MR HOGG IN DUNEDIN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 11 September 1909, Page 4

MR HOGG IN DUNEDIN.

■XEWSPAPKB COMMENT. '. j Those among thc modciatu audience! that heard him last night who expected that Mr A. W. Hogg would te 1 them something new will have . been disappointed, snys the '-Otago' Daily Times'' of Tuedsay. Mr' Hogg! has been consistent in the advocacy j of the principles he -expresses. His assurance that they are the princi- j pies he entertained before he enter-, ed political life may readily be accepted. They are certainly the prih-| ciples that have been enunciated by him session after, sessionsduring the I nineteen years for which he has sat in Parliament. Eveni if- until hejoined the Government in* January last at, as he superfluously stated,, the invitation of tte Primo Minister, he was not a sufficiently conspicuous " figure to ensure that he should be widely identified throughout the country with ithe principles he holds, there is no member of Par- , liament who (can have failed to . know what Mr Hogg's opinions on ! the land question . were. And it was with a complete knowledge of what these views were that the Prime. Minister offered Mr Hogg a seat in the Cabinet when it became necessary to reconstruct the Government" after the general election. It may will be believed that Sir Joseph Ward relied upon Mr Hogg refraining, as a Minister, from the utterance of flangerous or * indiscreet views. But there was no understanding, express or implied, to that effect. Mr Hogg, knowing that the Government had no policy, apparently concluded, in the innocence of his heart, that lie was af full liberty ; to express from the Ministerial benches ] the opinions which he '""had repeatedly expressed in the past, qn^ wbioll seemed to ngye so. commended themselves to the Prime Minister as ,to have produced for him the invitation to join the Cabinet 77 If he was uri'defjeiyed in this, fitter it wild I'np1 'np 1 t 'ttf*** only '.ppiiit V on. •\v*h*fli enlightenment came 'to him after he became a Minister. He %tl,: with the rest at thfl' people of Ihe country, heard members of tho Gbt vernment during tho election campaign paint the financial sulfation- in. glowing terms.. He learned when _He himse'f joined the Government that this picture was seriously exaggerated. When tho problem of unemployment became acute in the. with and- «np£-a(S %of wo'flt 'fioufed'i'n iipon fiinl us Minister of Labour, he found, lie' says, that the- Treasury was empty. lie spoke bis' "ijjj'ii^ "■**."{<■? t"*; pl n-i!*j< ]?i Wi jl?' Wl* Ih's ijoii<iition'qf affairs,, and he expresses. jj\o 'fear tliat lie siiagkgd {!*,-* pviine Minister We do not wonder at it. Pp-i

p°si^u - eritlcs >% «?tn^« , tn . hint at a, state of aftairs much less grave, than" whieh"Mr Hogg, speaking from his 'knowledge as a Minister for some uYohths, positively aiHrms to have obtained, have been denounced in shrill terms as enemies- of their country/ '."-Arid'"it" ihrist nave pained 'tbe Prime M>his'ter_ greatly to .fini i tW 'he h'ad "taken to .his bosom one who was so capable of making so unpleasant a .discovery as that which Mr Hogg says -he made, andi of speaking his mind freely about: iti 1 All this, it may Be objected, -Is: ndt 1 very pertinent to the/qtiestiphS aiout • which Mr Hogg was'■*annWnced- td' speak last night. But noitner' waS what Mr Hogg himself g'aid Very. per: t'inenf to".them.' -He-, "had a'great ' deal- to^ ;say in the course of a 'long 1 and uninspiring, address about the ex istenoe of distress and destitution iri New: Zealand.' Ho seemed, in ■ f fact,..to."be so darried' away by his csense t»fS,the flepiorableness of this circumstance 'tbat -hpi: forgot that the land-owners, or, as h^..o^llß them, the land monopolists, "ardi'nirJiis opinion^ members of .the eriininiiii classes, and • the strong philippics'.agßinst - the individaalistio system which formed the staple of.iliiaaddreSses'.in the'north were strangely^ missing- front ■ hii speeeh-last nighf;-. .^The, ctjrrehey • question did'-jjot, iioWeyery escape hli ■ attention, he-advanced .once ' more tSie! 'crude .suggestion that tbe State should pay for its pubiie. works by the issue". of in'coliv'ertibj.e > notes. The lessons of history convey no instruction to .some rji^bple. li-it were not so, proposals" fqj; the: issue of a currency.vsrhich liable, a% j j currency: s5cS as.jMit' v Hojgg ■ stigg|B|s| would be,', to.; became!'dgir^elated,[ifi* the great iiuurjjr g|'tle %drt:e|s-fh6natS BC^ve^l*^^u|'fccAiT^'V9'*'wvii^ftßee' whatever, . • '• " ;-V ' •-< ■ " =■'