THE PREMIER'S ADDRESS. [BY TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Dunedin, Jan. 25.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 189, 29 January 1887, Page 1

THE PREMIER'S ADDRESS. [BY TELEGRAPH. — PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Dunedin, Jan. 25.

Sir Robert Stout addressed the electors of Dunedin East in the old Knox Church this evening. The building was well filled. The Mayor of Dunedin presided. The Hone. Shepherd, Shriiaski, Mr Donald Neil (M.H.R.), Lieutenant-Colonel Sargood (of Victoria), and others occupied eeuts on the platform. Sir Robert Stout prefaced hia remarks by saying that it would he imposeibio tor him to discuss the whole of the subjects of which he wished to speak in his address, therefore he would have to meet them a second time, as he had done Jast year. The depression had not been confined to New Zealand. In this colony there had been a falling off in the revenue, and he was specially gratified to find that less money had been speut in intoxicating liquors. Great advance had oeen made in this colony in this respect, due to the temperance people. Another fall was based on the fall of good-'. The cry of economy last session, raised by several members, was merely raised by those who wished to displace the Government. He fully recognised that if this colony was to assume the position of a progressive colony, the strictest care wouli be necessary •jn the part of the Government and people. They mu?t be prepared for less help from the Government. As to the business of last session, he first dealt with native matters, a question which unfortunately got little consideration in the South Island. Ho was, however, glad to say that last session the members from the South endeavoured to master it, and no longer be led by those known as Maori prophets. With the view of preventing jobbery and the stopping of speculators from purchasing native land, his Government promised a method of dealing with the native lands question. They proposed that once the title to a Muori block was ascertained, no person had a right ever to go to the owners and say he was reaay to buy the land ; and that any Maori who wished to sell his lands in futuie would have to soil them through the Government Commissioner, and sell them also on similar conditions as prevailed with respect to waste lands of the Crown Land shark* were thus abolished. Provision was also made for preventing Maori owners spending the revenue trom their land in drink, A counter proposal to this bill was froe trade in native lands. That meant that men with the largest purse, and tho^e who could speak the Maori language and bribe the Maoiis, would have the pieie/ence, ana they only could got native lands. This the Government strongly opposed, and after much trouble and great patience on Mr Baliance's part, the bilJ became law. Native schools were reorganised, and ho was glad to say that under Mr Fopo's able management great results wuro being reaped from native 3 schools in various localities. Native children weie also being taught English, and if this had been done iorty years ago there would not have been the tiouble that had been seyn in N«vv Zealand, Ho next dealt with tho local government proposals ot last session. Colonising functions were undertaken, and it wae recoguised that uulcdd the colonial Govorcment was to become a nuge board of roads and bridges,the responsibility ot management and the maintaining ot them must De eartonlocal bodies Thishadbeendoneby the me ituro {.us-ed lust session, find m<:mbevd coming specially trom country districts, miiny ot whom opposed the Government, admitted, the measure hao bt;an well devi^bd, and they were cordially supported, with the result that it parted almost with acclamation. This bill would enable the Genoral Government to reaist all claims for roads and btidges, and he hoped would soon put an end to something not unknown even in our House of Representatives — what was popularly known ac "log-rolling." Sir Robert next dealt at length with th,e land question. The unemployed difhculty had not boon lost sight of in dealing with this land question, and people without means had been enabled to obtain homes in the country, and made comfortable for life. During 18SG, notwithstanding the'depreeekm and low price of agricultural and pastoial product?, they had been enubled to ssettlu more people on the land than were over settled m any year before. With tho large homesteads system he disagreed, and in Auckland it had proved a failure. Whilst he recognised that New Zealand, contiderng its position and soil, must for a long time remain an eminently agricultural and pastoral country, he was nut blind to this fact, that no country could bo groat were it to be dependent on* one or two industries. The Government had accopted tenders in the country for wotk formeily avited from iiomtj. Ho adn-iWcd that the fearill' requhed revision, it would nob do to ignore local industries. Then in railway taiiil administiation it would bo mischievous to the people if tho railways wore only required to pay the coal of their workings and Lh'it tho re&t of the polony was to be taxed to pay interest on the cose of construction. Next they came 10 retrenchment. Retronchment in the public service could only come in two ways : First, that the Gbneral Government was lessened ; and, eecond, that payment for their work wot losaoned. If tho genoral wqrk was lessened, it meant either that the local bodies acknowledged and should perform the functions previously performed by the General Governrnont, or that the people would look to the Government for fewer conveniences. If they wished to cheapen the Civil Service,, they must proceed on' some system, not neglecting tho rights that had grown up with old servants, but in some systematic plan that would be fair The Civil Sorvice JRefonn Act was proposed with that objact, but some of its main provisions wore excised by the Legislative Council last session. There were some departments that could not be reduced. For example, in the Educational Department, though they had reduced clerical expanses in the Wellington office, the General Educational Department would go on increasing as the number of our ohildron increasod; but the Government thte year would be abte to show a very large saving in

the public expenditure. On the vote for the working of the railways a large saving would be shown on the estimates for the past two months. A small reduction would also be shown in the Justice Department. In the Native Department there would beaeavingof at least £10,000. There would, be a saving in the Mining Department, in Customs, in the Colonial Secretary's Department, and, in fact, in every department of the Government, so that when the Estimates next year came down, instead of having £20,000 or £30,000, as he had promif-ed in the flouee, they should be able to dhow double that. It might be asked what was to be their future policy in reference to railway construction, and in refejonce to Joan. He had no new policy to enunciate, nor a poi icy different from what he announced lust year at Invercargill He bud stated then that the time for our borrowing must t>oon cease, and he was etill convinced that if we were to provide, not for a mere temporary prosperity, but for permanent stability in our finance, borrowing must ceaee. (Continued cheers. )