THE PRIME MINISTER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 305, 21 June 1912, Page 5

THE PRIME MINISTER

SPEECH AT WANGANUL By Telegraph—Press Association. Waugajrai, Last Night. The Prime Minister was entertained by the Wanganui Caledonian Society tonight, and presented with a handsome address. In J he course of the evening, referring to a previous speaker's remarks, he said that he would do what he could to secure a visit to New Zealand of the representatives of the British Army as well as a shooting team at the time of the battleship New Zealand visiting the Dominioi. Subsequently Mr. Mackenzie spoke in support of the establishment of an Imperial Council, to discuss matters of Imperial import. THE PRIME 'MINISTER INTERVIEWED. Auckland, June 19. Interviewed on his return to Auckland from the north this morning, the Prime Minister remarked:-

"The feeling in the country through which I have gone is similar to that I have found in other parts of New Zealand, namely, a strong disposition on the part of the people to give the present Government an opportunity of showing whether they can effect good work, and also to give them time to carry out some of the important matters that they are now moving in." "I have," added the Premier, "travelled over a great deal of New Zealand, and met representative people of all classes in considerable numbers. The position, if I were to analyse it at the moment, would be this: The public mind, by all sorts of processes, was poisoned and prejudiced against the last Administration; yet, notwithstanding that, the Opposition did not secure a majority, although they secured the withdrawal of Sir Joseph Ward and many of his colleagues from the Government of the Liberal Party. The Leader of the Opposition claimed to have a following sufficient to come into power. The public are disappointed with the administrative and leadership ability of the present chief of the Opposition, and they are looking for someone who may reasonably perform as much as they think can be secured on lines such as meet the country's necessities. The party that lam leading seems to fairly meet with the approval of the great middle classes and steady workers of the Dominion, and these arc the people that we desire to have behind us. We are content to see the wealthy squatter and his confreres form themselves into a coterie on one band and the revolutionary Socialists and impracticable agitators to go off on the other. The country feels that such a party as we are organising and consolidating in New Zealand will carry on work on sound economic lines, and it is also felt by many that the Conservatives, although they may flicker into life for a time, will never permanently hold the confidence or control the destinies of this country, and that if we are displaced we will be displaced by something very much more extreme than some of our critics declare us to be. So that, summarising the situation, we are prepared to meet all the reasonable progressive aspirations of the steady workers and middle-class people of our community, and those that do not come within that category will no doubt decide on such lines as they think best."