A PROMISING OUTLOOK FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 466, 26 April 1890, Page 4

A PROMISING OUTLOOK FOR NEW ZEALAND.

OPINION OP Mil W. S. ALLEN. Ix the course of his address at Te Aroha Mr W. S. Allot), candidate for theTe Aroha electorate, and formerly a member of the British House of Commons, thus explained his reason for coming to New Zealand : “I will be perfectly frank with you. I have several sons—two of them aro here on this platform— and 1 thought it only fair to them to give these boys a chance, if they likecl, of colonial life. After careful investigation, I came to the conclusion that nowhere could I leave them more happily, comfortably, and well fixed as good citizens, in any of the colonies of Great Britain, than in this. (Applause.) Therefore, fivo years ago I came here and purchased two blocks of land, witb the intention at some future time of settling two of my sons upon them. Well tiien, the question has been put to me: Why do I want to get into the New Zealand Parliament? Well, I will tell you frankly. It is nob for the honorarium, or for any position that I seek, bub it is simply this, that, although I am past fifty years of age, I have a good deal of work lefb in me yet, and I do not want altogether to be laid on the shelf. (Applause.) Therefore lain come here to-night not to ask you to send me to your House of Representatives, but simply to say that, if you ask me to go, I am willing to go and do my best to serve you well and faithfully there. (Applause.) A PROMISING OUTLOOK.

“ I have, however, firm faith iu the future of New Zealand. There are many hopeful signs. One sign particularly struck me, and that is, that in the New Zealand Savings Banks you have no less than 100,000 depositors, who have deposited about three millions of money. There is another very hopeful sign, and that is that in New Zealand you have between seventy and eighty thousand freeholders. After all, the strength of a State depends, not on a few large landed proprietors, but in having as largo a number as possible of men who are owners of the soil, and as such directly interested in the well-being of the country. (Applause.) Then there is another sign of prosperity, the population is increasing. (Laughter.) Somebody behind me says ‘hear, hear,’ with deep feeling (renewed laughter). Then again your frozen meat trade is developing with marvellous rapidity. I can tell you this, as a matter of fact, that New Zealand frozen mutton stands the best in the London market of any frozen mutton in the world (applause), and it deserves to do so. Now, gentlemen, I have dons. A few weeks ago you celebrated your Jubilee. The first fifty years of your nation’s life have come and gone, and what a fifty years of progress they have been ! There are men now living in New Zealand who can remember when the grand old Maori race were the lords of the soil, and the white men were few and far between. Now, all is changed. The grand old Maori race, I am sorry to say, appears to bo dying away, but the white man is everywhere to be found, and wherever you go you see marks of his industry and enterprise. Depend upon it, as I said years before I came to the shares of this beautiful land, New Zealand has a great and glorious future before it. And you, the electors of New Zealand, may make the future what you will. (Applause.) But whatever you do, don’t trust tho destines of these glorious islands to unscrupulous and unprincipled political adventurers who will come before you and will fawn, flatter, cring9, and promise you what they can never perform ; and who will lead you on a course of reckless extravagance, which will pro v e in the end ruinous and disastrous. (Applause.) It is a very small matter whether you send me to the House of Representatives or whether you do not. If you can find a better man, and I daresay you easily can, send him in preference ; but, whatever you do, insist on having a strong, firm, and stable Government, that shall command respect, that shall tread onward—turning neither to the right nor to the left—with firm and unfaltering step in the narrow path of economy, integrity, uprightness and honesty. (Applause.) And, gentlemen, don’t forget in times of depression, and in times of darkness and gloom, these words, which are a sure motto for private as well as for public life : ‘ For them that be upright there ariseth light in tho darkness.’ ”