FEEBLE DEPRECIATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXI, Issue 15488, 14 December 1910, Page 8

FEEBLE DEPRECIATION.

It should bo as gratifying to the public as it must be to the Government to learn that when being interviewed by a newspaper reporter in Auckland the other day the -worst Mr Massey could say of the legislation passed during the recent session of Parliament was that he thought some oi the- measures would have been improved if members had examined them more closely before placing them on the. Statute Book. The leader of the Opposition does not damn the legislation by faint praise, but rather commends it by feeble depreciation. Ho complains that the debate on the Financial Statement was "dragged out to a most unusual length" and he thinks that " the proportion of useful legislation to the worthless or unnecessary was in the ratio of Shakespeare's ' ha'penny worth of bread to an intolerable deal of sack.' " This is practically the sum of his criticism. For the rest, he admits that more time than usual was given to " tho borrowing proposals and the Estimates" and that ;; a number of very useful amendments in the law was made." His praise, we notice on looking at the report of his remarks again, goes perilously near to balancing his blame. The truth is that the session, besides being the longest on record, was the most productive and useful in the annals of the Xew Zealand Parliament, and Mr Massey and his supporters are sorely puzzled to know where their fault-finding should begin. With a general election in view they cannot very well denounce the labour legislation and the land legislation, which constituted a large part of the session's work, and perforce they must scold the Government for "other subjects than finance" having been discussed during the financial debate and for the waste of time by their own party. The " Hino Charges,' from which they hoped so much, hopelessly failed to discredit the Government, and worse than this, from the Opposition point or view, they gave the Prime Minister an opportunity to refute a number of scandalous charges that had been made against himself. Altogether the session went rather badly for Mr Massey, and, remembering this, his friends should not ask him to talk for publication until he has hacMimo to frame a fresh indictment against the Government.