SIR JOSEPH WARD IN THE SOUTH

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIV, Issue 4, 6 January 1902, Page 2

SIR JOSEPH WARD IN THE SOUTH

f ADDRESS TO FABMERd. PKB FBISB ASSOCIATION. Oiadtau, January 4. At the invitation of the Farmers' Union Sir Joseph Ward addressed a largely attended meeting in the Otautau Town Hall on Saturday even- . ing. The building wag packed to the i doors. Mr A. Dapples, chairman of the local branch of the Union, presided, and Hons. W. 0. Walker, H. j Feldwick, and Mr Gilfedder, M.H.R. 1 were also on the platform. Mr dapples, in introducing the Minister, said the Union did not want to oust the Government, but merely wanted to get fair play. He hoped the time was not far distant when the Government would retrieve a little of what it had done which bad been oppressing to farmers. (Applause.) He thought the Government should keep down expenditure, and atsist farmers to create markets in other parts of the world. Sir Joseph Ward then proceeded to show how much the present administration had done for farmers. The taxation during the last two or thrte years had been reduced to £300,000 by remissions through tbe Customs, by penny postage, and through reductions on railways. In conneation with the borrowing policy of the Government-, Sir Joseph defended it on the same lines as in his recent Gore speech, and said that so Ion? as the people demanded money for legitimate, .progressive, and present requirements, so long|would money have to be prudently and judiciously borrowed. Touching on the Workers' Compensation for Accidents Act, he said it was the English Act, and had been misrepresented more than almost any other Act the Government had passed. Before tbe Act was passed, a farmer was liable under the common law to be sued for compensation far accidents up to £SOO, whereas a farmer- could now cover his entire risk from all directions for 5s per year on every £IOO of wages paid. In any case the farmer did not need to insure, and could remain in the same position as he was before, and rue the risk of actions for compensation'. Sir Joseph advised farmers to hold on to thf-ir woM, esthi market would soon right itself, and he believed that the reverses occasioned by the fall in wool and frozen meat values would be surmounted by the indomitable spirit which had characterised the people heretofore in the face of similar reverses. Sir Joseph spoke optimistically of the outlook, and urged farmers to face the situation hopefully, and they would find th it the future would be even brighter than the past. A vote of thanks to Sir Joseph, and confidence in the present Government, was carried with great enthusiasm, only two dissenting voices being heard.