'NO GOVERNMENT.'

Bruce Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 43, 4 June 1917, Page 5

'NO GOVERNMENT.'

WAITING FOR THE WANDERERS' RETURN. A CORRESPONDENT'S VIEWS ON THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. Thus tli© Dunedin correspondent of the Tuapeka Times:— We are living in great times—an observation for which. I claim no origin ality. Who among us ever believed that he (or she) would live to see the clay when this New Zealand of ours would be run without a Government? Had tmyone evor suggested such a possibility in the not-so-long-ago days he (or t>Lo) would have been laughed to scorn. Yot so it is. Now, it is no use for tho superior people to 'pish' and 'pshaw/ and in their own superior way, to say 'rot.' The evidence is unimpeachable, resting as it does on the testimony and admission of the gentlemen who themselves are believed by some to constitute the or 'a' Government.

The non-existence of a Government in this Dominion, as far a I am personally concerned, does not matter a row of pins. I much prefer to bo with-, out one, for I recognise the immense advantages its absence confers upon the community as a whole, and the citizens individually. Only I could wish that everything had been done decently and in order. I should have been better pleased if the people had formally ordered the Governor to close both Houses of Parliament, to send the members about their business, to stop their salaries, to appoint half-a-dozen competent' men to run the war business of the country, a la Lloyd George, and to have left West Coast miners, Red Feds, I.W.W.'s, Maoriland Shirkers, and all rubbish of this sort to be dealt with directly by the people as tho occasion demanded. Instead we have a Government in name, but not a Government in fact. We have a number of gentlemen composing what is said to be a Government unashamedly avowing that they can do nothing, absolutely nothing, until two other gentlemen named Ward and Massey—long ago forgotten by everybody savo the oldest inhabitant—return to New Zealand. Since when have those two 'gentlemen been appointed arbiters of tho people's will! By what right doea Sir James Allen tell the people of New Zealand that the brewers shall continue to buy sugar to convert into beer, and that the hotel bar keepers shall continue to supply soldiers in training with as much beer and whiiky as they pay for betwen the hours of 6 and 10 in the evening, until he has consulted Sir Joseph Ward and the Right Hon. Wil* liam Massey as to the'best course to be taken? The answer must be that this Dominion has no Government.

So, too, with the West Coast desperadoes. The State coal miners and others_you will remember how it was said in the olden days that with State coal mines in full blast we (that is you and I) should kill strikes, and assure the public a constant supply of cheap coal—excuse my smile, but 1 must laugh occasionally or I should burst—the State coalminers and others having gone on strike as a protest against .what they ignorantly called the Conscription Act, the Government, instead of sending an ultimatum backed by a company of troopers, sent a couple of Ministers to confab with the treasonmongers in secret committee until 3 o'clock in the morning. You ask me 'Why? why? why!' And my an* swer again is because we have no Government.

What follows I When the mineowners good naturedly .and patriotically again assembled in Wellington in answer to a request from the gentlemen who wore regarded as the Government, to confer with the representatives of the men, whom, 'think you, they met? Why none other than a quartette or quintet of gentlemen obligingly released from gaol by the said Government in order that they might sit with men of known loyalty and proved capacity in conference, No, I cannot tell you how the spokesmen of these precious delegates conducted themselves, but I can" interpret what I saw in print in my own way, and that is wo have about as vulgar a brood of pro-Germans and anarchists at largo In this Dominion as thera Is to be found anywhere between Ballarat and Perth via the coastal route. But we have no Government to tackle them, The only ones th epesent Government is equal to tackling are a university professor and a newspaper for a purely technical breach of their own War regulations. We have, however, a National Efficiency Board and that is something! For the Board were appointed by the Government, ergo, if the Board are my good the Government cannot be :ili bad —assuming for tiio inomtiJiis that ;vo have a Government. Well, let w see. It is the Board's duty to report what arc essential and what non-essen-tial industries. And, as wise men, they advised the Government that newspapers were among the non-es-sentials! 'A Daniel, yea, a Daniel, come to judgment, oh wise 'Efficiency Board, how I do honour thee.' 'And what about htm, and whisky, and wine, d$ the making and selling of these constitute an essential industry?' 'No!' was the answer. 'But the Board?' I ejaculated, 'The Board,' <vas the reply, 'have made tbeij* re-

port.' And, then, slowly, seriously, 'questioningly, we looked at each other. 'ls that so?' I said. 'lt is,' said he, and then, both of us together, gave a long, low 'Ah-h-h.' As for late trains on wrong days there could be no more emphatic endorsement of my assertion that we have no Government. The good people between Dunedin and Port Chalmers petitioned the Government to do away with the late train on Saturday, since they must economise, and in it's p.ace put one on for Friday. Thoir arguments and reasons for the change appeared to bo sound—the chief being that Friday is the shopping and therefore late night, while Saturday is the halfsholiday. The reply—the Government reply—was crushing. 'We are aware that Fiday is your late night, and that Saturday is a half-holiday, but we also know that a very large number of the public use tho late train on this day.' True, they do—the picture show crowd. And this from a Government that preaches personal saving and economy! Alas and alack, when will our rulers really be back?