Ladies and Gentlemen, your kind reception of me tonight takes me back many years to the time when I landed on the shores of Victoria, a boy of seven years of age, and it makes me proud to think I had the privilege to spend some time amongst such a generous community. Wherever I have gone through Victoria, the protectionists have treated me with unfailing courtesy and kindness, and if the chairman thinks a certain newspaper has an opinion that what I say is not worthy of reading, this magnificent assemblage is a proof that I seem to be worth hearing.
October 30th, 1903
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