MINISTERIAL

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 296, 11 June 1912, Page 5

MINISTERIAL

NATIVE LANDS. By Telegraph—Press Association. Rotorua, Last Night. The Hon. Mr. Mac Donald addressed a large meeting here to-night. He said that a progressive public works policy was essential to the proper development of the country. The native land owners shoujd be placed on the same footing as Europeans as regards local taxation, but safeguards were necessary in respect of land dealing. Next session he would introduce his amendment to the Native Land Bill embodying the suggestion of the Native Land Court judges based on the experience of the 1909 Act. He paid <a compliment to Sir James Carroll, who, he said, had endeavored to do his duty to both Maoris and Europeans.

THE HON. G. LAURENSON. Dunedin, Last Night. Mr. Laurenson, Minister of Labor, addressed a public meeting in Dunedin tonight on the past and future of the progressive party in New Zealand. The speaker opened with a drastic attack on the Opposition press in New Zealand, a.nd said that it behoved members of the present Government to personally lay their views before the electors. .He had not come to Dunedin to reply to Mr. J. A. Millar, but to ask them what they meant by returning eight Opposition members out of the eleven allotted to the province, The Minister detailed the reaisons which it had been stated sent Sir Joseph Ward to the wall, and paid a tribute to his statesmanship. He then referred to the legislation that the Government intended to introduce, and at the close of a sympathetic hearing was unanimously given a hearty vote of thanks for his address and of confidence in the Ministry of which he was a member. ,