MR F. H. TEMPLAR ON NEW ZEALAND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8434, 4 May 1907, Page 5

MR F. H. TEMPLAR ON NEW ZEALAND.

(From Our Own Correspondent). LONDON, March 18. Last week a lecture, under the auspices of the Tariff Reform Laague, was given in the Mission Hall, St. Clei .ints Street, Oxford, by Mr F. H. Templar. Councillor Meadows, President of the East Ward Branch, occupied the chair. Mr Templar began by saying that he proposed to make a few observations with regard to himself. He had lived at the other end of the world a great number of years, and yet he had not lost that feeling for the Old Country which still makes those absent call her "Home." On returning, one must expect to find changes, but. one of the greatest changes was that change which had come over rural England. Ope thing which struck him was the miles and miles of pure meadow lanijl, and yet the only occupants of these fields seemed to be the starving rooks and the busiest labourer was the mole. What a trast between the England of now and the England which he loved when he was a young man. In the country he had lived in, the fields were humming with busy industry, and the oniy unemployed he had seen in New Zealand was the man who would not work. The man who would hot work had no food, and the man who would work had more than he wanted. He spoke that night from a purely colonial view. He belonged to no party and he confessed he did not understand the English political parties as he found them today. When he went away there were two parlies, Conservative and Liberal. He was an Imperialist to the heart's core. New Zealand consisted of the North and the South' Islands, the size being a little less than that of Great Britain and Ireland. They did not succeed until 1868 in winning the country from the Maoris. As a race the Maoris were the finest set of men he had ever come across. In New Zealand they had native doctors, native clergymen and even native solicitors. They would see the Maori was not a particularly big fool. What was the position of the labourer behind the tariff wall? Was work scarce? No! Was living dearer? He found in free trade England that living was quite as high as behind the tariff wall of New Zea - land. He then referred to the various prices of foodstuffs in the colony, and said that each man, woman and child had nine pounds to his credit in the bank. That was behind a high tariff wall. The lecture was illustrated by some fine views, and the proceedings terminated with a vote of thanks to the lecturer, proposed by the chairman and seconded by Mr Roberts, also of New Zealand.