POLITICAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4675, 20 June 1893, Page 1

POLITICAL.

■ •» THE HON W. P. REEVES AT THE TUAM STREET HALL. Laat evening the Hon W. P. Reeves, one of the members for Christchurcb, addressed a publio meeting at the Tuam Btreet hall. The body of tbe ball was densely packed, many persons being unable to obtain seat?, and the gallery was weU filled with ladies and others. The chair was occupied by the Mayor of Christchurch, and amoost those occupying seats on the platform were— The Hons W. Montgomery, J. E. Jenkinson and W. C. ' Walker, M.L.C.'s; Messrs TV. W. Tanner, R. Meredith and E. Sandford, M.H.R.'s. and Messrs C. LouißSOjD, J. Anderson, jun., T, iGapes, J. Rennie, Whiting, R. Atkinson and G. W. Russell. r Mr EeeFw, who was received with loud applaus9, expressed his thanks for the kind greeting which had been accorded him. He desired to thank tho electors for attending in such large numbers on so miserable a night to listen to him. It was kind on their part to assemble on any night, but he felt especially flattered that they Bhould do so when the weather was as damp as the powder of the Conservatives --(laughter)— and as depressing as the predictions of the Opposition. (Renewed laughter.) He could not say that it had been entirely convenient to him to visit Christchurch within the few days before the opening of tbe session, but he esteemed it a high compliment that he Bhould have been asked to address a meeting of the electors here, and he would always be glad, when he could possibly arrange to do so, to meet them if they desired to hear him. He had hoped to address them some weeks ago, but had been prevented, through various reasons, from meeting them when he intended doing so, and he had to keep a long-standing pledge to his Dunedin and Lawrence friends to address meetings at those places. , thb liberal .party. Having made that apology, lis wished to assure them that it was the last apology he would make that night"; He remembered that a friend -of his who addressed a Christchurch audience some time ago had been taken to task by a Liberal paper because his address was too apologetic in tone. Now he was not going to apologise for anything. He was far too proud of the Labour and Liberal party, and of the work that had been done under their late chief, to do anything of the sort. (Applause.) He thought that the Liberals of the Colony had jast cause .to be proud of what had been achieved during the last two years. He had just referred to their late chief, but aB what he had said in another part of the Colony had been fully reported in a paper here, he was Bure that they would spare him the pain of what he had said then. Mr . Ballance was not personally well known here, but his work was far more widely known than the man himself. He was sure that they had watched the late Pre* mier's work, and that in the burst of regret that went up from the Colony when the late Premier paßßed away, the people of Christchurch were not. backwaid. (Applause.) All Liberals had mourned the ' 103s of their late chief, bat the best way in which they could show respect for his memory was to carry on the work he had so well begnn. (Applause.) One of the greatest services Mr Ballance had rendered New Zealand was that he had enabled the successful fusion of the old Liberal Party and the new Labour Party. When they compared the futile though gallant efforts of the Labour Party in Australia with what had been achieved here, they would agree with him that it had been most fortunate that the Liberal Party in New Zealand should have been headed by such a statesman as Mr Ballance. (Applause.) He should like, if such were possible, to confine his speech to one or two favourite subjects of his ; but it was expected of a public speaker that he should touch upon all matters of public interest. Now, he would like to spend the whole evening Bpeakingonhis pet subject, the Conciliation and Arbitration Bill, but he could not do that. First of all he desired to speak upon a personal matter. He had been told that a rumour had appeared here that he was going to be turned out of the Ministry to make room for Sir Robert Stout. (Laughter.) Now, he believed that that rumour had originated in the " Temple of Truth." (Loud laughter.) Do not let them misunderstand him— (laughter)— he did not refer to that imposing structure which smiled on Latimer square, but lo the gloomy edifice which frowned on Cashel street. (Renewed laughter.) He believed that from that structure was published that "blushing young thing," tho latest addition to the'journals of Christchurch. (Laughter.) A3 an Opposition rumour the statement to which he referred struck him as being a brilliant rumour. Here were two men closely allied ; start a rumour that one was to be ejected from his place to make room for the other, and what more natural than that dissension should follow ? In this case, however, one of the men concerned had been twenty yearß in public life and was able to appraise newspaper rumours at their proper value. As regarded himself, though he had not been in public life such a length of time, they knew that he was a newspaper man himself. (Laughter.) AstoSirßobort Stout, he was glad to be able to congratulate the Liberal Party on the return of such a talented man to public life. (Applause). Not only that, but the election for Inangahua was one of the bye-elections that was an indication of public feeling. He did not desire to exaggerate the importance of bye-elections, but when they saw such Bwamping majorities as in the cases of Inangahua and Wanganui, the feeling of the electors waß not to be denied. A great deal had been said about block votes, but he believed that block votes had had very [ little to do with the result of these elections. He believed that the ability, high character and experience of Sir Robert Stout, and the recognition of tSae fact that he was a man to be trusted at the present jjunefcure, had led to his return, and that the people oi Wanganui had come to appreciate Mr Ballance at his true worth, and had come to the conclusion that his work should nab be reversed, and should not be undone. .(Applause). the -apposition. He wished to say a few words about her Majesty's Opposition. A good many members of that party had delivered speeches in various parta of fche country. He had a very considerable amount of reepect for her Majesty's Opposition. It waa not a large party, but it fought very Jjard, aatf for that he admired it ; ft fought

not very wisely, and for that he wasgrateful to it. (Laughter.) During the last week or two tho Opposition had shown that it bad not learned very much from the country, and from the point of view of the Government it was desirable, of course, that the Opposition should not have learned too much. (Laughter.) As regarded their own intentions the members of the Opposition wore discreetly vague, but they seemed very cock-sure about what the Government waß going to do. They all knew that in private life there were certain uncomfortable people who kDew what was going to happen to their enemies in another world, and the predictions of the Opposition in regard to the Government reminded him of these people. (Laughter.) He felt grateful, however, for the peculiar line the Opposition had taken up in its prophecies, because it had induced a most remarkable re-aotion in favour of the Government and tbo policy of the Liberal Party. So surely as one. member of the Opposition spoke in one part of the country, another member got up in another part and flatly contradicted what was said by the first. OPPOUTJOH INCONSISTENCIES. He was going to prove this, and he would convict the Opposition out of its own mouth. He would follow the tactics of that venerable and veracious chronicler, Baron Munchhausen. They would remem* ber that the Baron related that on one occasion he was on a narrow path. On one side of him was a crocodile, and on the other a roaring lion. Just as the lion was abouc to spring upon him the Baron adroitly fell, with the result that while the crocodile " chawed " up the lion, the lion choked the crocodile; They would see the process performed on the members of her Majesty's Opposition. (Liughter.) They had heard some of those members say a great deal about tbe diminution of our exports. Captain Russell, in his speech at Hastings, said that a diminution of exports always followed the advent to power of a Liberal Government aid he saw that something of the same sort had appeared in one of the papers published in the "Temple of Truth"— this time the morning journal. The great point, however, was this : The value of exports might be diminished from reasons which obtained in othor parts of the world, but if the bulk had increased, then proof was afforded that the prosperity of the Colony had not been hampered. Now, against Captain Russell he would quote Mr Gale, President of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, a supporter of the Opposition, but a gentleman of wide experience and ability in commercial matters. Mr Gale said that the exports of the Colony in 1892, if valued on the Bame basis aa in 1891, would have reached littlo short of ten millions in value, or tbe highest on record. That showed that the productiveness of New Zealand had not been diminished by the " wioked Liberal Government." (Applause). Again, Captain Russell defended the administration of tho Railway Commissioners, and said that ib was the admiration of every visitor to the Colony. On the other Bide he would quote another Conservative gentleman, no less than the Whip of the Opposition, Mr E. G. Wright, who in his speech at Ashburton the other day said that the Commissioners had treated Canterbury as the milch cow of the Colony, and had sweated £3000 a year out of the Ashbutton farmers by their oppressive grain tax. Certainly Mr Wright went on to say that he would support the existing system of railway control rather than have a Minister placed upon the Board, but he gave no satisfactory reason for his decision. Nearly the whole of what had been siid on behalf of the Commissioners had been dictated by political or class feeling. What did they see of thia feeling before the days of the maritime strike ? On the contrary, the JSailway Commissioners were then very badly thought of by the people who now most strongly supported them. Now, however, these very people turned on the Liberals and accused them of being those who were possessed by political feeling in the matter. If the other side would drop all political feeling on behalf of the Commissioners he was prepared to drop all feeling too and discuss the whole matter from a business point of view. He was quite prepared to go back to the status quo before the strike — (applause)— and if any of them took the trouble to turn up the report of a Bpeech he made to the electors at St Albans long before the maritime strike was thought of, they would see that quite half of it was devoted to a condemnation of the management of the Commissioners. He thought that there should be some popular control over that great national possession— the railways. (Applause). With regard to the sjstem of co - operative contracts, he could quote attacks from twenty or thirty prominent Opposition members. A wellknown member of tbe Opposition declared that it was a policy of finding work for everyone who wanted it, and paying wages whether the work was done or not. Mr Fish said that the system had broken down, and Mr Wright h&d declared that it was a fraud, upon the taxpayers. That gentleman said "they were contracts let without the safeguard of competition, in which the price to be paid was fixed by Government officials at their discretion, but when these people tried to get proper value for the money to be paid they got into disfavour, and were removed to make room for men of a more accommodating disposition. Such a system of work might be very good for those who Bhared in it, but was very hard upon those who did not." In reply to that, he might remind them that Borne of the men did not think the wages too high, and, in fact, complained that the wages were not high enough. Against the dictum of Mr Wright he would quote from the Otago Daily Times, probably the most important, the weightiest and certainly the most fair-miaded of tha Opposition journals of New Zealand. (Applause.) That paper speaking on the subject said :— " We must agree in great part, however, with Mr Seddon's remarks on the co-operative system. It has now been extensively tried, and with a considerable degree o? success. We hava from time to time made enquiries into this matter, and find that even the earnings of the best men, except perhaps in a tew instances at the initiation of the system, are not above fair wages ; that the work haa not cost the Colony more than fair contract prices ; that many men find employment who would not be accepted by contractors ; and that the work is satuf actorily done. There is no doubt a limit to the practicability of the scheme, but that has not yet been reached." He thought that that was mo3t emphatic testimony as coming from the leading Opposition journal. (Applause.) When he defended the Labour Bureau the last time he spoke in Christchurch, a friendly critic suggested that he bad rather wasted time, as nobody had dreamed of attacking the Bureau. When he spoke in Dunedin a short time ago a critic, not so friendly, had said much the same thing. Let him quote the ex-Minister for Lands, Mr G. P. Richardson, who, in a speech not long ago, said that the Bureau showed the greatest kindness to " spielers " and other undesirable visitors from Australia, providing them with tickets to go to races. (Laughter). Another Opposition member, Mr Moore, of Kaiapoi— (laughter)— went into wailings over the hard case of a man who applied for work, but was told that work could only be provided for those who were ia distressed circumstaneae. Now, ho • had alw&jg understood that it was a Conservative principle that only those who were paupers had any right to go to

the- State for assistance. The policy of the Government was to provide work for men without endangering their self-respect, but the policy of the Conservatives bad been to send these men to the Charitable Aid Boards or to break stones for a living. The policy of the Government waß to place the burden upon the shoulders of those best able to bear it, and to give work to those most in need of it. (Applause.) The Government had been attacked publicly in Christchurch for hoarding up tbe aurplu3 instead of spending it upon public works. Mr Richardson, however, had attacked the Government on the ground of its public works expenditure. That gentleman had flatly contradicted his (Mr Beeves') statement with regard to Mr Ballance's policy of constructing public work* out of revenue. Now, he had never said that there had been no public works expenditure out of loan. What he had said was that Mr Ballance's . policy had been to expend as much as possible out of revenue instead of being content, aB previous Treasurers had been, to rely upon loan money. That policy only got under way at the time of the last Financial Statement, and it was ridiculous to quote the work of two years, , as had been done by Mr Richardson. Mr Richardson had said that only £50,000 of the sum set aside had been spent on publio works ; if that was co then the Government must have spent every sixpence of the loon money, and only begun to spend the £200,000 which had been set apart from the surplus. Now long before the loan money was expended — iv fact he believed that it had not been all expended yet— this £200,000 bad been added to tho Public Works fund, and it would exhaust the wit of Mr Bichardson or anybody else to sort out the sovereigns and Bay ' which belonged to loan add which did not. (Laughter.) In the first Statement .£30,000 waa set apart for what was most certainly public works expenditure, although the money was handled _ by. the Survey Department. Against Mr Bichardson he would quote Mr Wright, who had said at Ashburton that Mr Seddon had boasted of a surplus, but that £200,000 had beon spent in public works. If Mr Richardson was right then Mr Wright was wrong. (Laughter and applause). :In regard to the Arbitration and Conciliation Bill,, Mr . Rolleston declared that the worst proposal in -the measure was that to appoint a Judge of the Supreme Court. a member of the ! tribunal ; but, on the other hand,' Captain Russell maintained that if there was one good feature' in the Bill it was that to which Mr ; Rolleston objected. Sir JohnHall : thought that , the " worst feature was to make arbitration compulsory, because the measure would then be coercion and not conciliation. Mr James Mills, however, Baid that he was quite prepared to accept compulsory arbitration. = While the "tribune of the lamp post" accused the Government of truckling to capital, Mr Moore, of Kaiapoi, said that it " pandered to the vices and prejudices of the mob orators and ne'er-do-wellß of tbe towns." (Laughter). He would not deal with Mr Moore at the present stage, but he would not forget him. (Liughter). Mr Scobie Mackenzie, speaking at Naseby, accused the Government of many crimes but he could perceive one virtue, and that • was that it kept a. tight hand over its expenditure, and he added that Mr Seddon was responsible for that. Mr Richardson, on the Other hand, spoke ' of extravagance in the Public Works fund. Mr Duthie, at Wellington, . said ,■ that the Government's laud policy had been an even greater failure than its labour legislation, but Captain Rußeell Baid that he could not deny the Government credit for I its Labour Bills, and was particularly kind in his references to him (Mr Reeves), and ; he desired to take the present opportunity ' of returning his thanks for these references. (Applause.) Mr E. G. Wright said that he recognised the Minister for Lands was doing good work; Mr Fish, a bitter opponent of the Government, stated that the Minister for Lands was the best administrator in the Government, and an ex- Minister for Lands, Mr Richardson, admitted the good work that had been done by Mr M'Kenzie. As regarded the influx from Australia, there was a pretty triangular duel in the Opposition. (Laughter.) Mr "Wright said that it was no fault of the Atkinson Government that the men went to Australia, but that it was the fault of the present Government that the men came from Australia here. ; (Laughter.) Mr Richardson said that the ebb and flow of labour was determined by the comparative prosperity of the various Colonies; and the Otago Daily Times said that it vra3 what the Opposition members had daid about the co-operative works that had caused people from Australia to come here. (Laughter and applauße.) After quoting sketches of himself that had appeared in Opposition journals, in one of which he wa3 referred to as a "political comedian," and in the other as "the lean and hungry Ministerial Cassius," Mr Reeves referred to the - change of front on the part of prominent members of the Opposition in regard to the Land and Income tax. They would remember that the Opposition had predicted ruin, confiscation, the stoppage of industry and the driving away of capital as the result of this tax, and he thought that if the members of that party believed the consequences would be one-tenth as bad as they prophesied, it was their duty to have determined, like the men of Ulster, to have their own way or perish. (Laughter and applause.) The party to which he had. referred claimed to be the true Liberal Party of New Zealand, and did not like to be called Conservatives. This appellation was now unpopular, and the country had deolared against it, so the Tories masqueraded as Liberals. Mr Rolleston said that they were true Liberals, but they (the Government) were shoddy. The speaker then proceeded to give extracts from the speeches of various Opposition members. One had aßked — " Why is it that there are so many good men Becking work?" and had replied that it was owing to the policy of the present Government. Another had said from the platform, "That they had seriously to consider whether they would allow the destiny of this fair land to remain for any length of time in the hands of a party whose political existence depended upon keeping in touch with the mob and the ne'er-do-weels." A third speaker, in a much more moderate and statesmanlike tone, in a speech delivered some months prior to the other speeches, a speech of which it was said that he was ever harking back to the cry "property is being threatened," said he believed if it -were possible to insure a large application of capital to the land, the effects of the depression might be averted. Remedies that ahook confidence should be avoided. "In this country," this speaker had said, " property is more insecure than iv any country in the world from political influences." This was, they would agree, the most moderate of the three speeches. The first was by Mr Wright, the second by Mr Moore, of Kaiapoi, and the third was delivered in the English House of Lords by Lord Salisbury! A Conservative at one end of the world, therefore, said very much what a Conservative at the other said. (Applause). THE HON G. F. RICHARDSON. He would detain them for some moments while he referred to some arguments advanced by Mr G. F. Richardson, who had made a strong attack on the Ministry in the south, aad had said that a Fourth •Standard schoolboy could do Bimple addition j better than tbe Ministers. He had also said that they had obtained credit under false 1 pretences, and that it seemed thai the

present Government was judged by a much lower standard than the Atkinson Ministry. The words used had been strong and somewhat disagreeable, and the man who used them should himself be a paragon of accuracy, and his statements and figures Bhould, like Cieaar'a wife, be above suspicion. Mr Richardson had attacked their finance and their claim of having reduoed the expenditure, and had said that there was a reduction of £39,000 on the total votes, that out of the reductions £59,000 was on the permanent appropriations, civil list expenditure, and so on, over which itemß the Government had no control. This waß the truth More than one of the Oppositionists have been very careful to show that the credit for saving on these items did not rest on the Government. Mr Richardson had then shown that the votes over which the Government did have control had gone up £20,000, and this left a total deduction of £39,000. Ho (Mr Roeveß) would show how this was managed. It was quite true that the total expenditure in the annual appropriations had gone up £19,420. The expenditure on the working of the railways by the Railway Commissioners had increased £25,000, and over that expenditure could the Government have control ? l They had no more control over that expenditure than they had over the Premier of Victoria or the Treasurer of New South Wales. Then the increase in the capitation to the education vote reached £6182. That was an automatic increase which followed on the increaee of population; and if the Government were to control that, it would have to prevent the children of New Zealand from being born, or have them strangled in their cradles. Another item was £11,000 refunded to a financial company— a transaction which showed as expenditure ; it waß simply a refund of money previously paid. Theae three votes totalled altogether .643,151. Therefore it was clear that on the votes over which the Government had real control there, was the creditable reduction of £23,731.; It told well for the firmness and prudence of the late Treasurer that the expenditure had been kept so low while there waa such a splendid eurplus from last year. The Premier, speaking at Napier, Baid that during the last two. years of the Atkinson Government fourteen thousand people had left the country, and that during last year five thousand people had arrived in excess of departures. For making. these statements he had been accused of uttering wild untruths. Official records, Mr; Richardson said, showed that during 1889---90, the excess of arrivals oyer departures reached 1568, and from. Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 1891, tbe balanoe was 3198 against the Colony. The returns - for -laat 'year, lie aatd, had not : been published. This was a pretty thing to say,:, when the Gazette of Jan. 19 laat, which waa sent to every member of Parliament, contained all the figures, and showed the ""excess to be 5000, or over 4900, as stated by Mr Seddon. Mr Richardson had said one of the grievances' brought against him was that he had .sold too much land for" cash during., 'his term of office, the revenue reaching fromcaßh sales £111,000. The present -Government, he had said, had sold land for cash to within £700 of that 'amount. ' There were, however, more ways than one of disposing of land for cash. There were persons who had taken up land on perpetual lease with right of purchase, and ■ these no Minister could prevent from obtaining the freehold by paying cash. 7 It had' been thought that the Government contemplated altering the Act so as to revoke this right of purchase, and there had consequently been a rush of these selectors to the Land Office to secure the freehold. In thiß way 44,000 odd acres ; had been sold to 317 selectors. Again, an area of 33,000 odd acres, held on perpetual lease by 109 selectors, had been converted into freehold. Deducting these, the total amount of land sold for freehold for cash, for which Mr M'Kenzie was responsible, was 36,000 acres to 552 purchasers. During Mr Richardson's term of office — 1890-91-r---45,000 acres of deferred-payment land had been converted into freehold by 320 selectors; and the area converted from perpetual lease to freehold was 11,000 acres by 35 selectors, and the area sold for each wa3 100,013 acres to 573 purchasers. It had been against that wholesale selling of the public lands for ca3h that the Liberal Party had raised its voice. During ; the last year of office of Mr Richardson's Government £60,600 worth of land had been sold in Canterbury, and he (Mr Reeves) doubted very much whether, in return for that, twelve new selectors had been put upon the land. Mr Richardson had proposed to borrow a million and a half in the London market. Now he (Mr Reeves) had said, on the platform at Lawrence, that he believed that it was the policy of the Conservatives to get a loan for the construstion of public works, and a Conservative newspaper had said that this was a deliberate invention; but now at last the murder was out, and they had a flat proposal to borrow a million and a half on the London market, and to spend it at the rate of a quarter of a million a year, adding £100,000 from the revenue. How was the first quarter of a million to be spent? Speaking in South Otago, Mr Richardson bad said that the first railway to be pushed on was the Otago Central, and that it would take £200,000 to carry it to a paying point. That was not a bad slice out of the quarter of a million. Then Mr Richardson had proposed two roads, one on each side of Southlaud, which would probably absorb the balance of the quarter of a million. What would the rest of the Colony say to these proposals ? (Laughter.) LABOUR MATTERS. With regard to the question of surplus labour and the unemployed, Mr Reeves said that it was absurd to contend that the Labour Bureau and co-operative contracts were responsible for the influx of men from Australia. He believed they had helped in stopping the exodus from New Zealand, but they were not responsible for the disasters in Australia, which were causing people to fly from it, not to New Zealand only, but to almost every quarter of the globe. The Government thought the influx was so great that they were justified in warning the workers in Australia that they were not likely to better their condition by coming to New Zealand. They were taking steps to aid men who had come here to write or telegraph to their friends in Australia to tell them so. (Applause.) They had been told, on the one hand, that the co-operative contracts were merely a grand machine for bribery; but, on the other, they had been told that men working on them could only make ls 6d a day. (A voice—" That's true.") It was not true. Both statements could not be true. He did not say that there were not unfortunate exceptions, but he could not arrange for good luck for every gang, or that every gang should consist of men all well suited to the work, or that they should have good weather. The unemployed from | Christchurch were the most difficult to i deal with — (slight interruption) — and there were reasons for it. There was no land available for settlement, and no Government works here; and there was no bush-felling ; consequently our men, unlike the men from the North Island, knew little or nothing of axe work, and so they did not make good wages at it at first ; but Government sought to arrange matters so as to give them all a fair chance. In the third place they could get no help from private employers here. In other places private employers bad taken a large

i number of men, but here, be did not say , they would not, he supposed they could not. In the North Island he had been accused of having shown special favour to the Christchurch unemployed, and he was ready to answer that charge, but he would 1 not submit to the accusation that he had not done enough for them. Through the Bureau work had been found for no leas them eight hundred men from Christchurch. From March 30 to June 17, one hundred and ninety had been sent from Christchurch to Government works. So much had not been done for any other town in New Zealand. CHEVIOT. He had exaggerated somewhat when he had said there were no Government works here. There was one with which he was very proud to be conneoted, and that was the road-making on the Cheviot estate, which wbb now absorbing nearly one hundred men. (Applause.) At the last general election he had said that they must endeavour to let the daylight into the dark, solid block of country between the Waipara and Kaikoura, wherein reigned desolation tempered by merino sheep — (laughter)— and he had been told that he might just as well have been talking of Ireland or North America. Only two years had passed, and . already they had done something to let daylight into that vast mass of large properties. They had obtained that fine estate of 84,000 acres. The Conservatives might attack the purchase, Sir George Grey might attack it, but the people of New Zealand would thank them for it. (Applause.) Some of the Opposition had said the purchase had been forced upon the Government ; other.*, in flat contradiction, of course, had said just the opposite. Now, the Government bad bought the estate partly for financial reasons to protect the Treasury, and partly for policy reasons, in the interests ot the progress of settlement. (Applause.) THE MINISTER FOR LANDB. It had been said that the Minister for Lands had done very little for settlement, but he (Mr Reeves) could tell them that when the report, of tbe Land Department was laid on the table of tho House, the figures for last- year would compare very favourably with thoae of previous years. INSPECTION OF FACTORIES. They had, no doubt, seen letters in the papers saying that the inspection of factories was futile, that the inspectors were nincompoops, that the whole system was a farce, and others stating that it was inquisitorial and oppressive. Mrs Mary : Stead man Aldie, a lady for whom he had great respect, had written, in reference to one episode of the work of the department, that "aU who believe that men and women have a right to earn their own living unmolested must feel grateful to Mr Van Breda for his resistance to the demands of Inspector Ferguson." He would Bhow them what they had to be grateful to Mr Van Breda for, in the words of perhaps the best labour letter ever written to a paper, that written by the Hon W. Jennings. Mr Reeves read the letter, which Btated that Mr Van Breda, who paid a girl, after six years' service, 12a a week, and another, after three years' service, lis a week, had, at Easter, given his hands four days' pay inetead of six, and in the following week deducted another day's pay.' He had pleaded that on" the Thursday before Good Friday" he had dismissed the girls, and had re-employed them on the following iTuesday. The Resident Magistrate convicted him of a violation of the Act, and find him 6s and costs. Mr Jennings contrasted the outcry raised at the dismissal on bix months' notice of Professor Aldis, who enjoyed a 6alary of about £800 a year, with the approval by the Professor's wife of Mr Van Breda's treatment of his poorly paid girls. Mr Reeves quoted figures showing that in Wellington cotton shirts were sub-let at 2s 61 a dozan, crimson shirts for 3s, and crimson gussets for 3s 6d, though the warehouse prices for similar i work ranged from 7s 6d to 10s 6d per dozen. Yet, he said, there were people who said ) that Government were acting tyranically in preventing sub-letting and sub-contract-ing. In a few days the second annual repcrt of the Labour Department would be laid on the table of the House. He would take care that it was circulated throughout the Colony — (Applause) — and would commend it to every thoughtful student of labour topics. LABOUR STATISTICS. He wanted to impress upon the working clauses the very great value and interest of labour statistics. In America there was a Labour Bureau with a system of labour statistics which was the admiration of labour students all over the world. They were collected by Colonel Carroll Wright, whom he wished to thank for his great kindness in suppljing information to the New Zealand Labour Department. He (Mr Reeves) had a Bill to enable labour statistics to be properly collected in New Zealand, relating to wages, hours of of work, ccEt of living of families and single men, the cost of production, the effect of the Customs tariff on the necessities of life, the relations of employers with their men, and the relation of capital to both masters and men. They would agree that such work was no laughing matter, and was worthy tli9 attention of serious people. Mr Moore, of Kaiapoi, however, had Baid that a circular sent by tbe Department to a number of picked men, asking for information as to the cost of living and wages, was an insult to the working men pf the Colony. England, the United States, France, and the great Colony of Victoria thought that labour statistics were not ridiculous, but Mr Moore, of Kaiapoi, thought they were. (Laughter.) The democracy of New Zealand, as well conducted, industrious, and orderly as any in the world, had declared its wish that part of the work of the Labour Department should be the collection of labour statistics, but Mr Moore, of Kaiapoi, said it must not be done. (Laughter.) PROGRAMME FOR THE SESSION. A cry had been raised that he had come to the end of his resources, and had passed all his Labour Acts and had no more to pass. That was simply the height of absurdity. He had a programme which he would be only too thankful to carry out during the next two or three years. He had a Conciliation and Arbitration Bill to bring forward, which alone, if passed, would make the session far from a barren one. He had a Shop Hours Bill — (applause) — instead of that grotesque and curious abortion for which the Legislative Council was responsible. Then he had drafted a Bill to ameliorate and abolish the absurd laws dealing with conspiracy in connection with trades and labour disputes. (Applause.) He proposed to tackle the unfair sweating contracts, and to introduce a Workman's Wage Bill which should give the workmen who had earned their wages every security for their payment, and secure to labourers the same privileges enjoyed by men in the building trade. Every man had a right to be protected insomuch as to be able to secure the wages he had earned. He aleo hoped to be able to tackle the unfair contract system, and thought that a Bill Bhould be passed to provide that a proper estimate of the value of the labour be made on all contracts, and that all below twenty- five or thirty per cent of the estimate be rejected. He also wanted to present a Bill dealing with the relations existing between masters and apprentices. Then there was the great eight-hours question which had to be dealt with by the Liberal Party. (Loud j applause). There was, beside all these, a I Shipping and Seamen's Act, which was imperatively necessary, in order to give the seamen afloat jugt the same rights and

protection as the factory hands ashore. Then there was the Friendly Societies Bill. If a private member did not take this ' matter up he was certain that the Government would do so. (Applause.) Another Bill necessary was one providing for the proper inspection of all dangerous machinery. Thie was his programme, and he thought they would agree that it waß not an inefficient one, or that he had run dry and could do no more. The little budget he had read was sufficient answer to the assertion that he had shot his lost bolt and could do no more. EDUCATION. He could not deal at length with thie subject, though he would like to do so. One improvement to be made was a more liberal expenditure in school buildings, and he could say that the Government would next session place ou the Estimates a larger sum than usual. A Truancy Bill would be drafted that would deal with this matter in a manner which would not persecute the parents. The matter of secondary schools would receive careful consideration, and legislation, he hoped, would render these establishments more useful and efficient. He thought it the duty of these schools not only to provide education for the children of the middle-claea and the wealthy, but also to take in a certain number of free students from the ranks of the poor. He did not want to see a crusade made against these secondary schools that would sweep them away. They must be dealt with tenderly and cautiously. Were they not placed on a better footing they would be brought face to face with changes which would neither be moderate nor rational. PERORATION. Mr Reeves concluded as foliowß: — We are on the eve of a session — perhaps a short one ; Ido not know. As far as the Government Ib concerned they are quite ready to stay through and do their work as long as there ia a prospect of passiog useful, good work. They do not want to end the session in a hurry- to go back to their constituents. Not only have we, as members of Parliament, to gird up our loins for the work in Wellington, but you, gentlemen, hava to gird up your loins and put your hands to the plough. The time is approaching when you must do your Bhare in the battle. The general election will follow the session, and the Liberal Party must even now prepare for the fight. I think our party haß ample cause to be proud of the work of the last two yoars and a half. (Loud applause.) I say again that I believe that few countries in the world can show so much solid social reform &3 that brought about by our party, and with such a small amount of discomposure and less disturbance to business and industry. The prospects of our party were never brighter and merrier than they are at present. (Applause.) The wind is at our back and fills our sails, and the tide is with us. It may be that there is less champagne in the saloon and the lunch is a little lees sumptuous ; but go into the steerage and you will find cheerfulness and comfort ; go into the forecastle and see the working crew, how contented and well they work ! Shall this continue to be carried on, or shall the engines suddenly be reversed ? I have but little doubt of your answer. But I beg you will not break up this great party which we have built up— upon which some of us have spent our life's endeavours. I hope you will not allow this structure of Liberalism to be pulled down— the life's work of the late Hon John Ballance to be undone. It has been raised by onr great chief —let it . not be razed before his remains are cold in the grave. John Ballance gave his life's blood to cement the fabric of the Liberal Party. (Loud cheering.) Christchurch will not allow that structure to be torn down and his life'B work thrown awaj. I appeal to you to stand united and steady, and let our ranks show a solid and firm front. Fight like a disciplined army and not like the mob our enemies sometimes scornfully term us. Do not throw your votes away on every candidate who chooses to dub himself a Liberal. (4 pplause.) Do not quarrel among yourselveß, and Ido not endeavour to search' out points of disagreement, but be thankful t'oat there are so many points upon which Liberals could work shoulder to shoulder. (Loud cheers.) I shall then be safe in predicting that the victory of '. 1890 will be outshone by the victory of 1893. (Loud cheers and continued ' applause.) QUESTIONS. . I In answer to questions, Mr Reeves said ; if it were shown that the Bread Act re- ; quired amendment he would be prepared : to move in that direction. He was in • favour of the eight hours' system, and also ( of bringing all workshops under the j Factory Act. If it could be shown that ( the Act was being evaded by work being < given out, he would . be prepared to make an example of the offenders. He would support any Bcbeme for placing the fire- , men of New Zealand on a better footing. He believed in intercolonial reciprocity. i Mr Lomas was Factory Inspector and agent , for the Labour Bureau. He did not think the Board of Governors was as Liberal as ■ it might ° be, and he would support '. any rational reform in its constitu- : tion. He did not think married women whose husbands were earning Bmall wages should be debarred from teaching in Government schools. The report of the Fishing Commission would be laid before Parliament in a few days. There were clauses in the present Factory Act limiting overtime. The object of the Labour ! Bureau was to decentralise, asd Bend men ' into the country; and not to encourage • them to flock into the townß. He thought j five M.H.R.'s was rather a large number to be on a Board of -iiucatioa, but it ' was useful to have such men on theee Boards, as they were often able to bring . matters before Parliament. He did not coneider that tbe decision of the A ppeal Court J in the Sydenham licensing cases had ! disfranchised a large section of the commanity. He was in favour of making the Saturday half-holiday compulsory, but would be prepared to allow any localities to fix the day themselves ; except in caseß , where boroughs wereco-terminous. He was . prepared to consider any rational scheme for providing cheap money, and would support inquiries being made as to tbe , practicability of establishing a State Bank. ; Mr J. R. Kirk proposed— " That this : large and representative gathering ac- ! cords to Mr Reeves a hearty vote of thanks j and confidence, and expresses its entire i confidence in the present Government." Mr Luke Browett seconded the motion. , Mr T. E. Taylor here mounted the platform and endeavoured to move an amend- '. ment, but met with considerable interruption. He said if they wanted to get home they would hear him, as he was quite prepared to stay there all night if necessary. He had enjoyed Mr Reeves' addresß as much as anyone, and hoped the party I to which that gentleman belonged would remain in power for many years to come to carry out the good work it had begun. Amidst great interruption he moved the following amendment: — , " That this meeting accords a hearty vote , of thanks to the Hon Mr Reeves for his < address, and appreciates what has been < accomplished by the Liberal Government < in the direction of Liberal legislation, but is of the opinion that no Ministry or mem- ' ber of Parliament is entitled to the confi- , dence of the Liberal electors unless prepared to grant to the Prohibitionists the same ri*ht of controlling tbe ; liquor traffic at the ballot box that they possess upon other questione." Mr Reeves had said that the extinction cf ;

• the liquor traffia was not practicable. Ho ■ (Mr Taylor) claimed the same right of ' dealing with the liquor question as waa given to other matters. He did not wish ' the amendment to be regarded as hostile to the Ballance administration. It was not intended as Buch. All he asked waa - that the amendment should be dealt with as an indicition of publio feeling on this question. (At this point the speaker was Eubjected to conßiderable interruption, and retired.) The Eev F. W. Isitt regretted that his brother was not there instead of him. He had much pleasure in seconding the amendment. (Cries of " What is the amendment ?") They would not hear it. He was not going on amidst interruptions. With Mr Taylor be had the utmost reßpect for tho Liberalism of the present Government, but the country was on the eve o£ a great social question, in which every man and woman in New Zealand had a right to have a Bay. He wanted a twoJogged, Liberalism, and not a one-legged one which stopped short— (cries of "Cut it short")— of dealing with the liquor question at the ballot-box. Mr Reeveß said he had a right to complain of this effort to place him in a most unfair position. (Cheere.) It was an attempt to intercept a vote of confidence under the guise of asserting a principle. (Cheers.) This meeting was not called to discuss the liquor question. (Cries of dissent and applause.) Those gentlemen had come there to intercept a vote of confidence. (No, no.) The meeting knew what was meant when a responsible Minister came before his constituents and a vote of thanks was intercepted. He had given a certain pledge to the electora when they returned him their representative, which pledge he had honourably carried out. (Hear, hear and applause.) He waa bound by his pledge, and would be dishonourable to himself if he broke that pledge. He did not say any- . thing ; against trusting the people. ; He believed. in trusting the people. He was not going to discuss the question of the direct veto that night, as his hands were tied. When the time came he should be prepared to vote for any rational reform in this direction. The position he Bhould take up would, no doubt, satisfy the large body of teetotallers. He had nothing to say against the amendment itself. The present waß not the time to discuss, the question. He would aßk them to voto against that amendment to-night, became it was an attempt to intercept a vote of confidence. (Cheers.) The amendment waa unfair to bim (Mr Reeves) on the present occasion, and it was for that reason he asked them to reject it. If they passed it— (Cries of ." We won't)— they would be giving him a slap in the face for carrying out his pledge. (Loud applause.) Mr G.W. Russell spoke at some length,condemning the manner in which the : amendment had been brought forward.'" He said it waß well known that the Canterbury Liberal Association, which would' Belect candidates for Christchurch, had added a seventh plank to its platform to the effect that all licensing questions should be dealt with by the adult residents in the various districts. Mr Taylor having spoken with Mr Beeves, tbe latter announced that Mr Taylor was anxious noi to do anything having an appearance of hostility; that he wa3 prepared to withdraw the amendment and to propose.it as a separate resolution. (Applause). Trie motion of thanks and confidence was then put to the meeting, and amidst great cheering, declared to be carried unanimously. Mr Taylor here handed the amended motion to Mr Tanner, who said he had much pleasure in seconding it. It was to the effect—" That this meeting calls upoH Parliament to give the people the same right to express their opinion on the | licensing question as on other matters." I The motion was carried, and- a vote of thanks to the Mayor for presiding, and three ringing cheers for Mr Reeves concluded the proceedings.

[Feb Pbess Association.] AUCKLAND, June 19. At a meeting of the Liberal Association correspondence was read from the Premier relative to the Saturday half-holiday and the Gumfields Commission. The Premier, replying to the Association's letter, says the matter of declaring a legal halfholiday and Friday pay-day will be brought before the Cabinet, and a definite answer given later. Personally he was of opinion that the time had arrived when Saturday afternoon shjauld be made a statutory halfholiday. As to aliens coming to the gumfields, the Premier replies nothing shall be wanting on the part of the Government to Bee the gumfields worked to the best advantage, and that alien labour will be discouraged as much as poßßible compatible with Imperial interests. . WELLINGTON, June 19. Mr M'Lean, M.H.R., addressed his constituents to-night. He refuted the statement published some time since that he had, while in Australia, stated that the unemployed agitation in New Zealand was exaggerated, and clearly explained, in his remarks to Australian audiences, that it was ueelesß for people without money, brainß and muscle to go to New Zealand. He reviewed at length tho work of laßt session, and at the conclusion a vote of thanks, and of renewed confidence in the Government, was carried. NELSON, June 19. Mr Harknesß, M.H.R., addressed his city constituents to-night, about two hundred being present. Hiß remarks were confined to attacking the Government and Ministerial statements. He declared that he would net seek re- election. Hereceived a vote of thanks. KAIKOUR- , June 19. Mr George Kenner, of the Kaikoura Star, has agreed, at the request of electors in various parts of the Ashley district, to contest the seat in the Liberal and Labour interest. He supports the Catholic claims. DUNEDIN, June 19. Mr Dawson, M.H.8., has announced his candidature for Dunedin City. A branch of the Chalmers Political League waß formed to-night at Port Chalmers. ——————— —_b— ——— —am