Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1899. FOOD FOR POLITICAL THOUGHT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXIII, Issue 270, 29 November 1899, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1899. FOOD FOR POLITICAL THOUGHT.

FREE WORKING MEN, CONSIDER ! The power of dispensation and suspension of laws claimed by the Crown was one of the ev.-b which created thp Bill of fright i, brought Charles I. to the Eoaffold, and made Oromwell Protector of the Commonwealth of hngland. Yet to»day, in New Zealand, t eddonisrn claims, and exercises, the right of suspending laws the Parliament has passed and which tho Governor, tho Queen's representative, has sanctioned. Mr J. MacGregor, ex-M.L.C, who declined 'i -nomination to ihe Legislative Ci nnotl because ho wonld not be the henchman of ibo Miniser for Lands, writes a strong impeachm ni of the Premier, charging him with suspending iha operation cf the *¥"pes Protection Act till after the elections. The Wages Protection Act and tho Children's Wages Act were the ou'.y Labour measures of any importance passed last session — or indeed since Mr W. P. Reeves left the colong in 1895. At the close of the session an inspired paiagraph in the newspapers told employers to take warning that ihe Children's Wages Act would be strictly enforced ; but no such intimation has been given regarding ihe Wages Protection Act, and the operation of the latter measure has beeu virtually suspended during the elections. Why? * # <» Mr MacGregor thns explains why in the " Oiago Daily Times " : — " This is tho inference to be drawn from the letter of tbe Secretary of the Labour Department to tbe local manager of the New Zealand Accident Insurance Company. The Act makes it unlawful, from the date of its passing, for an employer to take or receive from a worker employed by him any money in respect of nny policy of insurance against injury by accident^ and for an insurance company to receive from ai>y worker any money in respect of any juint policy insuring both the employer and the employed. .... Tbe eflect of the »nforccment ot the A.ct won'd be to bring home to tho workers the fact that, instead of conferring a boon upon them, it deprives them of a most ; benencinl system of insurance j and conFsqaently it is necessary to conceal the fact, at any rate, until the eleotions are over." * * * The bill was twioe rejected by the Legislative Council, but it was forced through last session by the obedient majority, whose wires were pulle3 by Boss Beddon, v*ho in turn was worked by the poli ical society ■

Bo6Bos in Wellington. Mr Maegreg&r continue*? : — " The effect of it (the Aet) ia to render illegal a system of insnrance whioh was advantageous in the highest degroe to the worktrs-much more than to tbe employer?. The evidence showed olearly that it enabled the workers to obtain insurance which wonld othorwiee be impracticable, and at a cost that was scarcely appreciable, and th*t in many instances the employer paid more than his fair proportion of the premium. The worker was insured from the moment he started work, even without bis being aware of it, and many a poor family has had reason to rejoice that such a system existei. Bat the tr,ide union wire-pullers objected to u, because it tended to a community of inter, si betveso the employer and the employed, ibe Go rernment had t j force ihe bill through in order to redeem one mure of their phdgsa to the ti-dde organisations i but they are now taking stops to prevent its consequences from being seen and realised,"' » * « Mr MvoGregor concludes bia letUT thus:— * ..luflhol our vaunted Labour legislation reminds one of the story ot the huuter, who, after mauy efforts, had caught a young panther, an 1 who was heard culling out to his mates : " Oome quick, for goodness sake, and halp me to le. this confounded thing so." ft # * This journal haa been accused of misrepresentation, uisfcor.ion, falsehood, calumny, personalities and several cardinal sins, because it exposes Soddonian nepotism and corruption and calls for purity of administration. But oan it be "al lies " when the " liars' include such honoured, respected, and upiight public men aj Gape itusaell, Mr Rjllt-sioD, Mr Hislop, Mr John Unthif, Mr .-ligo, Mr Begg, Mr MacGregor, Mr John Uutchseoi, Mr Aifr d . aundtrs (the vetjran statesman and historia j), and such journals as tho "ui^o Daily Titneß," the " Auckland" Herald," the Wellington " Post," and the Christchurcb. " Press " ? There must be some fire when the smoke is so undoubted. * # « Mr t'cobie Mackenzie at DuneJin on Seddonian fustian : — "Ministers hare been making dupes of the electors with their catch-penny phrases. There is not one of tbo principal enactments comprised in Ihe legislative record of the Government of which tbe ivul credit does not belong to some legislator in Mr Seddnn'd 'wretched past.' Tbe Land for Settlements Act, the Industri 1 Conciliation and Arbitration Act, the Government Advances to Settlers Act, the Old-Age Pensions Act were none of tbem original proposals by the present Governmen'. £ven in tbe matter of Inborn legislation, which Ministerial candidates would lead tho elect' r* to regard as th pecnliar indention of tbe Seddon Admin stvatioo, the colony was not ill-provided lung before 1801. The fact is - tbe foundation of all our factory legisUtiju was laid years before Mr Seddon was politically beard of. The Ministry haß merely extended, and not at ways improved, tlie legislation of past limes. And this it ii which makes tbe boeey that is being industriously raised by Mr Seddon and hit. followers-the bogey that the Oppoßitun, if placed in power, would repeal the prjgreeeive legi»htion of ih> cMooy— so supremely ridiculous." • » » A railway nu. fur Mr Qiabam t> crack (vide his dt-nial of Mr liuis.house's contentious; : — During the last three years the Kail way Department has procured from Parliament no less a surn lhan £025,000 as follows : - In 1897, "in respest of open railways, additional rolling stock, repairs to damages to hneu by floods or otherwise, or such other works and purposes as ara authorised, JE200.000. 1898, in rsßpoct of open railways, additional rolling stock, ind Buch other works aud purposes as may be authorised, j£»>J,OOO. 1890, additional rolling stock for opoa lines and such other works and purposes in connection therewith as may be authorised, £225.000," No marvel that ihd railways art made to pay bo Jong ita ihe public continue thus to pay the piper. # * » Wellington •* Post 1 ' on railway management by ytddoni=m : - "Of a.'l the evils of Seddonism, the manner in which tbo people are hoodwinked ai.d humbugged in the matter of railway returns is one of tbe most, flagrant. It is nn ingeniously devised system of robbing Peter to pay Paul of the mest audacious kind, Peter (who is robbed) being the general taxpayer, chiefly the worker without capital, and Panl the country party, whose vote the Premier won d buy, who has received tbe many freight concessions of wh.cb that gentleman so loudly and frequency makes boast. Nov, probably, no man in the commercial community knows more of the law ot public companies than Mr Macdonald. R'ill that gentleman then tell tbe electors of the city tybsfc Ihe law enacts against the directois ot a publio company wbo, after successfully inducing the iub!io to subscribe addjtjoi.nl capital, proceed to pay dividends, not from prolits, but from out of the newly acquired capital ? This is precisely the manner in which the Qovernment is making the socalled profits from our railways and distributing them in lowered freights and charges to the country party. , , Under the management of the Kail way CcinniK-ioners renewals and rolling stock were provided out of profits, and propeiiy so. But under our system of railway management the earnings of a locomotive are credited wholly to profits, and, when the machine is worn out, it is .replaced from out of a vote of Parliament. * * » Mr Pcobie Mackenzie had Mr John McKenzie, Minister of Lands, "on the hip "at Dnnedin. Two years ago " Scobie " showed by a table the failure of the t-eddonian land policy compared with that of the previous eight years, and the Minister for Lands angrily declared it to be "an audacious and odious attempt at imposture." "gcobie" has now prepared the table anew, from the official records of the colony — the reports of the Department of Lands- and he shows that the '• imposture " has been all on the other side. Seddonism contends that there has been more real settlement ot the land under Mr John M'Kenzie than under any previous Minister. » * » Mr 3coble Mackenzie shows, however, that, even if the gross settlement were made the test, the results would be unfavourable to the present Ministry. The number of persona who have taken np land on the various tenures of settlement under the administration of the present Minister is less than the -number for the corresponding nnmbor of years prior to his acces3ton to office. On the other band, the number of forfeitures and surrenders is enormously in excess of that for the earlier period. In the eight years prior to I IS9I the forfeitures and surrendered totalled 1496 ; in the eight years since they totalled 4048. The net settlement has consequently been going on at a much re Inced rate since the control of the department passed into tho hands of Mr John M'Kenzie. • * * ; The material progress of a coun« try is normally dependent upon causes entirely outside the legislation of that country, aud it implies no especial discredit to the Seddon Government when it is shown that in certain important items, whioh afford a fair index to progress, the ratio of increase has been less in the past eight years than in the eight years preceding. The ratio of the increase in the exports of the colony for the paat eijrht years ha» been only 9 per cent as compired with 60 f per cent for tho eight years from j 1882 to 1890 ; the ratio of the in- ! crease of land under cultivation has fallen from 50 per cent to il per

cent; that of the shipping oomin;( to onr chores baa deoreased from 46 J per cent to 16 per cpnfe : and that of the mileige of railways that we have constructed baa fallen front 84 per cent to 13 per cent. * # * An ab?urd notion prevails, and is of conrsß industriously fostered, that all labouring men are on the side of Soddoniam. As a matter of fact only the Tammany organisa ion* of Mr eddem, and the Bhort-sigbted who believe that thege "three tailors of Tooley-atreet " are really representative bodies of working men, are on the aide of sham Liberalism and shoddy pseuJodemocracy. At the meeting of the " Triple > llianoy "in WellingtonMr John Hutcheson, Hon. T. W. Hinlop, and Mr 4* R. Atkinson — •he resolution of confidence was moved by Mr W. C. Gourlay, Secretary of the Iron and Brass Founders' Union, and seoonded by Mr J. H. Arthur, another representative worker.