AN ANXIOUS MANIFESTO.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 497, 3 May 1909, Page 6

AN ANXIOUS MANIFESTO.

To deal in any detail with the election manifesto to which the Prime Minister has troated what we believe is an astonished country is impossible -within the limite of our space. A. long speech from him does not always mean a flood of ideas. Often it means tho reverse. But it would require a more diffuse speaker than l Sir Joseph to deliver a fifteencolumn speech—our report is the result of sharp condensation—without touching on a great many subjects. The enormous length and' wide range of'his utterance makes it clear that tho Prime' Minister is beginning to realise that the public iB not by any means satisfied with tho Government. He is aware that there is a growing and general distrust of his aims and his methods, 1 and he is naturally; anxious to make the best' display possible. He has therefore crammed everything into tho shop window, and we may therefore take a glance at the more imposing of the exhibits that mako up his future policy. We are still told that "the chief desire' is not to pass a largo mass of new legislation," but the programme does not quite bear out the promise of "a legislative rest." Of course there is a great deal to be dono in the way of amendment; until Parliament begins to pay attention to basic principles its chief work will naturally consist of repairing the follies of tho previous and earlier years. The promised amendments'of the Education and Workers'. Compensation Acts of last year illustrate, very well the current practice of acting first and thinking afterwards. ' v First in his programme the Prime Minister places the National Annuities and Land Settlement Financo Bills' of jp-st session. The, -former of these measures we'have discussed before. Tho other, which is sound in" jfrinciplo, but from which it would be rash to expect any largo success, has a special, interest to-day which it lacked before the general elections reminded the Government that' in nailing tho leasehold flag to its mast it was running up a colour under which'the country will not serve, j Our leasehold friends will not be, slow to notice-that although this Billj which admits the virtue of the freehold, was vigorously'pushed in the Prime Minister's speech, there was not that counterbalancing eulogy , of the leasehold tenuro. which; a good ' Radical should, expect from tho,head of a hitiherto "leasehold": Government. The Government has probably been counting up tho Parliamentary strength..of the freehold party, and thekabsence .of those ringing references to "tho great national heritage" that we heard in 1906 makes-it probable that Mr. . Jlassey's next convert on tho land question will be Sir Joseph Ward. To a Libe'ralism i that has become mere listening there is, no more convincing argument than ■ weight of; numbers, and the advocates of the optional system, of land-tenure may -look forward to a successful - issue of, their attacks upon a land policy which possesses.the' double vice of handicapping the full i ity of, the soil and of creating a vast, army of landholders dependent upon'.the State. On the question of defence Sir Joseph had much to say, but he has;added nothing of. importance to what he-said on this subject at Upper Hutt tho other day. The .public may therefore continue to wonder'how without a measure of .compulsion there can. be that improvement of which- tho Government' admits -the need. We cannot at all understand, even after his explanation, upon what principle the Prime Minister sets 'his. 1 face .against compulsory, training. He lays down no real principle in the matter' at all; the fact: is that he will not face the . extra cost of a defence scheme that lacks -the virtue of showiness. A new hint of the growing anxiety of ;the Government respecting ways and means appears in the proposed imposition of succession , duties. 1 The main object of the Government seems to be to prevent what it loves to: abuse as "evasions" of existing taxes, just as a disappointed "King of the Mountains" would abuse as "evasion" the act of a prisoner who made his escape. We are evidently ■ to have a- full application, of what The Times calls "the- policy of social ransom." The Government is to be commended on its projected scheme of prison reform and bankruptcy law reform, and •its decision to, attempt, to do something with the Native lands. -. The reform of.hospitals and charitable aid administration is long overdue. ~ iWe are not told how the Government intends to bripg economy into the Public Service' by Act of Parliament, and we do not suppose that what is contemplated is the only 1 , real method of securing economy, namely, the establishment of a Civil (Service Board. The friends of good government, it is to be hoped, will not cease to press for the removal of the service from political control. In the meantime, there is no . further information in th6-speech respecting the scheme of retrenchment. There .is, however, an extremely , lame attempt to defend tho gross extravaganco in the ser-'i vice. Sir_ Joseph' Ward would have us believe that the departmental system that he has cut to pieces and replaced by a new one is by no means; a thing to bo condemned. His argument is to the effect that the cumbrous multiplication of Departments was, necessary to get. the-last few years' legislation-into running order, and that now the laws are in regular j ; operation tho Departments can, be cut [ down. . Admiration for its ingenuity will' not make anybody forget the extreme absurdity of this argument.' What-law reI quired the Tourist Department-, for example, to . set it going J" What work outside that done by.the Magistrates did tho Old-Age Pensions Act entail that could not be taken up by a few elerks'added to the Postal Department ? . If Department is unnecessary now, it nover was necessary. And so with every\ono of the abolished nests for old friends of Ministers and their friends' friends .and relations. Even if wo could for a mo-, mcnt admit that a kind of scaffolding should be built-up around the fabric of the servico—and it cannot bo admittedwhy should the scaffolding be built ofvthe same expensive marble as the structure, itself? But ; everybody knows perfectly well that the bloated dimensions of the Public Service are tho measure of Liberalism's: jobbery and its application 'of. tile policy of "spoils to the victors." Wis cannot oow go into further details of tho

Prime Minister's speech. Tho promised measures are on tho whole rather good than bad: tho trouble with the Government's policy is that it does not contain the reform measures really required. Most people, on a little digestion of the Bpeech,.will feel that "Liberalism" as Wo it is about at the end of its tether, and is aware of the fact. The Prime Minister has grown anxious.