TWENTY YEARS’ SERVICE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 622, 26 March 1929, Page 15

TWENTY YEARS’ SERVICE

BANQUET FOR THE HON. G. W. FORBES

CANTERBURY ENTHUSIASM

Association CHRISTCHURCH, To-da

Twenty years of sterling service as member of Parliament for Hurunui. crowned as it has > been by Ministerial rank, was recognised last evening at Amberley, where over 200 people from all parts of the electorate attended a banquet to the Hon. G. W. Forbes, Minister of Lands.

Enthusiasm was the keynote of the meeting, which included four other members of the Cabinet, the Hons. A. .T. Stallworthy, P. A. de la PerrelLe. H. Atmore and AY. A. Veitch. The Hon. D. Buddo, a former Liberal Minister, Mr. R. W. Hawke, M.P.. the Hon. G. Witty, M.L.C.,, Mr. L. R. C. MacFarlane, Mr. Forbes’s Reform opponent at the last election, and many prominent people from all parts of North Canterbury.

The North Canterbury Pipe Band played Mr. Forbes from his car to the hall. The Minister was presented with a silver cigarette case. and Mrs. Forbes with a bouquet, amid prolonged cheering. Mr. R. Hunter, a well-known farmer of Broomfield, who has nominated Mr. Forbes on every occasion the Minis-

ter has stood for Hurunui, -proposed the toast of “Our Guest.” He said the duties of office would be carried out by Mr. Forbes with no evasion, shirking or one-sidedness. The Minister must have made a study of the lilfe of the great Abraham Lincoln, for nothing was too big for him to tackle, and nothing too small to pass his notice. Replying, Mr. Forbes said it was necessary for the prosperity of. the country that there should be a vigorous policy of land settlement. There were hundreds of thousands of acres in New Zealand that were not utilised, and much of this land had been seen by the speaker in the last few weeks. One man had said the breaking up of such land was for wealthy men. Mr Forbes’s view differed from that statement, for he believed that what was wanted was men with stout hearts and strong hands who would go into the back blocks fired with the hope that they would car re out homes for themselves.