UNKNOWN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 128, 28 June 1909, Page 4

UNKNOWN

FIGHTING THE 'MONOPOLIST. : Speaking at Wellington on Thursday evening last, Mr. A. W. Hogg, ex-mein-ber of the Cabinet, said:— • When he came forward as a .public representative in New Zealand he was associated with such men as Mr. Ballance, Sir John Mclvcnzie, and Mr. W. P. lteeves—(applause)—mho were using

.heir best endeavors to place the workng men 011 the land, so that labor and ands should be wedded. Those men

bad to Jight the capitalist in the early ) days just as others were lighting the 11 monopolist and capitalist now. After) i further reference to the previous history t of the land question, Mr. llogg went 1 011 to -say that it was said that lie was < in favor of paper money. The country j had been Hooded with paper money, and < the people had 'been paying for it dearly. < How many of those bright homes of a 1 few years ago were in the country now? < They had had prosperity, but. after j< prosperity came monopoly. (Applause.) .: Wool and sheep advanced in price, and ' 1 families began to disappear (because j i they were bought out by the agent of I the capitalist. Ilow many transfers . had been sanctioned by the Laud Boards in Wellington and elsewhere, and how many of those holdings had been aggrogated and amalgamated? The little townships were falling into decay. Here aud there were rusted engines, the only remains of prosperous 'butter factories. Dairy farms of a few years back were now gheep walks, and roads were fallhg into disuse. There had beeu settlement and plenty of land transfers, but there had been no progress; the land transactions of the past few years might be likened to the turning of a treadmillthere was no forward movement. XATIVE LANDS. In the King Country there were thousands of acres crying out for settlement, and producing nothing but strong bracken. Here was material to 'build hundred* of homesteads, yet the land was virtually unsettled. The Govcrn-liK-nt had purchased a small block here and there, but they had never Sjcsn opened up. Meanwhile the Maoris were leasing their lands privately for 21year terms, and before the terra "was up the land would become the property of the lessees, who were mostly speculators. ("'Shame!") This land ought to he the heritage of the people. (Applause.) He had said he would try to get it opened up. It had 'been stolen. Those private dealings in native laud were a flagrant injustice to every man and woman in the country. (Applause.J People talked of "gridironing" in the early days of Cauterhury, and similar exploitation in Wairarapa and Hawked Hay, 'but the present-day dealings in native lands were the same kind of thing. THE LAXD MONOPOLIST A "CKIMINAL." It was because he saw people starving on the streets and roads, while the cattle were fattening in the paddoclts, which the people dared not enter, that lie regarded the land monopolist who was scooping up the land and buying, out the little iarmers as a criminal. The best weapon to us'e against such men was the graduated land tax, which 'was like a manure that actually coinpolled production.. (Applause.) ile was delighted when lie saw a number of small, prosperous farms, but the man who joined farm to farm ia one huge property was not a respectable member of the community, and ought to have the ibroad arrow stamped on his back. (Applause.) He honored Mr. McXab for getting the tax increased, but a beginning should have been made lower down the stale of properties. THE CAUSE 01' HIS HESIGXATIOX. It was because he had, within the last few days, expounded those views, that he had fallen out with the Ministry. (A voice: That's it!) The tax was now being evaded bv the pretence

of subdividing big properties among'the relatives of the owners. Valuations were complained of by those who were formerly abb- to starve the valuers into submission, and it looked as though tiiev might get their own way again, for, with the amalgamation of the Valuation Department and the Advances to Settlers Department, the valuers who had been fairly appreciating property were going to be retrenched for the benefit of the big landowners. Both those Departments were apparently going to be throttled in company. The Advances to .Settlers Department had been for the last two years in about a slate of collapse, and had not been doing half the good it ought to have done for the producing community. INCREASED CURRENCY WANTED. Turning to the currency question, M\* Hogg remarked that when a reduction came in the value of their products, a rush for money was made on the Ad-

vances to Settlers Oflice, which became paralysed. Receiving applications daily

from his own constituents for advances on their properties, lie as'kcd the Government to-'borrow money and come to the rescue of the Advances to Settlers Olficc. (Applause.) lie asked that the currency should be increased. If the banks could not do il, the (»o* vcrnment should have come tu the rescue. If this could have been accomplished a year ago, it -would have re. Sieved the farmers, and would have helped the country's commerce. For many years he had advocated a State note issue, and when he spoke of this , the Farmers' Union got up and said, i "llogg wants to spread worthless pap'cr all over the country." lie wanted nothing of the kind, but lie considered tiiat if ii few luniks direcLOrs could be entrusted to issue paper money in this country, surely the -people themselves the Government, could he entrusted with the privilege of a note issue. (Applause.) In Canada authority had been given to issue State notes tu a-n unlimited extent. However, there must be a reserve iu gold, for six millions, up to 2o per cent., and for more than six millions the reserve was 15 per cent. If such steps had been taken in New Zealand a year ago the stringency would have evaporated like the morning mist hi the sunshine. (Applause.) With a 'State note issue the Advances to Settlers Department need not have gone short. There was now, as then, plenty of money in the? country. Their settlers need not have been :» ! like sheep io be shorn by the ii.-jUh-i, moneyleader, and the mortgagee.