THE BUDGET DEBATE.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12591, 6 September 1906, Page 6

THE BUDGET DEBATE.

The debate on the Financial Statement came to a timely, if unexpected, end yesterday afternoon. We say "timely" advisedly, because no useful purpose would havo been served by prof racting it for tho fortnight foretold by the now discredited Parliamentary prophets. By declining to continue the discussion, the Opposition gave proof of their earnest desire to get to business. They recognised that the proper time to discuss in detail the Govern*ment's land policy is when it is embodied in a Bill and (brought before Parliament. It has already undergone some changes between the delivery oi the Financial Statement and the opening of the debate, and by the timo it appears in type it may be modified still further. To spend days in talking about it while it is still in a more or less nebulous state would have been an utter waste of time. In other respects the Government had embodied in the Financial Statement so many points of the Opposition's policy as to render criticism unnecessary. Sir Joseph Ward may

hare felt some surprise at the collapse of tho debate, but we trust he will sho—' his appreciation of the Opposition's action by pushing on with tho work that has to be dome during the few romaindng weeks of the session.