The Ensign. THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 1911. A NEW PARTY.

Mataura Ensign, 26 January 1911, Page 4

The Ensign. THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 1911. A NEW PARTY.

Mr A. W. Hogg lias again been distinguishing himself, and it is certain that if notoriety were fame he would be one of the most famous of New Zealanders. He was selected by Sir Joseph Ward to hold the portfolio of Roads and Bridges. Whether or not this distinction was conferred upon the member for Masterton because he was deemed to be the most successful roads and bridges member in the House is best known to Sir Joseph Ward himself, but certainly he made that important office hum while he had charge of it/ In fact, it hummed so badly during the six months or so that Mr Hogg held the lever that it has not yet quite recovered. His late colleague (Hon. R. McKenzie) recently twitted Mr Hogg with having scattered public money most lavishly while he held Ministerial rank, but Mr Hogg met the thrust by asserting that he had been working in the sacred interests of the hardy settlers of the back-blocks, whose cause had never previously been properly defended. There is truth in his contention, and Mr Hogg took full advantage of the only opportunity he ever had of doing a great deal, for the settlers in newly-opened country. He was not not prepared to efface his individuality while lie held Cabinet rank, and paid the penalty by being ejected by the Prime Minister. His notorious speech of June, 1909, will always be remembered by those who heard it, and he held up to baby Ministers a fearful example of what to avoid. The Labor party was supposed to have adopted Mr Hogg after his expulsion, but merely made use of him during the few months in which he stumped the country and then quietly dropped him. He has fought most valiantly against compul- ; sory training of the young men of tho Dominion in military duties, being assisted in this proceeding by Mr T. Taylor. Mr Hogg on every possible occasion condemns in the strongest terms all those who possess considerable wealth of any kind, but more particularly those who hold it in the form of land. Tho freeholder is his especial bete tioir, but he also dislikes the holder of large areas of leasehold. In fact, all those who have arc fair subjects, in his opinion, for severe criticism. Withal, however, Mr Hogg personally is of a kindly disposition, and would rather do good than harm. Hence he is dissatisfied with the work of the present Administration. He says good laws have been placed on the Statute Book but have been administered in a faulty manner. So much has this been the case that the public has never benefited by these as it should have done. He has a peculiar method of showing this want of confidence in the Government, however. He votes for it whenever it is in jeopardy, and justifies his action by saying that the Opposition would be no better. His thoughts in regard to both the principal political parties are sicklied o'er by the of wliat ''e has lost. Had he not made certain injudicious speech the present "Wai's Government would have been perfect, foi' li'ould lie not then have been one of its members/ Mr Hogg recently addressed his constituents and advocated the formation of a new party. No doubt that party would be led by Mr Hogg, Mr Taylor or Mi' McLaren. Such a party, if it secured the Treasury benches, would undoubtedly change the order of politics in New Zealand, as Mr Hogg remarked. Its leaders would, while they reigned, do something less harmful to the public weal than attend banquets and open shows, which, Mr Hogg affirms, are the most important functions of the Ward Ministers. The Hogg-cum-Taylor party "would see that land in. abundance was provided for the people, and that the cost of living was not increased by the middleman; it would abolish the duty on flour and prevent the residue of the grain and dairy ,

produce tlic-y were exporting from being locked up here while the people's pockets were rifled. It would put a stop to the payment of fat pensions to highly-paid officials J and make insurance optional. It would put an end to the sweating of commerce by banking and insurance rings and the exportation of capital by these institutions. Tt would take care that the co-operative and day labor system of road construction was not interfered with. It would maintain a purely defensive force of volunteers and riflemen, well armed and supervised by their own elected officers, the expenditure, while ample, being limited to •an amount strictly within the people's means. It would conserve the wealth of the country and save the people's property from being mortgaged to foreign investors." Such would be the policy of Mr Hogg's new party. It would undo everything that experience has proved is for the permanent benefit of the Dominion and substitute a political nostrum of Mr Hogg's compilation. Fortunately the electors of New Zealand are not likely to take the policy of Mr Hogg's new party seriously. Though it is not improbable that a third party will be formed in the near future, it is safe to say that it will not be one of Mr Hogg's manufacture. That gentleman, as a politic;!! force, has had his opportunity, but he failed to make the most I of it.

r ! lie Sunday-school in connection with the Church of the Disciples of Christ in Med way street held its annual outing yesterday. Refreshments were served in the hall to tlio little ones and later in the alternoon they were driven to Croydon Hush. After spending an hoar in the hush the party returned home about seven o'clock delighted with the experience. Nine cases of typhoid fever have developed at the Maori settlements at Repia and Naumai since Saturday, five at the former and four at the latter (says a Dargaville telegram). I)r MeGill visited the camps 011 Wednesday. The water at Repia is obtained from artesian wells and the supply appears to be quite pure. It is thought that the contagion is conveyed by kissing rather than from insanitation or impure water. At a meeting of the Financial and General Committees of the Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Association on Wednesday it was decided to proceed at once with the erection of new buildings for the winter show on the present site in Crawford street, to replace those recently destroyed by fire. A movement was on foot to have new buildings placed at Tahuna Park, but this proposal was defeated. The newstructure will be a very modern one, and probably much larger than the old building. A Wanganui telegram states that ratepayers in Gonville—CastleclifF tramway district, on Wednesday carried by 403 to 24 votes a proposal to raise a loan of £35,000 for the construction of tramways. Power is being supplied by the Wanganui Borough Council, and the new system will connect with the borough tramway. When the trams are installed it will be possible to travel from Aramoho to the sea beach, a distance of between six and seven miles. Loop lines will tap a large area of country between the town and Castlecliff. A German tourist who returned from the overland trip to Milford Sound last week created 110 little amusement among those with whom he came in contact by his naive replies to questions and his original comments 011 matters in general. His knowledge of English, while it far exceeded the average individual's acquaintance with German, caused him some uneasiness at times. On one occasion when lie and a friend desired to be early on the road, his companion took an opportunity of putting the clock 011 some twenty minutes in the hope of obtaining an early breakfast. A moment later the other appeared 011 the scene and he at once noticed the fact. "Ze clock is fast," he cried, "who fastened it:"" At another time, asked how he h:<d slept the previous night( one of restlessness to most), he replied, briefly and significantly : "A bit!" A local resident wh'> recently visited the scene of. the wreck of the ill-fated s.s. Tararua. which went ashore at Wnipapapa Point in April, 1881, states that not a vestige of the wreck remains visible, although the boilers, which were washed ashore, are still to be seen at low tide. Some years ago, it will be remembered, the cemetery containing the graves of about 80 of the victims whose bodies were unclaimed or unrecognisable and were interred in trendies in the vicinity, was in a deplorably unkempt state and at the time this neglect was referred to as nothing short of sacrilege by those sufficiently far removed from the neighborhood as to free them of responsibility in the matter. Now, however, the "Tararua acre" presents an improved appearance, the fences having been painted and the scrub removed from what was the final scene of one of the most dreadful calamities in the historv of New land. An interesting visitor to Christchurch at the present time is MOll- - Fowler, a Roman Catholic prelate from-lowa. Speaking to a press representative, he stated that he did not regard prohibition as successful in the United States. For three or four years lowa had.liad prohibition, but it had proved a failure, and now the State had gone back to local option. It had been found that under State prolilbmC. 11 there had been more evidences of drinking than under the old system. A great improvement had been effected by the introduction of high licenses. Any man could open a saloon now by paying from 1000 to 2000 dollars for his license. In New Zealand, he believed, before a man could retail liquor his good character had to be vouched for; but in the States anyone could take out a license, and as long as he obeyed the law was allowed to continue holding it When he broke the law his license was revoked. It had been found that the high licenses had been very effective in regulating the traffic, and now the saloon-keepers, always in fear of a wave of prohibition, were in favor of it, though at first they bad opposed ft strenuously.

A boy named Noel Stowcll has attended the Violet street State school, iiendigo, for over nine years without missing a day. Even while suffering | from a broken arm he maintained his j regular attendance. j Several paddocks of oats in the I Charlton block are almost ready for the reaper and binder. Messrs M R Lawlor and J. Keir both have crops which it is expected will be harvested this week. Mr Ladbrook had the harvester at work 011 Tuesday, and has a fine paddock in stook. Given a few fin... days harvesting on the river flat lands will bo general. A Jack Tar, travelling to Auckland bv the express recently, reached that condition when his acquaintances were in asking him to "have a sleep. ' The only place likely to afi'ord a resting place was the hat-rack, and the sailor was requested to try that. He took the hint, and was quietly in the lack and peacefully asleep All went well lor about an hour and a halt, the other passengers had about forgotten the tar, when, as the train jerked round a bend ti.ev wore suddenly reminded of his presence by a precipitate and violent descent to'the loot. Luckily, the passengers directly below the somnolent, sailor escaped injury. After the constant reiteration of the statement that a prohibition order under the Licensing Act applies to the whole Dominion, although it may be issued tor a particular licensing distnct, and that locality is specifically mentioned, ;i- u ntion in the del once oi a man who was promoted in district A, and purchased ins liquor in district H. was raised by Mr Donnelly at the Kaiapoi Court (says Lite 'Press ). 'I iu- order in the ease was stated to he made under section 212, and although it called attention to sections 214 aid 217, every prohibited person, he said, was not in possession of a copy of the Act. Mr Justivo Williams had held that the order lor a district was operative throughout the Dominion, and the last amendment included something of the sort, but his client was not supposed to know that. Constable Holmes remarked that the individual referred to had been prohibited five times. Mr Railey, S.M.. said he thought it might be assumed that defendant had a wide knowledge of the Act, and he would lie fined 40s, it being an offence to obtain liquor anywhere in the Dominion while the order was current. According to Mr T. M. Wilford, M.P., Mayor of Wellington. Auckland is in the throes of a land boom. "You see it wherever you go," he says. "The papers are full of it; it is the talk in the cars and the ferry-boats and the trains and the street corner. It strikes you in the face when you visit the suburbs. Personally, I was verv much amused to see reported in the local Press interviews with two of the most prominent land agents on the question whether there was a boom or not. The evidence of these two witnesses (impartial, of course!) was taken as proof that there was no land boom. I turned up the papers to see the lengths of their advertisements. When I argued with a leading man that the boom existed, he pooh-poohed the idea. I contended you could not feel the boom when the deposit on the purchase of a section was paid, but you could and would when the main amount was required some few years afterwards. 1 he stress does not mine until then. I noticed, moreover, iu several instances, that the locus in quo did not answer to the description in the advertisements. Rut that's an old story." At the Magistrate's Court at Chrisiehurch the other day a man was charged with stealing a money order telegram for 4'3 18s !)d. k was stated that accused had gone to an hotelkeeper and asked hitn to advance linn some as he wanted to g:> to Ashburton. The two men went to the Money Order Office, and accused had a telegram sent to the Money Order Office 011 the West Coast, where he had an account, asking that the stun of £4 be wired over to him. At the same Limn he signed an order provided by the Department authorising the lender to uplift the money 011 arrival of the telegram. Instead of going away accused stayed in Christchurch, and went and took delivery of the money order himself. "Lf a man can do this," asked the magistrate, "what is the good of the order?" The order, it appears, is filed in the Department, but the money order telegram on arrival does not go to the Savings Rank Department at all, but to the Post Office. 1 here it is treated as a registered letter, and the order, while authorising the person named to uplift the money, does not authorise him to take delivery of any registered letter. Hut whatever the order may or may not authorise makes no difference at all, lor the Department that bandies the telegram on arrival does not know that any such order is in existence. As such money orders are easily negotiable, the danger is apparent. Any person advancing money in .such a way should insist 011 the money being wired to him, and not to the borrower, as in that case the order is dispensed with. Spectacles found. Tlio very best range—the Zealandia. Note special prices at H. and J. Smith's. Mac Gibbon and Co.'s sale starts to-, morrow. I homson's summer drinks contain 110 chemicals. Ring up telephone I(J3 lor a good motor ride. Usual sale of poultry, etc.. at Rialto on Saturday. Journals and books of all kinds at Mrs Loveil's. Geo. Brett agent for United Insurance Company. Riveralale school excursion to C'olac] Pay on February 7. | Waikaka-Pukerau-Arthurton schools j excursion on February 2. Thomas Green and Co. sell residence on Saturday, February 4. Prices smashed to atoms at Wallis Bros.' Great Extension Sab'. W. Baker announces his annual sale. His Christmas goods are to hand, his selection of noveltie.s is fit for a large city, and anyone in search of Christinas gifts will surely find something to suit them in his extensive stock. No Chemicals are us;d in the manufacture of Thomson's Raspberry Vinegar. It is guaranteed made from Pure ! Whole-fruit Raspberries.