The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 1908. A MINISTERIAL TSAR.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 173, 15 April 1908, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 1908. A MINISTERIAL TSAR.

* : • ■ ' "I'-.' The full report of the Premier's speech at Kaitangata . discovers it to haye been a more remarkable deliverance than we had imagined. ; He dealt with many subjects, and in a'curiously verbose manner: his speech tfas mainly wordy evasion, wordy' assertion, and wordy and elaborate declardiion of the Government's determination not to do various remarkable things that nobody ever dreamed it would do, -Che greater portion of this singular specch calls for no comment, although' we must note one particular misrepresentation that the Premier has persisted ii in defiance of the simple facts of the cise. fie referred to' The Dominion's recent criticism of his ridiculous vaii'glory in the North as "a . statement that was circulated with 'the idea of creating the impression that because oi the financial panic in America, and pecause' wool had gone down, and flix/had gone 1 down, this country was; practically on the eve of financial dis'after." As wo have had to say before, ve haye never sought to oreate any s'uth impression, as the Premier must lnow; we expressly affirmed the i stroij ponditioii. of ■ this • prosperous co'uhtif; wo simply contended that the Prenier was going the right vray about injuring that prosperity in encouraging a'carnival of extravagance. It grows wearisome, .this constant, necessity for correcting Ministerial inaccuracies. / /This is apart from our . present purpose, -however, which; is to. discuss x ©me remarkable statements which did lot appear in the summary .of the Premfe/s speech upon which we-based' our ffiferences yesterday to the Government's policy during the Blackball ;strike. J The summary, we: find, did _ not do jthe Premier full justice. His references to the attitude of the Government towards the, strike—which our. • evening contemporary has nowTecogiised as "a grave public scandal e .worse than we supposed. . > One passage in particular calls for special notice, and itjeontains Evidence of a Ministerial breadi of trust so grave that we quote it. at length. The passnge is,'as follows :-j. : 1 If there, were faults jn tho law, thoh let these', faults he .by/ amending, the law, but h<s asked was (it right that a body of - men,. howovor well JintentiCincd their 'acwas,- should :-set'jat • dofianco the authority and decision ,cf;'a court which had been constituted by Parliament'? That authority had been on tie West Coast set, at defiance,, and thero, was a section ,of tho community who expected that; the Government' .would have -immediately! put tho recalcitrants into gaol. Personally; he' was entirely against imprisonment If or' any such ..tiling, land'if, the wljolo. of the men-im-plicated camp., and .asked thit the gaols should be thrown opin in order that, of ■their own. free will in the nlatter, they might walk in, ho, as Reader of; the Government, would give instructions that' tho gaols should bo Bccurely -locked,' and tho men kept out. (Applause.) ijnprisoumcnt as a remedy was absolutely useless and repugnant, to one's; better judgment., The poly fault of tho Blackball Sharkers was that, through wrong jidvic'o, 'possibly given with-tho"best of intentions, thej wore defying tho law instead ofj obeying the law, and asking ; that - the law ; should fe amended. The . Government .had j taken the course of I carrying out tho law| by asking that, tho fine inflicted by tho ccyirt shall Jo paid. -In }hat respect: the Government had to do its duty. . The great number of lien: in ' this country who received! the benefits of the Industrial, Conciliation,; pnd Arbitration Act must , know that no Government worth its salt could refrain from insistiig on the oarrying out. of a decision of a court arrived' at on what tho courtj. considered good andsufficient reasons.-'/' ' J

11l this strangely 'contradibtory passage the public will find two occasions for indignation: the announcement that the Premier's personal opinipn may set aside a law, and the amasing claim that the Government has doie its duty. Never before'sb'far as we know, has the Prime Minister of a British State dared to say ,that he would give such orders as would prevent tjLe satisfaction of the judgment of a cburt of law. l'he Premier has assured the country, and tlie Blackball strikers, jthat he will ijot, allow the law to iace -its full course. ]Je has given it forth that, if the law-breakers refuse to pay their fines, he will personally undertake to protect them against the punishment provided by the law to meet such a case. He may or may not dislike the penal provisions of the, Act—lie was glad enough last year to trandish those provisions in the o£ the Canterbury slaughtermen—but it is not his business to repeal those .'provisions by a personal veto. Does the Premier realise the full meaning of his statement? And does tlye public intend to allow' him to do what pven the King himself would not dare to attempt? If our laws are to be made subject to the veto of the Premier,' the sooner the public knows it the better. In such a case it is a waste of time and money to maintain Parliamentary government. _, In the presence of .this astonishing audacity tjie public may overlook) another important aspect oi the matter. The Premier's statement was a ! direct intimation to the Blackball ]Jnion and its members that they have;nothing to do but refuse to pay the fine. The_ Premier, will see that i they suffer no inconvenience. At the present moment, we believe, the Government is .''taking Heps" to collect the' fine. Surely the, country may at least be spared this last humiliation. On the Premier's own showing, the slow-moving machinery of the law is to be a B'olemn' farce, 1 leading nowhere, and resulting in notjiing. but a cruelly complete and comprehensive demonstration of the impotence of an aasagabated staiuia.