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BANQUET AT HAMILTON TO MR. SHEEHAN.

As notified a few days ago, a banquet, given by tbe sons of old colonists in Waikato to the Hon. John Sheehan, as the first colonialborn Minister of the New Zealand Cabinet, came off on the 11th inst. The following report of Mr. Sheehan’s speech on the occasion is published in the Waikato Times of the 12th inst.:— The Hon, John Sheehan rose amid loud and prolonged cheers. He must say his position was a very strange one. He was used to talking, but over a wide range of subjects. Ho had, very properly, been shut outside his stock-in-trade. The chairman had spoken too favorably of him. He was truly the first nativeborn Minister, but it was perhaps due to the fact that he had tumbled into politics by accident. At the last moment be was persuaded to stand for the Provincial Council. He was the first native-born European who went into the Council and into the Assembly. Ho was then without a beard and without a political reputation, but he had plenty of cheek. He had replied to the address, hitting soundly his elders in the Assembly. He had spoken of himself as a political John the Baptist. What he meant was that he was but the forerunner of the many colonial youths who would occupy a similar position. One great rule he had adhered to inhis political lifewas never to forget a friend or insultan enemy. Of the possibility of opening'up railway communication between Waikato and Taranaki he had every faith. To open a bullock road would break the neck of all possible rupture of the present peace of the colony. It may be some, time before tbe work is done, but he advised the people of Waikato to press the work upon the Government, to ask it till it was done. They should make their representatives in the House keep that important work before the country, The Cambridge

and Taupo road was the one link wanting in coach communication in the colony. He could say that the work should be pushed on with vigor, not merely by the A.C. but by extra work. If he came here next year he hoped to travel by coach through from Napier to Hamilton. He recommended the people of Waikato to lake a leaf from those of the Thames, who never lost an opportunity of urging their wants upon the Government. They had made their dinner a non-political dinner. They could afford to do so. He had seen the best districts in the colony, and had been told that Waikato could not hold a .candle to them. It was far from being so. So far from this, Waikato was so soundly prosperous that it could even afford to suffer neglect which would cramp the progress of many districts held to be superior. Mr. Sheehan concluded with a well-merited compliment to the dinner to which he had been invited, and the excellence of the banquet in every inspect. Mr. SHEEHAN then proposed the toast of “ Young New Zealand.” He thought it looked something like drinking to our noble selves. Before going to young New Zealand he would like to pay a respect to old New Zealand—their fathers and mothers, who made the country for young New Zealand. We should not forgnt those who hardened their hands and bronzed their faces to make young New Zealand’s path smooth and pleasant. He remembered a scientific lecture iu Wellington that young New Zealand must degenerate. He was told for want of phrsphate of lime. (Laughter). He thought differently. How many of young New Zealand now in Waikato, were there not, who had done their duty nobly in defending the country. The young colonial, in this respect, could claim to be anything but deficient in phosphate of lime. The same in intellectual pursuits. livery town in New Zealand was evidence of this. We had as good lawyers and pleaders as any who came out from Home. We had not produced many clergymen, and perhaps in that respect were deficientinphosphateof lime. Hedidnot thinkthat the Anglo-Saxon blood woutl deteriorate from going through the New Zealand funnel. If there was any alteration it would be physically and mentally for the better. The power to reproduce was a test of this—go through the country where you may the groups of children would show that in that respect the colonists were not deficient in phosphate of lime. Years would soon pass, and they would become old colonists, and we should never forget that in no part of the world had'Anglo-Saxons such an opportunity of building up a great nation. No colony had such a destiny before it, and it was for us to work the destiny of New Zealand to a great and prosperous issue. If there was one thing that would make a pigmy-minded people of New Zealand, instead of a great and prosperous one, it would be the neglect of public affairs for the sake of too closely attending to the making of money. It was the fault of too many to leave politics to work themselves out. No man should let politics get the upper hand of his own business, but he must not leave public affairs alone altogether. He did trust that what he said would not be forgotten, but that, when young New Zealand took to himself a permanent endowment, and went in to fulfil the scriptural injunction to increase and multiply, he would inculcate the same principles to his children.”

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18780320.2.16

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5299, 20 March 1878, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
921

BANQUET AT HAMILTON TO MR. SHEEHAN. New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5299, 20 March 1878, Page 3

BANQUET AT HAMILTON TO MR. SHEEHAN. New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5299, 20 March 1878, Page 3

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