PRE-SESSIONAL ADDRESS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4130, 4 June 1892, Page 2

PRE-SESSIONAL ADDRESS.

Mr Hogg," MR., in tHe \ Theatre Royal. Mr A. W. Hogg, M.H.R., the member for Mastrrton, addressed his constituents in the Theatre Royal last (Friday) evening. About two hundred persona were present, inoluding a number of ladies,

His Worship the Mayor, who was voted to the chair, briefly introduced the member/ • • • "- ;

Mr Hogg said this was the 6rat opportunity he had had since the last general eleotion of meeting any part of his constituency and thanking them for hayiogreturned'him as their repreventative. He had gained his victory by a meagre majority, but he felt' on this, account more greatly honored The triumph of Democracy in'Mosfe'rtonhad been looked upon fi-oia;.all ;parts.of the Colony as a great one. His return was in a large measure due. to the introduction by Sir George Grey of the one«man«one-.vote principle (hear, bear), Before: the last election there was a feeling of great discontentment all over;the .Colony; Capital was being withdrawn, working men were leaving the country in droves, and the census papors showed that they were losing Bome of the very best men in their Colony. Knowing the many great advantages possessed by New Zealand they could not say' that the •Colony was in a prosperous condition! It was therefore necessarv'to make >

'': BETTER FINANCIAL ARRANBESIENTB. The Atkinson Governmenthadmade promises of retrenchment which they did not fulfil, and there was little wonder,that the working men were groaning beneath the burden of taxa« tion. ■ The Conservative Government were always telling .them that they were turning the'corner, but they never appeared to turn it. As the result of the Liberal triumph a general wail went up' from the Conservative camp, Disaster was predicted on all sides, but, be asked, had these predictions been fulfilled! He would ask those who bud made these dismal prophecies, had they been realised 1 The exodus had been'stopped, and the tide of prosperity had turned. So much for the doleful predictions of the Conservative Party, i 1f..; .•

'., THE'ATKINSON:PARTY' , ; bad done their duty they would haye tendered their resignations immedU ately they found, that I hey were defea-1 ted, and thus have saved the country i money by avoiding two sessions. But the Continuous ; Ministry stuck tenaciously to office. They would not believe that they had been defeated, although ''the 'Tory press ; admitted: they were in Hie minority, and they hung on to the ship\yreoked craft, oven when they, found it was sinking. And then what did they do? • They, jaid tbey would have to stick to their party and prevent : Liberal legislation by advising the Governor that tbey were in the majority and requesting him to make a number of appointments to THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

This was how it was endeavoured to thwart the will of the people. And the Governor -was weak enough to listen to their advice. He did not think the action of the Governor in' this matter would soon be forgotten,' He believed that, the time would come when the offioe of Governor would be an elective one, and he thought notli« irig could be more caloulatecl to,'btiug this about than the astion of Lord Onslow with regard to the Legislative Oouncilappoimmeiits. ;-.■.': .-. ! THE FIRST SESSION • • '

of the present' Parliament,'• as they, were all aware, was a very abort one, : and was confined to the 'appointment of a Speaker. An adjournment was made, und during the recess Minister had travelled the country and made themselves acquainted, with .the requirenioQts of the people.' Retrenchment had been undertaken, the Civil Service, had been cut down, and thousands of pounds had been saved the country. 1 With regard, to the Civil ServiCeretrenoumentß hepointed out that the.Ministry had in no cane done a wilful injustice, A number of sinecures had been got rid of, and the way had been paved for a change in taxation. In the •

: . SEOOHD SESSION, which extended over three and a-half months,' the younger' members had shown, the House a noble example in speaking to the.purpose, (Applause). It was the old .'Conservative hacks whohad wasted tho time of the House. Tho Conservative stonewallers, although they tried to frustrate Liberal legislation, met more than their match,; Thoyoung Liberal members were determined to carry their legislation in spite of all. (Applause). 1 The Premier had been waited upon and had led the way in procuring a reform in the Parliamentary prooess, During the second 3ession 158 Bills were introduced to the House,and of this number•. seventy « three were passed, One of the most important measures was the

LAND AND INCOME ASSESSMENT AOT. ! For nearlyhalf a century the Conservatives had been heaping the taxaJ tion on to the weakest shoulders. They bad been taxing the small farmer and the working'man, and whenever they wanted -revenue they .increased the Customs, Under the'.Atkinson* Mitobelson Government the taxation had been inoiensed,by: : ißoo,ooo.. The family of the working: man was taxed, whilst the capitalist was praotically exempted, ; The 1 Land and Income Tax -brought about 'an : alteration, Their tax was a graduated one. They decided, to exempt from taxation £BOOO. worth ofjjniprovements, and small B6,ttlwß were, therefore not' affected." The''Government' had resolved to do away with the nefarious Property Tax and. introduce a simple Land Tax, and for the first time in: the Colonies a graduated tax had been introduced. This simply meant equality of sacrifice. The-man who 1 had become a millionaire t woiild pay, in proportion to tbo ; pr6perty he held, This was the only, cure for destitution (hear, hear). The Government byitsexam[i)ewasuudehakingaw'ork of emancipation right throughout the universe a work which in, time to come would be quoted by the historian (applause), The graduated tax, it was estimated, would produce£6l,B9o, paid by under 8000 owners, which wduld.be. sufficient to cover-'the'amount derived from the original tax on, improvements. They therefore had a vast' army of working men who were relieved of L6o,ooo |( which amount was placed on the shoulders of the land monopolists. The Income Tax had been provided for the benefit of those who enjoyed, large incomes. %He thought a man who had an income of L6OO or LIOOO a-year could easily afford ilo pa'y'aflmall tax (hear hear). The amount which would be derived ffdrji the Income tax would be LI 02,000, and from the Land Tax 1267,000, whioh would be about anequivalent for the Property Tax.done awny.with, The Customs duties contributed 1*1,527,000, or about four times' as much as the land, They

would all therefore agree with him that: the- amount .derived from the land and larga-inoomes was propor> tionatelf hear), Every man and woman in the Colony had to contribute something like £2 8s per head in customs duties. With regard to * ■

\ ' ABSENTEES, there were 1150 now in London, one of whom alone drained £85,000 a year from tho Colony. He questioned whether the coantry benefited one fifth as much from that man as from one of the working class. He did not consider this a fair proportion (hear, hear).- The

LAND QUESTION, ' .'. was one of infinite importance, but to go fully into it would occupy a whole evening. As the result of past administration he found that fortyBeyon persons, owned: three million acres of land. The Estates Company owned about ithree, quarters'of a million of acres, whilst 846 persons and sixteen banking institutions owned 7,848,000. On the other hand 17,000 families, were living .on 800,000 acres. He would illus'rate his remarks by a diagram! ' They would perhaps be interested to know that 1150 absentees owned property of '-he.value of £8,058,098. What were, they doing. when .they : allowed so fow persons to possess so much land ? Why, they were cultivating a shoddy aristocracy similar to that which they had at Home, where eighteen nobles had rentals of over I £IOO,OOO each. He was opposed to

" THE FREEHOLD BYBTESI, because he had'seen how it had worked at Home. In a country possessed of 34,000,000 souls there were 1,000,000 on the very verge of starvation. Thia was the result or tho freehold system: (applause), The gentlemen who were now trying to create land nationalfration were foreshadowing what must eventually take place all over the world. They would when that time arrived have less poverty, less taxation and more comfort I (applause). During

... THE PABT TEAR... , 1;i , 3805. families were settled on the laod, selecting 1,729,968 acres, an average of 158 sores each. During the previous yeary under the tho Atkinson Government, thonumber of selectors was 2067; who-took up 2,108,288 acres, showing that with less property the present Government had. put more settlers on the land. Forty-oigbt special settlements had been established during the year, one half of which had been formed in the Wellington district, and 1741 persons had taken iip 842JQ00 acres, He merely quoted these figures to show that a vigorous system ol land settlement was being carried out by the present Government.

THE LAND BILL bad not been passed, simply : because its eyes had been picked out by the Legislative Council. When the Bill was returned to the House in such a mutilated condition that the Minister who framed it could hardly recognise it, it was sent back to the Council and' was afterwards withdrawn. Theßill would, however,: he re-introduced in the coming session, Another important measure which would be introduced would be tho ■ ■ ■ • ■

ELEOTOBAL BILL. ■ A feature of this Bill would be the. reform ■ of the system at ' present adopted in. by-elections, and .voters 'would be prevented IronTtravelling from one district to vote in another, The , ; . :..:.'.■ . ':•...-.! ,:. : ;

.' Übodr bureau, ' '■■■■■' : which had'been established by the present Government, had become a boon to, the working classes in the Colony. It enabled men to gain their living without going to the Benevolent Institutions. >to•' • solicit alms. Ariizans in the'past had been compelled to go' begging "iri the winter time from door ,'tb door, but 'now. no man' ,was debarred from earning his living by hard work, .There were many • men who blessed the day the present Government had taken tho reins of office and established a now system of public, works. As there were a number of | ladies present, he would like to say that he was strongly in favour of'

, WOMEN'S FRANOHIBE, He had supported it on the platform and through the press. Threequarters of the members of the House were determined to. extend the franchise to women, and ho was sure this franchise would soon become an established faot, (A voice: But General Booth', is importing a lot of women.— Laughter); Yes, .he believed they would give. General Booth's -lasses a hearty.reception,; The cause,of the delay in moving in the matter of female franchise was that it was thought advisable to let that question' Btand. till after the next generalelectioh, The danger was that. if.tk female franchise was introduced and the women' wero not educated the Conservative party would again get back to power' and massacre the liberal measures of the Reform Party. (Applause), However Jhe was satisfied that within the next fewjears the women would bo in full possession of the franchise. The time was drawing near when there would be a complete change in the relation of man to woman, and woman would not as at present be. ruled by the sterner sex, (Laughter and audible hisses).

THE LAW PBAOTIIIpHERs' ACT

would no. doubt again be brought forward ia the coming session by Sir George Grey and passed by the Lower House,, but whether it would get through .'the Legislative Council was another question. There were a number of

OTHER IMPORTANT MEASURES which would be introduced. But if the Legislative 'Council.''did 1 , not pass ''their measures, there .'would be no hope for it but that the House .would be dissolved and :,an appeal made to the country, ;J{ the Council afterwards persisted in obstructing' he hud no doubt some step's would be taken for the' reform of the. Upper Chamber,, Ha,believed the time would'yet obme.'iw'hen that Chamber would be reformed out of existence (Laughter), The country would then prosper, They would all see from what he had said that a necessity existed ior., ~ . ~

LIBERAL ORGANISATION, , They did not know when an election might take place, and it behoved them herefore to be in readiness, With regard to ~ .

THE MABTBBTON DIBTSIOT the did not think it had fared: badly under the : present Government, Works of a very important characier had been undertaken throughout the district during the past' few iuonthsi partly by the unemployed and partly by way of loans. The -big stations had certainly not been assisted, but they were in a position to help: themselves. The khall' settlers, however, in Alfredton and other parts, had been given roads to theirlioroes, The Government would oontinu'e to help setileis, although it would not go in for extensive borrowingsi Since he had been the representative for the

district ha had done his very 'best for tbe. constituency at large, and he would continue ,to do ao. He was proud of his constituency, and so long as he felt he Was gaining the respect and esteem of tbe electors he would continue to do his best. In conclusion he thanked the electors fojfrtx their patient hearing (applause). ■ An elector: Where will the money come from to pay for the Hmemoa'B *f trip to Sydney ? Mr Hogg: I suppose • you will pay your share of it, (Laughter). i' In answer to ;a written question Mr Hogg said he was not in favor, of .the Railway Employees Insurance' Bill.

Mr Renall moved: "That this meeting', thanks -Mr Hog? for" his address,'expresses'its confidence in him as representative for the distriot, and cordially approves of tbe policy » of the .present Government." Ho fully endowd the sentiments, ex, pressed by Mr -'Hogg (applause). .Mr Woodroffe. seconded the resp> lution, which was put and carried, about halt of those present raising their hands, in its favor."' > A vote of thanks to the Chairman terminated the proceedings.'',.:.