Mr. Connells Faith in Young Colonials.

Now, I will tell you one principal reason why I have such faith in young colonials. It is this: — We all have character. (Laughter.) Mind, you have all got character—some a little better than others, and some a little worse. And that character was not made in a day. It is a thing that has been built up. It is the result of causes which have been at work for years'. And each one here bears in himself the effect which those causes have produced. Now, the grandest of all things for building up character are the influences of home association, and the influence of work. Mark that. I say the greatest thing for forming and settling a man's character is that home influence and the nature of the work in which he has been engaged; and there is no kind of occupation in this world that yields such splendid character as outdoor labour in a young country. If you find a large number of the population of a country engaged in assisting to conquor nature, and in improving the face of the land on which they live, you get the finest material in the world for a nation. But if you find the vast mass of men shut up in small rooms, ill-ventilated, and engaged in a dull routine of toil in the production of boots and shoes, and things of that kind, you cannot expect to have the sturdiness and manliness of the man who takes his shirt off and knocks down a big tree every day of his life. (Cheers and laughter.) Therefore it is because our young colonials know what this sort of work is that I believe they are unsurpassed in the world. (Laughter and cheers.) There is scarcely any young colonial who does not know what it is to knock about in stock-yard up to his knees in mud among cattle, or who cannot take his axe in his hand and chop down a tree, or who cannot take his spade and dig up a patch of potatoes. (A voice: "What about gum-digging?") I will tell you something about gum-digging in a little. I say that that is the kind of occupation that forms character, and it is in the out door sports, the occupations, and the life of the young New Zealander, that I see the formation of the grandest material to be found in the world for democratic government. There is another thing to be seen, and that is what I call the esprit de corps of the young colonial. (A voice: "What's that?" and laughter.) It is a grand thing. we older hands have got the esprit de corps of old colonials, and the chairman and myself feel a bond of sympathy between us to-night simply because we are old colonials. And every old colonial has got a love and a liking for every other old colonial. I say, then, that the young colonials have also got. esprit de corps. And I will tell you, gentlemen, that, highly as I think of my own class—the old colonials—yet that I think still more highly of the young colonial class. (Applause.) That is a fact. (Cheers.)