THE PREMIER AT DUNEDIN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2270, 22 October 1891, Page 3

THE PREMIER AT DUNEDIN.

Despite a heavy downpour of rain the Premier had a crowded meeting at the theatre, Dunedin, last Tuesday night. The mayor presided. Mr Ballance said that as the Land Bill was amended in the Council its inevitable effect would have been to enable persons to purchase lands . for speculative purposesnext that the Land Bill should be a measure containing only perpetual leases, and the Government should be so sustained by the people of the colony that the Council itself would be awed into passing the Bill. The Government did not mean to stuff the Council, but they would put in a few members of the right colour, and they hoped to get them from all parts of the colony. They would probably ask their friends to meet in the large centres and suggest suitable nominees. Care would be taken that those appointed represented the flesh and blood of the country, and the manhood of the country; and he was satisfied that, when the appointments were made, we should have a better Seeond Chamber than existed at present time. The Government were satisfied that the time would soon come when the electoral laws would pi’ovide for the one-man-one-vote principle being extended to bye elections. He denied that the Railway Commissioners had improved the management and administration of the railways, and said that they had been saved from the universal hostility of the farming classes by the trouble between railway employees and the commissioners. In his opinion, but for these differences, the Act appointing the Commissioners would have been repealed and the Commissioners would now have been no more. The Conciliation Bill would be introduced next session, and the Government hoped then to pass it. With regard to party government, he warned the people not to be carried away by the Swiss or similar schemes but to stand to their present constitution. On Dr Fichett’s motion a vote of thanks was passed amid great cheering to the Premier for his address and confidence was expressed in his Government. Mr Ballance said that his reception on addressing a Dunedin audience for the first time had been so flattering that he would probably speak again at a future date.