Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1909. THE COMING SESSION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 84, 6 October 1909, Page 6

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1909. THE COMING SESSION.

The Parliamentary session that opens to-morrow will certainly not be gravelled for lack of matter. None of the problems with which Parliament should have been grappling during the last three montlis has solved itself by waiting, and in most cases they are pressing for treatment with a more urgent insistency than before. The problem of unemployment alone suggests itself as an apparent exception. . The unfortunate unemployed have managed to worry through the winter, and, with the approach of summer, the increasing demand for work in the country is diminishing the congestion of labour in the cities without the intervention of Parliament. To speak of the problem as solved would, however, be unreasonable. Not a single one of the fundamental causes has been touched, and if Ministers have any policy in the matter they will* do well to submit it as though no holiday had been taken by the Legislature during what is hoped and believed to have been, the acutest phase of the present trouble. As everything that makes for sound and economical government, for the development of the country, and for the progress of settlement, has a direct bearing on this baffling problem, it is to be hoped that along these lines Parliament will accomplish something of definite and lasting value. One matter which the Government would like to evade altogether is the land question, but, however short the session, this inglorious solution cannot possibly be achieved. The land question must be faced, and tho long silence of Ministers on the subject, followed by their unconditional approval of candidates at the Raugitikei by-election, who were .diametrically opposed to what has hitherto been supposed to be a cardinal point in their policy, and has not even now been expressly disavowed, has immensely complicated the difficulties and the dangers of the task. As to the La,nd Settlement Finance Bill, at any rate, Ministers need have no fear. It is a measure which has had the unique good fortune to please both parties to the freehold controversy. Nobody attacked it when it was before the House of Representatives last year, and, so far as we observed, it passed quite unscathed through the fire of the general 'election. The freeholders welcome a measure which promises to put more freehold land into the market. The leaseholders are thankful to see this dono without , trenching on the public estate to the extent of a single acre, and without involving any serious drain, or, indeed, 'if ordinary prudence is shown in the administration, any drain at all, upon the public finance. To assist in the breaking-up of the large estates and in apportioning them among associations of small freeholders, backed by a State guarantee, is an object which both political parties and both parties to the land controversy can fortunately unite in supporting. Despite all its wobbling on the contentious issues the Government may, therefore, be relied on to proceed with this Bill, but it certainly will not be allowed to rest there. Further legislation on the land question may not be practicable or even desirable during the coming session, but it will be quite impossible for the Government to refrain from defining its attitude and taking up a definite stand. To have done this, as we strongly urged, immediately after the general election, would have saved the Government from much misconception and reproacfi, and have prevented the enemy from making the great advance which, in the absence of opposition, has been a very easy matter. Even after the deplorable backsliding of his colleagues in relation to the Rangitikei election, we hope that the Premier will have the courage to stand firmly by the policy by which he stood in 1907 and at the general election. If he makes it perfectly plain that he is determined to maintain that attitude even at the cost of office, he will be able to carry his point without any such sacrifice. In this case the path of courage is also the path of safety. To the matter of finance much the same considerations apply. Here also candour and courage are needed in order to face an unpleasant position and to disclose it without reserve, and there is less reason to fear that the Premier will be unequal to the tasK than in the other case. When he tackled the question of retrenchment six months ago, he displayed unmistakable courage. He was not afraid of the cnarge of inconsistency or of the support which tho admission of the need for drastic economies gave to the accusations of previous extravagance. We hope that he may be brave enough and wise enough to be equally frank ' now. There is a wide-spread impression both inside and outside the House that essential information is being withheld, and this is to be removed not by indignant denunciation of the lack of patriotism on the part of those who enEertain it, but by a plain- unreserved and unvarnished statement of the actual position of our finances. There is a third subject, which is of equal importance with those already named, and is even less likely to be evaded. As Parliament has suspended its operations for the best part of four months on account of the defence question, it cannot proceed on resuming business as though no such question existed. Sir Joseph Ward's report of his mission will necessarily be one of the first performances of the session, and we do not doubt that he and members i generally will be very patriotic about it — patriotic, that is to say, in their uttemoues, But gatrlotleitt, lllie

the other virtues, is "really a matter not of the lips, but of the* heart, and it is to be measured accordingly not by the fine words, but by the actions which it produces. We cannot discuss the two branches of this great question at length in this article, but will merely say that on the naval side the Premier's action at the conference is sure to be approved by the House as by the country, and that on the other he will in our opinion be falling short of his duty if he does not give the country the lead for which it is looking in the direction of universal military training. It is not defence conferences or patriotic resolutions, but a citizen army that wil) keep the country safe and white if the first line of defence- is ever temporarily broken through.