MR SHEEHAN AT WAIKATO.

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 308, 30 March 1878, Page 4

MR SHEEHAN AT WAIKATO.

At the dinner lately given to' the Hon, Mr Sheehan { Native Minister) at H uniltou 'that gentleman s :was highly cjinplimcnted on the honorable position to which he had .so .quickly attained. The Auckland Herald gives the following telegraphic/report of the reply .'.to the toast’of the evening:—The Hon Mr Sheehan, who was loudly cheered, after thanking the company and the chairman, said that he had tumbled into politics purely .by accident. At the last moment he was induced to enter the Provincial Council, , and was the first native-born colonist in that body, as well as the*first in the House of Hepresentatives. He said that, probably, success in these' directions was due largely to self-reliance, and something of assurance. His friend Mr Luckie' w6uld remember that they

both entered the House within the same, year, that Mr Liickie proposed, and he (Mr Sheehan) seconded’ the address in reply, and,the manner.* in which, he (Mr Sheehan) lectured the Assembly of older members was something which even now, when looking back, he was surprised at. He had condemned their; legaji enactments, ho had censured thPir great delays, and compared himself to John the Baptist preparing the way for a new political Messiah, who would change

much of the then-existing arrangements; and the time was coming when the work underddie new regifiae would " require cto he done largely 'by the ,New-Zealand--horn colonists, at least by the younger generation, lor whom the older men" Were now making room. He had, as the ehairhian said, made many friends on all sides, and this he attributed to the fact that he bad always acted on two maxims—he never forgot a friend, and he never insulted an enemy. He,.stuck to his friends, and would not' easily give ear to evil reports, neither would he throw dirt on a foe. Probably this disposition had helped him to the many friends he possessed; but r he was not insensible to his own.?hcrtc6miugs, and he knew that people.said,/with spine degree of truth, 'that" “procrastination was Sheehan’s.failing’’—a, failing which,, liowevcr, he would try to remedy. He then referred, tq.theimportance.of having a railway made between Auckland and Taranaki. He urged the settlers to insist on this work being carried' but. Even a dray road once fairly established meant a final settlement and pacification of the country. The settlers should stick to this idea. There, were only about 80 or 90 miles .belweerjr /Mokatr and Taranaki, and with what they had already, and what could now he undertaken without trouble or fekr of disturbance, the distance could safely be reduced to under "50 miles. . of th*e coach road from Cambridge to _ Tanpo, he said it was not necessary to tell them that that road „would complete the commuuicatloit .between .Auckland and Wellington.* J The' present Governwent fiould'hot claim the'SrSdlt-MiiMatr irg this work, but they meant to stick to it, and carry it out to a: satisfactory conclusion, and it might- he, perhaps, if he survived the struggles of next session, that we shall be able to.enter Waikato by way pf Taupe. . Regarding the Thames and 1 ; Hamilton' railway, he suggested that the'peoplc bf'the district should join with the Thames people, and take a leaf out of their book, for these were instant; in season and out of season in making demands on‘Government and on Parliament, for such works as the country urgently' required^./After referring to the richness of the banquet, and the kindness showed towards himself, he concluded by saying that if his success was due to fortuituoiis circumstances, and partly to his own ’ perseverance and pluck, if such success should induce others of the young New Zealanders to look for public, honors/he would be glad to see them'reaching him, ami even passing him, in their advancement. ’ •