The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1892. Mr Bruce at Pemberton

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 148, 11 June 1892, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1892. Mr Bruce at Pemberton

Mb Bruce addressed the electors at Pemberton on Thursday night, where he had a big reception. He said he had not intended to re-enter politicial life but the demands of the party to which he belonged made his candidature imperative. He denied the right of the Government to the title of Liberals as their views were of a compound of Toryism, socialism or any other ism that would find favor with the ignorant and prejudiced. He condemned land nationalisation and justified his view by quoting Mr Gladstone, the most thorough going Liboro.l o£- tl»o clay- Mr- Bruce very truly said that the spurious Liberalism of the Ballance Ministry meant the pulling down of every man who had the capacity to raise himself above his fellows. The true Tories of New Zealand are the farmers who have made the colony what she is today, and who will make her happy and prosperous in the future. On the subject of taxation he said the Government had supported a candidate who was in favour of the land bearing all the taxation. He con demned the Income Tax as demoralising because it was a direct invitation to defraud. He spoke in strong terms against Mr Seddon who was merely a puppet of. the Trades and Labor Council. Mr Bruce condemned the Ballance Ministry for introducing the American system of " the spoils to the victors " and blamed them for placing political touts and toadies in the places of men who had grown grey in the service of the colony. ■ The system of borrowing advocated ! by Mr Ballance by raising money from the colonists themselves Mr Bruce showed to be fallacious, and impossible while the farmers owed thirty millions in mortgages. He ridiculed Mr Ballance and Sir Robert Stout, the prophet and desciple of land nationalisation, and pointed out that neither of these faddists had eyer explained what they meant by land nationalisation, and he questioned if either of them knew anything about it. Mr Bruce did not altogether approve of large landed estates but he opposed the " bursting up " principle and held that the wider the distribution of land the greater the stability of the colony. He made a suggestion which should earn him the gratitude of the members of small farm associations. He proposed to alter the regulations so that in the case of a mechanic who was earning £100 or £120 a year he would let that man work at his trade and with his earnings pay bushmen to clear the land he had taken up. He was a strong believer in freehold tenure, and would maintain his faith to the end. On the subject of labor representatives in Parliament he had no wish to keep them out merely because they were , working men, but he could not see that they should be put in merely for that reason. The speech was that of a working man to working men, a farmer to farmers. In every way it was characteristic of the man. There I is always a good, wholesome, healthy tone about the utterances of Mr Bruce I which are indicative of the soundness of his principles, and the honesty of . his political opinions.