MR NEWMAN ENTERTAINED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 444, 22 December 1908, Page 3

MR NEWMAN ENTERTAINED.

Mr Newman, M.P., on rising to reply to the toast of his health at the banquet tendered to him at Marton last Friday night, was re : ceived with loud applause. He said desired to thank them from the bottom of his heart for their kind- * ness and confidence. No service that he could render could adequately pay his appreciation, ’'at they had occasion to rejoiorofthe large addition to the Opposition party, especially on the West Coast. They had had two great fights, and two great victories for their party. The second ballot did not prove the bulwark that its authors anticipated.. On the contrary, he thought the electors resented it, audit tirade them more than ever determined that the men to whom they had given their confidence at the first ballot should retain it at the second. Perhaps they would bear with him if he told them some of the impressions which. ; he gathered after six weeks’ constant contact with the electors pf Manawatu. Firstly, the people unanimously were determined that they and their children should be freeholders, and not State tenants. (Applause.) The day had passed when candidates could speak one way and vote the other on this question. The people had grasped the fact that involved in this question of land tenure were the great principles of freedom and independence, upon which the character of a nation was based. In a nation, as in an individual, character was after all the main thing. He believed tnat nothing would prevent the people of New Zealand getting the freehold. (Applause.) That alone should make all true patriots rejoice, and they rejoiced that night.- The second lesson from the election was that the people as a whole, including many Government supporters, wanted to see a strong Opposition. The people had lost their confidence in the Government. They wanted a strong enough Opposition party to act as an effective check on the Government, and they had got it. ■ It now remained for the Opposition party, after giving the Government full credit for the good measures passed during the last eighteen years, and always without captious or carping obstruction, to fight to the bitter end any legislation which the party deemed opposed to the true interest of the Dominion and the people. The . third lesson was that the people were tired of Government interference with private enterprise. They did not want to be a spoonfed people, ever looking to the Government for nourishment, but a people who, being provided through just laws with equal opportunities to begin life with, could ' \work out their destinies by their jj»wn brains and labour, and it was tfite duty of the State to see that suofi men and women were not robbed of their earnings. Thb last lesson to which he de- ■ sired fco refer was that the second ballot \was doomed* one reason being that through it a great injustice might be done to the country settlers, after all, were the real backbone of the country. They had had a great political victory and look how beneficial it had been already. When the first election was over, the dry bones of the London wool market shook. When the result of the second ballot was declared, these bones acquired forms* and leapt to the extent of pence per lb;, and they had been leaping ever since. Was there any person present incredu--1 lons enough to doubt the cause of the great rise? Surely not. Butof course, there were some people . who could not b: convinced. - (Laughter.) In conclusion, the fnew member said he felt his responsibility deeply, and would honestly and faithfully endeavour V. to serve his constituents. (Apt plause.) ,