Evening Post. FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1909. THE GOVERNOR'S SPEECH.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 137, 11 June 1909, Page 6

Evening Post. FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1909. THE GOVERNOR'S SPEECH.

The opening proceedings of what should have been one of the most interesting sessions ever held by a New Zealand Parliament were just as lifeless as it was possible for them to be. The determination of members at their informal gathering on Monday that they would only meet as a Parliament in order to neglect their duties had deprived yesterday's ceremonies of the interest ( that would otherwise have attached tc them. Ministers and their obedient majority had decided that nothing was to be done, and nobody could be expected to get up any excitement over the formal announcement of the fact, or the official reasons to be given for it. Those reasons, as declared by the Government yesterday, follow very closely both the logic and the style of the resolutions adopted by the Caucus. " This being the first session of a new Parliament," said his Excellency, "my Advisers deem it necessary that while the session lasts the Prime Minister should be in his place here to carry on his important duties, and to introduce, explain and, if necessary, defend the policy of the Government." The special importance of the duties to be discharged by the Premier during the first session of a new Parliament make it imperative that he should be in his place in the House to discharge them. Fso far we can all agree. But when his Excellency is made to draw the con-elus-ion that, therefore, these important duties should not be discharged either by the Premier or by a lieuteuant for nearly four months, the pros-jiic intellects of some of us decline to take the jump. The Premier knovs, and his followers know, and everybody knows, that the suspension of business till October m'a&ns that some of it will be badly done and a good deal of it will not be done at all, and that accordingly, as we We said, the importance of the buraness to be done is really being made a pretext for not doing it. There is, at any rate, one happy touch in the passage which we have quoted. One of the reasons why the 'Premier' should be in his place in the House is that he may "introduce, explain, and, if necessary, defend the policy of the Government." That 'if necessary" is really admirable. The introduction and explanation of the Government's policy are definite duties, from which there is no escape for the Premier, but the necessity for defending them is problematical. It is greatly to the credit of the Governor's Advisers that in their enumeration of the Premier's duties they should leave I the possibility open that his explanation of their measures may be so successful that the need to defend them may never arise. We can quite understand that Ministers despaired of finding any other among their number whose genius' would be equal to such a task. Another point which entitles the Government to our gratitude is the softening of that grandiose reference to "the importance of the part New Zealand proposes to take in Imperial Naval Defence," which disfigured the principal resolution of the Caucus. "The new part this country has assumed in Imperial defence by its offer of a Dreadnought" is a much sounder, more accurate, and more modest reason for sending the Premier to the Defence Conference than that which the Caucus adopted at his instance. It is also gratifying to be assured- that the offer of the Dreadnought was "subject to ratification by Parliament." Not a hint was dropped as to this condition when the offer was first announced. Nor did the full text of the offer which afterwards appeared contain any allusion to it. The Premier has since stated that there was another qualifying mes-.-sage accompanying the published offer. He will doubtless produce to Parliament the text of this supplementary cablegram, and explain why the natural course of putting all that he had to say into a single message was not followed, and why the people of New Zealand were led by an incompiete publication to believe that their Parliament had been entirely ignored in the matter. He is bound to explain very carefully this remarkable action of the Government, but in this case we cannot hope that his explanation will be so successful that he will notjdso be called upon to defend it. Beyond the points we have mentioned, and the colourless commonplaces on the Naval Defence, which, if it really justifies the prorogation of Parliament till October, surely deserved less platitudinous treatment, there is little indeed that calls for comment. Honourable gentlemen of the House of Representatives will be asked to extend the appropriations to "a suitable date," and to pass a Loan Bill for raising the money required for certain, public works. "A statement showing approximately the financial position of the Dominion" will be submitted, which, of course, means that neither the Financial Statement nor the return "Bl" wiy be produced until October. The Opposition will have ample opportunity of saying, on the voting of supplies, the plain words that the occasion demands, but by sitting late and "sitting tight" the majority at the command of the Government will do their best to dull the edge 01 criticism, and to hasten the prorogation which the importance of the work to be shelved makes it, in the opinion of their leaders, an urgent duty to precipitate. Beyond these financial proposals, the present programme of the Government is an absolute blank.

It is notified in last night's Gazette that the Government will pay a bonus of 3d per gallon (£6250) on the first half-million grstfkaw of mineral oil pro. duoed in New Zealand.