AN UNSATISFACTORY POSITION.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14293, 2 March 1912, Page 8

AN UNSATISFACTORY POSITION.

Now that Parliament has decided to separate without discharging the task for which it was called together, the position, from a constitutional point of view, is practically the same as it wds immediately after the general election. Had tho vote on tho want-of-confidenco amendment been a genuine vote of confidence in tho Ministry as at preseut constituted, with Sir Joseph Ward continuing at the head of tho Ministry, no doubt ho would have been entitled to fill up tho gaps in his Cabinet and to advise the Governor as to important administrative acts during tho recess, even although that vote was carried only by tho casting vote of tho Speaker. But that is not the position. An entirely new Ministry is to bo constituted in the recess, headed by a new Primo Minister. It cannot be authoritatively ascertained, until Parliament meets in Juno, whether a Cabinet so formed possesses tho confidence of the House. In view of the evenly balanced condition of parties, and tho notoriously mixed character of the Liberal-Labour combination, the chances aro very much against a Ministry formed from their ranks being able to hold office. In these circumstances it seems to us that the objections to any important appointments being undertaken by any caucus-made Government constructed during the recess aro just as 6trong as the objections to such appointments by the Ministry which came back discredited .from the late elections. Take the position of the High Commissioner, for instance. That is realty a policy appointment, seeing that the reform of

the High Commissioner's office must be an important part of the programme of any new Ministry, and it is, of course, clear that the Administration pro-

paring the reforms can only carry them out by the appointment of a High Commissioner in sympathy with their view.. an<! competent to carry out their instructions. Th. appointments on the Board of tho Bank of New Zealand, three in number, in.hading that of chairman, if not on precisely the fame footing, are certainly not such a.« ought to he entrusted to a rr.ore bid-for-prestige Government which may be defeated as soon as Parliament meets. Tho appointment* to tho Legislative Council are certainly such as ought, only to be made by a Government which has established its claim to possess the confidence, both of the House and of the country. The reform of the Council is one of the planks in the policy of each party, and no fresh appointments ought to be. made except as a means of facilitating the carrying out of reform. Suppose, for example. Mr Mackenzie forms a Ministry, and is permitted in tho recess to stuff the Upper Houso with somo of the anxious reject.. from tho late election, and that immediately the House meets lie i.. displaced by Mr Massey. Is it not evident that if tho latter is to carry out his schemo of an elective Ur-pcr House it -will bo necessary for him to make a larger number of appointment, than Tronic] otherwise have been the capo? He must either resign himself to tho view that Legislative Council reform is hopeless, or as a preliminary to being ablo to do anything effective ho must first of all expand the Council to unwieldy dimensions, to enable it to support tho dead weight dumped into it by his ephemeral predecessors. Looking at all tho circumstances we believe that it will be regarded by all serious students of constitutional law and procedure as not tho least unsatisfactory result following from Parliament's foolish, and indeed criminal, surrender of its rights and privileges, that foT the next four months wo shall bo ruled by a mere phantom Ministry, imablo with any propriety to discharge the functions of an Administration except to transact small details of everyday routine.

Mr Massey may not be the equal of Sir Joseph Ward in political intrigue but at least be has the satisfaction of knowing that ho has achieved tho great object for which he fought the late elections. That object was to removo the Ward Ministry from office and in this lie has succeeded. The fact that Sir Joseph Ward elected to run upon his own sword in the height of tho battle, if it does not increase, at least in no way lessens the significance of Mr Massey'a victory.

There is ono feature in this remarkablo political crisis which must strike a cynical observer with amusement. Wo havo heard throughout the debate of tho need of a new and progressive party in New Zealand, and from, tho Government side much disparagement of what is termed "Tho Old .Conservative Party," the "representatives of reactionary forces," and other catchpenny fustian of tho same kind. Yet when the Played-out Party wants a loader to displace Sir Joseph Ward, who is one of tho first men spoken of as tho likeliest for the job? Nono other than our old friend, Mr Thomas Mackenzie, who not so many years ago was among the so-called Conservatives and was actually found fault with by other members of the party for being too antiquated in his ideas. Truly tho whirligig of time, while it brings its revenges, also brings to tho top many a quaint touch of humour.

The authorities of a school in Pittsburg, U.S.A., havo recognised one danger in tho movement in favour of educating the wives of the future in the arts of housekeeping which appears to have escaped the notice of the Technical College Board here, and of the Education Department. Domestic instruction is imparted in our public schools to girls of quite tender yeare, and tho Technical College classes are largely attended, we understand, by girls on both sides of "sweet seventeen." Ono would have thought that this was quite as it should be; that tho young idea could not be taught too early the elements of cookery and so forth, even if laundry-work, domestic hygiene, the management of a bank account, and the other mysteries of the higher homo economics wero reserved for students of more mature age- But the authorities of the American school roferred to think otherwise.

To tho "Course of instruction in housekeeping for brides" which they have established, no student under the ago of twenty-one is admitted, lest girls, "knowing that they could easily become good housekeepers, might be subjected in greater numbers than heretofore to the temptation of eloping." Americans have a reputation for looking at the practical side of things, but if young Lochinvar of Pittsburg takes caro to ascertain whether the object of his affections is a good housekeeper before he proposes elopement to her, he belongs to a race apart from most young men. All the world loves a lover, but it would surely waste no affection upon a lover whose ardour was kept, in check by such a very material and cold-blooded consideration. A time for studying the digestion comes to most men, but usually long after tho eloping age.

In a letter which appeared in yesterday's issue our Australian correspondent mentioned that last year SB3. people emigrated to New South Wales from New Zealand, and that the Dominion had also contributed a large number of settlers to Queensland. Why New Zealanders should bo leaving their own country and going over to Australia was, ho thought, a question that seemed to be worth looking into. One does not, of course, need to look much further than the New Zealand Ministry to find the main reason for the C-oduSj which, if it had taken place during a Massey Administration, would havo been made, by the Wardite Press, the text on which to hang many denunciations of the Government. A slight factor in the situation may also be the lavish advertising by the Queensland Government in New Zealand. A King; country correspondent describes that district as being plastered with

posters setting forth • the advantages that Queensland offers to settlers. "Go where you may," ho says, "these notices stare you in tho face." They might be counteracted to some extent by announcements of the land available for settlement in the King Country and elsewhere in the Dominion —but those announcements will not be mado to any extent so long as the Maori tail wags the Government doe.

• In the meantnie the experiences of one Now Zealandor, to whom the far fields of West Australia looked green, may bo of service in inducing others to look well before they leap. Mr C F. Pointon. a Government official at Gisborne, .ns allured by some of the literature issued by the "West Australian Department, of Agriculture into emigrating to that State- some eighteen months ago, with tho object of taking up land. From what he had read ho understood that he would bo able to secure 160 acres for £4, and that the cost of clearing the land would be £8 8s <xl per acre. Having, after somo delay and with no little difficulty, obtained a piece of land, he found that tlio cost was £0 IC_, and that tho cxpenso of clearing it came to £25 an acre. Furthermore, the land, when he got it, seems to havo been no good; according to Mr Pointon it would not grow horse feed. After making an unsuccessful attempt to squeeze a living out of his land, in tho cour.se of which he and his family lived for six weeks on bread and mutton-fat, he found employment in tho Government workshops, and eventually was enabled by tho help of friends to return to New Zealand, minus his capital and possessing hardly anything except what ho stood up in. "1 have seen moro poverty in West Australia in tho fifteen mozitlis I was there," ho said, "than I ever saw iv Now Zealand in the fifteen years of my residence hero." His experiences may have been exceptionally unfortunate, but he says that hundreds of other emigrants wore in a bad plight, and his story in any. caso contains an obvious mora].

Tho Australians havo been doprived. oven of tho consolation of winning th. last test match. If .they had, tho record would havo been three to two in favour of England, whereas now it stands four to ono, which looks, and is, much worse from tho Australian point of view. Tho severity of xiustralia's defeat in this series is without parallel. Never before have tho Australians lust four out of fivo matches in Australia, and only twice havo they lost three cut of five. Tho visitors seem to have been favoured by luck in this last match, but, taking tho series as a whole, the luck was fairly evenly divided, and the Australians' form has been such that, if five moro matches were to bo played, no cool-headed judgo of the gamo would feel confident of Australia winning ono of them. In recent years England has nover been so decisively superior to Australia as at tho present timo. Whether that will bo maintained depends largely on whether Australian cricketers closo up their divided ranks, and on the success of tho'new men who are pressing forward.

Tho statement by the Director of tho Technical College as to the number of pupils enrolled supplied ample reason for the Board's decision to recommend the now Board to set up a committco to deal with the question of extending tho benefits of tho institution. Mr Allison quite rightly emphasised tho necessity of ascertaining whether steps could not be taken to supplement moro widely the education given at tho primary schools. Technical education is advancing in New Zealand, but it is certainly not making the progress that it should and that might bo expected from tho amount that is spent on it. Wo hear a good deal of claptrap at election time about the educational needs of tho country, but after all it will be of littlo use to offer still further facilities for education if thero is no general desiro to make uso of them. Tho fault for the present 6tate of thincs.lies. not with tho system but with the parents, and Mr Allison's sugg estion that the opportunities for further education might be explained to the parents of pupils who are leaving tho primary schools is well worth fob lowing up.