THE NATIVE LAND QUESTION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 876, 23 July 1910, Page 10

THE NATIVE LAND QUESTION.

IN REPLY' TO MK. A. W. HOGO, II.IV

Sir,—Mr. Hogg says that I am a sou of Mr. ■ M'Uardle, M.L.C. - I am proud of the fact. .For Mr... Hogg's inlormatiou I-am the oldest of a family of'niiie, for over twenty years I.have kept myself, and paid twenty shillings in the pound, and no one has had to go round with the hat to pay my bills. The fact that I am ono of my father's sons is tho real reason of Mr. Hogg's attack. To hold niy father responsible for tho dealings of. his family is 'surely just a little too' much, seeing that the youngest of us was twentyone somo years ago. Mr. Hogg's method of putting workers on the land by his noble example, viz., taking, up land and then surrendering it, is' almost as 'comical as somo of his efforts in; Parliament. In tho good old days Mr. Hogg did not like the bill of faro of the bush settler. Too much selfdenial, too much work, too little in return. I havo gone through it all and 'have felled hundreds of acres of bush, put up' miles of' foucing; in fact, have worked because I' had to live. I do not complain, it is all in' tho game. I am a New Zealander, and I am going to stay in this country because I know that I can do well hore. As far as the Native land-question is concerned the land I havo is not Government land. I am paying over 5 per cent, on the unimproved value; tho^Natives get all tho improvements given in with the laud when the lease, expires. . I am making waste land reproductive. I have had as many as twenty men working on my farm, instead of. being unemployed. I maintain that to break in the waste portions of this country is the true solution of successful government, not wild schemos of paper money. If is useless to expect moderation in a gentleman of Mr. Hogg's temperament. In the past his grotesque performances in Parliament have caused no little amusement. If Mr. Hogg honestly -wishes to help settlement of Native land 'I will be only too pleased to send him 'some useful hints.—l am, etc., / J AS. M'CARDLE. Tβ Kuiti, July 18. ■