SHARE MARKET NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5464, 16 January 1896, Page 4

SHARE MARKET NOTES.

Business done : — . Vanity Fair Cigarettes. - BuyersVanity Fair Cigarettes. Gold freely offered — Vanity Fair Cigarettes. Compulsory saleVanity Fair Cigarettes. f In great demand — Vanity Fair Cigarettes. English Capital invested — Vanity Fair Cigarettes. Holders included — ; Vanity Fair Cigarettes. Wanted at noon— Vanity Fair Cigarettes. Investors well satisfied— i ■ . ' ' Vanity Fair Cigarettes. Good return for money — ; • Vanity Fair Cigarettes. Floated at Sixpence — -, . 'V" '..■•■■, ' Vanity Fair Cigarettes. Great run on — ' Vanity Fair Cigarettes. Worth a guinea— . .. Vanity Fair Cigarettes. ■ Breaking down opposition — , Vanity Fair Cigarettes. All rushing for — ■. Vanity Fair Cigtirottes. A record established — Vanity Fair Cigarettes. Quotations firm — Vanity Fair Cigarettes. 35,840 ounces to the ton — Vanity Fair Cigarettes.

the same way it was useless to tell a drunkard to restrain his taste for liquor. He would say that the drunkard must do so, or the rest of the community would want to know the reason why. His argument was that under the present conditions of society and law the drunkard had not sufficient enemies. He thought no public position of importance and emolument should be given to those who could, not restrain themselves in the matter of drink. (Applause). Speaking of education, he was opposed to any great change iiji the present system. (Applause). One small change, however, he thought advisable. There was one clause in the Act which said that if the owners or managers of any private schools should wish to have their schools inspected by Government inspectors, then the Board of Education may authorise such inspection. He would have the word "may " altered to " shall." At the present time there were r many vocations to which it was impossible for a child to obtain admittance unless he or she could pass a good examination, or produce a standard certificate^— usually a sixth standard certificate. This placed children who attended private schools under a disadvantage, and he considered that they should be allowed to sit for examination at the public schools during inspection time, and thus obtain certificates in the same way as the public scholars. The question of land might be divided into three heads— land for settlement, the compulsory resumption of land, and the question of revaluation or no revaluation; Regarding the first head, he thought more might have been done in the direction of securing land in settled districts for subdivision, into small blocks. Some time ago there had been, offered to the Government sixty acres of land in the Halswell district at £4/0 an acre. The only answer received was that the land .was not suitable for settlement, He could say thq,t that land was some of the best in Halswell; that was to say, some of the best in the world. He considered such land when purchased by Government should be settled in allotments of five acres. Anything less than four or five acres would be too large for a garden and too small for a farm. With regard to the compulsory taking of land from owners, the principle .underlying the law now in operation .was an old one and such as no reasonable man could object to. But they should be careful that they did not put it into operation except as the very last rej source. He had been sorry to see that under this law a property had been taken at a price .£IO,OOO less than it was considered to be worth by the owner, while at the same time there were scores of owners in the country perfectly willing to sell their land to the Government at prices which would ■ have been satisfactory to both. Such action, he contended, could not fail to give English capitalists a bad impression of New. Zealand as a place in which to invest their money. He was opposed to the revaluation of land leased from the Crown. Those who worked the land and thus put the increased value upon it should reap the benefits of their industry. That revaluation gave an opportunity when necessary, of lowering rents, he considered no argument. If the rents were too high, the tenants would not be able to pay, and thus in any case the Government would be compelled to lower the rents. The revaluation of Crown leases would bring about the disabilities under which Irish tenants had been put by absentee With regard to banking legislation, he had not seen the, .necessity for t tne great haste made by the Government "over the Bank of N^w Zealand crisis, and^ thought the ' Government had been' too . ready to accept .the Bank's statement with regard to its position. The Government might haye'proolaimeda bank holiday, and by way of preventing any run taking ' •place on the bank in any other part of the' world,, might have .closed the telegraph office in so far as it- related to the over - sea cables. This would have ■ given twenty-fonr hours to consider the situation. A little more time might have saved a great deal; of liability. Mr Ward had introduced the Consols Bill into the House with the avowed object of encouraging thrift among colonists, ' but up to the present of the , <£158,02S invested 4160,000 was by the Bank of New Zealand, ifißooP by some local body and .£25 represented the investments of the general public. The result of supplying the Colonial Bank with the 4150,000 was that the shareholders were relieved of some of the"ir troubles. Speaking of the unemployed Mr Lewis said that the attempts made by ~fche Government to cope with the difficulty had only had a temporary effect, whereas a permanent solution was required. The ..doctrine that the Government should find 'vrovk for all who were willing to take it he iwas prepared to endorse, but. it should be in private and not be proclaimed all over Australia, so that we should have also to find work for the unemployed of all the colonies. He contended that in the cooperative works ; paid more than they had a right to in some cages, and, as a whole, did not employ so many as should be employed at a fair wage on the works. He found fault with Mr Ward for having first in New Zealand urged the necessity for collecting the hind tax several months in advance, and then in London having stated that when he collected the tax he had. securities amounting to ,£3,000,000, upon which he could have raised any money he wanted. He did not consider Mr Ward had a right to pledge these securities. He could not agree with the same gentleman in his, Canadian' and South Australian tariff proposals, considering that in each case New Zealand would have been the loser. He did not approve of Mr Seddon's action in refusing to allow the House to discuss the Public Works Statement before going into the Estimates, and it was greatly to be regretted that the Estimates should be forced through the House at the pace they, usually were. In conclusion^ he might say , that no man should come to him if he were sent to Wellington and say that he had broken any promises, because he would not make any. The effect which would be produced by his return would be an indirect one^ The addition of one man to either party would make no appreciable difference. He would not go to the House to gratify any personal ambition, and he had endeavoured before coming out himself to induce several other gentlemen to come forward, but had failed. All he was anxious to do was to see the election contested, and should they not return him he would go back to his home with the contented feeling of having done his duty. Though he might not be able to show any great legislative ability during the contest, he hoped he would display those attributes that belonged to an honest man. He did not wish .them to stultify themselves by passing any vote of confidence in him until they had heard the other candidates. He would be prepared to answer any questions, which must, however, be put, through the Chairman, who would be the judge as to whether they were relevant or not. • In reply to questions, Sir Lewis said that he would be more likely to follow Captain Eussell than either Mr Seddon or Sir E. Stout. Mr Seddon was a man for whom no one could help entertaining a feeling of admiration. His great weakness was that ■■■- I

he must be Premier. It was evident, however, that he had not been altogether satisfied with his following of late, and it now looked as if he; wished ' for ;■, a change He (Mr Lewis) would not pledge himself to follow Sir.. Robert Stout. If elected, he . would follow Captain Eussell. -He would be prepared to assist in formulating an old-age State pension scheme, and might say that he .believed in Canon Bladder's ideas, which Sir Harry Atkinson had embodied in his compulsory insurance scheme. He would be prepared to support any practicable scheme brought forward. If there were indications of gold in Canterbury, he would be in favour of this province receiving its fair share of the grant in aid of prospecting for gold. He , would not vote for the repeal of the clause in the Shop Hours Bill which made a halfholiday compulsory. He did not disagree with the principle of co-operative works; but with the manner in which the system had been carried out. If elected, he would endeavour to have the money, spent on these' works more equitably distributed. He thought the Government had been too niggardly in the matter of granting free° passes to Fire Brigades and other bodies. He was not prepared to withdraw all . Government assistance from suchinstitutions as.the Addington ßefuge. Although he was anxious to see; the assets of the Bank of Nqw Zealand realised as speedily as possible, he would not like to see any sacrificed. As a matter of theory he was in favour of the referendum, but as a matter of practice he was opposed to it. It was a very difficult matter to get people to go to the poll. He was in favour of the completion of the Midland Railway, but would like to know it was to be effected. Selections for work at the Labour Bureau should be made, by ballot. He was not in favour of the Bible being read in schools. He thought it would do no harm if Louis Chemis were granted a fresh trial, but the conditions should be that if he were found innocent he should be released, and if guilty, hanged. He had as yet seen no proposal for an elective Executive that met with his .approval. The evils in the past had arisen more from the abuse of party government than from the use of it. Their duty was jto return men to Parliament who, as Ministers, would not make an unscrupulous use of the party whip, and as members would not submit to it. Members of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards' should be elected by the ratepayers. He was not in favour of a State bank. The past history of the colony had shown that the less Governments had to do with banks the better. He did not advocate the abolition of the Legislative Council and the introduction of the referendum. He would like time to consider the question of entrusting local bodies with a scheme of municipal insurance, and would give his answer at a future" meeting. ■ It was the duty of local bodies to provide, work for those out of employment within reasonable limits. He was not in favour of the clauses in the Local Government Bill for amalgamating the four boroughs around Christchurch without the ratepayers being consulted in the matter. Districts should not be forced to amalgamate against their wish. He would be prepared to,,protect the workers of New Zealand by a prohibitive tariff against the importation of prison-made goods from Japan, China, America and Germany.' He would not pledge himself to support a compulsory Eight Hours' Bill because he was i satisfied it would not work. On tys own farm he had men wording from four o'clock: in the morning until dusk at a "bob" an hour.--'' ■; ' „;■ ' - ( • . . . .- ..;•*••! Mr G. Booth, who was received with applause, said he was pure they had all listened to Mr Lewis's address with interest and pleasure, but he was not so foolish as to suppose they all agreed with everything Mr Lewis had said.. He was not so anxious that a candidate should agree with him in every particular as that he should be a man. whom he could respect and trust. '■ He moved— "That this meeting cordially thanks Mr Lewis for his address, and also i for having offered himself as a candidate for -tit© - Ckristclrurch seat.*' Mr Waters seconded the motion. , The . motion was carried .on the voices, and a vote of thanks to the Mayor brought the proceedings to a close. •■.•■■•!■■ A meeting of the friends and supporters of Mi? T. E. Taylor was held last evening in the St Albans Public Library Hall. Mr Brown occupied the chair, and there was a good attendance, the room being filled. Mr Taylor's remarks on the political questions of the day were attentively listened to,and at the close of the address the, following resolution, moved by Mr. R. Coleman, and seconded by Mr Philpott was carried unanimously : — " This meetingthanks Mr Taylor for his address-; is satisfied as to his ability to fittingly repretent this constituency in Parliament, and pledges itself to do. its utmost to secure his return." A vote of thanks to the Chairman closed the meeting. A strong and active committee subsequently met and made arrangements for the thorough working of ihe district in the interests .of, the candidate. " -