Evening Post WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 1914. PROMISES FOR THE SESSION

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 148, 24 June 1914, Page 6

Evening Post WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 1914. PROMISES FOR THE SESSION

To-morrow an electioneering "recess" is to merge into a session in which the popular vote will not be forgotten by either the Government or the Opposition. When Mr. Maesey and his Ministerial colleagues were not on the Treasury Benches it was their business to have ideals of administration in a clear and cool atmosphere of perfection a/bove the hot, dusty swirl of party politics, but they have deemed it prudent to practise some of the office ruses which they once condemned in their predecessors. They have discovered that tho system of the large franchise with the email electorate imposes limitations in some spheres of national policy; a district sees its own needs before New Zealand's; tho part ever seeks to take advantage of the whole. After fcho many clashes of tho recess, the raids of "flying/ squadrons" of Oppositionists and the Ministerial forays, tho people scarcely need, a reminder that the session threat-one a continuance

of allegations and recrimination — a tiresome iteration of party puerilities hy both sides. By the came old dreary rounds of verbiage, each party hopes to convince the public somehow that the other is not politically respectable, and deserves suffocation in the ballotbox. It is pathetic to witness year after year how this belief continues to be a chief article 'of faith in many a politician's creed. It is a. belief which blindly or foolishly assumes stupidity or extreme gullibleneEs among the public. What is the prospeot of success for an appeal for sanity? What heed will be given to a request for conscientious, steady work foi tho public good instead of wild wordß for party purposes? Will the politician be a public man first and a party man second? Will the partisan establish a much-de-sired precedent? One hopes— and is likely to hope. Many political seers are very bv.sy at ■mind-reading. They know how much the Government has prom feed, but can only guess how much it may do*, the Government itself does not know, for tho policy on some matters may be shaped by factors which cannot be ex actly foreseen. For a beginning, consider the speech of the Premier at Invercargill on 27th May. He then declared that he would submit Bills dealing with land, education, Legislative Council, conciliation and arbitra. tion, licensing, defamation, Parliamentary grants for public works, administration of the Cook Islands, workers'homes, Asiatic immigration (particularly the influx of Hindus) ; and made a vague equivocal reference , to election of the House of Representatives. The land legislation may be chiefly concerned with the West Coast tenures, a complication which a Commission is now investigating. It is safe to prophesy that nothing drastic will be done to disturb the peace and plenty of large landbwhers. Ministers bave' made a hrav» flourish about the effects of the little/ tap with the graduated land tax, but the territorial magnates will smilingly survive much of that punishment, which is not nearly so dreadful as it sounds via the political megaphone. They do not fear a knock-out blow by the Mas* sey Government any more than they feared one by the WaTd Government. Happily the Government promises to have more courage *on the field of education, where the cost oi improvements can be easily passed on to the general public. Here the commitment to reform is pleasantly definite. Discussing this subject (in conjunction with the general question of" pubKc service) at Whangarei on 21«t April, Mr. Massey said thao "the Government wanted the very best men, and women, and was going to pay them adequately." Mr. Allen has beein equally frank, and, therefore, the teachers can look for better times. If is widely believed thafc the Government will set up a National Council of "Education, as recommended by the Royal Commission of 1912. The teachers are confident that by such procedure the grievances in regard to appointments and promotions can be reduced to a minimum. _ Twice the nominated Legislative Council has been plunged into a pool of reform, and twice it has declined to drown itself. Mr. Massey is so confident that the third immersion will be fatal to the old order that he predicted in Christchnrch early this month : — " The Legislative Council will be made elective within three months." It is to be a homeopathic process; the nominated body is to be destroyed by nomination,- it is to go down under the weight of new members pledged to the Government brand of reform, but the new nominees may have a seven-year term. It is a desperate remedy, but, apparently, inevitable. The traditional comprehensive Local Government Bill will be put through "if possible," but probably only one important instalment will be passed this year. The Government has admirably undertaken to put an end to the old degrading roads'andbridges function of Parliament .(rather the dominant party). An independent board is to have the allocation of these funds— a change which should be welcomed by the people and their repre sentatives. The present scheme has given power to Ministers to hold v the whip over tho people's representatives and to perpetrate a policy of rewards-and-punishmentsVmong electorates. Last year 'the Government deferred the doing of a plain duty regarding Asiatic immigration, but tho Premier has unmistakably resolved to take action this session. The Post and other journals have repeatedly given proof of the urgent neefl of a strong move against tho Hindu menace. On another occasion— at Napier on 11th May— Mr. Massey said it was "the intention of the Government to provide better roads and better railway communication than ever before," and the country as a whole will be glad to have the prediction fulfilled. Wellplanned roads and railways are splendid agents of close settlement; they necessarily make for a good use of land. The new railway manager, Mr. Hiley, has been through the two islands and has closely examined the whole system. The Government has the results of his observation and his recommendations— and the public can expect an appreciable change for the better, even if the Ministry clings to the old order of political control, while admitting that the commisioner system is preferable in other departments. , An omission from the Premier's list was the tariff, an exceedingly difflcult task. Our impression is that the Government is not prepared for anything like radical revision, and unless it is ready with well-considered lines gf definite principle, the people would be better served by postponement; they do not want a tinkering botchwork of political compromise. Naval policy will be much debated, but the Government has a good excuse for refusing to disclose much more of its mind than was revealed during the recess. The plea, is that it is advisable to wait till tho conclusion of tho Imperial Conference on Defence. Various minor matters not mentioned in this article will add to the labours

of a session which should not go beyond four months, if the legislating is to conclude in time to permit an election not later than the middle of December. There is much exceedingly important work awaiting the best thought of all public-spirited members, but, unfortunately, there are two large distractions —liquor and religion. The Prohibition Party, the "Trade," and the Bible-and-Clergy-in-State Schools League are big figures in the arena, and each hopes to influence the average member. With much strife on these issues and with the ordinary welter of party politics the comparatively short pre-election session will not lack liveliness.