CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5058, 22 June 1895, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

Mr. HOGG, M.H.R., AND THE LANDED ARISTOCRACY.

[to the editor.]

Sir,—Mr Hogg, in his recont Pahintun speech, is reported to have said:—"lf it was true that some " large land-holders were reducing teir hands to convince them that ey had chosen bad rulers, all he

"could say tvas that these men were "manufacturing a whip for their '"own carcases," and he further intimated that he would endeavour to get the labour returns on stations published with a view of bringing owners of large areas face to face with their responsibilities. Very good! I notice that you complain, in a leaderette, that Mr Hogg omitted to point out the precise nature of of these responsibilities. Now, Sir, Jet us see what those responsibilities really amount to. Since 1831 the labouring classes of New Zealand have-so to speak—taken the law •iuto their own hands; they have returned as their representatives to Parliament, men who aro decidedly inimical to the wealthy classes; they have entrusted the Government of ttffcountry to men who are avowed eSSiesof the large land-holdeis, and they have assisted and encouraged that Government in their wild career, by votes of confidence of overy possible occasion—and occasions havo not been wanting, heaven knows!,

Tbe policy of tins " People's Government," since their accession to power, bus been one of oppression to the owners of large areas. The Government lias piled taxes upon them, till the burden is almost too great to bear; Ministers have spoken of them throughout the Country, in terms of contempt and reprobation; they have dubbed them "social pests," and they have held, and are now holding, the Sword of Damocles over their heads, in the shape of tbe compulsory clause of the Land for Settlements Act; a measure which means spoliation pure and simple, and is a disgrace to the legislature of the Colony. One would think that the bloated squatters of New Zealand have already been brought face tojace with at least some of their rAfcisibilities! But that is not enough, the people's representatives aro in a dilemma; hungry men flock through the country—one sees them in small droves at every tnni of the road, looking for work, begging for bread, starving with cold and hunger; those are the men who, in tbe coarse, eminently characteristic and peculiar phraseology of Mr Hogg, have manufactured "whips for thoirown carcases!"

However callous our model representatives are to this distress, they are conscious of its existence, they are conscious, too, that they themselves are in a great measare responsible for such a state cf things ; conscious that they havo helped to strangle enterprise and industry, to frighten capital and close the door «f good men against the wautsof their suffering fellow creatures. I say they are conscious of nil this, and, however confidently they may speak inAlic they are in their heart of hearts apprehensivo of the result. Henco we hear them denouncing and threatening men who are immeasurably their superiors, men who are living oxamples of what thrift and industry can accomplish when rightly applied, Mr Hogg may sneer at tbe Opposition, and make vile comparisons, likening them to demented bens, But let me tell him that the country, atits earlicstopportunity,will furnish an Opposition which will restoro confidence and bring back the prosperity which prevailed under happier Governments in the past. The responsibility which rests upon tbe shoulders of the class which Mr Hogg threatens, is very plain; it is the first and highest law of Nature, viz., self-preservation! They would be unworthj of their traditions if they yielded one iota at a time when thoughts are threatened by worthles^magogues—l am, etc., Bush Settler.