MR. HOLLOWAY AT THE MASONIC

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 346, 11 April 1874, Page 2

MR. HOLLOWAY AT THE MASONIC

HALL. Mr. Holloway, delegate from English Agricultural Laborers' Union, addressed a crowded meeting of the citizens at the Masonic Hall last night. Ilia Worship the Mayor was in the chair, and having introduced the speaker, Mr. Holloway said it gave him great pleasure to meet the citizens that evening, in order that he might give the reasons which prompted his visit to New Zealand, and his impressions of this Province as a field for settlement, and its suitability for selection as a colony to which to send from England the surplus labour of the class to which he belonged. Prior to his general observations lie gave an outline of his own career in life, stating that he waa born of poor parents in the county of Oxford, and received but a scanty education never having learned half a page pf grammar in his life. Up till two years since he had followed the occupation of an agricultural laborer, at which time he joined the National Agricultural Laborers' Union of England," an association which had for its object the bettering of the condition of his class. The speaker here depicted in vivid terms the deplorable condition of agricultural laborers im many counties of England, stating that " Poverty, shrunken and shivering, like a fiend has pursued them through every step in life ; stunting their growth, unmanuing their manhood, and destroying, with its very breath, all that tended to make life sweet and dear and lovely," &c. Their wages had been low, food insufh'cient, and thpjr sons sent out into the fields to toil while me±'e children, thus making it impossible to give them any education, or to lay b,y anything for sickness or old ase. In order to assist to remedy this deplorable sta.'o of affairs, tho Agricultural Laborers' Union was formed. They had sent delegates to nearly every country in England, and the Association now numbered 100,000. Men, and he was hoppy to say the Union had realized in some measure the object f,>r which it was formed ; that is, it had raised the wages of the farm laborers of his county. Previous to the starting of the Union, the wages <,{ the farm laborers in Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, and Devonshire were from 7s. to Bs. per week, and they had to pay rent and provide for their families out of that pittance. Tn Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, 10s. per week ; "Warwickshire, 12s. and 335.; Lincolnshire, 165.; Yorkshire, 18s., had been paid. Since establishment of the Association wa^cs had gone up in Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, and Devonshire 10s. per week ; Oxford, Gloucestershire, Bi-rkshirc, and ouckini,'li.unsh.iiv>, 12s; Warwickshire, ]ss: Lincolnshire, 18s.; Yorkshire, 19s. and 20s. The Association had spent a deal of money hi assisting men from certain counties to others where higher rates v-,inrl , ~.nl had «i«o largely assi Led some hundreds of people who, with their wives and families, had emigrated to New Zealand, Queensland, Canada, and America. The speaker here referred to the delegates of the Association who had visited Queensland and Canada, and of the signal success which had attended those visits. The Queensland Government have granted free passages to as many emigrants as chose to embark " for that colony, and the Canadian Government have decided to grant 100 acres of land to as many agricultural laborers as chr.se to <jo there. Animated with the same feelings as had prompted Richardson and Joseph Arch, tho Queensland and Canadian Delegates, he (Mr. Holloway) had undertaken a journey to New Zealand and he was surprised to see the strides which Dnnedin had made in the short period of about 26 years from the beginning of its career, and the evident happiness, comfort, and independence of the people of the province. He had travelled through the province some hundreds of miles, and had gazed upon its beautiful landscapes, mighty rivers, lofty mountains, fertile plains, magnificent forests— (laughter, and Voice: "You'll do, old fellow")— and had thought within himself when he saw the sparseness of the population that all it wanted was an influx of people, and the proper administration of the land laws to make New Zealand at no distant day the Britain of the South. Everywhere he had gone through the Province he had met with the cry that there was scarcity of hands. He had mixed with all classes, and had of course heard strangely diversified opinions of the suitability of the Province for a large influx of labor ; but notwithstanding the gloomy piccure drawn by some he had been brought in contact with, he said the picture of laborers at home could not be compared with their position here, and the pict-ire spoke for Itself and wanted no coloring. He had not intended to enter upon any political questions in his remarks, but as the land question was so intimately connected with his mission, he would briefly notice it, more especially as he had been interviewed on various occasions on the subject. The people of Roxburgh had got up an address, giving a detailed account of their grievances, and also of the gloomy aspect presented by the present state of the laud laws, and of those laws being so much against people coming from Kii^hmd ,to settle here. Perhaps the people of Roxburgh had their grievances. He believed they had. No doubt the Government of New Zealand was not altogether perfect The Home Government was not perfect, although they had b. c i trying to get a perfect Government for some hundreds of years, and they inu-st make allowances for imperfections in a new colony. So far as he had been able to 'ascertain, it was the intentiou of the Govtrnment to do all they could to settle the people upen the lands. He had been \eybusy while in the province, but had found time to go through one or two of the land laws The speaker here referred to the Hundreds system, and said he did not agree with the system which admitted of a person " spotting" as much hind as he- liked, and' thrs acquiring largos blocks which should make many homesteads. When travelling through the province, and especially Southland, he had often received the reply to his remarks, as to fine blocks of land which he had come across, admirably adapted for settlement, "Oh I but this is all in the hands of some great company or capitalist," Tliis was wrong. The true policy

and patriotic cry should be "Land for the people and people for the land." There was another law which in the speaker's opinion would completely answer the purposes of settlement if properly administered, that was the deferred payment system of settlement; trade of all sorts would be encouraged by it, and a bright future be in store for the colony. He understood the Government had set aside a block of land for settlement in the Tuapeka district within the Hat few days and in other parts of the Province. If the Government adopted the policy of devoting as much land as they possibly could to the purposes of settlement with liberal laws, there would be no need to send home Immigration Agents. In conclusion he would say he had formed a very favourable opinion of the country and had met with most courteous treatment, and if he could be assured that the Government would do all in their power to aid immigrants in settling on land of their own, he would go home with the resolution of trying to persuade as many immigrants as possible to leave for New Zealand.

After being subjected to a considerable amount of questioning on various relevant and irrelevant subjects, Mr. J. P. Armstrong proposed the following motion, which was seconded by Mr. John Barnes, and carried unanimously: — "That this meeting thanks Mr. Holloway for his address, and desires to express its opinion that the best thanks of the working men of this province, who are desirous of securing some share of the little remaining unsold agricultural land of the province iorbonajide settlement, are due to the men of Roxburgh for having caused so much attention to be directed to the consideration of our land laws and their adminsitration, by the statement relative thereto presented by them to Mr Holloway." Mr. Armstrong concluded his remarks when moving the motion by saying the people of Roxburgh were a long-suffering class, and he thought it only ru*ht that the working classes here should sympathise with them.