The Fielding Star. THURSDAY, APRIL 24,1884. Mr Rolleston's Speech

Feilding Star, Volume V, Issue 48, 24 April 1884, Page 2

The Fielding Star. THURSDAY, APRIL 24,1884. Mr Rolleston's Speech

That the Minister of Lands expected to get a warm reception from his constituents, when addressing them at Papanui, is shown by the telegram which informed us that he was accompanied by a number of his friends from Christchurch, who were present to give certain moral support. It is highly creditable both to the man and the Minister, that Mr Rolleston met the electors with a firm and unwavering front, knowing as he did that the most unreasoning prejudice had been excited against him by the interested persons whose pockets were touched by the increase in the grain tariff on the railways. Mr Rolleston justified the action of the Minister of Public Works and supported it. For this reason many of his constituents were of opinion that he should have resigned his portfolio before he agreed to the application of grain rates that would pay for the carriage and haulage. We cannot find words to express our contempt for such a piece of utter selfishness. In plain language it means that the grain growers of Canterbury are desirous of living at the expense of the Colony at large. For a year or so the weakness of a former Minister of Public Works permitted them to be really subsidised by the Colony, and like all pensioners, they feel deeply agrieved when their supplies are stopped. Mr Rolleston gave a plain, unvarnished, and most business like j justification of the reasons which led to the rise in the grain rates, and proved beyond contradiction that the outcry raised against him was unreasoning and groundless. He appears to be satisfied with his land policy. As it will take several years yet to truly estimate the good or evil of this, no one can gainsay his- belief. As to the intended policy of the Government or ! what they propose to lay before Par- i liament next session, he says literally nothing. He is, as also are the other Ministers who have spoken, not nnlike the Needy Knife Grinder — " He had no tale to tell." We can only suppose that the policy of the Ministers is being incubated and will break its shell in good time, if it does not become addled in the meantime. It is expected that the speech which Major Atkinson will make at Dunedin may be a little more explicit, and give more information than his utterances at Hawera.