Evening Post. TUESDAY, JULY 5, 1898.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 4, 5 July 1898, Page 4

Evening Post. TUESDAY, JULY 5, 1898.

POLITICAL POINTERS. «. Political pointers abound in the Parliamentary Order Paper, particularly afc the beginning of the session, while yet the heads of Departments are devising evasive answers to awkward questions, or Miniiters are conspiring to shelve pestilent notices of motion. One question that, if it be not inspired by Ministers for their purpose, may be difficult to evade or satisfactorily answer * stands in the name of Mr. Flatman, who wishes to know if the Minister for Lands intends to introduce a Pair Rent Bill during the coming jession. This is a measure which the Minister some two years ago presented to the House, but pressed with so little enthusiasm as to suggest the idea in some quarters that it was mostly meant as a sop to the advocates of periodical revaluation! of Crown leases. We incline to think that Mr. Flatman's question is a political pointer, and that if meanwhile the Hon. John M'Kenzie finds that enough of votes are likely to move in that direction there will be promise of either a Fair Rent Bill or periodical reappraisement of rents. As we pointed out in a recent article, the lease in perpetuity has most of the vices of the freehold, which is the only title under which monopoly of land as against the State can be successfully maintained. The question is fraught with many political risks, for it marks a sharp line of division 'twixt town and country. Mr. M'Kenzie knows this full well, and his answer to Mr. Flatman will be watched with interest. The country has now become so thoroughly aroused to the magnitude of the tuberculosis peril that it is more than probable, as it is certainly desirable, that the present session of Parliament shall witness very drastic legisla tion for extirpation of the scourge. Last session authority was taken for the appropriation of £2000 for compensation to owners whose stock might be condemned to destruction when proved to be diseased. Since that time the veterinary surgeons of the Agricultural Department have inspected a few of the dairy herds of the colony, and have proved, we believe, the widespread existence of tuberculosis iv its most malignant form among the milk suppliers of the country. What this means in the homes of those who habitually consume uneboiled milk we have time and again pointed out in these columns, in the hope that the public may come to ,be aroused to the sense of a great danger to the health of the community. In Taranaki the application of the tuberculin test to the dairy cattle has resulted in considerable destruction of cattle by order of the Government, the owners being paid half the value of the stock condemned. This has apparently moved Mr. M'Guire, who reepresents a fertile portion of that famous pastoral district, to ask the Minister for Agriculture "If he will introduce an amendment of the Stock Act with the object of compensating settlers for cattle destroyed by order Of the Stock Inspector ? " This is a "poiuter" towards the necessity of grappling with a big question that has, we doubt not, had the serious attention of the Hon. John M'Kenzie for some time past. The danger is very great and very real. It can only be suppressed at very great cost, and the moot point is, how is the loss to be distributed ? It may be assumed that the Government will legislate ontbequestion during the present session, and that the Bill will provide that a m oiety of value shall be borne by the owner ; but what of the remainder ? In the other colonies the rule has been that charges incurred for the extirpation of diseases in stock or destruction of animal pests, as marsupials nnd native dogs, shall be a charge upon the general body of stoekowuers, the necessary revenue being r.iit>ed by a universal Jtook assessment. On tho other hand, in Britain the cost of stamping out a common scourge to the agricultural interest, as rinderpest, for example, was borne by the Consolidated Revenue, upon the ground that it was a matter of national concern, though primarily of largest moment to the agricultural interest. It may be well argued in our case that it is a matter of national concern that our people shall be freed from the daily danger of contracting the most deadly form of disease by the consumption of tuberculous meat and milk; and it the intention of the Government be, as reported, to impose the burden of extirpation wholly upon the agriculturists of the oolonj', they may look for very strong, if not effective, opposition. Anj'way, Parliament will shirk its plain duty if it fail/ to make full provision during the present session for the extirpation of a scourge that is a menace and a peril to the public health.