MINISTER OF LANDS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1932, 14 November 1906, Page 3

MINISTER OF LANDS.

BANQUET SPEECHES,

PRESS ASSOCIATION Wyndham, last night. Tho Hon, R. McNab, Minister for Lands, was banquetted by his constituents at Wyndham this evoning, when there was a largo and representative gathering. Among the guests were tho Premier, Lady Ward,° Miss Eileen Ward, and Mr J. F. Arnold, M.H.R., Dunedin. A supplementary item was a presentation by Mr McNab of a handsome champion belt to tho Murihiku Mounted Rifles squadron, of which he was tho founder and first commander. _

In making tho presentation ho stated that Sir Joseph Ward was head of a Government which hoped to bo able to make rifle shooting ono of tho great pastimes of the people of tho colony. Responding to the toast ot hu health Mr McNab said that at a non political gathering party politics must hoe chewedOn tho land question the fiercest party battle raged, but in conncc:ion wfih toe Department of AgtiooUtirc thnro was-very litilo difference of opinion. His remarks, therefore, wero chiefly devoted to matters oonneoted with that Department, which he stated the Government would keep in she exirems front oi tbo’r political platform, reorgUiog that the agriculturist was

the man who kept the oouotry going, Hu referred to the projected establishment oi a dairy experimental station andsobool oi instruction as desirable in order to educate those engaged in the industry to produce ia times of p ospeiiiy 'ho brat p a dole a tie-o. When under .-tress of competition or bad times tho va'ue went down the quality of the product weald ensure to produoers tho best prices in tho world’s

markets. , , Responding to the toast of tho Ministry, tbs Premier referred to tho reoprooiiy proposals with South Afiica, and stated that he hoped to announce in the oourse of a W6ek or two tho result of the negotiations. In oonnsotion wiib the approaching Premiers’ OoniVooco, ha airong'y advooated tho establishment of an Imperial Council on w'aioh tho Empire’s dependencies would bo represented. The onlonics should bo untied with the old laud against the attack 0P Etitish commercial aupremaoy, Ho

I oritioisod tho ratification of tho Now Hebrides Convention before it had boon ! roferred to Now Zealand and Australia, I and maintained that mattors of vital oonsoquenoo to the dopoudonoies should neb bo shlled by tho Iwpotinl Government without colonial advice having boon taken. I Referring to tho land policy of tbo Government, bo denied emphatically that Government had any iuteution of interfering with She existing frcohold of tho farmers. They I were, howovor, trying to provont tho aggregation of la-go estates. Ho lulvoc kind tho oauatruotlon of tbo principal railway linos by concentrating ail available labor on individual linos, as being m tho host interests of settlors. Tho Government wa? boing pressed to borrow larger sums for railway oonstruotioD, particularly in Otago, hut this they would omphatioaily deoiino to do.