The General Manager Speaks.

Mr. Sterling expressed pleasure at receiving an invitation to attend the annual meeting of the League, and was disappointed he was unable to attend. He was pleased to receive another opportunity to address them. He had an insoluble association with Christchurch. He had been struck by the way the business men were getting together. That was a thing that applied as much to railways as to any other business. He had felt that the call back to the railways was one he had to answer. The man who shirked a duty in the industrial field was as much a shirker as the military shirker. There was a close bond between the Prime Minister and himself—not a political bond, but a bond of association in railway affairs.