E.—lα

24

self as a young man, and myself a young New-Zealander, to see two young members, who are also New-Zealanders, bearing themselves so worthily upon their first entrance into this arena. Sir, the honourable gentleman dealt with the present, he dealt with the future, and he dealt 4 with the past. |He gave us historical reminiscences and he did not fear to plunge into the future to show us the ruin that would be brought upon the country through the misrule of adispotic and imperious Premier, who was accustomed to parade through the country attended by a troop of co-operative lictors, bearing the symbolical fasces. I shall not attempt to follow the honourable gentleman's plunge into the future that is a region where Ido not care to follow 5 the | honourable gentleman. Ido not profess to know so much about the future as honourable gentlemen on that side of the House. We believe that " Never prophesy unless you know "is a capital maxim, and when my honourable friend over there was condemning all the special settlements, and prophesying that ruin would overtake them because prices were low, and would remain low, I felt inclined to remind him that when prices are at their lowest, and 6 things at their worst, |is just the time when they are beginning to mend and to get better Although I cannot follow my honourable friend into the future, yet, when he turns to the past and the present, when he steps upon the solid basis of fact, then I shall not mind following him, and, although I cannot hope to deliver so pleasant and agreeable a speech, yet things are 7 so harmonious this evening, I think I must use the time-honoured phrase, and | trust I shall not do anything to disturb the harmony of the night. Sir, like the honourable gentleman, I have to regret the fact that this House has lost one or two very useful and upright representatives. I may, indeed, although an opponent of the honourable gentleman s, say that lam sorry to see that the bad seasons which have so fatally told on the harvests of the colony seem to 8 have told as badly on the political harvest of our honourable friends over there as they have on the wheat harvest. Judging from the sparse results those benches appear to show, the yield per acre is not very high. Notwithstanding this, it is very pleasant for one to see that the crop, so far as it goes, appears to be of excellent quality, and that, to drop that metaphor, one or two of the very best specimens of the Conservative party are still with us, and long, 9 say I, may they remain, it being the very best possible thing for a good Government to have a good Opposition. We like opposition we want it, and we hope to have lots of it. Well, Sir, my honourable friend, as I say, strayed back, and he gave us one or two specimens of the bitter cry of the beaten candidate. We were told why they were beaten. There are always, 10 as we know, many reasons why a man loses his election. (c.) At the rate of 100 words per minute. Takes 5 minutes. Well, upon my word, I fully expect when I take up the Opposition papers to-morrow to read that the death of the late President Carnot was instigated by the Minister of Labour, and fomented by the Labour Journal. lam certain that had a mutiny broken out in India the other day it would have been said that the Minister of Agriculture had sent emissaries over there to smear the trees in that country But I did not expect we should be blamed for the 1 silver panic, which caused the fall in the price of kauri-gum, for the | effect of the coal-strike in England on the industries there , for the financial crisis in Australia, which caused the breaking-down of financial institutions here , or for the enormous growth of wheat in India, the Argentine, and Australia, which, I suppose, was at the bottom of the unprecedented condition of the market in Mark Lane. I did not think that all these things would be laid at the door of the unhappy Government. If we are blamable for these things it must be because we 2 have caused them, and, if we have caused them, then we have caused these | panics and other calamities in foreign countries to which I have alluded. Is it not ridiculous that we should be charged with causing the industrial disturbances of the whole world ? No, Sir , the Government has not caused these things. But, though Ido not profess, any more than the honourable member for Inangahua, to be able to put my finger on the cause of the great' unemployed " problem of the world, I can say I believe it lies in a cause far wider and far deeper than anything 3 we can discuss in this House, or that any one in | New Zealand can affect. We can palliate these frightful national evils, we can face and reduce them more than that we cannot do. Why is it that, because over the producing countries of the world industry and commerce and production are strengthened, therefore that very industry and growth of production should cause ruin to millions the world over? What is at the bottom of the extraordinary problem of over-produc-tion ? Why is it that production and industry, which actually increase the solid wealth of the world, should sometimes increase the distress and sufferings of the people who helped to 4 produce | that wealth? The thing is a paradox. This is a mighty, world-wide problem. It is one which the deepest thinkers and the most earnest students of the social problem have set themselves to solve, and who so far have failed. I believe that so long as the world sticks to the present method of exchange, and so long as the world is ruled by what is called the capitalistic system, so long shall we see these extraordinary industrial crises and panics, and Ido 5 not believe that any answer can be given for it by any one Ministry

Maori. — For Senior and Junior Civil Service. Time allowed: 2-J- hours. 1. Translate the following into English : — Ko te korero mo te haerenga mai o Ngahue. Ka tae a Ngahue kite Wairere, ka patua te Moa, ka haere Tauranga, Whangaparaoa, ka hoki ki Hawaiki. Ka korero kua kite ia i te whenua, tona kai, he pounamu, he Moa, a orahia iho c ia he toki, c rua aua toki, ko Tutauru ko Hau-hau-te rangi, ite hei-tiki etehi, ite kuru-pounamu etehi, ko te ingoa o taua kuru, ko Kaukaumatua, a c takoto nei ano kei a Te Heuheu, ko Tutauru i ngaro tata ake nei ano inaianei i nga uri o Tama-ihu-Toroa, i a Purahokura raua ko Beretai. Hoki atu nei a Ngahue, ka tae atu ki Hawaiki, whawhai rawa ake nei, kua rongo (ratou) ki tana korero kite pai o tenei kainga o Aotea, a na reira i tika ai ta ratou heke mai.