THE WORK OF REFORM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3010, 6 October 1908, Page 5

THE WORK OF REFORM.

SPEECH BY MR H. H. ASQUITH. Received October 5, 10.40 p.m. LONDON, October 5. The Hon. H. H. Asquith, addressing four thousand persons at Earlton, Berwickshire, said that the land question was only part of the wider and more complex social problem of how to mitigate the glaring anomalies of modern society, while also stimulating and not stifling individual energy and initiative. The Government were compelled by the exigencies of political machinery to proceed piecemeal with the work of reform. The Old Age Pension scheme wps only a step towards a comprehensive and complete dealing with the allied problem concerning the workers. Continuing, Mr Asquith said that under the existing economic conditions we could never wholly get rid'of unemployment. But wise legislation could reduce its area, and make a permanent provision against extraordinary emergencies. By the Licensing Bill the Government hoped to diminish the facilities for intemperance, and by land legislation they sought to check the constant efflux of population from the country to towns. He defended the Scottish Land Bill as sound in principle.