MR EDGELERS MEETING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1815, 13 November 1888, Page 2

MR EDGELERS MEETING.

As announced in our advertising columns Mr Edgeler addressed a meeting from one of the back windows of the Teruuka Hotel last Saturday evening. The address was given from tha window of the room at the back of the bar-parlor. The upper part of the window was let down, tha under part was bonrded in and a cloth wat) spread over it. At the appointed time only about half a dozen people were present, and it looked as if there was to be no meeting until Mr Badham got a and rung up the town announcing it. Mr Badham acted the part of bellman as if to the manner born. As he went along he now aud again annotinoed with much gesticulation and demouatrativa effect that " Mr George Edgeler, of Arowhenua, Esquire, would address tu» working men of Temuka at the Temuka Hotel at 8 p.m. (red save the Queen." This form be varied occasionally by stariog that "Mr Edgeler would ventilate his grievances, dress down the Editor of the Temuka Leader, and give a bit of bis mind to the volunteers for not having given him the hall." Mr Badham's efforts were successful, and at 8 o'clock a 1 irge crowd collected outside the hotel iu the back y«rd. Mr Brown moved—" That Mr Badham take the chair," and on Mr Badham appearing he was received with cheers.

Mr Badham said he found it very inconvenient to preside, as he had attended in the capacity of a reporter for a new paper the Rangitata Advocate —which he had started. Every one ko ew that Tsvoraey a day was done. (Laughter). He ought to have been dead long ago. (Laughter). His paper would be the great exponent of the working men. His paper would not be l>ke the Temuka Leader—trying to crush the working maD the same as it was trying to crush Mr Edgeler because Mr Tworaey was jealous of Edgeler. (Laughter). He would say no more about th« Rangitata Advocate, as Mr Twomey said he was only canvassing for it. He considered M r Edgelar had been " sat upon.' He had hirod the Volunteer Hull, and he (Mr Badham) was witness to t, and be was

af'erwards iaformed that he cou'd not have it. He supposed this csme from

i'ie volunteers. These volunteers were fine fellows to their friends, but the moment an enemy came in sight they •vera different. If ihe Russians came ihey would take leg-bail for Mount Cook. (Laughter). They were as plucky as a woodhen. (Laughter). It was a bit of rascality to sit upon down-trodden work' ing msa liki that. He was a working man himself, aud they could see he had worked hard in ringing the bell. He considered the way he rang the bell entitled him to call himself a working man. But he would say no more, but introduce to them Mr George Edgeler, the chumpion of the working men. (Cheers). During all tliiß time Mr Badham wos standing on a chair, but when Mr Edgeler ascended the chair it was found to be too low for bim. Mr Badham ipologised to the crowd outside, and the big table was then wheeled round, and standing on this Mr Edgeler was able to de'iver hia address quite comfortably. He said he had called them together to give them an account of hia eleven years of political life. He would take them fur-' ther back, to 14 years ago, when he arrived in Temuka. Government offered them a plot and £lO worth of timber to build a house. He never took any limber, but «ome of them took it. They were to have it the first year free, aud for two other years they had to pay two shillings per week for it. Some of them never paid the rent and some did; He was away in Timaru, aud when ho .came back he found ihat in the fourth year some of them refused to pay auy mora rent until they got either a lease of the land or they were allowed to buy it. ; They asked would he agree to this, and he ax\A kia would. He called a meeting, and only one oame. He called a second meeting, and two came, and they formed themselves into a Committee. The third night 27 out of [3O came. They got up a petition, it was presented to Mr. Wakefield, and the deferred-payment system was introduced and passed. The place was not surveyed, and when the surveyors came down it was found some of the houses were on the streets. Where there wore only 30 people then, there were 600 or 700 now ! Let them look at the village settlements throughout the c&lony, which had thus been inaugurated by himself, there

another man in the country had benefited the laboring men as he (Mr Edgeler) had done 1 Look at Timaru. There men who had built £6O worth of

houses, and put 50 fruit trees in their gardens, were turned out with seven days'notice. It wouli have been the same thing here only for the way he

worked. He would now take them back

three or four years. Then a gentleman in Temuka bought sections in Arowhenua near a reserve. He applied for the reserve, and was told ic might be wanted for a township, and he could not get it. He called a meeting in the Good Tem-

plars' Hall, and the people from Temuka swatmed like bees to it, and put the king bee in the chair. (Cries of "Name,

name,") Never mind the name. They proposed to amalgamate the two towns, and he said he did not want it, and walked out in disgus*. Next Temuka and Qeraldine were made Town Districts. See the good that did. tie did good in Temnka and Uer4dine, which gave a lot of work when there was nothing else to do. (Oneers). He would do more good for Temuka yet if they let him. (Cheers). They had no energy in Temuka. Let

them sink a conorete dam 20 feet in the

river where it was doing damage, and make a reservoir. If they did not they would have the river coming through the town shortly. Lit them get a watersupply from this. They had no energy in Temuka. Look at the beautiful church

they had in Arowheoua, which the brave sons and daughters of Erin had built ! (Deafening chours and hughter) Look at its bells and its clock I He was proud of that church. (Greit laughter). He was proud of it because it was in Arowhenua. There was energy for them. Look|at the High School they had got 1 He was a member of the Committee of

that school once, but a hotel-keeper was elected chairman in preference to a Minister of God, and he brought the Committee to a dirty hotel. It was not fit to open a bottle of champagne in. Why the weakest ginger pop would blow a cork through the roof of it. (Great laughter). He resigned on account of the Committee having to meet there. He was a candidate for the Licensing Committee, and made a speech denouncing that hotel. It was pulled down and another put in its stead. He next succeeded in forming a Town Board in Arowhenua, and the reserves were vested in the Board. Now each of them had four acres. Sir Julius Vogel, Sir Robert Stout, and Mr Twomey were writing and talking a gteat deal about, giving four acres to working men, but while they were talking he had given it to them, (Great cheering and laughter). If he had done so much outside what would he have done had he been in Parliament ? (Great and prolonged cheering and noises). They put the wrong man into Parliament. (Cries of M Who did you vote for?") Nevermind who he, voted for. They must put poor men into Parliament, working men like himself. That was what he had done. He had done a lot for the working men and the Government, and ha never got a farthing for it, but he hoped they would put in a Liberal nest time.

Up to this time the crowd were most orderly, laughing and cheering alone being indulged io, but at this juncture a turf of grass was thrown in, and Mr Edgeler then bowed, bade them good-nigbfc, aud retired

A difficulty arose at this juncture. The Chairman wus absent, and tbera was no one to go to the window to speaV, but a messenger succeeded in finding the ohairman, where did not transpir-, but at any rate he arrived. He began to say that Mr Edgeler was the fathsr of Arowhen ia, it fast, he created i'. (Great laughter). He then wont od to denounce the Temuka. Leader because it di<i not support Mr Edgeler as a candidate for Parliament. He next went on to denounce Temuka generally, und some people in particular, for not backing up Mr Edgeler. He expatiated on what the Rangitata Advocate would do, and after talking to the infinite delight of the audience, who cheered and screamed with laughter, he asked them to wait until he got some one to move a vote of th <nks to tlie Chairman, A lull of a few minutes succeeded thin, and he again appeared and said the gentleman who wiih to have moved it had got drunk. As there was no other he

would more it himself, and so he went on talking for another term, bat when he wound up bo forgot the motion. The meeting then terminated, and considering the circumstances it was oxtremely orderly and well-behaved.