POLITICS IN N.S.W.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 68, 25 July 1913, Page 5

POLITICS IN N.S.W.

On July loin (speaker Willis addressed a crowded house at Murrurundi. He said he accepted the bpeakersliip under a comjiact for the redistrioucion of seats. Redistribution had now taken place.

“My work is ndw complete,” he" continued, “and 1 am at liberty at any time to remain or go out of the Chair, because my compact is finished. 1 was offered the Speakership several times and 1 refused it. 1 was asked to offer it to another member of the Opposition. This is the first time I. have mentioned it in public here, although I mentioned it.at Melbourne, where it,,caused a sensation. It was thought a prominent member of the Opposition would refuse immediately, but he took" four hours before he refused. He did not think it a very heinous crime to consult with his friends about accepting, but influences were brought to bear and he had not the moral courage to accept it. A strong personal dislike was taken to me by Messrs Wade, Wood, Perry, etc., and they started an attack on me when I took the Chair. I tell you this, I never got the rights of it from the daily press. They thought they would kill me by breaking down my health, but I have got fat on it, because I recognised that T had one of the greatest problems any Speaker bad taken on. When I took the Speakership,. .1 knew practically all the 300 Standing Orders, and found they knew none. The members of the Opposition would then be noticed perhaps twice before tea, saying, perhaps twice before tea, and I would remember when they were noticed after ta, saying, ‘Twice before, and once now, so out you go. They started moving that the Speaker's ruling be dissented from, but I showed them the Standing Orders. “At last ‘The Daily Telegraph’ said they were only playing into my hands. They struck a snag, and will never forget their experience. Their present policy is not the policy of Liberalism, hut the policy of the Wadeites, and they got it from the daily press—an irresponsible body—and the daily press gets it from the shareholding capitalists of the country. It is not the voice of the people. ‘The Daily Telegraph’ and the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ have young men recently arrived from England, smart and intelligent, hut inexperienced in affairs of this country, and they are the men makingt lie policy for the Wadeites, and the Wadeites are following it. “I believe Mr Wade will never come into office again. He was a whiteheaded hoy before ho attacked me, hut all over the country I have met prominent men who are disgusted with him. I will come before you later to explain my policy, and ask for your suffrages. I am what is called a Radi-cal-Liberal, and never believed in standing still.”