GOVERNMENT AND THE LAND BILL.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13596, 3 December 1909, Page 6

GOVERNMENT AND THE LAND BILL.

A rather remarkable discussion took place in the House yesterday, when the Land Bill was reported to the House by the Chairman of the Lands Committee. It was stated that in the first place th© Bill, in the absence of an Opposition member, Mr Guthrie, was

shorn of all its freehold clauses, but, at the last moment, Mr Guthrie was> sent for, and the clause, were reinstated. This gave Mr T.E.Taylor an opportunity to make a vigorous attack upon the Government in reference to their land policy, or rather their want of a land policy. He talked nonsense about " the vested interests of the " people in the renewable leases," but he put into a very uncomfortable dilemma certain members of the Cabinet who formerly prated v€r y loudly about their devotion to the leasehold, and aro now actually parties to a Bill for converting Crown leaseholds into freeholds. It would be of interest if Mgssts Fowlds and Millar, in particular, would tell us how they reconcile their present action as Ministers with their former professions on the land question. Sir Joseph Ward attempted to defend the action of the Government by suggesting that as theTe was a. majority of the House in favour of tho freehold it was necessary for the Cabinet to "compromise " on the question. This presupposes that members of a Government are to have no principles, or, at any rate, that they must be prepared to swallow them whenever there is a chance of their being thrown out of office Jf they decline to do this. That the Prime Minister should calmly lay down this doctrine, shows to what a low depth •politics have descended in this country. Yesterday's debate, however, indicates that this doctrine is not likely to bo tamely accepted even by members of Sir Joseph Ward's own party.