.

Raferring to tho two routes via Orookstou and Moa Flat, propos9d for tha extension of the Tdpanui-Swift Crook railway, Mr Pyke said that if his consti'uents were divided into two sections upon the subject he was not going to bo ju.iga betwpen them ; but he would caution them if they did not take what tbny could get they might got nothing at all. Lev, the engineer take tha line where he liked, and for heaven's sake let them abstain from fighting among theniHelvea.

CONCLUSION,

Iv conclusion, the apiaker rep3atedthat it was doubtful whether the Government didof did not want to forco a dissolution during the session, In his opinion they did, but he did not think they would gain much over it. It was for his conwtituents either to trust their representative or to turn him out, and if his conduct did not please them, lefe them turn him out at the next election. He had made mistakes, but he had striven honestly, and he expected them to dual decently with him on an emergency. — (Loud applause ) He was, in their hands now, ready to stand any amount; of " heckling,"

QUESTIONS.

Iv answer to questions put by Captain Mackenzie avid othery, Mr Pyke said that he would have tho boundaries of local government districts fixed by tha people themselves, and not, arranged in Wellington. Aa to tha money expended upon defence, the Government, in hi« opinion, had done quite right, although ho iiimaelf wcw uo'» inclined to trust ao much to shore guaa, and would have preferred a few swift cruisora. Ho thought tho oxpenditure was justified in view,of a possible Rusfian war, which ho, fur his part, was vary sorry did not couae off. — (Appta,vuio,) He felt strongly that gwat miutukea had boeu made in itntingratiou W« had scoiuod the gutters and introduced undarbrad and undorfed men aad women to lower fcho status of our community, and now we said wo would have no one out afe all. Wo wanted good men who would not hang nbout the towns for work, and tho Govemmont had done nothing more reprehansible than thoir conduct in stopping nominated immigration. After a number or other questions had bean answered upon various subjects, Mr W. Sinclair moved, aud Captain Mac kgnzib Eoconded— "Thai, this meeting thanks Me Pyke fov hia address, and has every coufidenca in him as tho repreaoatative for tha district."

This was carriad unanimously ; aad Mr Pyke having acknowledged the vote, tbo proceedings terminated.