Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] MONDAY, JUNE 19, 1893.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4448, 19 June 1893, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878.] MONDAY, JUNE 19, 1893.

SECOND EDITION

r . 0 Mr A, W. Hogg's address on Friday evening in the Theatre Royal was a good 000. Be possesses considerable !. oratorical power, and can sway a friendly audience without much difficulty, He is a staunch supporter of 11 the Government, and as suoh, is, we c fear, too much disposed to sacrifice b the interests of his constituents. In t many things, the Government are 6 right and deserve support; in others, B they are wrong, and when the latter is the case dn:i Mr Hog); take their part or the part of the settlers J Jndg--1 ing from his speeoli, he sides with the ) Government against the settlers I He must know that the administration of , the Land Act is not giving satisfao- ■ tion; that the land ballot system is a vrong one, a host of speculators having sprung up under it; that the way j ( in wliii-b the local railway is being constructed is a farce; and that the cooperative system is a failure. He is too shrewd a man not to koow these things, but he is not loyal enough to hia constituents to express a plain opinion npon them. There were, too, in bis address, one or two minor matters which do not tend to raise the Member for Masterton in the estimation of thoughtful men. The allusion to Wcraiti was unfortunate. Every- ' body knows that for a pretty obvious I consideration Mr Hogg weakly consented to become the tool of t wo coutity magnates, Dr Hosking and Mr E, Meredith, There may, or may not be some devil's bargain when men : who are regarded as the elite of the Conservative party fraternise with the leader of the Radicals, but the connection is not exactly one-of which tbe.latter should he proud. Another episode in the speech was a little peculiar I; Every./_publ can in the Wellington Provincial diatriot knows: the member for Masterton and is wont , in feetiv« wnts to yelate some <

racy anecdolo or another about; him. But whatwill tbeLicensed Victuallers now say to their old friend who from the public platform : denounces many of their establishments as '[dens of infamy," The' statement may be perfectly correct, but Mr Hogg ought not to have been the man to make-it. Then again he advised settlers to "stickto the land." This is very good advice, but why did not he himself etiek to his land when he took up his hundred acres, or whatever it was, in the bush. No doubt, politics pay him better than sticking lo land 1 Wo do not wish to carp too much at certain obvious faults in an otherwise able platform speecli or to deny tbrtt the member for Jlasterton could not fairly claim for the Government and lor himself a considerable amount of credit. The Government finance, as a whole, hap been good and straightforward, and even in carrying out the co-operatiyo fad there has been a distinct adherence to honest lines, The member for Masterton himself has worked hard, for the electorate," never sparing himself to advance the interests of settlers. He has also frequently restrained the Government from committing administrative blunders and in local matters, when they showed an inclination to go wrong, he has been wont to put them right. If we look at his conduct as a representative of the district in detail, we fear we should feel bound to pick in it a great number of holes, but taking it en globo we give him credit for trying to do his duty by his'constituents and for a considerable measure of success in the work that he has undertaken on their behalf. We are not yet proud of Mr Hogg as a member for the district, but we are certainly a little less ashamed of him, ia that oapacity, than we once were.