SOCIAL TO MR W. FARNSHOW.

Otago Witness, Issue 2545, 24 December 1902, Page 48

SOCIAL TO MR W. FARNSHOW.

A basket social was tendered Mr and Mrs W. Earnshaw in the South Dtsaedin Town Hall on the 17th by Mr Earnshaw'e committee and supporters in the recent contest for the representation of ershara in Parliament. Mr G-. Newton presided, and there was a very large gathering of ladies and gentlemen. An apology was received from Mr H. D. Bedford, M.M.R., for his absence. During an interval in the musical programme that was contributed, The Chairman presented Mr Earnshaw with a purse of sovereigns. In so doing he said hehad personally known the guest of the evening for 16 years, and had always found him an upright and honest man — a man who would do nobody an injury. — (Loud applause.) The course he believed to b> the Tight one he fearlessly took, oftcm to hi 3 own detriment. His friends all felt great regret at his not be 'nig returned, for they all fell he would have been of great service in the House at the present time.— 'Applause.) They recognised that the Government party had been too strong, and they also recognised that the fight Mr Earnshaw had to go through was a very uphill one. No one knew that better than the committee who had been working for him. It had been a labour of love on the part of the committee. They had not done it with any expectation of reward for themselves, or appointments for their eoii3 or sisters. A fortnight ago the committee decided to sev what they could do towards assisting Mr Earnshaw to bear his electioneering expenses and show their sympathy in a practical way. The outcome of that was that he had very great pleasure in presenting Mr Earnshaw with a purse containing 85 sovereigns, and some amounts were still -o come in. The purse bore the following inscription: — "Presented to Mr W. Earnshaw by his frienii and supporters in the Caversham electorate. December 17, 1902."— (Loud applause.) Mrs Southam, on behalf of herself and Mrs Dwight, amidst loud applause preeented Mrs Earnshaw with a framed enlarged nhotograph of Mr Earnshaw. Mr Earnshaw, who was received with prolonged applause and cheers, 6aid he would infinitely rather be facing their lnte opponents in the thick of a fight than standing there that night. It was exceedingly nice and k : rad of the members of his late electoral committee to have determined upon that very representative gathering as a fitting conclusion to the political contest. He felt that he could not fittingly express his feelings in words for the very loyal and most active services which they had given on his behalf, and the great personal sacrifice made by so many of the workers on the Ladies' Committee. He felt all the more under a debt of gratitude for the very womanly and manly manner which at all tjmes, and often uuder circumstances of great provocation, each and every member conducted themselves in the campaign. They fought a good fight, cleanly, openly, honestly— (applause),— and, if under conditions very much the reveree to those three characteristics they did not succeed, they at anyrate had nothing 1 to be ashamed of in not wresting the laiirel from thoir opponents. It might be fairly claimed that the opposing odds were overwhelming in their array and force. They bad in the first instance the electoral boundaries nnd the infamies in connection with the roll. With regard to the campaign, they had the full force of the vested liquor interests to contend against. They had the hostility of the Roman Catholic block vote. Those forces, coupled with the hope and promise of Government employment combined, proved too much for those of them who etood for the reign of law and order and clean administration here in New Zealand. — (Applause.) Yet they had made a good stand, polling the highest number of yotes of any unsuccessful candidate in the colony, and also polling more votes than 48 candidates out of the 76 who were elected. — (Applause ) He (Mr Earnshaw) had calculated upon polling 2750 vote 3, and he might be pardoned if he said that if the Temperance party had been fully true to its great political interests at the present time they should have won easily. Pending liquor legislation made the temperance cause a political situation. He did not desire-to retract anything, or to wish that anything he had said during the struggle had not been uttered. He said that quietly and deliberately. He fulTy counted the cost of the struggle before giving expression to Ifis opinions on questions which must from their very nature give rise to much feeling ; but he did not expect such an exhibition of cowardly conduct and disgusting language in public from those who were so constantly parading their highly moral and religious system of private school (Roman Catholic) system of education. —(Applause ) He had stated and he repeated his charge, that the Ward-Seddon Administration was giving an undue preference to Roman Catholics to be enroloyed in the public service. Sir Joseph Ward had failed to keep his word and place a, return on the table of the House .of Parliament of all those who had been given employment during their tenure of office in the public services of the colony. He specially repeated his charge that the Warrl-Seddon regime had unduly etuffed the public services of New Zealand. Again, as against the continuous attacks made by the Roman Catholic clergy upon the national system of secular education, he read a sharp lesson in reply, giving in a very mild manner instances of their system as was evidenced in inquiries made regarding the conduct of their Orphan Industrial Sohoo!, at Stoke, Ne-kon. The Tammany influences at work regarding the manner and method now felt to be necessary in politics to gain admission to the railway workshop 1 ? were also a very heavy factor against __ them, and the unblushing manner iin which this lever was employed during the campaign with regard to future employment of both young and old Bpoke volumes regarding the great demoralisation of the people under the rule of these tribunes. What had taken place at the Old Men's Home must, apart from the subject of corruption, raise the question as to how far it was legitimate to allow one electorate to be weighted with such a large and easily influenced dependent vote. They further stood against the public maelstrom of plunging indebtedness. " The gods grind slowly, but they grind all the time," and he rppeated that they were grinding a mess of pottage, which would be as bitter in the digesting here in N»w Zealand as it was in old Egypt's days. It had been his earnest desire to truly serve their interests — the workers' interests, to which he was proud to belong — that he had felt bound to stand for the principles of true self-reliance) of the individual and of the State — a. pursuit of a policy of financial prudence and cleanly adn-uii^tiation of the affaire of State, and a solution of the economic problem of industrial production — that he had preferred to

— »^——- — ■ ■■ — i ' and incur the odium of doing co, rather thafi court public and Government approval, yet personally feeling that he was be-traying the trust he hatl taken up. . Tim© was rapidly „ proving who, after all, were the best friends of labour's cause. He had dealt at length so recently with public questions that he» «as sure they did not exr>ect i speech m questions of polity. Yet, in passing, he would put two positions to them on two widely differing questions, and let them think them over at their leisure. Mr Seddon had made reference to and called the attention of electors to a division list on the Land for Settlements Bill. He (Mr Earnshaw} was proud of the fact that he had ever stood against the Government's lands purchase Fcheme. The generations to come would have caueo to curse the present; courses. "When Mr Scddon had purchased! out all of the large landed estates and they had these estates settled in smaller holdings, who would be their real landlord? Would it not be that curse of all nations — that party they specially penalised in 1392 as a, social post: the foreign absentee money landlord? History repeated itself in strange i forms. The other matter waa the famous* election declaration of Mr Seddon's ally, Sir J. G. Ward, that he would have three shifts at v/ork manufacturing rolling stock. His latest somersault was that the night j shift at Addington was only on urgent^ work .pjxl temporary, and all would soon^ be working enc shift. Just so, and roigiht ho | add, " I told you so." — (Applause.) PassI ing these questions by, and coming to the, personal one: that they had so kindly gathered that night to give expression to, . he could only -say that it would have given I him great pleasure to have been honoured I as their representative, as it was a large ' i part of the present electorate that first | gave him political life in 1890. — (Applause.) However, the fates had ordered otherwise. He felt that his most intense opponents would admit that if elected he would have dealt and repereeented equitably and fairlyall classes and factions in the electorate ; that he would have striven to look after the interests of the district, and, above all. he would have, in the political arena, have tried to realise the ideal of the poet Watson : " When none shall be for party, bufc all for the State." — (Applause-.) He was exceedingly glad that Mr Newton Was in the chair, becauseahe was the first one on the Labour Committee in Dunedin who, in l£9o, when it was decided to send Labour representatives to Parliament, fought that he (Mr Earnshaw) should be selected to stand for the Peninsula electorate. In conclusion, he expressed his heartfelt thanks for fchf» very generous presentation that had been made to him. He appreciated their gift very much, but he appreciated still more the warm and generous support and assistance they had given him during the recent cami paign, and the confidence in him they had i ovprps^ed at the ballot box. On behalf of I his wife, also, he desired to return thanks I to the ladies for their thoughtfulness in presenting her with the photograph. But for his wife he would not have stood for Parliai ment in the first instance, nor would he have contested Dunedin City in 1895, and | it was only because of her untiring energy and resolution to fitrht with him thin, last fight that constrained him to contest Caversham this year. — (Applause.) Mr "Earnshaw ■ . resumed his seat amid prolonged and" enthuj siastic cheers. i The musical programme" which was gone , through was received with hearty demonstra- ' +ioii3 of approval, the different performer* being most impartially applauded. Mr J. White, who was present by invitation, exprpssed his pleasure at beinpr able to attend. Twelve years ago he had been op- ; posed to Mr Earnshaw, but having watched I that gentleman's career since then he was i satisfipd that he was the right stamp of j man to be in Parliament, and regretted ; fxcopdinglv that he had not been returned for Caversham at this last election. Clippts having been given for Mr and | Mrs Earnshaw, the ladies, the committee. the chairman, and Mr White, " Auld lang syne was sung.* after which refreshments, supplied by the ladies, were- handed round. These having been discussed, the floor waa 1 cleared and dancing indulged in for a> couple of hours.