His Candidature.

I make no apology for appearing before you as a candidate to-night, because—although not long an actual resident in your midst—my special interests in and in connection with this district, and my residence in the colony of New Zealand (interrupted, it is true, for a decade), stretch back, across thirty years, almost to the early days of settlement. For fifteen years and more, while resident in Wellington as a member of the Civil Service of the colony, I have watched the progress of settlement in the Manawatu district, which was the centre of my friendships, and—later—of my family connections. And, ladies and gentlemen, I have shown by page 4 my actions that there is no place in the whole world to which I would rather devote any qualifications I may possess than the district for which I am now standing as a Parliamentary candidate. I have no sooner been in a position to determine the place of my residence by choice instead of by necessity, than I have settled down amongst you, made my investments in your midst, and still further tied down the future of my family to your welfare and progress. Your future is my future and that of ray children. But why do I, on returning to the colony where the bulk of my life has been spent, feel specially impelled to seek to take part not only, as I do already—for my own portion of the district—in municipal politics, but also in the general counsels of the nation? That is what I want now to explain.

I am not in need of the Parliamentary salary, having already enough to live on in my simple way. I have no large estate that would give me a personal "axe to grind," but I crave to enter politics because my always ardent feelings on political issues have received, from the peculiar circumstances of my experience, a particularly keen edge,—and in a way which will soon be clear to you.