GENERAL ELECTIONS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 59, 24 October 1911, Page 5

GENERAL ELECTIONS.

TAUMARUNUI SEAT. (For Press Association) Waitara, October 24. Mr. C. K. Wilson, who lias been accepted, as the Opposition candidate .for" T'auraarunui, after speaking from ■To '-Kiiiti downwards, addressed a large audience in Waitara last evening, the Mayor occupying the chair. The. candidate said he would support Wiv Massey in the programme outlined, and in connection therewith he dwell) on the state of , affairs in the King Country, contending that the district was not making tne progress it should, on account of the tied-up native lands. He said the Opposition would alter this. They would no longer put up with the policy of taihoa, and would not have a Maori aristocracy. They would individualise cities and as far as possible put the native on the same footing as the pakcha. The candidate also said the public works policy had been a failure. The Government had promised the backblocks a quarter of a million for four years, but had failed to carry out its promise. Turning to land settlement, the candidate favoured giving young men land rent free for 3, or 5 years to ensure more effective settlement. He criticised' the railway management adversely. In answer to questions, he said the education vote gave little satisfaction, because the Boards were starved. Ho favoured compulsory military training, and would like the labour problem closely investigated by the best heads in the country to see if a remedy could not he applied to avoid collisions between interests involved. At the close of the speech the candidate received a unanimous vote of thanks and confidence. Following this Mr. W. Forbes, who was also out as a candidate for the seat, announced bis retirement in favour of Mr. Wilson, and said ho was standing for an adjoining electorate in Taranaki as ’.u Independent Oppositionist. Marton, October 24. Mr. C. B. Collins, solicitor, Marton, addressed over 300 electors at the Town Hall, Marton, last evening, and was accorded an attentive liearug. The candidate claimed that since the Government had promised the iron founders to revise the tariff in the direction of higher protective'duties, the tariff question was an important issue of the election, hut apparently the Opposition policy did not differ from the Government’s. He anrouced himself as a freetrader, and a considerable portion of his address was devoted to the principle's of frcetrado. Other matters advocated wore the freehold, the right of tenants of private landlords to their improvements on the lines of the English Agricultural Holdings and the abolition of the Legislative Council.