AUSTRALIA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9992, 12 March 1910, Page 5

AUSTRALIA.

HON. REID BANQUETTED. j l EULOGISTIC SPEECHES. Received Marchfll, 10.15 p.m. LONDON, March 11. Hon. T. A. Coghlan, New South Wales Agent-General, presided at an J Australian banquet to Hon. G. H. Reid, ex-Premier of New South Wales, and Commonwealth AgentGeneral, at the Trocadero. There were two hundred and twenty-five guests present, including Lords Brassey, Lamington, and Strathcona, Admiral Bridge, many leading Asis trahans and representatives of banks, financial and shipping firm?. Sir Harry Rawson, ex-Governor of j New South Wales, replying to the toast of the "Imperial Forces," said i he hoped that the Australian Fleet 1 would soon take a share in protecting the trade routes of the Empire. Mr Henniker Heaton, M.P., also replying, said that the Australian ; Army waR composed of highly intel- i ligent men, but that the Australian military forces had not made the ; advance which Australia demands, ! because the Government had not ,< utilised to the utmost the advantages 1 of the British Army as qualified instructors. He urged Mr Reid to try. ] and induce the Australians to ask ] the War Office for the assistance so ' urgently required. Mr Coghlan, in proposing Mr Reid's health, eulogised his work in i Australia. It a strange and ] agreeable coincidence, he said, ; tbat a'man who made the Federation practicable should ' be its first i representaitve at the heart of the Empire,

Mr Reid, in reply, said that the Australian type shows that Australian development would be under the glorious heredity and environment of the British people. He was sure that Australian finance had not been carried too tar, and emphasised the fact that nearly the whole of the Australian debt was spent in reproductive works. Every pound could be spent wisely on immigration, the best reproductive expenditure that Australia can make. All the great parties in Australia would preserve the traditions of honesty, which are the honour and glory of the people irom which the Australians have sprung. "I accept to-night's reception as a compliment to the great Commonwealth 1 represent," said Mr Reid. "You may transplant the people, but as long as they are under the flag, all they produce is the very life blood of this country. Throughout Australia there is an instinct of fearless independence, there it is devoted to loyalty to the Throne and affection fot the people of this noble realm, ,which will serve, to develop the ever-increasing strength and power of the Imperial deetjny.