(THE HON. J. G. WARD AT WINTON. (By Our Special Rrporter.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2195, 26 March 1896, Page 23

(THE HON. J. G. WARD AT WINTON. (By Our Special Rrporter.)

Wiston, March 23. The Hos. J. G. Ward addressed a meeting of his constituents at Winton, in Moore's Hall, thin evening. Mr Eidd, the mayor, presided, knd thera was a very large attendance, the hall being crowded to excess, about 800 being present. The Mayor made a short complimentary speech, and introduced . Mr Ward, who was received with loud Applause. After referring to several local matters, he. said it would have been a great pleasure to Kirn had he been able to meet his constituents sooner, because they would doubtless recognise the fact that no man in the oountry had been the object of so much attention since he last addressed them as himself. There had been concentrated against him the efforts of the strongest leading politicians in the country, in ord*-r to damage and discredit him, and as far as possible to make his mission as the representative of the Ministry of this country as difficult as possible. To some extent, no doubt, criticism in politics was necessary and proper, but he believed ho should be able to show that it had been carried as against him to an extent that was not only uugentlemanly and unfair, bat that unjust and detpicable attempts had been made to injure trim politically in a way that had not been dona to any other man who had occupied a prominent position in the country.— (Applause.)^ Immediately upon his return from England he was tan.de aware of the fact that it was to be the aim of the Conservative party in the colony to discredit him as much as possible. A gentleman in one of the most important cities in the' colony wrote a letter to him at that* time, from which the following' was an extract : —" My Conservative friends here ttll me that if they could get rid of you the demolition of the rest of the Ministry would bB a very simple aff.iir. Perhaps they are right. . At any rate I know that the present programme of the Opposition 'press is to discredit the Colonial Treasurer." This was sent to him shortly after his return, and at first he scarcely credited it ; bat he very soon discovered its correctness. It was always, however, a - matter of satisfaction to himself when the subjeot of these unfair attacks to know that he had the -sympathy and confidence of the people of the district in which he lived and whom he represented. So long as he had this he felt it was easy to do right in the interests of his constituents and the country.— (Applause.) Immediately upon the delivery of the Budget a BtroDg effort was made to IMPEACH HIS VERACITY AND INTEQEITT by three of the most prominent members of the House, who not only attacked him in the ■ House, but in the Public* Accounts Committee had an inquisition into his dealings and actions through nearly the whole -of the session. What had been seen in the public prints was a very small portion of the attempts made to discredit him. They had no doubt heard a good deal about the finances of the country being improperly placed before them and ab-ut tha drawn bonds. To show how unfair was the mttuod of attack ia re'pect to the drawn bonds, he mentioned that in the Financial Statement of 1894 more than half a, page of the Budget was devoted to an explanation of the change in connection with' the drawn bonds which he intended to bring about in the following year. He then pointed out that the then existing system was unnecessary, inexpedient, and stupid, and gave a clear iudication of the change he intended to make the following year. And in the Financial Statement of 1595 the change referred to 12 months before was mentioned ; and yet it was said that this change was an attempt on the part of the Colonial Treasurer to deceive the people". Immediately the Budget was delivered Sir Robert ' Stout attempted to make out that, respecting this matter, the financial position wa» improperly 'placed before the House. Now, it was surely not- fair fighting after tbis matter had been stated in the Budget of 1891- to BUggest thatit had been done with the intention of deceiving the people. If he (Mr Ward) had attempted to deceive or mislead the people then he was unfit to hold his position for an hour, as would a member of any Ministry who attempted to play a trick upon his colleagues or on the people. The insinuation levelled against him was suoh that had it not been groundless he could not have remained a member of tho Ministry or -have received the luppoit of intelligent men sent to represent the people, but should have deserved to be treated with contempt, and not to be again trusted by his constituents. — (Applaute.) The evidence given before the Public Accounts Committee by the Controller and Auditor-general acd the Secretary of the Treasury was such that the committee reported :—": — " It has been proved to the satisfaction of the committee that owing to the new system inaugurated by the Treasury last year in connection with the drawing boards there has been at least £180,000 less available during the year for the use of the Government." This was a bombshell, for it showed that co far from the alteration in the system giving more money for carrying on the finances of the country, there - had been less available. That amount bad •been saved, and if they read the speech of Mr George Hutchison, who had attended the committee regularly in order to trip him on this particular item, they would find that he bid admitted that this £180,000 was saved in the way indicated. But in order to attempt to justify himself by having taken up a wrong and unfair petition he said, " You will find, however, there was £180,000 less payments to be made in London." What greater compliment could be paid to a treasurer than to fiad one of hit keenest, bitterest, and nnsb unscrupulous opponents having to go back to- hits constituents and mske trat admission to them. Mr Ward then" referred at length to the collection of the land tax before it was due, and said that only one complaint had been received in connection with that, and that there had not been a Treasurer in the country who had not at some time collected property tax or land tax before its due date. The necessity was obvious to any -common sense man, but if anybody attempted to hocdniuk them into believing that it was done to save the financial position of tte colony, a little examination would cause that erroneous impression to disappear. It was not at all unusual, and in 1880 the Chancellor of the British Exchequer collected five quarters' revenue within the year — anticipating absolutely a full quarter's revenue because of the exigencies of flnauce. Mr Ward then referred to statements published at Home against the colony, quoting, as a sample, the following : — "There is no excuse for those giho again pour out money to Queensland or iNew Zealand, both of which settlements are ntterly bankrupt at pregetot." In order to combat these statements, in the interests of tbe colony, he had undertaken the thankless job of removing the misconceptions, and had honestly done the, best he conld to prevent damage, accruing to the country. And for this he had been attacked with a vigour and pertinacity tiiftti devoted to ordiuarj mattery should h*ve

made the fortune of those who assailed him. Time after time it was attempted to show that the report of his utterances given in the British Au6trala3iau, necessarily a condensed report, was authorised. It was referred to as the authorised version of his speech, and though he pretested against this, as usual his protest wag disregarded by his opponents. Since then the British Australasian had stated that there was no official note taken of Mr Ward's remarks, and that the report of Mr Ward's speeoh, which had formed the subject of the attacks, had never pretended to be anything more than a summary. Tha writer of this article now referred to also said : " One cannot imagine a more conspicuous incident of cutting off one's nose to spite one's face than is exemplified in the conduct of the Naw Zealand Opposition." And aga'n, "We have carefully read the debates in the New Zealand Parliament on the subject, aud we are altogether unable to sea that tbe substantial accuracy of Mr Ward's allegation has been in any way shaken." Hits (Jlr Ward's) opponents were prepared to impeach his veracity, and to attempt to utterly discredit him on the strength of the report of his remarks in the British Australasian. But had [ auy one of them had the manliness to say, on the authority of the same journal, that they had done him an injustice. Mr Ward then went into the question of the trust securities which had been sent Home, where thoy would be of nee in the event of the possible contemplated Crisis to prevent disaster to the colony. He asserted that there was never any intention to use these securities for the ordinary finance of the colony, and that he had been unjustly and unscrupulously attacked in this matter for party purposes. — (Applause ) He also stated that the Melbourne Argua, the most Conservative journal in the colonies, abso'utely urged the very same course in defence of the financial credit and etability of Victoria. Surely there ought to be sufficient patriotism amongst them to j prevent anyone attempting to discredit the Ministry for doing what, under similar circumstances, he would in the interests of the people do again, even, if, as the result, he was immediately kicked out of office, and which the Ministry would do Bg*in under the circumstances. Another point of attack was upon the SINKING! FUNDS, which Sir Robert Stout .hud said had been seized illegally,, improperly, and without warrant. Thin charge, which he went into at length, had been absolutely refuted. The policy of the Opposition was apparently to get tke Government out it ttey could honestly ;' but, if not, get them out aDy way. — (Laughter and applause ) Tbe .evidence before the Public Accounts Committee showed that the local bodies' sinking funds, which were the subject of this attack, had not been disturbed at all, but remained as originally iutact. tfromthis they would be able to judge how much the Government had to put up with in the way of unfair attacks from their p >vents. He was charged with having iniyi <|> rly authorised the seizure of sinking funds which had not been seized at all. During the time of the present administration, including tke administration of Mr Ballatice, the total amount of sinking funds released was £1,624,616. How had that been disposed of ? £1,083,376 had been paid into the contolidated fund, not for the 'purpose of scattering moneys on public works, or of buying political support and corrupting the constituencies, ai was suggested by their opponents, bat h&d been used for the redemption of debentures. And to what better purpose oonld it.be devoted than paying off debentures P £100,000 to pay off the floating debt, and £440,000 released sinking funds was paid into the public works fund, and (here remained a balance of £451 932 of sinking fund still unreleased. It was asked, as the present Government came into office as a nonborrowing Government, why should it use the released sinking fund at all or convert loans at all ? He would tell them why. Loans were converted in the first instance to enable the people of the country to pay less interest and to I put off the redemption of the loans to a future time. Unless the people of the country allowed it to remain stagnant, what was cartain to happen in the next 50 years was that there would be a vastly thicker population, and that this country would require to go on carrying on public works and making the necessary reads to the unseen interior for the people. It> was idle to disguise from their nvr d* that instead of £40,000,000 of public in'-'btedness, s"cla by side with our progress ns a colony the public indebtedness would inc.-e&se ; but the assets would grow more and more and greater in proportion to our liabilities. Was it fair at this juncture that, like a lot of children, we should be constantly finding fault with one and another, and that there should be discontent because the public works fund was augmented in a thoroughly legitimate way P It was not right or wise to squabble over minor matters when they knew that they wera trying to the best of their ability to promote the prosperity of the country, and to lay a foundation upon which those in future might build. Under the cir- J cumstances they were justified in releasing the j sinking fund of loans so ts to get a lower rate of iuterest, and what they ought to do was to see that the money was judiciously expended without any jobbery in various parts ' of the country. We were a small people, and co long as we were in this position we would ba ! bound in years to come not to depend upon our own resources, but to have some other source from which to draw money to assist in the development of the country. The financial authorit ies were strongly of opinion that a no borrowing country, so long as it continued to borrow the money necessary to carry on public works, should provide a sinking fund, and that it was not sound finance for it to provide a sinking fund to redeem loans while it was still borrowing. It would become Beceasary within the not distant future in the life of a nation to make provision for our | FLOATING DEFENCE, ' and it was absolutely beyond doubt that so far as the age of nations was concerned the colony would be bound to obtain many millions of money for tha purpose of maintaining her position. The country to which we are attached, and of which we are co proud, had its interest® spread in every direction, and must come on troublesome times in the future, and beyond question weshould have to defend ourpossessions. It was useless to disguise from ourselves the fact that there were very earnest people in foreign countries who could see that there was a great future before these colonies. The time would come when these colonies and the mother country would have to fight for their own, and we were bound to look ahead and to provide foe the protection o! this country. H« was not referring to this with the idea of leading anyone to suppose that they were going to advocate tbe borrowing of millions immediately. Nothing of the kind. Ho was doing it solely to dissipate from the minds of the people the idea that the Government were neglecting the finances* or the interests of this country, and to show that it was the duty of the Government to carry the general finances upon sound lines, in the general interests of the country. They might depend upon it that At no distance in tbe life of a nation these.

colonies would hive to contend with greater and more serious troubles than we had yet experienced. Instead of idle charges about using the sinking fund improperly and on other minor matters being made, they ought all, no matter on what bide of politics, to devise the best course to follow' in the interest of tb.9 future of this colony.— (Applause.) He would then say a word or two in connection with HIS VISIT TO LONDON. They might think that he wanted to advertise himself by referring to that visit, but he. felt himself impelled to do so, for in that connection he had been an object of the attention of many people whose attentions he had never received before. One could only think that under the circumstances much greater interest had been taken in his movements, or that in certain cases the attention was the result of envy or jealously. Whatever the cause might be, he would relate his experience, and they could then judge for themselves as to whether or not he had acted in the bas& interest? of the country. In the first place, as a result of this visit to London a loan of one and a-half million for the specific purpose of making advances to settlers had bsen raised at the unprecedented rate of 3 per cent. It was to him a matter of surprise to now learn from no less an authority than the leader of the Opposition himself that he (Mr Ward) had nothiug whatever to do with this. When the proposal was first submitted to Parliament nearly the whole of the leading members on the opposite side of the House opposed the proposal to obtain cheap money, giving many and diverse arguments in favour of their views. If this audience would take the trouble to refer to Hansard they would there find i£ stated that it would be impossible to •obtain a loan at the rate named, and that even if ob'ai'ned ths object was not a worthy one to which a Government, at any rate, should lend its aid. It was very remarkable that those who were strongett in their denunciation when the proposal was submitted to Parliament were now attacking him personally upon the matter, and the latest development in connection with the matter was that the leader of the Opposition had discovered that he (Mr Ward) had nothiug to do with it. — (Laughter.) . He was sorry _ his , political opponents had not made that discovery before, for if they had they would have saved themselves much trouble and himself many hours of fighting in the House and out of it for what he btlieved to be a great boon for the country. — (Loud applause.) As to the inscription of stock in England, he would tell them that the colony had been paying £18.000 per annum to the Bank of England. The whole of the Agents-general n*d made representations to the Governor, the Deputy-governor, and others connected with that bank to try to have the amount charged to this and the other colonies reduced, but their best efforts failed. He did not want to appear egoistical, < but he must tell them that after his arrival in England he set himself to work upon that same business, and that before his departure he saw a letter placed in the hands ,of the Agentgeneral agreeing to what he (Mr Ward) had j insisted upon-r-viz., a reduction of tbe amount to under £14,500 per annum. That meant a saving to the colony upon one it°m alone of £3500 a year.— (Applause ) Further' more the absolute saving to the colouy in the difference between the rate at which the advances to settlers loan had been wised and the rate at which it was expected by the House to be raised — viz , 3 and 3£ per cent, respectively—was £4125 per annum, and the saving for the whole currency- of tbe losn would be half a millon.— (Applause.) Asaresulto't his visit to LondoD, the direct annual sav'ißg upon those two items alone was thus £7625.— (Applause.) and yet he had actually been attacked for doing th»t. He had not only been attacked, but in this connection also the Agent-general's circular issued at the time of raising^the loan and his (Mr Ward's) statement made in London had been pronounced to be improper by some } people, who would have us believe that they j were promoting the best interest of the colony. He (the Colonial Treasurer) had never got such a surprise in his life as when he heard those charges. If tbe old gentleman from below had gone to London, and had saved to the colony and posterity the amounts he had named, he would feel it his duty to shake him by the hand even though ha (Mr Ward) might happen to be in Opposition. So far as some of his opponents were concerned, however — gentlemen who in their way were first rate fellows, — they seemed to say that if they could get him (Mr Ward) out first, and then perhaps someone else, they themselves would get in. In that sense the attacks were bitter and continuous, so far as be was concerned, and the jesson' was obvious. — (Aplause) As to the advances to Bettlers, they would find people saying that money would have fallen all the same. Instead of a fall coming in the ordinary couree, the position was that of the total loans at 5 per cent, made by the Advances to Settlers Board up to date 67 per cent, of them have been made to men who had existing mortgages, paying 7 and 7i and up to 8 per cent. How could they get over that ?—? — (Applanse.) To prove his, statements the Treasurer then read two of many letters he had received from settlers whom he did not know personally, and who had been paying as high as 15 per cent. Those people were now obtaining from the Advances to Settlers Office money at 5 per cent., and every payment made their indebtedness was reduced by 1 per cent, paid to the redemption fund. It had been asserted by some people opposed to' this system that the Government had not done anything in the direction of reducing money to settlers. Surely such people shut their eyes to facts, and did nob realise the absolute necessity for money to be got at a rate that would enable oar producers to compete upon even terms with people in England and other countries at lower rates than had been the rule here. — (Applause.) He had read the letters referred to and the names of the writers he was prepared to give confidentially, not for tbe purpose of lauding the Government, but to show them the beneficial effects of the system. Many of them were interested in local bodies. The total amount, that local bodies had upon loan in New Zealand at the present momeat was £6,678,819. Would they believe it that there was only some £650,000 of that amount which paid less than 5 per cent. ? There were in England, Ireland, and Scotland municipalities paying 3 per cent, and lesß upon the moneys they had required whose security was not one whit better than that which the local bodies in this country had to offer for the money obtained. There was no les3 than £2,555,675 of that moat-y paying 6 per cent., £220,000 paying 8 pei-ceat., and so on down to 5 per cent. Taera was only £650,000 that paid ucder 5 per cent. The Government had placed 'it within the power of the local bodies under the Loans to Local Bodies Act to obtain money at a fair and reasonable rate. Under [ this act £150,000 per annum would be saved to the ratepayers of the colony. That was the difference between the rates they are paying at present and the rate which he had suggested. — (Applause.) There was at present some £30,009,000 of money advanced upon private

mortgage in New Zealand. A saving of 2 per cent, on that would mean £600,000 to the private mortgagor!. They had the principle of cheap moneys properly established here, but what was wanted was CHEAP FREIGHTS to England and cheap railway freights in order to compete with countries more favourably situated. There were countries close to Eggland whose freights on their grain, their wool, and their frozen mutton were less than half what we were paying. Unless they sank their minor differences and fought for cheap money, fresh markets for their products, and cheaper freights to England they would continue to find themselves heavily handicapped. Yet they would find certain chambers of commerce, when the Government proposed to arrange reciprocal treaties with Canada and South Australia, vigorously opposing them. It had been said that wool only could be exported t© Canada, but if they would take the trouble they would find that with a duty averaging 20 to 35 per cent, against the United S Sates, British Columbia alone imported sheip to the value of £16,800, cattle to the value of £21,000, hordes to the value of j £9200, bacon, hams, and lard to the value of j £78,200 for the year ending June 30, 1893, in j addition to other imports, totalling in all £330,000. Notwithstanding this they fonnd tho looal Chamber of Commerce passing a resolution Btaling that it was undesirable to establish reciprocal relations with Canada and South Australia. How could they expect the coantry to progress when they found people so blind to its general interests as to oppose the finding ofuew markets for the country's products? All. that was required to bring about these trade relations was an expenditure of £20,000 a year. A highly accredited gentleman had come from Canada to Wellington in connection with this matter, and although he (Mr Ward) really believed that these chambers of commerce were of opinion that it would be a good thing for the colony to have these treaties they did not want the present Government to have the credit of bringing it about. They would find that it would cost about 5 per cent, for freight uron the value of the aiticlea enumerated as against 20 to 35 per cent., which was the duty against articles coming from the United States. The same gentlemen had opposed the South Australian treaty upon the ground that it might interfere with our trade relationships with New South Wales ; but he (Mr Ward) maintained tfiat instead of interfering with our trade with New South Wales it would have done us an immense amount of good. With the knowledge that there were two such great countries as South Australia and New Zealand with a reciprocal treaty, the other colonies would have all wanted to trade with- each other, and that long before the federation whioh they have been advocating and so anxious to bring about, they would have said/ "We must burst the cords of these protective tariff*." — (Applause.) It was his (Mr Ward's) opinion that if the chambers of commerce had not passed their adverse resolution the treaties' would not have been treated in the manner in which they were. He then dwelt upon the importance of the tourist traffic if reciprocal treaties and new lines of steamers were established. Me Ward then referred to a parsgeaph which appeared in that morning's .Southland Times which, he said, was but one of many of a similar kind which often appeared in the press. It was as follows: — " Ministerial Travelling. — On the southern express there is » rickety-dickety smoking carriage in which the other day there were £650 worth of season ticket holders. On the same ' train there was a smooth, easy-running carriage, wh'ch contained a Minister, his wife, and secretary — three deadheads. Comment is needless. — Truth (Christy church)." That could not possibly refer to him", because he had never been a deadhead. Truth was a paper which had to apologise not so very long ago to him for what in it 3 own columns it describsd as an tmtruthfnl statement, made in connection with the trust securities upon which he had spoken that evening. Truth was an offshoot of the Christchurch Press, owned by Conservatives, who had loyally stood by the paper, and bad to ante up to the extent of "£20,000 to assist in fighting the cause it had to espouse. Now, he challenged Truth to name the Minister's wife or the secretary or Che time referred" to in the paragraph.— (Applause.) He believed that the statement was untrue. The morning paper had also from time to time reprinted from northern papers the fact that the Colonial Treasurer passed somewhere or other in a special car or compartment with his private secretary, those references being intended to hold him up to ridicule. As a matter of choice, let him tell them he would prefer to enjoy himself in a general car with his fellows to being caged up in one compartment ; but he could not do this, for his Ministerial duties had to be perfoimed whilst he travelled, and deputations waited on him as he passed through the various stations ; and, moreover, many pspers connected with the private concerns of business men in the colony had to be dealt with, and would it be right for him to deal with these papers in a public car where any designing person might be unscrupulous enough to get confidential information contained therein and put it to improper uses ? Notwithstanding anything that might be said in the press he was determined that when his official duties required him to travel in a reserved compartment he should do so. The arduous nature of his Ministerial duties, Mr Ward mentioned, were euch lhat he had charge of no less than nine public departments, and that he was not over the mark in saying that, independent of departmental letters, bis correspondence numbered 150 letters a day, and sometimes bad reached 200. Daring the recess, when he was supposed to b3 enjoying life in one of the special cars, there were often 70 of these letters a day to reply to whilst travelling; and this work, to be properly done, had to be done m a reserved carriage. He was not the only Minister who had a special car, for he remembered, nine years ago, travelling in a special car with Sir Harry Atkinson from Chnstchurcb. The hardest work he had ever done or ever hoped to do bad been done during the time he was a Cabinet Minister, for he had often been at work with his secretaries at 6 o'clock in the motning and had continued until the small hours of next morning. Referring to the articles which appeared in the Southland Times under the heading of "Wellington News," he read a circular sent out by a correspondent stating that. this correspondent intended to act for a number of papers gratis, the object b&ing to kill the Government This scheme of supplying nws in this form had tbe tppro^al of the leaders of their party. Ab to the charge of BOHR OWING, -he said that the Grey, Atkinson, and StoutVogel Governments had borrowed on the London market; 15£ million', and that the present Government had only borrowed one million and a-half for advances to settlers. , The debt had increased by £1,556,614, but this had been brought about .by loans to local bodies, land acquisition, and naval and military settlers' claims, all of which

had been done according to statute and mnsft hare been done by any other Ministry. Of this sum £1,330,000 was bringing in. more interest than the oolony paid upon tbe total increaie of £1,656,000. The Government w«e not favourable to a reversion to the sjstsni of borrowing millions of money upon the Lonj> don money market for the purpose of carrying on political railways, roade, and bridges, ofc anything else political. They were, however* favourable to such a course as they had adopted last year and the year before of raising np to £25U,000 for tbe purchase of Native land and ! opening up. rop.ds for settlement ; bnt they would not favour the raising of millions of money as had been done by previous Administratiou*. At the same time, they "would nob ba doing their duty nnless they obtained a reasonable sum to enable aomo of the important railways to be extended and to open up lands for settlement, what the Government had already done having resulted in 11,000 additional settlers being placed on the land during the present Administration. He referred to the £800,00(1 guaranteed debentures, and dealt with the misrepresentations which had been uttered concerning the matter. Mr Ward proceeded to give a comparative statement, showing the PROGRESS OF THE COUNTRY in two periods— one during the term of offica of the previous Administration and the other during the present Adminit-tratioD, which commenced in 1891 : In 1890 the value of wool exported was £4,150,599; in 1894 it wee £4,827,016, nearly £700,000 more in value than it was immediately before the Government took office. From 1885 to 1890 the value of gold exported" was £4,232,000; from 1891 to 1895 it increased to £4,740,000, an ineiewe of over £600,000. ft bad been paid in a local paper thnt there wad * stagnation in our imports, but this was not so. From 1887 to 1890 the value of the import* into the colony, exclusive of specie, was £23,403,539; From 1891 to 1895 it was £25,658,101, an increase during the period of £2,254,562. The progress of the oolony was farther shown ia the increased tonnage of vessels entered for foreign trade only. The tonnage o£ these vessels from 1887 to 1890 was* 2,281,000 tons. From 1890 to 1895 it was 2,540,000 tone, an increase of 259,000. Moreover, if the colony had gone back, as their political opponents asserted, might it not have been expected that there would have been an increase of bankruptcies in the colony, but theso, whilst in 1890 numbering 652, had gradually decreased uutil ia 1895 they only numbered 477. Ab a further evidence of the progress of the country he etated that the private wealth of the country from 1890 to 1894 increased by £12,500,000. — (Applause.) Gould it, in the , face of such figures as these, still he urged that the country was in a state of stagnation and depreicion. But there was further proof of the advancement oE the colony. He said under the pteaenr, as against the last Administration tbe arrivals from 1886 to 1890 were 73 816, and the departures 87,812, a loss -of 13 966. From 1891 to 1895 the arrivals were 105.797, and the departures 90,467, stowing a gain of 15,330. There was also a great increase in the sheep returns. The net indebtedness per head of the population had considerably decreased, and the average earnings of the people had also increased until New Zealand was the highest of any country in this respect with £41 per head. The amount pec head the population paid to the cu&t&ms had decreased, and our taxation had, fallen., The hon. geatleman went on to refute the statement made By Captain Russell to the effecß that when in charge of the TABIFJ? BTXIi last session he (Mr Ward) knew nothing about it or what the tariff charges would produce, and in support of his statement he quoted from Hansard. Mr Ward went on to point oat the very large concessions which had been made in the poat and telegraph services, in remission! under the land and income tax, and redactions in railway rates. He defended at some length' the action of the Government with regard to the * BANKING LEGISLATION of last session, and went on to refer to a . deliberate attempt which he said had been made in some quarters lately to ruin him through his private business, and described the s^abs which he said had been given him in the dark by his political enemies as dastardly and cowardly. He warned those who had been concerned in the mean attacks on him that the time might come when he would retaliate in » way that few expected he was in a position to do. " WHAT THE GOVERNMENT HATE DONE. Mr Ward concluded by claiming that the Government had completely revolutionised the , incidence of taxation by throwing the burden on the shoulders of those beat able to bear it, , created a live land settlement policy, opened up , roads for settlements throughout both islands, cheapened the value of money and law charges for mortgages, given the settler* the benefits of ( an organised Agricultural department, restoieg the railways to the people, saved a financial , panic, converted two weak banks .into one powerful one with a State guarantee which in times of panic will render the position of the , country stronger and sounder than it has evec been, carried en the work of extending railways with as much expedition as mean* would permit, striven to open up fresh msikets tor cur producers, cheapened the cost of the public service, made the Department of Agriculture valuable to selllera, and, in the face of nnexampled difficulties, made and maintained a sound financial position, which the testimony of our stocks— now higher than ever in the history of the colouy — effectively prove 1, and had in return received nothing but abuse, contumely, and itsult. Mr Ward, who had spoken for three boars, resumed bis seat amid enthusiastic cheers. On the motion of Mr Hamilton, a vote of thanks to Mr Ward for the way he had represented the district and confidence in tfaa Government was carried unanimously.