A LONG SPEECH

Hokitika Guardian, 21 December 1932, Page 4

A LONG SPEECH

ADVOCATE TALKS FOR 16 DAYS,

evidence BEFORE COMMISSION

. MELBOURNE, December 8. All records for addresses to a Royal Commission ini Australia have bee n broken by Mr G. U. Nathan, who on Monday ended a 16-day , speech''totalling 465,000 words. Hie address was delivered on behalf of migrant settlers in Victoria to the Royal Commission which is investigating their grievances. The commission was appointed more than two years ago. It .has .listened to ,507 witnesses of whom 311 were settlers making complaints. It is not expected that the report wRI be presented until .February. .Its length depends on the commission's attitude toward the contention of M. Cyril Knight for the Victorian Government, that its find ng should ideal with general complaiuts rather than individual cases. There wa« no trace of hoarseness m Mr Nathan’s voice as he related the woes of settlers at Narre Warren, Sale and Redcliffs. For two years he has had little time to think of anything but. the troubles of migrants, but he ■completed his marathon task wi plenty of vigour. “One man described hi s block as like the Sahara Desert he said. “There were dead sheep and dead cattle everywhere on the estate.’ Another case quoted by Mr Nathan was that of a man who had been a road contractor making £I2OO a year in England. He was told that he would make £ISOO a year at fruit farming in Victoria. He arrived in 1928 with a capital of £2450. After a few months at the Elcho training farm he wa s told that ther« was no money m fruit. He took up dairying, spent £2860 on the block, and received £340.