Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE NOVEMBER 7. MR DUNLOP'S ADDRESS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8665, 7 November 1899, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORN E NOVEMBE R 7. MR DUNLOP'S ADDRESS.

altogether too costly and cumbersome. Mr Dunlop rightly gave Mr Carroll credit for securing authorisation of the railway, but is apparently content with very slow progress in its construction, and sleeted off the proposal to have the line built by private enterprise His proposal that the Government should help districts that help themsolves by advancing money at 2 pur cent for local works, in place of the present Bcrau)blo for Parliamentary votes, is a good suggestion, which will, however, not be adopted until the political milleniuiu, when the party system is swept away. His remarks as to the necessity for local Education and Land Boards we thoroughly agree with. The time has fully arrived for the district to go " on its own."

Mr Charles Duxlop made a very fair maiden effort ab the Theatre Royal last evening. Though the delivery was slow and somewhat affected by nervousness, his speech was for the most part good iv matter, and showed that the speaker possessed a grasp of the political questions of the dny. We have heard many a worse speech made by new members of the House in moving the Address in Reply. In taking the platform, Mr Dunlop is exercising the prerogative of every qualified elector, and he is entitled to bo heard with pat : ence and consideration, as it must be admitted ho was by the lanje audience which listened to him last evening. There are too few native-born New Zealanders ready to face the music of a political campaign, and the electors of Waiapu will doubtless for this reason, give Mr Dunlop a fair hearing and due consideration to his views. Though the candidate made many good points in his address, it was in his remarks witli refereuce to himself, and justifying his appearance before the electors that we thought he was particularly weak and' indecisive. He commenced by a declaration against the party system of Government, but explained that so long as parties existed he would have to rank himself on one side or-the other, and, strange to say, quite neglected before closing his speech to state which side that would be. Mr Duulop paid high compliments to Mr Carroll, admitting thai lie was as good a local candidate as could be got, and inferred that his candidature in opposition to the sitting member was based not on personal grounds but upon the administration of the Government, which ho ably showed was fuulty to a degree, being extravagant, oppressive and corrupt. But he was distrustful of the Opposition,and feared they wouldgiveußunstable Governmenc and set back prosperity. Me Dunlop is surely not so sanguine as to expect party government to be swept away at the next sitting of Parliament, and he ought to have informed his audience on which side of the House he was prepared to leave his hat. Is he going to give countenance and support to MrSeddon, or is he going to assist Captain Russell to turn him out? Probably he aspires to a seat with the Left Wiugers, who, we can perceive, will be troublesome to whatever party iB in power in the new Parliament ; possibly he intends to be a rail-sitter and will drop over into the paddook of whichever party has a majority of votes at the elections — but these are matters Mr Dunlop neglected to explain and left entirely to conjecture. Ho is straining rather much at the confidence of the people if he expects them to entrust him with their franchises to dispose of exactly as he pleases, to whichever party he may think fit, and before the election day anives, if Mr Dunlop persists in his candidature, he may find it well to declare defiuitely where lie will place his support. There was another matter that the speaker was going to leave to the imagination of his hearers. He descanted freely on the necessity for reducing the duties on the necessaries of life, reducing the taxes, on mortgages, reducing the rent to State tenants, and generally pruning an extravagant colonial expenditure, but fell into the fault of which he accused Mr Fitzßoy, of not showing how it was to bo done. Whon pressed by one of tlie audience for an explanation, he gravely announced the loss of revenue would be made up from an increased tax on alcohol, and this after the declaration that he was a prohibitionist ! Mr Duulop's fiuauce is, we are afraid, based on very unsound economics. Imagine the derision a Colonial Treasurer would meet with .who declared with one breath he would abolish the sale of liquor, aud with the next affirmed that he depended for the bulk of his revenue upon the taxation derivable from such sale. Mr Dunlop took Mr Kitzßoy to task for venturing to suggest the necessity of a reduction of our over-grown Civil Service ; yet. in the early part of his speech he declared there were too ninny inspectors and too much State interference. There were many other illogical remarks that he made, but at times he talked good sound common sense. His remarks about the mischievous results of interference with private or individual enterprise, and the proof that he gave that increased labor legislation led to a decrease of production in many of our staple manufacturers were well worthy of attention, and working men should consider the problem put to them with regard to their wages. By how much a day has all the labor legislation of the past nine years added to their earnings ? Is it not a fact that wages generally are less to-day than they were ten years ago, and taxation has increased ? Mr Dunlop showed clearly how the burden of customs dues was saddled on the willing horse. He showed how the Government hnd discouraged thrift by reducing the rate of interest ou savings bank deposits, and by " collaring " the sinking funds of the savings bank and insurance department had inflicted loss upon the depositors and investors in those institutions. He accused them of deception and concealment with regard to the financial position of the coloiy t and generally castigated their administration. His remarks on the Native land problem were sound and sensible. If the Government had sincerely desired to promote settlement they would have taken over the Native lands and administered them by the Crown Lands Board long ago. The method proposed in their last Bill was