THE ADDRESS-IN-REPLY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2105, 28 June 1894, Page 19

THE ADDRESS-IN-REPLY.

After dinner we got to the Address, and the mover (Mr Montgomery) was greeted by a House full unto the doors as he rose arrayed in orthodox garb to move its adoption. The young member for Ellesmere ha?, 1 understand, achieved some university distinction, and it

may be said that while he displayed the formality of the schools, his speech did not afford any striking proof of his possession of extraordinary attainments. Still he was evidently constrained and ill at ease, as was but natural, and he probably exercised a wise judgment in abstaining from any high flight of oratory. The concluding portion of bis speech was the best, wherein he pleaded for the preservation of the beauty spots of bis native country as a matter of profit and advantage, as well as of sentiment. Mr Montgomery may develop into a good speaker, and it would be a mistake to gauge him by his first utterance. To the mover followed Mr O'Regan, who made a speech, self-contained, forceful, and effective. It was a speech as powerful as the appearance of the man, who has a remarkable personality. Mr O'Regan has the courage of his opinions, and his strongest opinion is that in the Georgian tax upon unimproved values may be found a certain cure for all the ills ef the State, from the lack of land settlement to the abolition of the unemployed. By the time that the member for Inangahua has discovered that the social state cannot be redeemed by the imposition of the single tax he will bo a power in the Legislature. Meanwhile he is already politiculfy a man to bo reckoned with.