Evening Post. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1908. THE PREMIER AT AUCKLAND.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 33, 8 February 1908, Page 4

Evening Post. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1908. THE PREMIER AT AUCKLAND.

— . — .e> — Referring to the work of last session in Ids speech at Auckland yesterday, the Premier said that it would be impossible to review in the course of a single speech the whole of tho seventy-eight public Bills which were passed by Parliament. We may say in turn that it is impossible within the limits of a short article to review in detail a comprehensive speech oi which a full report would occupy at least a full page of the Evening Poet. A survey of its general features must suflice us for tho present. As to last session, the Premier'a remarks were very much what anybody mi git have expected, and few will be disposed to grudge him tho note of congratulation which distinguished this pait of his speech. That the session was the longest on record is certainly no matter lor boasting, bnt there is no denying that both in tho quantity and in the quality of its output Sir Joseph Ward's first full-sized session as Premier compares very favourably with most of its predecessors. In busi-ness-like- management and smoothness of working it also showed a great improvement on the metlnds to which we had been recently accu&tomed. But theTe was quite enough about the woik of the last two or tinea weeks of the session to suggest far too close a resemblance to the old stvla to bo comfortable. No remedy for tins unfortunate state of things has yet been sujrjrpsted by tho Premier, nor doeb nis Auckland speech fill the gap. How it it th'it with their Bills and returns and other Parliamentary papers in a. elate- of picpnriition for which iece;it years »ujt_i_l_r no £r£c«djs_t at the bß&in,-

ning of a session, tho Government nevertheless allowed tho fir.st two or three months of last session to bo frittered away just as badly us ovn? It h in the profitable wo of tho first Jialf of v tie&r.ion that tho cuio in to Ik- found for the blind scumpinjr of work tit its close, and its undue prof-ractiun. An yet tlw Premier is content to pu/.zlo over thin wanton waste oT half llio rchuioii itnd to pronounce- it unaccountable, but until ho arrives at tame moro helpful conclusion tho better era which he clnnnfi to liavo inaugurated nniht bo admitted' to rest upon v vcry_ innc-curo foundation. Passing by', for the present, the details of th© Premier's review of the past, v.hi"h naturally filled the greater portion of his spetjeh, wo may note that his indications of future- policy wore either of tho most general or of the most incaeio character. In ordinary course, the third session of a Parliament is abort and uneventful, and in the present instanco the causes which 'contribute to this result are strengthened by the large amount of prcswng business which has been put out of the way by last session's work. Another cause has since supervened in the tact that owing to- the fire in December last Parliament will be meeting in makeshift quarters which certainly will not tend to prolong the session or promote the despatch of business. Beyond repeating that there would not be much work to do, and that the session would be- a- short one, tho Premier therefore had practically nothing to say of the immediate future. Instead of a dotailecl programme, he delivered a general exposition of the aims of the Government as lying midway between hide-bound Conservatism and revolutionary Socialism. Ho was perhaps unnecessarily emphatic in his insistence upon the dangers ot the lattp, as though they constituted, an immediato and pressing menace. This is hardly a practical view, aild, indeed, tho academic flavour of the Premier's perorafaon, its historical allusions, and tho whole cast of it 3 rhetoric rather suggest the collaboration of a colleague ol more ornate literary style. But the general purport of the Premier's exposition is thoroughly sound and! sensible. The time hss pass»d when State interference could be used as an effective boijey, and public opinion applauds the Ministry's refusal to be scared by the cry of Socialism from the policy which has contributsdi so much to the development of tho country.