MR BEETHAM BEFORE HIS CONSTITUENTS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2186, 6 January 1886, Page 2

MR BEETHAM BEFORE HIS CONSTITUENTS.

Me G. Beethahi, M.H;r. for WairarapaNorth, addressed his constituents at the: Theatre Royal last night, • There was 1 a : large attendance, between three and four hundred electors being present. -' Mr M, Caselberg, Mayor ot Masterton, was voted to the chair.

The Chairman, in opening the proceedings, acknowledged the compliment, and said that it was usual on such occasions to ask the Mayor to preside, and expressed a hope that the electors present would give liim every assistance in maintaining order, and conducting the meeting. He need hardly explain to them that their member in the House of Representatives had called them together in order to give them an account of his stewardship, and to explain his actions during the last session of Parliament. He hoped Mr Beetham would be permitted to give an account of hipiself without interruptions, After Mr Beetham had made his speech it would be competent for any elector present to ask questions bearing on the subject, and to express his opinions upon them. If they listened attentively they would learn all they wished to learn,, and theywouldgiveeveryonewhochosetospeak fair play. -As Chairman he really represented the whole of them, and they would, therefore give him every assistance, He called upon Mr Beetham to address the meeting. Mr Beetham, who was received with loud applause, expressed his regret that he saw no ladies present, for when Mr Stout or Sir Julius Vogel, who were both in favor of female suffrage, spoke, there were usually a fair number of them among the audience. He hoped that; on future occasions when ho met them this would be different, He had a very great book 'in his hand, but he would not trouble thom much with it, for it was his. intention to make his speech as short as possible as he knew that the Chairman had come at considerable personal inconvenience, and was anxious fo get away. Mr A, W. Renall: Then put another chairman in,

Mr Beetham said if Mr Renall was very anxious upon the subject, it would be as well if Mr Caselberg gave up the chair to him at once.

Mr Renall said lie did not want to interfere, but a private party should not stand in the way and prevent them hearing all that 'their representative had to say.

The Chairman said it would be best for the meeting, if Mr Renall took the chair, as, for one thing, they would all certainly be allowed to go home an hour and a half earlier. (Laughter.) Mr Renall assured the Chairman that he.was not at all anxious, but that as soon as lie wanted to go home, he, (Mr Renall) would xelieve him,

Mr Beetham said there were many t who said there was no necessity for him ! to address'his at all, that . they had seen and read all, that occurred in the newspapers, and that an address of : this kind was simply a piece of superero- ! gatioh. He considered that it was the duty of every representative to meet his | constituents, and for the constituents to meet their representative, as often as they could,'and to discuss public matters as freely as possible. He had told them when they last elected him that he should give the Stout-Vogel Government a fair ' and full qhanco to develop their policy, 1 andtoseewiiattheypQulddo. He had ' felt thoroughly that the country, fqr some 1 reason he could not quite account for, had become, weary of the Atkinßon Minis- ; try, and he considered that it was his duty to give the party a thoroughly fair and impartial trial. He was in hopes that tho lijefprei) they would introduce would prove sound and good,' He rmyer was a blind party man, and believed in giving everybody credit for the best intentions. They all knew that Sir Julius Yogel was the real Premier of tho countiy, althoughjthe position was nominally occupied by Mr Stout, and that the former therefore conducted the chief part of the business of the Government. Amongst the most prominent matters brought forward by the Government during the last session were the tariff resolutions, for which Sir Julius Vogel was entirely responsible. He would point out that there could be no doubt as to'tiie qpiniqn of the present House upon , them, for they were iihrpWii qiitby g, ve,ry large majority. He liimseif was 'iipt present, but if he had beon" lie should certainly havo gone against any increase, as he considered that the tariff was already as heavy as they could bear it, There were somo among them who were of opinion that protection to local industries would mako them more prosperous, Sir Julius Vopel had declared that it was not his intention to introduce Protection, but that the increase was meant for revenue purposes only ; but for all that the tariff would have been a protection one, Many of those who went to a shop 'lip purchase anything did not seom to bo ayare that they paid perjip from 25 to 30 per cent more than the'Ehgiis'li cqst price, and, they would probably come to the conclusion £){. at an impost qf thai kind was quite enough to, encourage any local industry, ' He would allude more especially to the woollen industry. With the assistance of Mr Renall and others they had attempted to start a woollen mill in Masterton, and if they had bGon successful they would now be in a fair way towards paying dividends of 10 per' cent per annum, like the Mosgiel Company, which, besides that, carried large sums annually to reserve. If that was so, he would ask them why should it bo necessary to increase the duties? They all felt the import duty at the present time, even the agricultural community, who might reasonably ask themselves why they should pay 20 or 30 per cent extra out of their pockets for their,necessities simply to start a wqollen mjll, The industry had been started in Wellington, and' he himself was a shareholder jn the company. He hoped that without protection - thev would be in a position to get interest at the rate of 10 per cent for their money. If they, as agriculturists, establisiiedaprotective tariff it would simply mean that they would have to contribute towards (thq niaiutainanco of a class of men. who Would,. perhaps be' quite as profitably occupied iii other persuits, Tie United States of America had' hew' held 1 pp to them, asa 'glorious example as'tp what Protection can do. While oh a yisjt to America he went to meetings of protectionists, and also to those of free traders, and he foupd that the latter numbered anions; thom all the sensible people The Wairarapa Star had quoted from the Dunedin Star what certain authorities had said on the subject. He would give Mr Hogg credit that when he argued a question he gave both sides of it, (Lauyhter), and in the.'present instance he haif been unable to show that Protection was"'a' benefit.- Her Mr Beetham; held an extra'ctin his hand showing what I tho Americans 'paid for their clothing on account of protective duties, from which it appeared that tho. people paid as much as 50 or 00. per • cent more than the cost price, It was worth noting that' a Commission appointed by the United States Government to enquire into the question' had reported against Fraction, andfche Customs Commissioner of tho giftM, j/hq 'should bean authority on sdeh a Subject, had'declared the'whole ' system a failure. 'There iwasnV reason for a protective tariff in New Zealand; They already had,'ah.'enormous Customs' revenue, and duties that varied from one to thirty per cent,, and if that wsi ho)

sufficient protection, they could very well afford.to do .without" it for a time (ap--plause). The present Ministry had passed, a measurei called the Hospital and Charitable Aid" Act. It was changed : very much during its progress through,the Holise, and had been improved into a very, fair measure. They had:n6 ( w: an opportunity to manage their own affairs in this respect, They had their own Hospital district, and whatever was given, by the people was subsidised pound for' pound by the Government. Mr Buchanan and himself had very hard work to carry tho proposal to establish the Wairarapa as a separate district, and never before had ho known two members so badly treated ■by the Government as they were. ,It so happened that the Wellington District came to be considered in the schedule before Hawke's Bay, and when.the former came on he moved that the. two' Wairarapa Counties should form a separate district, explaining fully that there were two large Counties with two hospitals and' twocharitableinsfcitutions, and alsothatthe district was only connected with Wellington by a long and expensive railway journey; but the Government objected, and the motion was defeated. He should not have minded that so much, had not Mr W. C. Smith, the member for Waipawa,'moved directly afterwards that his county, which contained only one hospital, and was within easy access of Napier, should be constituted a separate district, and that every member of the Government party voted for the motion, which was carried. He had never, in all his Parliamentary experience, had such treatment before. Afterwards, by working hard and interviewing members, they gained their point, but not with regard to charitable aid. He hoped that if ever they had a chance to amend the Act the separation would be made complete. If they had local government at all, they should manage their own affairs in this respect. With regard to local self-gov-ernment, he knew that lie had said that he was a party man, but ho assured the meeting that ho went to the last session fully prepared to support the Government if it was possible to form good local government. When lie heard, Sjr Julius Vogel's. remarks on local government in the Financial Statement, he felt very hopeful. Ho, read extracts from the Statement to show that Sir Julius Vogel had said that the largest amount of aid should not be given to those districts that had .the greatest rating power, but to those that were the poorest and newest districts, The proposal introduced by the Government was that they should have a sum of L 300,000 , between them, and that the money was not to be divided according totheirnecessities, but to the amount raised in rates ill the district. The sum mentioned would, if it had passed, been the basis to enable local bodies to borrow from seven and a half to ten millions. If that amount were raised, they would for a short time be rolling in wealth, only to find that eventually they had nothing at all.' The subsidy was tq extend oyer a period of twenty-five' years. What would have been the result ? The importunate and greedy counties would have swallowed up everything, and the rest would have got nothing at all. The goldfields counties would have rushed into the market at once and skinned it, and the rest, who were more prudent, would then have had to pay a higher rate of interest, and eventually pay indirectly'for tho recklessness of the goldfields. Sir Julius Yogel had said that the local bodies were not to bo subsjdjsed according to their means'; yet what did' they find was done ? Selwyn and Christchurch raised a" wail because they got 'nothing under'the Roads and Bridges' Construction Act. Well, they had their roads made, and required nothing under it, The result of Sir Julius Vogel's scheme was that Selwyn, which had no country to open, now received I/SQQO per annum, whjlo Wairarapa East, with large resources to develop, got the enormous sum of L 590, presuming that all tho rates were paid, That was clearly assisting the rich to the detriment of tho poor. The scheme, as it was unfolded by Sir Julius Yogel, met with the opposition of every country member who was independent and could understand the position, At the time he spoke of, Selwyn actually had over £50,000 in hand, which the Council did not know how to expend. What would have been tho result of handing oyer the £300,000 to tho Counties in tliq Hqnj'e ntarket ? Did it not strike any thinking man that if tfiey njsjj'oiliijtq tlio . market and 'borrowed four or five millions a year that they would deprecjate tlje value of New Zealand securities, and that they would thus prevent tlio Government from borrowing money for truly colonial works? But there was another point, Why should the local bodies bo forced to go into the Home market and pay £200,000 per annum more in interest on eight millions than if the Government borrowed the money ? It would simply have meant a loss of that amount annually. He had chosen the county of Selwyn because jt had the largest bank balance, and the jargost subsidy. But there wasanothor County' qji'ifce clqse t.q 'jt which had a bank balance of £26,000, and rpijeiyed over £3OOO in subsidies. Another point which struck all thoughtful people was that Sir Julius Yogel made himself a judge of what the Counties shquld, get, and proposed that each goldfields County should receive £2OOO more than any other County. It did not matter whether there was only one small gqldfield in it or nut. They had plenty of gold in the'Wairarapa in their timber and grass, and why should that be treated differently to the gold they dug out of the earth? The House struck this pioposal out; but towards the end of the session the goldfields members worked round the Government, and got the whole amount put oil the supplementary estimates 'for special works, They had scotched tiie snake, but it had appeared again. Then the goldfields counties got another £IO,OOO which they were, npt entitle;] fcOj because their rates were taken' 'as/ three-halfpence in the pound, while the calculations for the others was only three farthings, so that they actually got double the subsidy of other counties. That was another specimen of the public works policy of tho Ministry. The Counties Act Amendment Bill which had been introduced by the Government, proposed that the Chairmen of County Councils should be elected by the ratepayers, He .felt that' no set of men were 'bettor 'qualified, to qleqt (heir own Chairmen than the m'emberp' of County Councils. Major Atkinson had gone to some trouble over the matter, and found that the local bodies were almost unanimously opposed to the proposal, (Applause,) Ho did not not moan to say that boroughs should not eleot their Mayor as at present, for that was a very different thing, In a borough they lived all close together, and an election entailed very little expense; while tho election of a County Chairman would entail great personal inconvenience and expense to; the''ratepayers.'' 'fteyeftihg 'to' ; 'tne'gold;' fields, He had found his bjood boiling more than eyer it had boiled befqre 'at the action of the'gqldfield members; and lye gave Captain Sutter credit for. the'deter? mined stand he had made against them. ' He had Bhown that Wcßtland was indebted to the colony to the extent of two millions,' while it contributed to the ; revenue only £26,000 per annum; and in : the face of that the Government agreed i that the Gold Duty and- Miners' Right i Fees should'be'Btruok off.- TheßSitems : were oou%;reyenue, and. Jhe ;anwuufc ' was, of course, to be 'Wadojup 'oufcVoi-Jthe ' pooket of-ijhfl colony.; Fotrtonately the 'i LegislatiVo Cousciil oarsi'tb the mmf. >

and struck the-proposal out again, In addition to grantm? such' enormous favors to Westlarid they had' empowered Greyniouth' and Westport to borrow large sums for lMrbor,works; and had handed them over the local railways, which were paying very well. Ho did not like drawing attention to things of that kind, but when he saw ,them. going on he could not help it. They had all heard of the water races that were constructed on goldfields, : There was one in particular which had cost the colony'£llß,l7B, and which now employed 3G men, who produced gold to tho value of £6519 17s Gd annually. If they had £IIB,OOO spent in tho East County here _he felt' assured that they would derive infinitely larger benefits. (Applause.) Every year, if they went through the Estimates, thoy found large sums sot down for repairing these water races. Public m one y, expended, should not be expended for a small district, or for the .'benefit of one particular class of men. There was yet another 'palpable injustice done to the rest of the colony for the benefit of tho goldfields. Wairarapa East received under the Crown and Native Lands Rating Act £520 per annum,'and Westland tho enormus sum of £II,OOO. The Crown Lands sold in Westland came to hardly anything, while here almost every acre was available for settlement. The money expended on roads in Westlaud was in many instances entirely thrown away. Of course, there were exceptions, but the money spent on tracks made to many places where there was really no gold at all was simply thrown away. Itwas very different here, for thoy would be useful for ever, while they increased 'the value of property, and they got gold from the country through grass, while on tho goldfields the ground was frequently stripped bare to the rocks, and quite useless for ever afterwards. On no account should the gold duty and miners' right fee bo reduced below a reasonable amount, and the revenue so raised should be expended on goldfields works; There was just another nice thing Westland had done, Not content with large road expenditure, its Education Board got into dobt for schools to the extent of £2400, and then the Government paid the money for them, He did not want to deprecate expenditure on goldfields, for last year they produced gold to the value of £988,959, and they shoull therefore receivo consideration, but when they found that the gold mining industry had voted for it £120,000 more than others got it was neoessary for them to protest. The land revenue from tho goldfields counties in Nelson and Westland was absolutely nil. He could only stigmatise the District Railways Purchasing Bill as nothing eise but a swindle, and there were many members of both branches of the Legislature who were of the same opinion. A number of railways had been constructed under the District Railways Act by levying a tax on the ratepayers and borrowing money, the Government paying 2 per cent on the cost of construction, and none of these had paid either interest or.working expenses, Partly through a fault'in tho' Act, and partly through tho disinclination of the ratepayers to pay interest, the purchase of these lines had boon forced upon tho Government for several years, He did not so much blame Mr Stout and Sir

I Julius Vogel for their action in ■ Hie matter, for Major Atkinsqn had been of tho sarao opinion. , It was now proposed to buy railways at a- coat of half a million which had never : paid either interest or working expenses, . which would never do so, and .which had only been constructed in the interests of . a'few jarge landholders/' The ratepayers would'be relieved pi payment'to 'the extent of five per cont, leaving them only two per cent to pay. ' Qe objected most strongly to such a system of favoritism. Why should not the two Wairarapa 'counties have their loans taken off their hands ? Tho Waimea Plains railway had been struck off the schedule by the House, but the representative of Waimato, Mr Steward, had got it re-inserted. This line was constructed for the sole benefit of two runholders, and they were running two trains a week on it at considerable loss. (Laughter). He was of opinion that tho Thames-Eotorualine wasanexception, and that it would prove of great advantage to the colony. This line was to have been constructed undor tho land grant system, but tho Government had been unable to grant the' lane] required. a'gqqd deal about tho actiqn qf tlpe who followed Captain Resell into the lobby on IpV motion for tho reduction of the Public Works expenditure by L 500,000, and they had been Btigmatisod as being only oat's paws for Canterbury members, who, as thoy could not get their railway made, wanted to stop public works everywhere else. There was no doubt Canterbury members were actuatod by some such motivo, but thore were many others who voted for what they considered was of the greatest benefit to' the country. Major Atkinson had previously tabled a motion, which was strangled by party tactics, to limit the expenditure to one million, so that Captain was really qqly'fallowing in his'footsteps.' They were told that the offecfc was to keep tlje colqny back, and to throw men everywhere out of employment; but that was not the fact, Captain Russell was not actuated, by any party motives at all, and received the support of a very large number of members of'the House. To show that the colony was not a sufferer by the motion he quoted a speech delivered by tho Minister of Publio Works, which was to the effect that the Government had anticipated such a movement, and had limited the expenditure to one and a quarter millions, and that they would have half a million in hand by the end of the year. Major Atkinson had stated that they had voted £2,150,000, and that they had actually given the' Minister of Public Works more than he had asked for. E[e (flfr Beetharn) held that there 'was an absolute agreement between the Minister of Public Works and Captain Russell, ft was true that Mr Stout did not agroe, but that did not alter the statement of tho Minister of Public Works as reported in Hansard. The course which Mr Buchanan and himself had pursued had been very clear. They lost nothing whatover to the district by it, for the only sum that had been set down for this district was

one of £14,000 for the railway from Woodvilla to Paljiatua, amj that had gqii an the schedule of works by /mistake. Sq . they had nothing whatever to Ipsa for the district. He beljeyed that another £30,000 would have taken the OfcagoCehtraVLine into clear country, and ho was' Borry' that ths amount set down for it had been reduced, for it would have added materially to the traffic on the line. 'He had tried to induce the Minister to go on with the tunnels on the Gorge line, so that no. time might be lost; but the, 'engineers seemed.tq h$ pf ppjnlqn that nothing cquld.be c|onq. Mr'Buchanaiiliad almost been burnt'in effigy in "Wellington % voting against the North Island Trunk railway; yet ho thought' he' was rigl)t,' He himself ha,d. fop it,- hut he understood that the" principal was-that 'cpn'siderabje'areas qf land should first be bought by tho Government in order to recoup the expenditure, He drew the attention of the Government to the necessity of purchasing as much a3> possible, : There were overfouMnillion acres, and. they might have purchased • two millions. But the Government had most unjustifiably, tjohe ,toj .with- work! that wi)l,eoinpel them ;to.go, fiirther,, while th*jy have also. glyen>, «he : ..nagws a pnnky.tluDt ftejr sVould ply to nttu.

If they had kept faith with the House; they would not have ,spent anything, except a little at each end, where Crown Land 3 would have been v Opened. The natives had given the Government just sufficient land for the line 'and stations, and that was nil, They.;were committeed to expend £6PJjj ) ., °. r £60,000 on the line, and did a single acre of land on it. Ho' was glad that tho Premier had Visited tho district, He certainly seemed impressed with the ■richness of the soiland he (Mr Beet-ham): believed the district would be a gainer by it to a considerable extent; MrMance' knew a good deal deal more y'awi tho country than Mr Stout, and liT hoped that he would assist in developing settle-, ment. In alluding to MrStout's visit lie must say that lie was not right in the statement which he made at Eketahuna and Pahiatua, that Captain RussoJffa motion had prevented the the railway from Mauriceville to Eketa : hilna, because thero had not been the slightest intention to vote any money for it last session, The' great difficulty in the House last session was the East and West Coast (Middle Island) railway, and the Meiggs'schome: The proposition thathad been made would have committed the colony'to very large expenditure, He had not travelled over' '■ the country, but:: by all that ho had been enabled to learn from reliable sources, he had cohie to tho conclusion that there was nothing to war. rant the construction of the line out of publio funds, or a guarantee for tho payment of any portion of the interest on the outlay, as he did not see how jt ci>Mmf interest, If it was takoii up by a MKSiy or a syndicate, the colony, be relieved of a very heavy incubus, for there was no doubt that until the work had been undertaken all useful public works in the colony would be burked as far as possible by a compact body of members He gave Mr Ballance great oredit for his-1 earnestness and his endeavors to settle tftrf land, and to the Government as a whole for the credit which they had given to the previous Minister of Lands, Mr Rol* leston, who gave cordial assistance to pass; tho present Land Aqt. The Act was mainly a consolidating moasure, but it contained some new and very useful foatures. The small leases for runs had, for instance, been introduced. The homestead system, which had also been adopted, he considered' was useless. He could not, howeyer, understand why a Government which was anxious to promote settlement should have raised the prioe of inferior pastoral land in the provincial district of Wellington. 'Form' erly the minimum price was 10s per acre, but now it had been raised ,to 20s. He had a misunderstanding with Mr Ballance about it, which he regretted very much, as it had prevented him from bringing the matter before the Houso. new. Act pastoral laud that waflKbe offered on lease would be valued from £1 per acre upwards, and as a great deal of it was not worth that much, it would simply remain on the hands of tho G.oyerni ment until such time, as the minimum was reduced, This was to be regretted, as considerable areas would be taken up if blocks up to 7000 acres in size, if a ablo price was asked for it. In other provincial districts they had fixed the* minimum a great deal lower, and it was actually only 5s in Auckland. The opinion of Mr Ballance seemed to' be that tho land was really worth that much, which was a mistake. If they looked at Canada and Queensland they found that far greater facilities were offered for settlement. He could not help feeling somewhat annoyed that Mr should haye ussumefl that Wellington was in a'djfjferenj; position iii this respect to all other parts of -the colony;- Mr Ballance had expressed the opinion tint if the land was not worth £1 per acre it would bo better to leave it unsold until it had been approached by settlomont and roads, His own opinion was 'm£ thoy should got the population on the uKI; and to that end soil at a fair price, (Applause,) Special settlements were going ahead in Wellington, and a considerablo.area of land had been taken up by them. He did not like the system very much, for if the Crown, wero to make roads through the lands, aud then sold or let it, they' would have a far better one, The speOT'' settlers had taken over very great liabilji ties. He could picture to himself nfitti hj& worse than a settler planed/in Ih'e/iimijlla] of a flense b,ush, w-jth b.iit'faint hqpes. o| making his property really remunerative. . for years to come. Ho bad boon blamed! for his action with reference to granting 'an endowment to the Wellington Harbor Board, and accusod that ho had been trying to foster the town of Wellington at tho expense of the country. The interests of town and country wore so strongly connected that they must sink or swim together. He had not the slightest intention of placing any block of land in the position of any of the present reserves or endowments, such aB the Education Board and Wellington and Mastertoa Corporation endowments; but he had accompanied the deputation that waited on the Government for the ospre33' 'pj|s pose of ipsting that "no, eni&enj should be given without provisions for the interests bodies,' as well as settlement clauses, He could not see what difference it made to the district whother the surplus revenue from any particular piece of land wont into the colonial chest or into that of th*Harbor Board. H there was any, M should say it was in favor of the latter,* He had assisted in adding an important olause to the Land Act, providing that no endowment can be given except under the condition that one-third or ono-fourth of the proceeds bo handed over to the local bodies interested, other matters being also provided for. That would have an important bearing on all future endowments, There were 250,000 acres to ba set apart for hospital and charitable' 1 ai| purposes, and ho thought' thai' provision, \vaaja very, necessary and advisaljla p;ia, There were other points thiit l\o like to. touch upon, and if there was any* thing important that he had omitted, he should be glad to answer any questions upon It that might be put to him, fc

Mr Beetham resumed his seat amids amidst loud and prolonged applause. Mr Renall ; said Mr Beetham hi& said nothing about the other the, Legislature. • He asked of wha,t utility it was. , ' ''''-'t*-'?

Mr, B,eeth'ajn replied thateveiy year, the, necessity for the Upper House became, in. his opiniqn, more and more marked When lie saw s.uoh greed and want of oonsid'erv.' ation as had been displayed in the House\ last session, it was quite necessary that * there ahould'be «omo kind of a check. (Applause), He was of opinion, however, that the> additions that had boon made ■ this year .were wholly unnecessary, \ (Applause.)'- \\ what would be the cqstolthesecon'd-'pha'mber,'''^'';.' S " Beetham 'said"he'did'not have the. figures; handy, bflt he 'ttiought' it w« ■ about L 18,0.90 or ' :%Hesnal^p^bVvißhe^t(?kno,whow ty ww'thatth,a gqldfields members'got so| much tor theb partioujar district? while; Messrs, Beethatn and Buchanan had gob nothing, . , ; ■ • Mr Beetham would say thia—he wourd ■ never sell himself to any Goverjunent.' That had apparently been • do\Jßjast biiffor himself he could nW'see 1 how anyoneoould'do anything like ; that/ •' (Applaußei);' • ' ;' r ... /■: - '•'', Mr Renail; Then we mußt infer that : the goldfleldg ipempera got their money' bocaußQ #67 supported the Qpternjhenfc : ,M?,^N:W»„afraid 'thatchings•/ at the mate *

time, there were some goldfields members who,were as incorruptible as himself, while others would in their greed support any Government. •'. Mr Renall asked whether it was not time that responsible Government censed. ~ Mr Bcctham replied that if a Dictator ■were elected by a general vote of tho ' people, they would perhaps have as good a system of Government as they had now. Mr Renall said the present Government .was not carrying out tho system of responsible Government, because it was not in a majority, and should not hold oflieo at present. They were caarying on just the same as the County Councils, and did whatever the majority decided, which was perhaps the host. Tho system of responsible Government had become a most pernicious one. Mr Renall then proceeded to criticise the land policy of Mr Rollestou, and spoke on one or two other subjects. An elector asked, if the Government were so liberal in their land laws, why did thoy not give the people the right to select whero they liked on deferred payment or leasehold. Mr Bcctham said ho had asked tho Land Board to put on more surveyors but ho had failed. Thoy should have no ono going away from the district to look for land. (Applause). Mr Girdwood asked would Mr Bcctham bo in favor of free selection of land, the same as in Yictoria, Mr Bcctham said he was ijuito in favor of that. They had applied it to the special settlements, and did a groat deal of good gfey it. It should be granted to private Hiorsons as well as for associations. Mr Renall moved a vote of thanks to Mr Bcctham for his able and interesting address, and this having been. seconded by Mr W. Lowes, was carried amidst applause. Mr Beetham thanked the meeting for the compliment, and tho kind and patient hearing they had given him. He always took pleasure in meeting them, and took as _ much interest in listening to their opinions as ho did in expressing his owji. A vote of thanks terminated a most orderly meeting at 10.15 p.m.