Sir R. Stout in Auckland.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 291, 18 April 1894, Page 2

Sir R. Stout in Auckland.

(P£E PKKS* ASSOCIATION) Auckland, April 17. Sir Robert Stout abdressed toe citizens of Auckland to.nipht at the City Hall on " The Aims and Methods of the Liberal Party" The Mayor, Mr Holland, presided. There was a large attendance* Sir Robert Stout said the aims of the Liberal Party should be to get the best men in Parliament, in the Executive, and in publio life generally. He urged parliamentary reform by haying the Executive elected by Parliament, and tp< pointed for three years, also ' the reform of the Legislative Council by election of new members for a term of sis years by the Lower House, half of the nnmber to retire each Parliament so as to bring the Council into touch with the popular brauch of the Legislature. Sir Robert, in the course of bis speech, de* nounced the " eternal lease " as only the freehold by another iiarae, "With regard to the State acquisition of lands for dose settlement, these should only be taken under the stress of necessity, and not by the stroke of a Minister's pen or a proclamation, but by a judicial tribunal after judicial investigation. There should be no political element in it t and the same safeguards should be given to Natives and Europeans alike. He approved of Ministerial control of the railways. "Why should the Liberal Party, | Sir Robert asked, be afraid of bT>3J»lism? Some of them shrunk from trusting the people wtih power to control the liquor traffic. If the time caino when the saloons controlled the Liberal Party that party would seal its own death warrant and thenceforth become known, not as the Liberal Party, but the Liquor Party. Sir Robert got a good reception, and was accorded a vote of ifc^nks at the close of his address. V., '_