"THE COURSE OF NEW ZEALAND."

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 139, 14 June 1909, Page 7

"THE COURSE OF NEW ZEALAND."

HON. A. W. HOGG ON LAND MONOPOLY. HIS RECENT SPEECH. The talk of the lobbies since Saturday has been the Addres>s-in-Reply sped<;h delivered by the Hon. A. W. HogQ, Minister for Labour. Dealing with the land question, he remarked thai the landowners were like Mephistopheles following" Faust — as men "who were delighted to see the twagger and the sundowner again going about the country, becaiibe they could mak&, their harvest out of them. One 'of the causes of the present distress was the lack of money. The men about whom he had been talking belonged to the class who sent their money out of the country, thus making capital scarce, and bringing about a rise in the rale of interest. They hated New Zealand, they hated its Government. The reason why they were taking their money to Queensland and South America was simply that a ,stop had been put to this land monopoly business. Land monopoly was, in his opinion, the curse of New Zealand. There were, in consequence of the action of the large landowners, families in misery, who were deprived of the comforts of life. _ The time was rapidly approaching wheVi the land would be redistributed. The land question was going to be brought up again in a more formidable form than it had evev previously assumed. He regarded land monopoly as a crime. There must be further laud taxation, and eveiy effort should be made to get the workers on the land. Those who were opposing the universal freehold were going to have a tax imposed that would make them work their properties, speculate less, and help labour more. As to the State note issue, he said that "what he would like to see j was that the State should have the power to issue bank notes. The Prime Minister says that he did not hear all Mr. Hogg's speech, but what lie did hear expressed the views of neither the Premier nor his colleagues.