THE PRIME MINISTER'S TOUR

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 241, 11 April 1912, Page 5

THE PRIME MINISTER'S TOUR

ENTHILWASTIC GATHERING AT ELTHAM. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Eltham, Last Night. The Prime Minister was given a great reception at Eltham to-night. The Eltliam Brass Band and the South Taranaki Pipe Band played selections outside the hotel, and an official welcome was given by Mr. T. Crump, the DeputyMayor, who formally welcomed Mr. Mackenzie on behalf of the municipality. Tlip Prime Minister and the Hon. G. W. Russell were guests subsequently at a complimentary social in the Town Hall, which was attended by fully four hundred people. The gathering took the form of a light supper, followed by a musical programme and political speeches. Mr. James McVeagh, chairman of the Eltham branch of the Liberal and Labor League, presided, and at the principal table were the Acting-Mayor, Dr. Valintine (Inspector-General of Hospitals) and Mr. W. T. Jennings, ranged beside Mr. Mackenzie and the Hon. G. W. Russell. The tables and the hall were tastefully decorated, and the catering by Mrs. Foster was deserving of all praise. Across the front of the stage was stretched the Gaelic welcome, "Caed mille failthe," which a Scotchman informed me, being interpreted,, means "A hundred thousand welcomes." The chairman received a number of apologies from members of the Cabinet and other members of the Liberal Party. When a message was read from Sir Joseph Ward the whole of the assembly rose and give him three ringing cheers, followed by a salvo for Lady Ward. The popularity of Mr. W. T. Jennings was again amply evidenced by the cheers which greeted him when he rose to propose the toast of "The Parliament of New Zealand." In the course of his remarks he said that he felt convinced that the people of New Zealand were going to give the new Cabinet what they would give to any stranger coming into the Dominion, viz., a fair chance to show that good mettle of which they were made.

The Hon. G. W. Russell, in replying, expressed regret at the absence, through illness, of the Hon. W. C. F. Carncross, a man who had made himself so wellliked amongst the whole of the members of (Parliament. He paid a tribute, too, to the manner in which the Hon. Mr. Carncross had, with an able pen, upheld the standard of Liberalism in this district. Digressing, he complimented the Eltham people on the manner in which they were doing honor to the member for Egmont and the Prime Minister of New Zealand, the gathering being, in every respect, one that would do credit to one of the largest cities in the Dominion. He assured them that the Prime Minister had the confidence of the whole of his colleagues in a mos't remarkable manner. He referred, as in his Stratford speech, to the public Services givei on various important local bodies bymembers of the new Cabinet, and asked by what right Mr. Massey claimed to treat them with contempt, when he (Mr. Massey) had never given any public service worth speaking of. His service to the public to fit him for a high administrative office consisted of a term on a road board, and once as a member of a county council. When a Government member asked Mr. Massey, "Where is your policy?" he had to- reply, "Why, you've got it." (Applause.) He again made reference to the great need for better organisation of the Liberal Party. "Local Bodies" fell to the lot of !Mr. Felix McGuire, who was commendably brief, and Mr. Crump, the Deputy Mayor, replied, laying stress on the fact that all the members 'of the Cabinet had given useful and honorable service on local bodies, which seemed to indicate that in the opinion of the leader of the Government, work on local bodies gave the best possible training for men with Parliamentary aspirations. 'The Guest of the Evening" was proposed bv the chairman, who said that this reception was a tribute not only from his supporters but from many who had opposed his candidature, but Who, after the certain amount of bitterness which an election seemed naturally to engender, were glad, though they did not care to admit it, that the Hon. T. Mackenzie had been elected. It was a matter for gratification that he was retaining the portfolio of Agriculture, which even his enemies, with the exception of one gentleman, who, perhaps, was not taken very seriously nowadays—(a ripple of laughter)—agreed he hail filled with distinction. Mr. McVeagh, in referring to the land question, said that the freehold versus leasehold was raised as a party cry. What the country wanted, and what the new Cabinet would give, wia.s settlement of the land.

'Loud and prolonged applause greeted the Prime Minister on rising. He warmly thanked his supporters for the greatness of the compliment they had tendered him that night. He was proud that those men who had accepted him on credit and had pledged themselves to, support him had had their good opinion vindicated by the Parliament of New Zealand. He was not going to allow New Zealand to be overgrown with the noxious weeds of waiting for office. He said that he had been much moved by the hearty cheers given for Sir Joseph and Lady Ward. As a result of a campaign, of which much could be said, Sir Joseph had thought fit to retire, and now those men who had endeavored to besmirch his character were saying that there never was a finer man to lead the affairs of this country. If go, why did one of them say, almost within the hearing of this hall, that the late Prime Minister had pocketed £IOO,OOO of loan money? It was remarkable that when he (the speaker) had challenged the Opposition in the House to say in the presence of the (Premier and of the press and the public what had been said during the general election to secure the return of Opposition members, those members sat as dumb as extinct volcanoes. Mr. Massey had at Stratford thumped his chest and said, "W.e are the men of honor and purity, and the others are the reverse." He had said once that he would not be seen on a public platform with Mr. Laurenson, that he would not trust Mr. Ell as far as he could throw him, and that he would not for £IO,OOO sit on the same platform with the Prime Minister, whilst Mr. Hine had said that he would not be a member of the Liberal Party for all the tea (or gold) in China. Then a member of a neighboring constituency had commenced to traduce the speaker's character. They claimed to 'be all that was honorable, but if they were such good men why did they trust to decrying and traducing their opponents? "We," said the Minister, "extend to them the triubute that they are honorable men, and all we ask is 'that they will extend the same to us." But, instead, they and their papers had endeavored to trap New Zealand with the barb-wire entanglements of misrepresentation. After referring to his success in exposing, and to some extent checking, the swindling of our producers by the intricate but none the less discreditable system amongst merchants at Home, he Raid that he would like Mr. Massey to place the face value of his services to the country against the face value of the services rendered to the country whilst on his Home mission in the interests of agriculture in t«is'Dominion. (Cheers.) . Referring , to land,

Jin said that there was little wrong with the land laws of the Dominion. Where were there more liberal land laws? He w«uld undertake to show to the farmers that the record of the Government for the past twenty years was one of devotion to the farmers' interests, and measures would be introduced so that those people who did not occupy too much land would get greater concessions than they had hitherto enjoyed. As foreshadowed in the Governor's Speech, the graduated land tax would be increased, in order to compel the cutting np of lands for closer settlement. Concluding, he said that the Ministry was going to use its talents for the benefit of

the country, and would never descend to any acts designed for personal promotion or personal aggrandisement.