Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1896-08-31
CANADA FORTUNATE.


be congratulated on the recent
change of government. For
eighteen years the Conservative
party had ruled the country, but
in that time it had run sadly to
seed. Brilliant as were Sir John
Macdonald and Sir John Thomp-
son, and personally honest both,
TO retain power for themselves
and their party they nourished
sordid crew of public robbers.
1t was high time change was
made, when the public debt had
been increased, while the popula-
ton had scarcely increased and in
some districts had actually de-
creased in the past ten years,
until the interest bill alone
amounts to ten million dollars, or
quarter of the revenue. The
following extracts from the first
public address given by Premier
Laurier will give some idea of
his fine qualities as a man and a
statesman. Mr.. Gladstone, the
grand old man." could not sur
pass in diction the pure elo-
quence, the simple sincerity,
breathing through every sentence:
The first article Of our pro.
gramme is reform Of the tariff. 1t
is not a question to be decided, for
it has already been decided by
the people on June 23rd, and we
have received the mission to
change the tariff to better meet
the needs and conditions Of the
country. | declare here on this
first occasion that presents itself,
that we will proceed with caution
in order not to injure established
interests. We are to have a ses-
sion on Aug. 18th, but it will be
very short. We will vote the
Budget and nothing more. There
will be no legislation; we will
provide for the public expenses,
nothing more. The changes in
the tariff will be deferred to the
next session, which will be held
in January or February. Until
then what shall we do? We will
communicate with workmen,
farmers, manufacturers and others,
and together we will elaborate
tariff which will be of a nature to
Tighten the burden of taxes which
lie upon our country.
Another thing we propose to
do. If we want to protect the
business of this country, we must
take care of the interests of the
agricultural class, Agriculture
suffers today. You, farmers, work
hard from one end of the year to
the other, and you can barely
make both ends meet. You are
less remunerated today than you
were fifteen years ago. There is
an evil to remedy. 1t is not for
any government to raise the price
of your farm products, but we can
reduce the price of what you must
purchase for your consumption.
That Is what we want to do.
AS TO our relations with the Unit
ed States. l am of the opinion that
they have not been as they should
have been. For nearly thirty
years the two governments have
not treated each other very cor
daily. We propose to try to es-
tablish more anicable relations
wish them; TO live like friends and
not like enemies. There are some
people of the opinion that such a
step would not be loyal to Eng
lard. L will not admit that one
nations friendship with another !
is a sign OF hostility towards a
third nation. If we succeed in
establishing friendly relations
with the United States we will re-
yive the treaty of reciprocity of
1856, the golden age for the
Provinces of Quebec and Ontario.
In your beautiful address you
speak about the Manitoba school
question. J. thank you for having
drawn my attention to that ques-
ton, which has embittered public
opinion for the past six years.
The Conservative party during
those six years did nothing toward
the settling of that question, and !
although | have not been in power
N f,rt,i,ht tha p,r,, ,,,o.c, e, o,.,,