On Saturday, July 2nd, Mr G. Hutchison opened his campaign in the Waitotara electorate at Waverley before a larger audience than we have hitherto seen at political meetings there. The Town Hall was well filled, fully 200 people being present. Mr Walter Symes occupied the chair, and, in a few words, he introduced the candidate, bespeaking him a fair and impartial hearing.

Mr Hutchison, on coming forward, was received with applause. He opened his remarks by stating that he appeared before them as a candidate for the honor of representing them in the Parliament about to be summoned. He aspired to this honor as one who was, with them, interested in the welfare of the district. There had been a great deal of fine talk as to the duties of a representative looking more to the interests of the colony at large than to the good of the locality that returned him. He was aware that it was considered necessary in some quarters to uphold such an idea, but he appeared before the electors as one who aspired to fill the position of a local member—one who would devote himself to the requirements of the district, which in this instance might be said to be of colonial importance, Even if it were not so it would still be, in his opinion, the duty of a member returned for any constituency whatever to endeavour by all legitimate means to forward in every possible way the claims of his constituency, and further obtain the redress of any grievances—if such existed—that any individual member in his constituency might have. (Applause.) He believed that this idea about representing the colony, but not a district in particular, might be traced back to some very excellent principles of Edmund Burke, laid down some hundred years ago, that a member of Parliament was a representative of the whole colony, or whole country, and not a delegate at all. That saying was a very apt one but it required a certain amount of consideration and attention in connection with the circumstances under which it was uttered. Burke was at that time a member of the Parliament of England which had to look to the great concerns and varied interests of an Empire which included colonies which were to be placed under tribute, but had no representatives at all in the English Parliament. In a colony like this that had to deal more with domestic administration, that is, a country where the railways, which ought to be made to serve the purposes of settlement, a country in which the administration of the lands was important to all, and in which both of these departments were under the control of Ministers directly responsible for their administration, it appeared to him that a representative would be neglecting his duties if he did not consider primarily the interests of the district that placed confidence in him in every possible way. (Applause.) The same Edmund Burke had also said that he considered a representative ought to be in the strictest union, the most unrestrained communication with his constituents. Their wishes, he said, ought to have great weight with him, their opinions he should respect, and their business should have unceasing attention from him; It was his duty to sacrifice himself to their wishes, above all to prefer their interests to his own. (Applause.) There was only one subject on which that statesman would reserve the right of judgmant, and it was a reasonable reservation, inasmuch as it was the reservation of the exercise of judgment upon such questions page 3 as were not particularly before the electors for their consideration when candidates were before them. On such matters representatives might be judged, and ought to be judged, by the general lines of policy which they lay down and pledge themselves to support. Dealing in this spirit with the topics of the day, he would proceed to discuss the most important of all questions,