A POLITICAL ADDRESS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9119, 19 June 1908, Page 5

A POLITICAL ADDRESS.

MR A. W. HOGG, M.P., AT THE TOWN HALL.

There was dn attendance of about a hundred people at the Town Hall last evening, when Mr A. W. Hogg, M.P., gave an address on the political situation. His Worship {he Mayor (Mr P. L. Hollings) occupied the chair. Mr Hogg, who was received with applause, first thanked the audience for attending on such a night, and the Chairman for presiding. Though he did not often call his constituents together, nothing gave him greater pleasure than to do so. Some might ask why he did not make a practice of doing so more frequently? but it was well known by all that he was always in close personal touch with his electorate, being present on every occasion possible at both public and social functions. The speaker had rather a lone: story to tell them, which was of the past, the present, and the future. Not the far distant past, a3 some speakers were prone to delve into, but the immediate past —in short, his address would he of yesterday, to-day and to-morrow. There was an impression general in the Dominion that when the respected late Premier died there would be very little life in the political circus—it would be very dull and uninteresting. It had, however, been a great surprise to a good many to see that since "Awarua" had taken charge of the reins he had plied his whip with very great advantage, and the feats that had been accomplished had been uf such a nature as to surprise even the authors themselves at times—feats which had never been beaten in the past. One of such was the way in which they had dealt with the land monopolist. This individual had been in the stocks for many years, and had been well pelted with various appropriate articles, but his brazen face had remained just the same. It was only jvith the greatest difficulty that the speaker himself had at last induced Parliament to tackle him. He (the speaker) used to invite the late Mr Seddon to take the land monopolist cut and give him a flogging, but the reply was a shake of the head and advice to leave him alone. It was not in fact until 1906, that Parliament a made determined effort to deal with the question, and during that session the Hon. R. McNab (Minister of Lands) compounded a medicated gruel, which was very nauseating indeed. The Minister had also brandished his scalping knife, and generally madp things look formidable, but wiser counsels prevailed, and the monopolist enjoyed a respita. Last session, however, the land monopolist was hanged, drawn and quartered, and if Parliament had done no more than that for that session, a more useful session had never before been chronicled. Everyone was aware of how the British bull dog clung to a shoulder of mutton until his head was literally cutoff his body, and so it was with the land monopolist, who clung hard- i er to his spoil than any bull dog. There was only one remedy, the speaker had long ago concluded, and one that would be found effectualtaxation.. When in Tasmania some years ago he had noticed there areas of arable laud in the possession of a few people, carrying only a few sheep. At the same time children had come to him in the streets of Hobart begging. The spjaker addressed a meeting there, and told the people that there was one fertiliser which beat all others a3 a means of increasing the producing power of land, and that fertiliser was the graduated tax —not on the improved, but on the unimproved value. There had, said the speaker, been a graduated tax on the statute book of the Dominion for twenty years, and the man who was responsible for its introduction was John Ballance. But unfortunately this sovereign remedy had lain unused for all that period, no Cabinet having the courage 'to take it up and use it. However, last year a Bill was got thro lgh the House by which owners of large estates would have to pay considerable sums in a year or two. The effect of this Act hnd not yet been felt, except that owners were already looking round in some cases to see whether they could sell to advantage. From March 31st, 1910, the graduated tax Jon land of the unimproved value of £40,000 would be increased from £145 t« £2OO. Where the unimproved value was £70,000, the increase would be from £4OO to £702; for £150,000 unimproved value, a rise of from -£1,417 to £2,813 would be made. Thus it would lc seen that the tax was progressive, and would make a few of the monopolists "sit up." Then another radical change was brought about in the method of commandeering land,under the Land for Settlements Act. It w -uld be remembered how land was previously taken—by the sitting of an arbitration court composed of a Supreme Court Judge and assessors. These sat and listened to evidence given by settlers, who swore hard and conflictingly, and a report was made on such. All this is now swept away, and the full procedure is that the Minister simply notifies that he will acquire the land at the value placed upon it by the Government valuer or the owner, with a bonus of twelve per cent. An owner can increase the value put upon his place if he desires it, but if he does so with a view of preventing closer settlement he pays for so doing by the graduated land tax. Then there was another comprehensive change effected, in the sweeping away of the lease-in-perpetui'ty. This system of land tenure had been subjected to a good deal of criticism 1 from time' to Mme, and was one' of those planks intended to bridge- over the gap between labour and the fend. The speaker was one ; of those who helped to build this plank,' and he still averred that there'was no more easy way for a- mail 1 to acquire- land and make a home for himself and family than under the old lease-in-perpetu-ity system. Still, it had been the case that anagitatioli had sprung up among Crown tenants who probably thought they would be better served under speculators and money-lenders, and a cry for the abolition of the lease-in-pefpetiiity Had ensued. Now there was substituted a system of short leases, for 33 years and 66 years, with periodical re-valuations, and he left it to those who had argued for the abolition of the lease-in-per-petuity to say whether they were better off under the'new system.

Then still another material benefit had accrued in the land system of the country by the abolition of the land scrambles previously inseparable from the land ballot box when Government land was offered for selection. No longer could uncles, aunts and cousins stuff the ballot box, and further, the Minister could discriminate between those who were already land owners, and the landless, while the man with a family had a much better chance of getting on the land than he had previously. I Better still had been the application of the principle of limitation of area, for the success of the introduction of which the country had to thank not the wire-pullers of the Farmers' Union, but the genuine farmers in the House, who had the pluck to support it. The principle would apply not only to Government land, but to pidvate areas, and when property changed hands a purchaser would be required to make a declaration that he was not already in possession of the maximum limit allowed, namely, 5.000 acres of third-class land (valued at under £2 per acre), 2,000 acres of second-class land (value from £2 to £4) or 600 acres of first - c'a c 3 land (value. £4 and over per acve). So it would *a::Vily be seen that the interests of the "land grabber" wv.re being attacked in a very serioui way. No doubt it was rough on the man with the fat purse who desired to acquire an island, or a lake, or a whole country-Fide, but having established the principle the Government had checked one of the greatest evils any country could be afflicted with. What had land monopolising done' for New Zealand? It hn;l been responsible for a rabbit sco'.irg', which had proved ruinous to many small farmers*, and put the man on the linl to enormous expense and trouble. Then the same complaint applied with regard to noxious vvejd3.

It was a saying that all wise men prepared for the future. One thing done by Parliament last session "'as the setting aside of 7,000,000 acre 3 for endowment purposes. A goud deal of this land was rough and of low value at present, no doubt, but as the country progressed, and public works expanded, the value of such land would proportionately improve. A Masterton audience did not need telling the value of endowments when they had in their midst such an excellent example as the Trust Lands Trust, with schools, park, library, and so forth, assisted from the funds. Then the Education reserves wovided another good example of t«ie same thing. Mr Hogg then made somp remarks concerning the labour laws. These, he said, had been subjected lo some very rough criticism, and especially of late. He himself had had something to do with the making of such laws, and did not intend to evade the full responsibility. He remembered how, years ago, "sub-contracts" were the order of the day, and men were swindled out of their earnings in the most barefaced manner, and a man's life was valued at almost less than the wheelbarrow he used if he were an unskilled labourer. He had seen the streets of Wellington paraded by young girls going to work at factories for wealthy owners, the poor girls being duped out of their earnings by being asked to put in a certain term of Jabour free, at the end of which time they were turned adrift and a fresh lot taken on. He ha,d, again, seen family bread-win-ticvs working under conditions which he really could not term less than "revolting." Now, however, the men with the fat banking account had to pay a little more out of their pockets, but what had caused the trouble of lace was the growth cf trade unions. What, he asked, were they all but the natural product of industrial education? Not only in New Zealand, but elsewhere in the civilised world they were becoming a great force, and are bringing the capitalist and the wage-earner face to face. Of course, if both met on fair and reasonable terms there would be no reason to quarrel, but while on the one hand the employers interest lay in one direction, the | workers' interests lay in another. One wanted as big a profit as he could get, and the other as big a wage, and such desires did not work hand in hand. That was really the cause of the troubte at Blackball and Auckland, when the situation was fined down. When the Blackball mine trouble was on the speaker had said to the Minister, "I see an easy way of ending this-take the mine and run it for the people." Regarding the Auckland tramway strike, it would never have happened if the corporation had done, and,were doing its duty—by-running its own trams instead of handing them over to capitalits and monopolist!. The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act had bdeii brought into disrepute of late, but he said, notwithstanding t!:i3 criticise, the Act had done a great deal of good for both :id?s, It: was quite true that the administration had not been good, but as for the Act itself, no one could expect it to be perfect—no Acts were, and the best of them had to be occasionally amended. It was said that the Arbitration Court was slow, unwieldly, and lop-sided. He did not know if this were so, but that was what he had heard. Regarding the Conciliation Board, there was little doubt about its doings in this district. It did not conciliate, but provoked disturbances and friction from time to time. The general opinion was that the awards given should not cover both the city and the country. Emissaries from Wellington had endeavoured to bring about the same labour conditions in both town and country, but it was hardly likely that with the differences obtaining in rent, cost of living, and so forth, such conditions eould work together. It w'a'3 generally thought better that a separation between town and country should be effected, and the speaker hud himself, last session, handled a largely signed petition from this district that the should be amended to bring about this separation, or repealed so far as the country districts were concerned. One bad product of the Conciliation Board and the labour laws was the labour agitator, who should be carefully excluded from any tribunal. He thought the local Conciliation Board had degenerated into a perambulating nuisance, and a meeting held this week, at which neither emp'oyers nor workers attended, showed its weight. The speaker noticed that Mr P. J. O'Regan, the Chairman of the Board, and a man whom he very much respected, was resigning from

his position on the One thing was conceded jegarding the labour laws, and that was that all able to work were entitled to a living wage. A good deal of trouble had arisen through the Arbitration Court having endeavoured to fix a different livhg wage for different districts, the want of uniformity being the difficulty. It had been suggested as a remedy that Parliament should fix a minimum wage to apply not to one district but to be general over the Dominion. It was thought that if I this were dony the employer would be free to discriminate between good and bad labour, and could pay a good man the wages he was entitled t">. (A voice: "He won't."). Everyone was entitled to at least a living

wage, but he did not know whether the suggested remedy were satisfactory or not, but it would at least relieve the Arbitration Court of a lot of work. ihe question was— What is a living wage? # No other proposition was so vital in any community, and tha answer was, a wage that entitled'a man not only to attend to the immediate wants of himself and a family, but one which permitted of his laying by for. the future. (Hear! Hear!) The speaker then rtfiired to his efforts to se-

cure an ir.c:va=e of vvpg:_ for t!:? ace:: j in the Opaki ballad \.'.l, -"..J cic. t!:at he was sorry to have to mete out criticism to the Government —which should be a model employer—and especially to, the Minister for Hailways, whom h> kr.ew to be a kindhearted man. However, the explanation was that in the Government service it was often the case that the "tail wagged the dog," instead of the reverse, and this was what had really occurred. While on the same topic the speaker said that education was revolutionary, and the worker of to-day had drawn up a charter of rights which he intended to have. Class rule had passed, and

Jack was now as good as his master. The question'naturally arose, was the State doing i:s duties by the worker? (A voice: No!) Mr Hogs said he was afraid ho would have to agree with the interjection, for if the State were doing its duty State coal would be available for every fireside in New Zealand, and we would have our food at something less than double the cos 4 ; of production. It was no part of the State's duty to foster armies of middlemen, and trusts. The speake- (hen referred at length to his'eftcr';3 to get the duty on flour removed, as he knew that it such had been done the cost of other articles cf diet would be lessened. He considered tin" those 18 members who had supported hid motion when the Tariff liiil v*a3 before thrf House that the duty on Hour be removed had immortalised themselves.

Socialism was a subject upon which Mr Hogg then dwelt for a short space. He noticed that both the Premier and Mr Massey had declared themselves opposed to Socialism—the former qualifying his objection by applying it to "revolutionary" Socialism. The speaker had consulted a dictionary, and had found that Socialism was there defined as "a theory or syet 2m of social reform which cmtemplates tha reconstruction of society with a more equitaole distribution of the profits of labour." The speaker saw nothing in that to b? opposed to, and he asked if it were to be expected that the I masses were to grovel in the dust and ! be ground dawn? He did not think that was reasonable. For himself he had been trying for years to get coal distributed by the State in every reasonable sized place as the coal seams were rightly the property of the people themselves. As it was the coal industry supported armies of agents and intermediaries between the hewer and the consumer. The State would have to wake up in this respect, and if the- speaker's ideas were carried out the people would have cheaper bread, butter, cheese and other necessaries. It was amazing, he thought, that such a vast difference in price, propo-tionately, prevailed with regard to New Zealand products here and in London. The people were told, too, that £300,000 had been remitted in taxation through th 3, tariff alterat : on, yet the Customs revenue had shown an increase of £l2B,oi'o, and he would like to know if this was not the result of the removal of the duties on some of the staple lines. The speaker enumerated various articles of everyday household use, pointing out what ho .considered the unnecessarily high duties imposed on them. He spoke strongly in favour of the removal of the duty or| sawn timber, contending that the high price of New Zealand timber made building prohibitive and retarded proi gress all round. He affirmed that New Zealand flour miller?, also, pocketed at least £150,000 a year through the protective tariff, which they were not justified in extracting from the public, the tariff generally was used a3 a means to prey upon the wages of the workers, a-:d that w?„°. why Sccialiata were clamouring for reform He told Mr Massey and his supporters that before they could stem the tide they would have to close the schools, restrict education, (nuzzle the Press, and tighten up franchise. If they could not do this they had better forego their opposition.

Mr Hogg said that hia remarks had been such as to "damn the Government with faint praise," and also to give the Opposition a raking, but he said that in the Ministry and in the House there were good, clever, well di&posed men, and New Zealand had splendid opportunities for ad vancing, and the Dominion was now financially sounder than ever before. What v/as wanted was fearless and vigorous administration. Touching on Crown and Native lands, the speaker said there were, including the Whakataki reserve of 6,298 acres, 18,866 acres of Native land in the district, and he had been communicating with Sir Robert Stout (Native Land Commissioner), with a result that nefcct month the latter would visit Masterton regarding them, and the settlement of the lands would probably follow. He was sorry to report that the Government could not see its way to purchase lea, which was now being cut up among the late owner's family, to whom he appealed to let it fall into the harids of those desiring it for closer settlement. Regarding other estates the Government wa« not justified in inflating the values, and he warned holders that the price of land would fall rather than rise, for various reasons. In his concluding remarks Mr Hogg said a lot of useful public work had been done in the electorate, and tttfpttM' a tribute to> the various

public officials responsible for tha same, particularly Mr J. C. Scott, Road Inspector. Mr Hogg sat down amid applause. Questions were then invited, two being asked, and answered, apparently satisfactorily. The chairman move-] a hearty vote of thanks to Mr Hogg, which was carried unanimously with applause. A vote of thanks was also accorded the chair.