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Evening Star, Issue 14630, 28 July 1911, Page 4

Lob n Macaulay has popularised the legend of an It:dian The Governor’s criminal whose Judges Speech. allowed him to make his choice between two forms of punishment—servitude at the galleys and the reading of Guicciardini’s history. “ He chose the history. But “ the war of Pisa was too much for him. “He. changed his mind, and went to the “ oar.” Tf nil the Governor's Speeches that have been delivered at the opening of the New Zealand Parliament since the institution of Responsible Government were to be brought together in one book, the compulsory perns,d of that awful volume might conceivably meet the views of those people who wish to effect a change in the present method of capital punishment. Any sane malefactor world rather be “preached to death by wild curates”—which was Sydney Smith’s notion of the ns plus ultra of mortal torment. Why the production of these annual deliverances should invariably be associated with insignificant verbosity and banal commonplace we cannot undertake to explain. We only know that so it is, and so it presumably will be till the end of the chapter. It is quite a mistake to suppose that the present Government are the first offenders in this kind. Turn over dusty volumes of ‘Hansard’ (‘Hansard’ is always dusty), and you will find the same forbidding qualities

in the Govermore’ Speeches in the days of Sir John Hall and Sir Robert Stout and Sir Harry Atkinson as in the lates times of Mr Scddoa and Sir Joseph Ward. There is the same thin poverty of material, the xi,mo woeful lack of distinction in style. The only difference is that the gradual extension of governmental enterprise has served to increase the length of the conventional lucubration.

The Speech read by Lord Islington yesterday was neither better nor worse tiian most of these that have gone before and become “ parcel and portion of the dreadful past.” Ignoring the routine paragraphs, it may be noted that the passage emphasising the “ continued prosperity ” of the Dominion is evidently meant as a corrective to the recent half-pessimistic and wholly superfluous utterances of the chairman of the Bank of Now Zealand. It will lie remembered that the Minister of Commerce gave a prompt and convincing answer to Mr Beauchamp’s sombre vaticinations — which, by the way, as we predicted, are being industriously utilised by Opposition speakers and, writers for purposes of partisanship. Tho somewhat elaborate reference to irrigation has a special interest for the people of Otago ; but, while recognising tho value of the work which tho Government are undertaking in tho Ida Valley, we must again point out that there is equal, if not greater, need for vigorous enterprise in other parts of Central Otago —particularly in the neighborhood of Cromwell. The representations recently made to Sir .lamer- Carroll on behalf of the Cromwell Irrigation League elicited from the Acting Premier an unequivocal promise of person;!! Interest, and there will bo keen disappointment, not to say resentment. in the district if that engagement is forgotten. Ministers must bear in mind that the Cromwell people are so convinced of the valuable potentialities of irrigation work that they would l>o quite willing to lind the money for the necessary operations; and though wo approve the Government's refusal to sanction private enterprise in wbn-t is rightly regarded as a national project, this local readiness should certainly bo taken into account and servo as a stimulus to the activity of tho Public Works Department. No one expects the third session of a Parliament to be very fruitful in point of legislation, and tho Prime Minister’s absence from tho Dominion during tho latter part of the recess furnishes an additional excure for tho paucity of new proposals. Some measures of more or less importance are indicated in tho Speech —including that hardy annual, the Local Government Bill. This" subject ought to have been seriouslytackled by tho present Parliament, but it would ho" futile to expect that anything will bo done in tho matter before the dissolution, and we must content ourselves with a pious hope of actual performance on the part of the now Legislature. Wo are glad to see “tho important question of town-planning’’ included in the list of Government projects. Having regard to the large amount of work accomplished last year, and also in view of the exigencies of the coming election, His Lxcelkucy’s Adviseis “ arc of opinion that this session may he a comparatively short “one.” It is a reasonable surmise, but it wiU not bo realised if the. Government encourage the House to waste or mark time during the interval that must elapse before Sir Joseph Ward’s return. A prolonged and desultory discussion on the Governor's Speech is strongly to be deprecated. Some of the Government Bills should be introduced and pressed forward without dclav. so that the road may he fairly clear for the Budget and Financial Debate a month hence. If these businesslike methods are adopted there is no reason vvhv members should not get away to their electorates by, say, the first week in October.