POLITICAL ADDRESS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXX, Issue 12351, 19 April 1904, Page 3

POLITICAL ADDRESS.

THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION AT LAWRENCE. , •

»•''" "* M f PeF^reis^A r ssolaati6ir''^" "'*"?

v . „. LAWRENCE, April 18. Mr Masseyr'the'lea'der of the Opposition, gave his first address in Otago this evening, when he addressed the electors of Lawrence in the Town Hall. The building, was packed, and the Mayor occupied-the chair. - ; ■ Mr Massey, .who was received with Iqud applause, said '■' that" His. party intended; to watch and criticise the Government. There were as good liberals on the Opposition side of the House, as on the Government benches: Since the days 1 ' of Ballance, the -present Government had fallen from grace. The fault he had to find with the present Parliament was, that many .members were mis-, guided enough to give pledges that they would support the Government, but he -vsas sure that the electors of the colony would remedy that at the first opportunity. Sufficient opportunity, was not; given in Parliament for discussion and revision of the Departments of the; State. .- If there was one thing more than another the waste of time and money in the House it was the egotistical verbosity of Mr Seddpn. In his speech the Premier at Lawrence said that the Opposition wanted to abolish the leasehold tenure, but that was not the case.: What the speaker wanted to see was that when a man became financially able, to purchase the. property which he had cultivated, he should: : be given an opportunity for doing so. In. order to make perfectly certain that there would be no aggregation his party intended to go on the lines of the amendment of .which ,he gave notice last session, and "which provided that no man with'the land which he already possessed should be" able to take.np more than 600 acres of:first-class arid.2ooo acres of second-class'lafiJj. '_; That .was .& complete answer to the.objections'raided' by J; the Premier. If -the subject; of tend 'settl'e|" merit had'in the'-fast received the attenf ,tiori it deserved, 1 there would, now Jtahwfj; " land iri the "cplciny. "' A' sug-" gestion had been made that when a- settler drew a section by ballot he should not be s allowed to transfer it, say, for five years. That was done; now rindeistije Land for Settlements Act. apply to Crown lands as well,> and ;it would do away with a great deal 'of. " : ihe**j?ainbling that went on. The GpvernriiemVhad introduced Land Bills and referred them to the Lands Committee, but .the; pills Jiad not been proceeded' lyith -because: the I Government were afraid of an amendriierit being inoved providing for the freehold. ;There was not much first-class' land? left, iri the hands of the Crown, and consequently settlers required more encouragement, to go on to second and third-class" larid: They had no such liberal land law; atVpreserit as the Homesteads Actwßich was(on the Statute Books in the day's of Provincial Government. A settler naturally. longed for a more secure form of tenure, and that more secure form of tenure was only to. be found in the freehold;. The Irish land law which provided for giving the freehold to tenant : farmers had done more to satisfy the Irish ) farmers than anything'clone for them during the last 50 years. Surely,our New, Zealand settlers Should not be' placed in a w6rse position as regards tenure than the tenant tinners of Ireland? They 'Would get befc;ter'results from the freehold than from any /form the ingenuity of Parliament cpuld devise. He questioned the wisdom pf.\ borrowing money in "and exhausting our credit simply for the purpose of cutting up one large sheepv-run into smaller sheep runs. Cnre should bo taken that the lands purchased should be suitable for cultivation, and likely to bo taken up by ; good settlers. . By going to England for most of the money for,, the purchase of land for; settlement,': the-ownership of our lntid was slowly- pawning, to people outside thai ■■, fact .-iV«»- ! causing' anxiety to, many who had the welfare of the cowtry at'heart;'' If our settlers had

the opportunity of thus received could be used 'iorHhe put-' chase of other lands, andi it would not be ;'nSc:eKaiyf't6*rlc> outside' the colony < for the moneys required.,,, It" was tlie workers and not who^were r&jpoEsible fojr.. "tHS'colony's 'prosperity.-"~"The' Government had very'little to do with it. On the Preferential' Trade Bill he ; said that >!}£ majority of the colonies were with "Mr Chamberlain in" his great struggle, but the;, „Act > of. last session, would haye s -to bei ' J His." party .'"would give -their 'whole, and nndivide'd support in the direction"df amending the'Legislative Council. The present system of appointment should •not be tolerated'by any English-speaking .community. . : Mr Seddon objected to fhe, term " Tammanyishi," but it was a wellknown fact that Premier had appointed a number of his own relatives to the Public Service;: Speaking of-the war, Mr Massey said that no tell what the result would be, but he. was sure that they all trusted that the Empire to which they belonged would, not become involved to the' struggle, ,': The future prosperity of colony'depended on its exports, and it Tvaa.~ their'dutyjto encourage these exports. ,■.,:• A hearty vote of thanks was accorded Mr' ; Ma.ssey for his able address, by acclamation. . ' '. j.'.-rr