A FALSE MOVE

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue XC, 7 October 1915, Page 6

A FALSE MOVE

By a little clause in the bulky "Wash-ing-up" Bill, lessees of residential and business sites in th« " State township " of Te Aroha hoped to be enabled to obtain freehold titles, at the orginal valua. tion. Happily this objectionable proposal was detected, and it was well " stone-walled " last night. This was an occasion when members' full use of the " freedom of speech " was beneficial to New Zealand. The Prime Minister saw the strength arrayed against the rosy hopes of Te Aroha folk, eag«r to get " something for nothing " — a measure of unearned increment, at the State's expense — and the obnoxious clause had to be dropped. Critics complained that a controversial clause, a piece of party politics, had been slipped into the miscellaneous Bill, in a manner contrary to the spirit of the truce, and a charge of breach of faith was raised The Prime Minister emphatically repudiated all suggestion that he had not acted in accordance with his promises, but it is plain that a mistake was made. The clause was one to arouse controversy from one end of New Zealand to the other, at a time when the energy of the press and of public men is urgently needed for war work. The proposed legislation — to surrender the State's title — would be a blot on any Government's Statute Book, and the blot would have a particularly deep shade of blackness when made in the name of a Government described as " National."