The Patea Mail. Established 1875. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1882. MR ROLLESTON’S SPEECH.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 961, 20 November 1882, Page 2

The Patea Mail. Established 1875. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1882. MR ROLLESTON’S SPEECH.

Thk address,by Mr Eolleston to his constituepts at Papanni the other night.was looked forward to with some considersiderable ; interest. He commenced by telling, -his audience—what no doubt - theyalready, knew that, he was never afraid to meet his constituents as he had nothing to conceal. He had received ;a requisition" and if the, meeting/had, anything to accuse him of it was better to have it out at once. Nobody appearing inclined to respond to this polite invitation the worthy Minis-’ ter.put his hands into his pockets . and / to business, . That is to say .:bhe gaive.a resume ’ of the past session; Such explanations, from a member of the .Government are,always interesting,: es- , specially fas one may look for a hint or two Concerning the future from amongst the mass of general matter of which an : r to a constituency is composed. . : Ent jf the piiblic anticipated any such I .enlightenmentthey were disappointed for .Mr Eolleston’s speech, interesting as it ; V 3s, ? is deyoid.of any .intimation of future i ; intehtions'on the part of the Govern-' i! ' raent. He ' defended his colleagues . . upon their manner of passing their ■' measures. “ It was not correct” he < said, ‘‘ that- the Government rushed ' these measures through without con- ! side'raticn. Most of them had been be—- ■ fore the people for a length of time, and ■ while the Opposition admitted most of " - the measures to be right and good in ;. principle, -they had steadily opposed those measures.” There can scarcely be . ..a doubt about. the correctness of that '• assertion. The Opposition last session displayed, a disposition to oppose for.the • sake of opposing, not because the measures were objectionable. They could not consistently condemn the Government measures because they found that the Government was even more liberal than the Liberals themselves. Hence it was often necessary in order to make a pretence of resistance to fix upon some slight detail and so by that means wage a warfare against the Government as unprofitable as it was vexations. For indeed it was both. Disunited and dis- • organised, the Opposition of last session did not afford a very edifying spectacle at any lime ; in fact il may be said that their position often bordered upon the ludicrous. With half-a-dozen different leaders or rather aspirants to that posi-

tion, it used to bo an in loresting speculation from day to day as to who would be the chosen one. Mr Montgomery had the best of it on the whole, although besides Sir G.'Grey, several of the lesser lights met with a share of support. Composed of so many irreconciliable parts it would have been better had they allowed the business of the session to proceed uninterruptedly instead of offering an obstructive -front to each measure ns it came on, and so prolonging the session to an undue length, especially when there was no hope of a successful raid on the Government benches. Mr Rolleslon therefore is to be excused if he dealt his late opponents, some hard knocks in his speech the other night. In referring to tlie Native policy he very justly claimed credit for the Government for what they had been able to accomplish. Ho said that their policy was one intended to do justice to all Natives, and bring the administration of Native affairs into harmony with European affairs. The step taken a year ago convinced the Natives that the Europeans mean to do justice by them, and despite all sorts of obstacles placed in the way, order bad now been .restored on the Coast. Thai statement is satisfactory enough as far as it goes, but we should have liked to have heard how the Government propose to deal with the outcome of the meeting between Mr Bryce and Tawhiao at Alexandra. But there was one subject above all others which, in the course of his address, Mr Rolleston referred to with pride. We mean, - of course, that, department which is under his control and which he takes a very special interest in. Sneaking on the subject of lands, he said that during the last three years more had been done in the way of settlement than had been accomplished -in any previous three years. That must have been a peculiarly gratifying remark for the boh. gentleman to make because. U. at once-shows that he has attended to his duties with zeal and success. It is well known that, the settlement of land is a sort of hobby of the present Minister’s, and he appears to be taking full advantage of his opportunity. He advocated extensive leasing so that there might always be revenue coming in, because he thought that the taxation of the colony would be very heavy before long, and it was prudent that the Government should take some steps to meet it. The hon. gentleman need have no fear of being contradicted over that. A description of the part he had taken in the proposed West Coast Railway from Christchurch to Hokitika biqught an able, if somewhat disappoint in