Evening Post. FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 1912. THE GOVERNMENT'S POLICY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 153, 28 June 1912, Page 6

Evening Post. FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 1912. THE GOVERNMENT'S POLICY

The amazing length, of the speech delivered by His Excellency at the opening of Parliament. yesterday is its most 1 conspicuous feature. Has a Governor ever been required to talk so long on such an occasion? The result is the more surprising in view of the Premier's references to the subject in his policy speech, at the end of last month. He plainly indicated that in his opinion Sir Joseph Ward's last programme was too ambitious and millennial in its scope, and that it was preferable to ' limit a programme to a moderate number of proposals that were immediately practicable. Y'efc when the Premier comes to propound his own programme it proves to be even more cyclopaedic in its range than his predecessor's, and jusfc as impossible of realisation within the limits of a single session or even of a •ingle Parliament. The explanation of the inconsistency doubtless is that the Premier in his Opunake speech was laying down quite correctly the conditions of a programme in ordinary circumstances, but that the extraordinary circumstances in which he finds himself have ultimately led him to take just the same course as Sir Joseph Ward. The Speech delivered by His Excellency yesterday, like that which he delivered in February, is an address to the electors by a Government which understands that it will not stay in office long enough to face the responsibility of making good its promises. The electors will at least be able to see who are their true friends, even though the no-confidenoe motion of a wicked Opposition may have prevented true friendship from carrying out its good intentions. Though by no means so red, raw, and' Radical an the February manifesto of the dying Ward Government, the programme of the Mackenzie Government resembles it in many points. The ideal of toxasbi&s io X "VMybody id net quite

so assiduously carried out, but there is a pretty close general resemblance. The taxation proposals are very similar. The increase of the graduated land tax from an unimproved value of £30,000 upwards ie common to both programmes, and 60 ie the proposal to distinguish between earned and unearned incomes, with a view to reducing the burden of taxation upon the former. The proposal of the Ward Government "to dietinguish between incomes of parents who are educating and maintaining a family and those who have no such responsibility" is repeated in vaguer terms by the Mackenzie Government. A notable omiesic-n, however, is that of th« proposed increase of the exemption for land taxation purposes from £500 to £1000. Tliis Conservative proposal had an odd appearance in the company of so much extravagant Radicalism in the Ward programme, and we are not surprised to find that the present Government has preferred not to repeat it. An increased exemption in land tax for widows and others in straitened cir- 1 cumstances is the only point touching this question in yesterday's programme. One feature of the Governor's Speech that will cause widespread satisfaction is the heartiness of the references to the Defence question. A 6 Minister of Defence Sir Joseph Ward seemed to b* strangely shy and timid in his attitude to the great training scheme which ho had been responsible for instituting. Tho attitude of Mr. Myers has been very different. He has displayed a genuine enthusiasm and pride in the success of the scheme, and has made it quite clear that he would spare no effort to make the success permanent and complete. We cannot be mistaken in detecting the hand of Mr. Myers in the warm appreciation of the work of our young citizen soldiers up to date. The only legislative proposal affecting the- matter is just what was expected. Military detention is to be substituted for ordinary imprisonment as the punishment for defaulter* who refuse to pay the fines imposed by the Courts. As long as this system can be made effective and convenient, the change proposed will meet with general approval. The "demilitarising" of the Junior Cadets, which was advocated by the Minister of Education in a recent statement to the Press, is another change which should at' any rate escape any strenuous opposition. It is gratifying to find that on the great question of Defence the Government has not justified the fears of those who freely prophesied a policy of "scuttle." There is a multitude of other point* in, this immense programme — proposals of all degree* of merit and demerit, and the utmost ingenuity would fail to discover any common ground of principle to which tbey can all be referred.