The Dominion. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1907. THE SESSION'S HARVEST.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 52, 25 November 1907, Page 6

The Dominion. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1907. THE SESSION'S HARVEST.

If the merit of a session's legislation could be tested by the weight of the volume of statutes—as some members appear to imagine—the session that ends to-day would be one of the most' valuable in the history of the country. Hansard, we believe, will be of unprecedented bulkiness, and, in point, of quantity, the statutes challenge comparison , with the output of the most prolific of all past years. Yet we. cannot feel any confidence that, this fever of law-making can be claimed as proof of that alert concern for the country's real necessities which should be the guiding influence of Parliament. Even a'brief survey of the transactions of Parliament is impossible here: there is space only for attention of a general character. The first question that will suggest itself to the observer of political progresses whether there was really any necessity for the 111 Acts which will have been passed when Parliament prorogues today. The- answer to the question can be deduced from the almost unanimous " No" that would be returned if it were asked whether anything would be lost, or whether any injury would be sustained by the country if Parliament forgot to sit next year. The mania for law-making'is at its height. A considerable proportion of the session's legislation consists of amendments to past Acts which no longer meet the changed conditions of to-day, and amendments to recent Acts which need amendment that they may meet, not changed conditions, but those demands of prudence and common-sense which were overlooked by members too weary to do properly the work forced upon thein in previous sessions. The Statute Book contains no fewer than twenty-nine Acts in amendment of Acts passed in 1900, and every year since that date there has been a cluster 'of amendments to remove the defects jof the preceding year's work. This 'year we have seen the evil system of "legislation by exhaustion" perpetuated in its acutest form, and the blame is the heavier upon the Gtyernment in that it came into office with the expressed intention of breaking away from the customs of the old Administration which never made any serious pretence of observing the rules of legislative' propriety. We'have dealt ; fully with this blot upon the Government's record in the past week or two; and we need not pursue the point further at present. That the Government has achieved large results is an obvious truth—the new land legislation and the new tariff make up « heavy enough mass of work in themselves. When one turns from the question of quantity to that of quality, however, one turns from a subject for astonishment to-a'matter for discontent. Much of the legislation was unnecessary; much of it is simply vicious. More clearly than ever before, there.is discernible in the heterogeneous assemblage of this year's . Acts, a definite current of tendency, and that current sets in the direction of Socialism. Useful measures there are, .of course, but in several measures besides the Land Bills the Government has drawn tighter the bonds which, year by year, are being wound about the body of personal rights and liberties. In due course this restrictive legislation will work its own cure through a revolt of public opinion, but in the meantime/it is a public duty to protest against 'the passion of modern politicians for a heavy harvest ,of legislation, in which the tares are as thick as the grain, and the reaping of the greater part of which was effected by the suffocation of the selective faculties of members.