ENEMY ORIGIN

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 138, 7 December 1918, Page 4

ENEMY ORIGIN

10 Till IDIIOK. Sir,—For an example of ill-considered legislation I may commend to th« attention of the people of New Zealand the War Legislation Bill which has now been read a third time before the Legislative Council. Presented to Parliament after actual hostilities have ceased its very title is a misnomer, and its provision out of date. Other and abler pens have levelled at the Bill as a whole the criticism it so richly deserves. I will oonterit»my> self with attempting to expose tho flagrant and shameful injustice contained in the first part of it. Air. Yon Hasst has in his two letters brought out very clearly many of jfoo> salient points of the measure, which,' from the Government's own statements, is intended to protect farming interests in the gum lands of North Auckland. Between an overwhelming deeiTe on the part of our leading politicians not to bo left out of the limelight of the Peace Conference, and the lackadaisical feeling (shall we mercifully call it the result of the influenza?) that seems to pervade Parliament, there has evolved a Bill poorly drafted, and showing signs of fcho haste of its concoction that may perchance protect the small ,section .intended, but in so doing will inflict burdens grievous to be borne upon an even larger section of the community. Only as an after thought did the Legislative Council introduce an amendment exempting those who have served their country from the disqualifying clauses of the Bill. The idea :>f freeing the relatives of soldiers from its provisions does not seem to have presented itself. If a father have three sons and give them all to serve his adopted ooun try is he not worthy of more at your liands, you people of New Zealand, than that you should deny him the right of ownership of the house above his head, or the grave wherein his wife lies buried? How, too, of those, and' there are many walking your streets to-day, who offered themselves freely and willingly, not once but many time to serve their country ? Are they, too, to suffer under the same condemnation? This Bill is. not a temporary measure to b« set aside "when the war is over." No, it is an example of serious legislation, an example of equality and justice— as shown by the Government of New Zealand. A law that will allow a son born in New Zealand to hold land, but will disqualify his brother born, in Britain is as fine a sample of anomaly (or is it effrontery?) as one might weE imagine. And why the native of any other part of the Empire should be excluded is a question that some of our legislators seem to have overlooked. To say more is needless. The whoh> subject has been treated in so off-hand a manner as to make the people wonder whether Parliament fully realises that the fate of us all is in its hands, and whether in a matter such as this, the aid of tho Imperial Government should not be invoked "to save us from ourselves.— I am, etc., G. J. J. FEIL. 6th December.