Ashburton Guardian. MAGNA EST VERITAS ET PRÆVALEBIT. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1894. THE SESSION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XV, Issue 3420, 26 October 1894, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian. MAGNA EST VERITAS ET PRÆVALEBIT. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1894. THE SESSION.

Thk session of Parliament just closed has been remarkable. In fact, since the great year that saw Sir Julius Vogei's public works and immigration policy launched upon the colony, no session of the _?ew Zealand Parliament has been more indelibly marked. Manhood suffrage had opened up another and more extensive stratum of the populace, and called into operation a new factor in politics in the hitherto unrepresented masses of the people. It took some time for these masses to fully realise the,, boon that had been conferred upon them, but so soon as they began to appreciate their political strength they began to impress their mark upon the political institutions of the country. The extension of the franchise to women only helped to strengthen the power of the masses, and the elections in November last showed unmistakeably the direction in which thepopular mind trended, for an essentially " people's " Government was established in power with a more than two-thirds majority at their back. It has been fashionable with Opposition journalists to attribute all sorts of unworthy motives to the members of the Ministry, and to try to trace along their policy a dark line of dishonesty and insincerity as well as a red line of vindictiveness. This was not in any way called for, as there was nothing shown throughout the session to warrant any such insinuations. Had there been any such indications, there were enough men of high principle and sterling integrity in the House to at once lay a crushing hand upon the wrong-doing, and the same men were also possessed of penetration sufficient to discover anything of the kind that might have existed. The Sergeant-at-Arms affair was not perhaps all that could have been wished. There is a right way and a wrong way of bestowing patronage, and we are not prepared to aay that the right way was chosen to place Colonel Fraser in a billet. Still, perhaps " when the books are opened" worse things may be found in the history of the colony, and perpetrated by Governments who h&ve been credited with being immaculate. We are not of those who seek for dishonesty in the motives of the Government. We feel assured Ministers went to their work of reform with a whole heart, and a full intention to do the best that in them lay to benefit the great mass of the people. Their policy was one specially directed towards this object, and being so was laudable, but early in the session they were called upon to direct their attention to pressing matters outside that policy, matters oi a nature that no New Zealand Parliament had ever before found it necessary to touch—we mean the banking legislation, And this legislation will make the session of J894 a memorial one. They were suddenly called upon to avert a great financial disaster — virtually to pour two millions of money into the coffers of the Bank of New Zealand. The pledging of the colony's credit for such a sum could ODly be warrapfad' ty a tremendous emergency,

and apparently that emergency had occurred. It was a bold step to take, but in the circumstances no one could question its propriety, and the thing now done, we can only hope that its results will be satisfactory. The passing of this guarantee necessitated other banking legislation, and this consumed much of the time of the House, and prevented a closer and more in telHgent attention to policy measures than these would otherwise have received had there been no disturbing element like the banking legislation to distract the attention of our representatives. Still the programme enunciated by Government in the platform speeches of Ministers in differ-mt parts of the colony, in the Governor's speech, and in the Budget, has been fairly we'l adhered to and carried out. There have been placed upon the statute book the Cheap Money Scheme, the Consols Act, the Foreign Companies Deposits Act, the several Acts referring to Native lands, and the Act providing for the improvement of public lands. Many different opinions are no doubt held about these measures, but Government must be credited with the very best intentions in bringing them before the House. They are experiments that only a trial can prove, and now that the colony has been committed to them their results will be waited for and their working watched with anxious eyes, and by no more anxious eyes than those of Ministers themselves. These measures were conceived and introduced with the object of helping the people of the colony to wrestle with and tide over hard times— times of low yields and lower prices, in our own colony, aad times of depression throughout the world which by sympathy affect us also, and very materially too. The great aim of Government by their land and financial measures has been to increase the colony's production by bringing unproductive land under cultivation, and by opening up such land to the crowds of toilers who have centred in towns, to reduce the congestion there to normal dimensions. The most notable effort to accomplish this aim was made in the Lands for Settlement Bill, and under it there can be no doubt an extensive area will be thrown open to the farming population. This, too, is an experiment on which its critics would do well to withhold condemnation until its failure or success has been proved, as the most virulent opposition to it, and the most merciless and stinging condemnation of it cannot stay its progress one hair's breadth, now that the colony is committed to it. The Dai»y Act will not be without its uses, and the Abbatoirs Act is in the best interests of the people's welfare. With the Labor Bills the working classes should be satisfied, as far as these Bills have gone, but more especially with the measure for com[pulsory arbitration. We are not sanguine that it will for ever bind the dogs of war in the realms of industry, but it will go a long way towards averting many conflicts that would certainly occur in its absence. Passing over many measures of less interest, but all having something to recommend them, we come to the question of tVe resumption of railway control by Government. As said in a previous article, this idea was not popular in Ashburton County, where the proposal for a non-political Board of Railway Management took its rise, and it will be difficult to persuade a district which suffered so much as Ashburton did from Government control of railways in the past that there is likely to be an improvement in the future. But* in this matter, as in others in connection with this remarkable session's work, opponents will have to possess their soul in patience and wait. There has been a fair proportion too of rejections from the law factory. We never sa* any particular hurry there was for the Licensing BilL Tt could very well have been spared in a session so loaded up with work, and a twelve months' rest will do the Licensing Bill no harm. The Noxious Weeds Bill, the Rating on Unimproved Value Bill, the Masters and Apprentices Bill the Undesirable Immigrants Bill, and Mr McKenzie's absurd Libel Bill are all of a good " keeping " kind, the last two more especially, and these two might be kept till dooms day without any damage to themselves. The Ministerial Residences Sale Bill we do not regret the loss of, and possibly the middle district university may yet profit by the rejection of this Bill. The Midland Railway Contract Bill is a horse of another color, and there are not wanting those who believe that the rejection of this Bill is a sign of the strength of a section of the population who wouH not be averse to a return to the Vogelism which borrowed abundantly for the prosecution of immense undertakings. The loss of the Bill means the delay of the railway connection of the West Coast with Canterbury for an indefinite period, but the connection of Nelson with either is further off than ever. The session was also remarkable for the amended Standing Orders. These are not yet all that they might be, but they helped to a great extent to confine talk within reasonable bounds. Sir Robert Stout said the time limit was a " perfect curse," yet he delivered his most telling speech, and the most effective criticism the Government were subjected to during the session, under the pressure of that limit, and within the short space of fifteen minutes. This fact was sufficient reply to his " perfect curse " argument. It will be the duty of those learned in parliamentary usage to lay up the Standing Orders for further repairs, so that the loss of time that was suffered this session in Committee may be remedied by the stoppage of the leak which the member for the Buller was astute enough to discover and take advantage of. Taken all round, there has been done during | this session much work that will be useful and beneficial to the people— much that would never have been accomplished, never even attempted,, in the days when the old Opposition were in power, and if many of the new men whom the extended franchise sent to Parliament have proved utterly unfitted for legislative duties, no man can charge the rank and file of them of any want of loyalty to the leaders they went up to support. They were absolutely slavish in the loyalty of their dog-like fidelity to Government, and voted with unquestioning faith %% I

their chief indicated. It was this total surrender of their thinking powers and their political consciences to the control and keeping of their chief, which, long before the session closed, had made many converts to the Elective Executive and Referendum Bills that were thrown out early in the session's history, but which may have a different fate at a future time.