POLITICAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5487, 12 February 1896, Page 4

POLITICAL.

-♦ SPEECH BT THE MINISTER OF LANDS. The Hon John M'Kenzie, Minister of Xands, addressed a meeting last night in the Opera House, which was filled with a large audience. None but adults were admitted, alarge number of youngpeoplebeing turned away. The Mayor of Christchurch presided, andamong those on the stage were the Hons W. C Walker and J. E. Jenkin- ] son, and Messrs R. M. Taylor, G. W. Russell, R. Meredith, W. W. Collins, H. B. Kirk W. -I. Ballinger and T. Gapes. There was considerable applause when the curtain was raised. The Mayor, in opening the proceedings, said that the individual who would ad- , dress them that night was the Hon John M'Kenzie, Minister of Lands. (Applause.) This was" the first occasion on which. Mr M'Kenzie had had the honour of addressing an audience in Christchurch, and he (the Mayor) was, sure that he would be listened to as his position entitled him to be listened to. (Applause.) Mr M'Kenzie thanked the Mayor for the Landsome manner in which he had been introduced. He was there for two reasons — one, owing to the request of a large number of Liberal Associations in Christckuroh to address them on land questions, . and he 'thought it would have been discourteous on his part to refuse. The other reason was that the policy of the Government, so far as its land administration and legislation were concerned, had been assailed from time to time in the Press of thia portion of tiie colony to such an. extent that ; he thought it was i time. 1 - that some; person should come there 'to ' enlighten people on these questions. It .was impossible for any Government, or for - any Minister of Lands, to give satisfaction to every party. Some considered they had gone too fast, while cithers were not satis- . fled with the progress they had made, and thought that they were lagging Iwhind in the race. It was only fair the people ' should know the exact position of what had been done. His own administration had been assailed in such a manner thathe considered it his duty tp put himself right. If he had to contradict, all the misleading statements he saw in the Press his timo would be occupied with •nothing else. It was very difficult for any Government to progress as fast as it would wish, especially in land legislation. , The settlement of the people on the land was a very big question, and one which took time to take root and to show ywhat could be done with the policy they had in hand. All reforms 1 took a long time. It had taken forty years to accomplish the abolition of ■.-;: slavery, and he considered that three, four or five years were not too much to bring about reforms in the land question. Any -attempt at legislation before public opinion y 'was prepared to receive ahd support that ; -v. It^gislation was a mistake. The duty of 'Government was to see that all progress should be thoroughly carried ont. ; RE-VALUATION. y He had been accused ■'. of not going far enough in the direction of Liberal /land laws, and of not carrying out a syßtem by which re-valuation of land ; Oould take place at various stages of Grown leases, but those who accused .Mm did not /know the history of \ the matter. When he brought in his first Bill , in 1891; he- provided for re-valuation in the perpetual lease. (A voice : Quite right.) He could not carry that Bill,; and Yin 1892 he again brought it in. He' found that he had to face the opposition of the House on tbe question, and with" the consent of /his colleague, the Premier of that . < time,he accepted the second. reading of the Bill, which provided for the lease in perpetuity, and it was only by doing so that they held the power which they now did over Crown lands. There was not suffi—eient support at that time to carry re- . valuation. LAND SETTLEMENT. The Governmeht found when they took office that owing to the legislation of the past, a great portion of the best lands of the colony had passed out*of the hands of the Crown to private individuals. In the Horth Inland, owing to the system that existed, very large estates had been created by the freedom with which private persons could purchase from the Natives. In the Marlborough and /Nelson districts, a. system was in ■vogue by which pastoral tenants could acquire the freehold of their lands at any time during the currency of their leases. They 1 could by that means buy up frontages i and good portions of their runs, and by . the process known as " gridironing," large estates had been made. The Atkinson ■Government had done nothing in the way •of assisting people to settle on the land, and in fact had done the reverse, as in the year before the present Government took office they sold Crown lands to the value of .£58,346. He (Mr M'Kenzie) came into office at a time when there was no suitable land left iov settlement in the province Of Canterbury, a- 3 officially stated by Mr Marchant, Commissioner of Crown Lands. It was the duty of the Government to find > some meanß by which land settlement could ■ 1» promoted in Canterbury. When Mr Ballance, the late Premier, was in office as Minister of Lands, he started the village settlement system — (applause)— and also i the special settlement system. . When the .V ' Atkinson Government came in they stopped both systems, and no village settlement was, created during the term of the Atkinson Government, except one special settlement which had been negotiated by the previous Government, and which could not be backed out of. The present Government took the matter into serious consideration, and in . .1891 introduced for the first time the general Land Bill which was now ,the law of the land. For this Bill they had a severe fight, every clause being contested, and on one occasion he sat for eleven hours in committee On one clause of the Bill. - That was the clause referring to . one-man-one-run. Whenthe Bill found .its way to the • Upper Housfj it was so amended that they hardly knew it, and refused to accept the amendments' made by tho Legislative Council The following year the Bill' was -again introduced, and there?, was another strong fight in the House. The Legislative Council, however, was more amenable, as justatthattimehis Excellency the Governor received ah intimation from the authorities in the Old Country that he would have to take the advice of his Ministers if they wished to put members in the Council. The Council for this reason accepted the Bill with some slight amendments. The present land laws of New Zealand were the most Liberal land laws in any colony in the British dominions. LAND FOR SETTLEMENTS BILL. The next Bill they had to grapple with, and one which Canterbury was much interested in, was the Land for Settlements Bill, as in Canterbury there was no other means of acquiring land for settlement. The Bill was introduced in 1892 with the compulsory clause, but it would not go down at all. Later it was introduced without the compulsory clause and passed. The omission of that clause rendered it almost useless, but after the last general election when the House met a change came over the scene; The people in every ■ part of -the colony had taken a great interest in the purchase of land for settlement, with the result that members were xeturned pledged to support it, and on ats being reintroduced with the compulsory jelauso it passed the second reading by

fifty rotes to five. This showed the change in publio opinion, and if he had tried to force it oh .the House earlier he might have retarded its ultimate progress. There was no other British colony where the Government had power to compulsorily take land for settlement, ahd he did not think the power existed in any European country. WThat was wanted at the present time was . that . the best possible use should be made of the measure, and he ventured to think that through it alargeamountof land could be obtained, so that our young people could be got onto it instead of being driven away, as had happened some time ago. If we looked at the large number of young people turned out. of our public schools,, educated and ready to do work, and looked at the range of occupations open for them, we must makeup our minds that they must go on the land and become good producers for the colony. NATIVE LANDS. Large estates had been created inthe North Island under the plan of letting private individuals deal with the Natives. Thus, in many instances, tho Natives were left landless, they soon squandered the little money they got, and the State had to find them land to live on. The Government introduced a Bill forcing the Natives, when they wanted, to sell their lands, to sell to the Government only, and thus do away with so muoh speculation. If this had been done in the first instance, there would not now be any difficulty in settling people in the North Island. Formerly a person could buy a large block of land and keep it only for speculative purposes, so that when land for settlement was necessary and the country was being opened up, it cpiild be sold .for a great price. • . OCCUPATION LICENSES. The next Bill they introduced was one enabling gold-miners and coal-miners to get small holdings, which -they could/frork. and cultivate when not engaged in mining There waa a system of occupation licenses previously, but- there was no fixed tenurei Under the new Bill a twenty-one years* lease was. given, with compensation for improvements i£ the land were taken for mining purposes. Rents were to be divided, one-half going to the local bodies for the purpose of making roads, bridges, &c., and the other half for paying compensation when necessary. The fund from the latter half already accumulated to several thousand pounds, and no call had been made upon it. ! A great deal of settlement would take place under this system, and more so now that .they were likely to get back into their possession the Midland Railway properties which had been hung up for so many yoars. 1 VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS. As soon as the present Government took office they re-established the system of village settlements. The whole credit for the system was due to the late Mr John Ballance. (Applause.) He had his heart in the work, and was never tired of talking, about it, and when he (Mr M'Kenzie) was going through the settlements he was met with -nothing but the greatest gratitude for the late Mr Ballance. The Government again re-established the small farmers' association system, by which people who were desirous of obtaining land were not put to the great inconvenience of going to see all the land for which they might apply. People had gone sometimes from one end of the colony" to the other spending ia , good deal .. of money, almost sufficient- to have given them a start, and then had ." to go back without obtaining any land. Under the system referred to a . band of, say, twenty-five: persons 'could send one of their iramber to the North Island, he could draft a plan, and the Association could; mike a selection. Then these twenty-five could ballot for it, and as soon as they j*ot the land they were no longer members of an association, but tenants. of the Crowh. BUSH SETTLEMENT. The Government had also started a new system of getting small settlers on : land — the improved farm system. It was only for bush land. They set aside certain blocks of land for bushfarm settlement, and picked out a number of men who were likely to" become good settlers. The Government ' paid them for felling the bush, for burning and grassing it and for making -roads i into it. The whole money was advanced ; by the Crown, and the settlers got the lease for farming as soon as they had cleared ,the land! They paid at the rate of 4 per cent for the money advanced. He had given them the history of these measures, and he would now give them the results of their operations, the returns being from the public records. GENERAL SETTLEMENT. The Government had not forgotten those who had means to go on the land, and had given them what was known as the optional system, "by which they could obtain land for cash, under lease in perpetuity or perpetual lease. The result had been that a; great lot of good settlement had taken place during his' term of office , The first year they disposed'of land to 953 settlers, giving them an area of 529,720 acres, the revenue accruing being .£166,781, and the average holding 371 acres; in 1893, 2578 selectors, area nearly half a million acres, revenue .£153,000, average holding 211 acres ; 1894, 2454 selectors, average area--272 acres, total area 668,064 acres; 1895, 2003 selectors, average area 199 acres, total area 398,973 acres;, nine months to 1896—1914 selectors, average area 138 acres, total area 664,015 .acres, revenue 1 £146,000. The average holding was going down in area, so that more people were going on a, less area of land than previously. The total' for the four years and nine months was 10,902 selectors settled on 2,404,925 acres, withan' average, area of 220 acres. He was not dealing with pastoral tenants, as their leases were renewed and they could not be termed new. settlers. V . LAND FOR SETTLEMENTS. The,. Government had been accused of not '■ proceeding fast enough with land settlement. They must remember that the" Parliament of New Zealand in granting .the power to purchase land for settlements, made it a condition :that "there should be; a Purchasing Board, and' the Ministry thought it best to keep it outside political influences.- The Board had to reoommend if the land were suitable, if there was v demand for land for settlement in the district, then to make a valuation and report to the Government. The Government could refuse the land, but could not increase the price. In every instance up to the present in cases recommended by the Board, the Government had endeavoured to make purchases, so that the Government had not been to blame for not going fast enough. He did not say it would always be right toaccept every recommendation of the Board, but would point out that for the first two years they had been able to do very little owing to the absence of the compulsory clause. ARDGOWAN ESTATE. By the compulsory clause they had taken a block of 4000 acres known as Ardgowan, situated about five miles from Oamaru. They did not take a single settler off it ; there was only one on— 4 shepherd. The land was valued at £1 7s an acre for land tax purposes, but the owners immediately valued it at ,£l3 an acre. The matter went to arbitration, and the Government obtained it for £8 3s an acre. He be-

lieved that the purchase^ would prove a success, because the estate was good land only five miles from the centre of the town of Oamaru, and the Oamaru district was blocked all round by large estates. (Applause.) PURCHASE UNDER LAND FOR SETTLEMENTS ACT., The Government had purchased, and completed the purchases, under the Land for Settlements Act, of twenty estates, containing 48,804 acres, of which 34,406 acres had been disposed of to 221 selectors, of whom 109 were residing on the land. The value of the improvements effected by these was.£97o7,andthetotaipurchase-moneywas* .£274,803. Some people might say that it was very dangerous to purchase land in this way, but it must be, remembered that the moment they purchased 5 land and put settlers on it, they got 5 per cent on the purchase money, and it was improved. Seven estates besides had been purohased, but not yet paid for, because some of the owners were not in the colony, and the negotiations were not completed. They had had to send in one case to New South Wales and in others to the Old Country. They never paid any money until they got the title deeds. (Applause.) These seven estates contained 38,004 acres, and the cost would be .£194,207. Allowing for this there would be about £100,000 in hand, so that they had money available if they could get suitable land— (applause)— and were quite willing to carry out further transactions. (Applause.) REPLY TO MR LEWIS. A gentleman had given him a copy of the Press containing a statement by one of the candidates at the present election. Here he (Mr M'Kenzie) wished to say that he, was not going, to', abuse anybody —(applause) — but he must (take exception to this statement, or el£e it might be. said that it was tnie. Mr Lewis, on Saturday night, had made incorrect statements regarding the results of certain purchases of the Government under the Land for Settlements Act. FOr instance, he had said that the Studholme v Junction land was paying 2% per cent, but it was actually paying s_. (Applause.) Again, the Pareora property was not paying 2*B per cent, but 5%. The | Pomahaka Estate was not paying 2% but. 4*2 ; the Papua property not 3*3, but 5*7, and the Blind River Estate not I*2, but 2*4. Now he (Mr M'Kenzie) had no wish to say anything with regard to this young gentleman; he believed he was a very amiable young gentleman (Hear, hear and applause.) It just showed how easily a person might get into a mistake. Mr Lewis had got hold of a report which only gave a broken period of the time for whch rents were due. When they purchased land for settlement, if it took six months before they jgot settlers on it, the interest forthat period was added to the capital value. Before rent began to run interest on the first outlay had accumulated. The figures Mr Lewis had quoted, instead of /being the interest, for a year, were interest for only a portion of the year. The mistake was one almost anyone might make— (applause)— and he had no doubt that Mr Lewis would be quite prepared to admit he had made a mistake. SITUATION OB" ESTATES PURCHASED. Of the twenty estates they had purchased one, the Blind River Estate, was situated in Marlborough; 'one was in Westland; twelve, the area of which was 11,015 acres, and on which there were eighty-four settlers, in.. Canterbury, and five, in* Otago and one in Southland. They had purchased twelve in Canterbury because that was the only chance of getting land for settlement , there. The Government were >■-' most desirous of meeting the demand . for land ... for settlement in Canterbury, as they, knew that there was pressing need for it, and that" many of the young men had had to go to the North Island because they could not get land here. Of the seven estates, the purchase of which was not yet complete, one was in Auckland, two in Hawke's Bay, one in Marlborough, one in Canterbury, and two in Otago. In Hawke's Bay it was something the same as in Canterbury: the land was held in big blocks, and the Government was purchasing 10,537 acres in Hawke's Bay, and had purchased one estate, Highbank, of 9140 acres, in Canterbury. THE HIGHBANK PURCHASE. They might have seen this estate referred to in the Conservative journal as a very bad bargain. Every estate the Government had purchased had been termed a white elephant by the Conservative papers. (Applause and laughter.) The arguments used in connection with Highr bank were most extraordinary. The paper said they had taken £60,000, and given it to a gentleman who was going away, but the money must have been somewhere else before they could take it away, and the land had not been taken away. (Applause.) He had yet to learn that one individual settler on 9000 acres of land was going to employ a larger number of men than Would those twenty-five settlers that it was admitted could be placed on it. In his opinion, however, they could get forty-five settlers on it. That meant forty-five houses, fortyfive steadings, a large number of chains of fencing and many other improvements, all of which would mean employment for the working people of Canterbury. (Applause.) Then more implements would be required, and thus more labour would be employed. Which would be the best for the people of Canterbury and New Zealand — to have one solitary individual (a bachelor; he understood) on the estate, or forty-five families; (Applause.) They, would now all agree that the article was very absurd. (Applause, and a Voice: "More than one. man was employed on Highbank") He had; no doubt that it' was so— (a Voice:- "There were twelve or fifteen ") — but one man would not employ as many as forty-five settlers would. NATIVE LAND PURCHASES. ! He would now give some details- of Native land purchases, from which they had got a large area- of the land they had disposed of to land purchasers and selectors. Land bought from the Natives immediately became Crown land, and was dealt with under the ordinary Crown land laws of the. colony, The Government had purchased Native lands very largely. In 1891-2 they had purchased 214,000 acres ; •in 1892-3, 207,708 acres ; in 1893-4, 352,581 acres; in 1894-5, 385,671 acres : and in 1895-6, 350,000 acres, a total of 1,509,960 acres since they took office. (Applause.) This land cost .£358,718, and had been bought under the Native Lands Acquisition Act, under which Government was able to raise money in the same way as they were raising it under the Land for Settlements Act. This expenditure- would be most profitable for the colony. Government were continually accused of borrowing money for these purchases of land for settlement ahd of Native land, and it was said that the taxpayers of the colony had to pay for it, whereas in every instance the tenants themselyes paid 5 per cent on the cost, and some of these Native lands would yield 20 per cent. Indeed, Government was purchasing some at 4s per acre, and in . many cases, after roading it, were disposing of it at 20s per acre. THE MINING DISTRICTS LAND OCCUPATION ACT applied only to goldfields and mining reserves, and had been in force not much more than twelve months. Up to Dec. 31 last sixty selectors had taken up land under it. A large- number of other appli-

cations had been made for land .under it, and were being held over pending the wardens' reports. VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS. The village settlement system had been established by Mr Ballance, who had located 166 settlers, whose families comprised 498 persons in Canterbury, upon 5217 acres. The advances made to them had been .£2260, and the total amount they were in arrears was £36. (Applause.) He wißhed that the pastoral tenants would pay their rents as well. (Applause.) He had heard a great deal about pandering to these people, and also that they did not pay their rents; and here they were only .£36 in arrears. That showed that the right class had gone on the land, and that they were doing well. (Applause.) He would now tell them what had been done during his own term of office. In his first year 311 selectors had taken up 3717 acres, the revenue from which was .£1670. Next year — 1892-3 — 303 selectors had taken up 4052 acres, the revenue bemg .£1922. In 1893-4 334 selectors had taken up 6506 acres. From April 1, 1894, to March 31, 1895, 345 had taien up 6841 acres. Forthe nine months ending Dec. 31, 1895, 194 selectors had taken up 3065 acres, making a total during his term of 1437 selectors. The area selected had been 24,721 acres, and the revenue .£28,819. The area was only a quarter of that of Mr Moore's estate at Glenmark. The total number of village settlers located during the terms of Mr Ballance and himself was over 2000, in almost every provincial district, and they were doing well. (Applause.) SPECIAL SETTLEMENTS.. ' Under the special . settlement system .370,000 acres had been taken .up by 1602 selectors out of 1800 applicant*.. He' had been assailed in the House of Representatives and in the country about these settlers; and it had been said that half of them were oh paper, yet 1602 had signed their leases and taken up their sections. The correspondent of a Conservative journal had referred to 50,000 acres, which were to be disposed of, belonging to these settlers. This was true. About two hundred of them had not taken up their land, but he had said in the House that if he was successful in getting 75 per cent, of these settlers to remain he would consider it a great success. Over 80 per cent had done so. (Applause.) The 50,000 acres would be opened for special settlements if it were possible, but the land was in a large number of scattered blocks from Taranaki right to the boundaries of Hawke's Bay, and it would be impossible to get. up a Special Settlement Association in regard to it, so Government were opening it under the Ordinary land laws. THE IMPROVED FARM SYBTEM. Under the improved farm system, which had been in force for eighteen months, there were 533 selectors. The expenditure on felling and roads had been £25,284, the average for each selector being .£47 9s and the. average size of the holdings 96 acres. In the improved farms and village settlements together there were 2020 selectors, and with say 1000 special settlers, they mado a total of 3000 people the present Government had placed on the Land. With their families there would be about 10,000 people, and still ;it was said that Government had done nothing for the working people. (Applause.) The whole area of the improved farms and village and special settlements ; was not equal to that of one big estate in Canterbury. . SETTLEMENT NEAR CHRISTCHURCH. Government had endeavoured to get as much; land as possible near Christchurch for small, farms, but had hot been as successful as they would have liked because the prices asked were far above what they could give. For, one estate] ,£l5O an acre, which meant a rfeht of £7 10s per acre,v;had been asked, and it was better to let that estate alone. (Applause). For another .£65 an acre, a rent of .£3 ss, was asked. Another owner wanted .£BO an acre ; and another whose land tax valuation was .£640, asked £1600. He could assure them that Government was just as anxious to get land for settlement in Or about Christchurch as the working people could be. EXPENDITURE IN FINDING EMPLOYMENT. Government had been accused of having done nothing in the way of finding employment. He would show what had been done in the last five years. The year before they took office '.£58,996 had been expended on roads under the Land Department. During their first year they spent .£99,450 on roads. In 1892-3 they spent £115,848 ; in 1893-4 .£167,291, in 1894-5 £219,129; and for the nine months ending Dec. 31 last £180,221. Taking the other three months at the same ratio, the expenditure on roads this year would be nearly a quarter of a million. CHEVIOT. Mr M'Kenzie gave details in connection with the Cheviot Estate, showing that the total cost had been £273,000, and the annual rental £14,000, or a little over 5 per cent. The arrears in December last were £74. One hundred miles of roads had been made, andthe population was 900. This year there were in cultivation at Cheviot 9800 acres, and in addition settlers had 72,000 sheep, 2100 head of cattle, 560 horses, and 540 pigs. It was only by these extreme efforts in the matter of settlement that the colony would be able to keep its population. It was absurd that in a colony of 700,000 people capable of absorbing a population of five or six million there should be any talk about scarcity of land. It did not matter what party came into power after the present Governmeht, they could try as they liked, but the people would never allow them to repeal the Land for Settlements Act. ' LARGE HOLDINGB. ' Landlordism in the Old Country had driven the people out of it. He had been going through the, returns of the people who had paid land tax in New Zealand,

and he found that 2623 persons were owning land to the value of £32,406,851, One company not domiciled in the colony drawing an income of .£85,000. No wonder there was scarcity of work when there were only 110 souls on an estate of 185,000 acres. The only way to give employment was to break up these estates and let people settle them. (Applause.) THE CHINESE QUESTION. He had been asked to refer to the Chinese question. His own opinion in connection with the Chinese was that he did not like them coming into this country. He did not have any truck with them, and if the people of Christchurch would simply do the same, the Chinese would very soon have to clear out. However, the subject had been considered by the Government, and he was iv a position to state that it should receive attention during the next session. FAIR RENT BILL. Another matter closely connected with land settlement was the question of fair rent. Last year he had introduced a Fair Rent Bill. He did not expect to carry it, but thought it was a good thing to get it discussed, and he had hopes of carrying it some day ; but he wanted first to educate the people up to what a Fair Rent Bill meant. Most people now, and most members of the House last year, had been quite in favour of a fair rent so far as the Crown was concerned, and so fair as the various endowments of education and churches were concerned. They drew the line at private individuals. His argument was that if a Fair Rent Bill was right for Crown tenants, they, were doing an injustice to private tenants if they did -not extend the provisions of the measure to them. ' The tenants of private -individuals -might be pressed to their last" drop of blood to pay the owners of the holdings, and get no relief , while others could. His opinion was ' that a Fair Rent Bill would not be hard upon anyone. No one had any right to get from a tenant more than came out of the soil. If he let a- farm to a tenant he had no right to take from him, as well as the produce of the soil, his own and his wife and family's labour. • For every individual who would take the; last drop of blood from his tenant in this way there were nine men who would do what was fair, but there was always the odd individual for whom they would have to legislate. They might take, for instance, a man owning a large estate at Ashburton, who let his land for cropping at so much an acre. The farmer, while cropping, got credit from butcher, baker, blacksmith, &c, and when the grain came up in stepped the landlord and took the wheat or oats, not leaving the farmer sufficient to pay those tradespeople. What right had the landlord to step in and get the proceeds oftheindustryofthesetradespeople? ;Itwaß absolutely necessary for the protection of the ! whole community to have a Fair Rent Bill. i He knew there would be a big fight over the matter, but he was not at all afraid, and he would take upon himself the responsibility of introducing a Fair Rent Bill next session. Be believed it would be carried through the Lower House, but would meet with difficulties in the Upper House. FAIR INTEREST BILL. Another little Bill in connection with land was a Fair Interest Bill, but as the Colonial Treasurer would speak to them on that subject before very long, he need not say much about it. It was a Bill which would help his (Mr M'Kenzie's) tenants very much, and he would give all the support he could. ''■■'.- CONCLUSION.' He would say in conclusion that the whole i object of the Government was to do their best in the interests of the people of the . colony. They had been accused of all sorts i of things, but they would not be worth i their salt if they did not leave that all on • one side, keep straight on their even tenor, , doing their duty, and not minding what • was said. He had been accused of having i invaded the sacred rights of property, but . he would remind them of what landlord- ; ism* had done in England and Scotland. ■ Hundreds of families had been turned ■ out of the glens and straths- of the Scotch Highlands for the purpose of making a wealthy estate for one man. , (Applause.) In his young days he [ had seen thirty-seven families in a cemej tery among the gravestones, and on , inquiring from his father had learnt that t they were evicted tenants waiting for r a steamer to, take them to New [ South Wales. That eviction had made L an impression on his mind that had L never left it to this day. (Applause.) The . Government had been accused of pander- | ing to the working-man, but he was quite s prepared to take all the odium that could be thrown upon him for sympathising as he did with the working people. (Loud and prolonged applause.) Mr W. E. Samuels moved— "That this 1 meeting thanks the Hon John M'Kenzie | for his address, and expresses its approval of his administration and of the Liberal ; land policy, and also its confidence in the ' present Government." (Applause and dissent). ; Mr W. I. Ballinger seconded the motion, ' Mr S. Billcliff,. who was greeted with applause.and groans, was understood tc ; say that he considered this was not the ' time to pass a vote of confidence in the , Government. This produced prolonged uproar, but the Mayor restored order, and said it was the , privilege of any man at a public meeting to propose an amendment. ; ./Mr Billcliff resumed, and amid coh- . siderable interruption, said that they were on the eve of an election, and though at J any other time he would most heartily support a vote of confidence in the Government, he could not do so now. The uproar prevented him from continuing, and the Mayor had again to restore • order. . . ' Mr Billcliff, amid considerable noise, ' was proceeding to move an amendment, striking out the last clause of the motion. He took the paper on which the motion was written, when Mr Samuels took it from . him. More interruption ensued, during which Mr Billcliff said that the words '' vote of confidence " were not on the written '. motion. Mr Samuels said that he had added them on his own account, and would stand by them. After sonic further interruption, Mr Billcliff moved an amendment, omitting the vote of confidence. The amendment was put, a considerable number of hands were held up for it, and a much larger number against, and the Mayor declared it lost. The motion of thanks and confidence was then carried by a large majority amid loud applause and cheers. The Hon J. M'Kenzie returned thanks for the attentive hearing and for the motion, and moved a vote of thanks to the Mayor, with which the proceedings closed.