He was pleased and flattered to a high degree when, at a crowded meeting of citizens in the Exchange Hall, in Wellington, on August 6th, 1890, at which several prominent Liberal members were invited to give addresses on the political situation, he was placed second on the list of speakers, following the man whom above all others he wished to follow, Sir George Grey. The change that had come over him may be traced in a few extracts from his speech on that occasion, which show that his mind had broadened and that he took the clear wide view of a statesman.
“I shall commence,” he said, “by saying that I believe that we New Zealanders live in the best country under the canopy of heaven; but it is one of the worst governed countries on the face of the earth. But a weapon has been placed in men’s hands in this colony, and if they use that weapon at the coming general election, they will do a great deal towards restoring the colony to a more prosperous condition. The remedy lies with the people. They will find it in the ballot-box. When freedom was brought about in France, liberty, security, and the resistance of oppression actuated the people. The people of this colony must also adopt those principles and assert the equality of men. They must preserve the rights of labour. It has been said that the labour movement will drive away capital, but that is a fallacy. In other colonies, and also in the Old World, labour is protecting itself. I advise the people of this colony not to look at the movement as at an evil thing. It will eventually prove beneficial to capital as well as to labour itself.”
Taxation, the results that followed “land-grabbing” and the sins of an absentee landlord, who drew £2,000 a year from the colony and spent only £75 in it, were other points that he touched upon before he appealed to all working-men who held Liberal views and believed that Liberalism was for the colony’s benefit, to combine and put the right men into Parliament.
The session dragged on for weeks, the Opposition becoming bolder in its attacks and more damaging as it gained more information in regard to the administration of the departments. It found that the country watched its actions with interest, and, it believed, with favour.
By the middle of August, little progress had been made by Parliament, and all members saw that the Government, always looking for the defeat it adroitly managed to avoid, would be unable to pass any policy measures. Parliament was rapidly approaching the date on which it would expire by effluxion of
