COMPLIMENTARY SOCIAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3065, 9 December 1908, Page 5

COMPLIMENTARY SOCIAL.

TO MR A. W. HOGG, M.P. A SUCCESSFUL AND ENJOYABLE GATHERING. VISIT OF THE MINISTER i-'OR JUSTICE. The Drill Hall, Masterton, was crowded with dancers last evening, when a complimentary social was r tendered to Mr A. W. Hogg, M.P., e by his supporters. The function was „ mads the occasion of a visit by the Hon. J. McGowan, Minister for Justice and Mines. I The Mayor, Mr P. L. Hollings, ; , upied the chair during the formal : of the. proceedings. His WorP?. lid the object of the gathership 0 jj r Hogg, ing wa ® . member of the district, the worth> Hogg would recognise He thoughts thering as a personal the splendia gK , that Mr McGowan compliment,, am the function ag a also would take , df and the Go . compliment to hinu H vernment he represent* nQW fQr had represented the ait>. to a^(.a j n eighteen years, and prom ffiv , jj ea ' r n his political majority. (Heai Being a man of the people 3v. 1 the people, he had representee district ably and well, and his *. -, 0 stituents had not tired of him. L was a man with a great big .heart, and there were not many members who had done as Mr Hogg had done — namely, devoted the whole of their time to the service of the electors. It was the speaker's duty to congratulate Mr Hogg on his return to the House. A member's life was not the sinecure many people thought, and a public man's good deeds often went quite unnoticed and unrecognised, while one mistake frequently meant bringing down the reprobation of his opponents and perhaps his friends upon him. The district was fortunate in having Mr Hogg to represent it, seeing he devoted his energies so self-sacrificingly to his duties. The Mayor went on to refer to the visit of Mr McGowan, saying that the gathering and district fully appreciated the sacrifice made by him in coming to Masterton. Though Mr McGowan was not one of the Ministry talkers, he was one of its workers, who was always to be found at his departmental post, and who was thus a valued and respected member of the Cabinet. (Hear! Hear!) The Mayor welcomed Mr McGowan on behalf of the district, and assured Mr Hogg and the Minister of the people's warmest regard for them. Mr McGowan was received with prolonged applause on rising to speak. He said the Mayor had put him into such a position that he must not refute by his actions what His Worship had said about him (Mr McGowan) not being a speaker. It was, the speaker' assured them, no sacrifice for him to come to Masterton to do honour to such an old friend in nolitics as. Mr Hogg. The speaker first became acquainted with Mr Hogg after the election of 1891, and since then he had always held a strong regard for the M-:n;ber for Masterton. Why? Because Mr Hogg's feelings "chimed in," as it were, with his own. Mr Hogg bad never been afraid to raise his voice in favour of the man, who wished to get on the land, and could not do so, recognising that the man with 150,000 acres could look after himself. That was why Mr Hogg was so respected, and it was so easy for Mm to count on his return to the House. Another reason rendered apparent to the speaker the gathering was that he must have a big following of ladies —bright young ' ladies (laughter)—which would certainly be of valuable assistance to him. Mr Hogg was, said the speaker, a wonderful man. He had done yeoman service on the Land Board, and the Education Board, while there was not a public body in the district he had not interested himself in. There was, nevertheless,a lot of work left in him yet, and the speaker would be pleased to hear his voice continued to be raissd in the welfare of the people, whose cause the member for Masterton had so ably advocated in the past. (Hear! Hear!) He congratulated Mr Hogg on his return to the House, and the constituency on having such a worthy member. Mr McGowan also expressed pleasure at learning that Mr Hogg's opponent in the campaign was present that evening, as it showed a commendable quality in a man when he knew how to take a beating, and did not allow political differences to be introduced into personal regards. (Applause). Mr Hogg had in seusQTi'andQHtQf reason, supported the Government, which by its Advances to Settlers Office had kept reasonable the price of money made available to the poor "settler, arid a plentiful amount of°money for developing the farm lands of the Dominion. Eight millions of pounds had passed through the Advances to Settlers Office into the settlers hands, and not a penny had been lost, while since the Government took office the number of Crown tenants had increased 100 per cent. The exports and imports also had trebled in bulk, as a result of the land development policy of the Government. Critics had made a lot of the allegedly great indebtedness of so small a Dominion, but was it se very small after all? It could sustain about twelve times its present population with ease, and now it possessed about a million people. It showed how very solid and wealthy our country was when it could afford to borrow and keep paid the interest on the sum now constituting its national debt. The speaker affirmed that the colony possessed greater wealth than any other community in the world at the present time. Leaving the subject of politics the Minister congratulated the chairman on his speech, and said he judged from its tone that when Mr Hogg's turn came to hand over his stewardship to a successor Mr Hollings should make a first-class member, and so could worthily succeed Mr Hogg. If the chairman did have that honour he hoped Mr Hollings would be found advocating the cause of the landless ■ and the worker, in the manner which i Mr'Hogg had done. Mr Hogg had I : been one of the truest members who ■ ever sat in Parliament, and the speaker was satisfied that had it ' been possible, the Premier would | have been only too pleased to have come to Masterton to attend the function. (Loud applause).

Jp Mr Trising to speak. He said it was his duty to return thanks for the honour conferred by the district on him by ( again returning him as its represent- ' ative. He enjoyed on the last occasion in a particular sense, the confidence of young New Zealand. He also owed his committee a great debt of gratitude. He had only attended one meeting—the first held—but when herhad looked round and saw the champions ol Liberalism with whom he had been associated for a quarter of a century, he knew he was supported by men and women who were invincible, and he faced his task with a light heart indeed. In reference to the confidence of the settlers, no Imperial Ambassador could have passed through the country and had * a better reception. Rain, mud, creek and river did not interfere with the attendance at his meetings, at which he had been deluged with votes of confidence. He did not tell them he would give them all the freehold, that he would carve up big runs to satisfy the little cockatoo. He did not tell the sawmiller that if he would support the speaker he (Mr Hogg) would increase the duty on foreign timber and stop the importation of the latter. He did not, he thought, ask a single vote, and had. not promised what he thought he could not give. Yet he had been accused of being negligent. He recalled that he had once received as a presentation 1,000 postage stamps for the way he had attended to his

ilies. He had once advised the the fillers to get rid of trade restrict sons anc * t^lU3 their tr~de suggested the abolition ' associations altogether as being v and had told those who ». esir^ d the freehold to get rid of thek " leaseholds and get freeholds, as tb fe . re were opoortunities to dt. I°* f policy had been simplicity I tself—to keep labour and capital uni» the will of the people. He was n<K a . Socialist nor a single-taxer, but det 1 red equal opportunities for all. He Wk 1n ' :e( v o see the land, money, and neceb. saries " of life made as easy of possible. If we had land cheap a*vd plentiful no necessity would arise tov see idle men or women in the Dominion, and every industry would be prosperous. Speaking on the landquestion,, Mr Hogg said he had supported the lease in perpetuity because it gave an opportunity to the poorest man who desired to carve out a hume for himself and family. He had voted for limitation of areas because that removed one of his strongest objections to the freehold. He had always been opposed to absenteeism in order to give the fullest reward to men who worked hard on the land. He had been asked why he opposed the freehold. He replied that because in England and America it was ihe inevitable forerunner of the private leasehold. If use ot the land, limitation of area, and occupation were made conditions of freehold tenure, and letting or subletting were prohibited, his objections to the freehold would at once vanish. In the money camp at present there was weeping and wailing, and the State was upbraided because it had reduced the price of money. In the Dominion of late years speculation had been the cause of incautious investments, 'and a run on the State money department caused iz to be cautious. Lenders had raised the price of money, and had found fault with the Advances to Settlers Office because it. had meant that there was plenty of money ;n th 3 country for settlers. Capitalists endeavoured to screw as much as possible out of people in their clutches. There was a cry of stringency of money in the New Zealand market, but it was as hollow, worthless, and unsuccessful as the "hullabaloo" by merchants of a butter famine raised last year, when they had sent large consignments out of the Dominion, and then sent up the price. The aim of the State was to keep money as cheap ao possible, or to reduce the cost of living and to keep rents, prices and necessaries of life within reasonable limits, and in a country like this enemies existed more insidious than a hostile foreign power. Greed was one, who did evil in a wholesale fashion, and induced merchants to lock up produce till famine prices were reached; When prices of our own produce were dearer here than lin London someone was "sweating j the crowd." If timber was so dear in this country that people could not build without foreign importations something was rotten in the pine tree. ISlew Zealand was a fine and promising country, and under the education it was receiving would tolerate no injustice, nor tolerate sweating and slave driving. There was in the words of a well Isnown poem, a "good time coming." He again thanked his Committee for their strenuous work. He was pleased to see so many old friends and supporters at the gathering. He thanked the Minister heartily for his presence, [and said Mr McGowan had been a good and staunch friend, whose assistance .to the speaker and to the district was always forthcoming. Speaking of the Mayor, Mr Hogg said Mr Rollings had been a most capable, consistent and unselfish man, whom the speaker would like to see not only represent Masterton in the House, but represent the Dominion, as it was men of hia strong and unselfish principles that the country desired. Mr Hogg resumed his seat amid a prolonged applause.

Supper was then dispensed, and dancing resumed. The Committee who arranged the social, and who were responsible for tastefully decorating the Drill Hall, and providing a recherche supper, was as followsLadies—Mesdames Rayner, Hider, Day, Lewis, Fielding, Kiddle, Creelman and Taylor; Messrs M. C. O'Connell, W. M. Easthope, Eli Smith, J. Creelman, P. Hider, D. Diggins, J. Rooks, J. Hanley, G. Williams, L. H. Lewis. Messrs J. H. Pauling and L. H. Lewis were M.'sC. for the social, Mr F. McKenzie supplying the music.