THE ADDEESS-IN-REPLY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12326, 20 July 1903, Page 6

THE ADDEESS-IN-REPLY.

THE CREAM OF THE DEBATE.

TONE AND TENOR OF POLITICS.

SUBJECTS OF COLONLAL INTEREST. [BT TEIEGKAPH. — COBBESPOXDEXT.]

Wellingtox, Saturday. It has been known, from the North Cape to the , Bluff that the Parliament of New Zealand for the last" three weeks has been discussing the Addiess-in-Reply to His Excellency's Speech, or, in other words, that members have been embracing the opportunity to air their views on as many subjects as they could conveniently ventilate in a speech of an hour's duration.

A RECORD DEBATE, It has been a record debate in length, but old Parliamentarians who revel in these things are agreed that it. has also been among the moat useful in Parliamentary annals. Members have been crossing swords in the House and exchanging ideas in the calmer atmosphere of the lobbies, and the general opinion of those best able to judge is that the personnel of the present Parliament is not onlj a vast improvement on the last, but is the best at all events since our present Premier began his long reign on the Ministerial benches. It is undoubtedly a good Parliament as Parliaments go. Many ei the benches are occupied by men capable above the average of Parliamentary , representatives of taking ft broad view of public questions, and willing to fearlessly express what they think, and of these the Auckland province is to be congratulated on having sent more than its usual share. The Premier is a good judge of the calibre of Parliament, and he predicts that there are rocks ahead. The rocks are there, and if the Premier should prove a too venturesome navigator there would be a shipwreck. Even with careful steering I doubt if Mr. Seddon will be able to keep his party altogether out of broken water. WEAKNESSES.

In a strong Parliament nothing Is more natural than that attention should be directed to its weak parts. The weaknesses of the present " Parliament are the Executive and the Upper House. To remedy this many doubting members are casting in their lot with the enthusiasts who believe in the elective Executive as a panacea for all Parliamenary disease, and even more are willing to have the Upper House elective, either periodically by the people or by ballot by both Houses as vacancies occur. The young bloods are hopeful of victory, and even old Parliamentarians predict some good skirmishing, especially on the constitution of the Legislative Chamber. If the members of that august body are to follow the example of the Minister lor Lands and challenge all their critics to " Come outside," we will , have quite a lively session. THE LAND QUESTION.

Prominent among the subjects of the debate was the land question. It provided the first exciting incident of the session, and if we are to have any legislation on the subject at all, there are some exciting sittings ahead, but it may be that the Premier will count discretion the better part of;valour, and leave the land question alone. Since the freehold party showed their strength he and his colleagues in the Ministry have • repeatedly declared that they have no intention to interfere with the present optional system; but whether it is that their speeches were prepared and pigeon-holed before the opening of the session, or that they have to make a show of pleasing both parties, their arguments seem sadly divided from their declarations. The Ministerial utterance on , the land question is in every case an official declaration that the Cabinet as a whole is as sound on the options as if Sir John McKenzie were still alive and holding the portfolio of Lands, followed by an individual expression of opinion which, if it means anything, means that there are "rocks ahead" for those in this country , who : look forward to living on a .little patch of the earth's surface and calling it their own. What may happen on the land question this.session no one can tell, except this, that if the Government give us a Land Bill at all. however inconsequential it may be, the whole fat will be in the fire. The freehold partv are strong, and they will assuredly be able to kill any attempt to interfere with the options by a good margin. What, their strength may be if the appearance of a Land Bill gives them the opportunity to endeavour to secure for holders of existing leases the ricrht to acquire the freehold is a more doubtful point. They are, however, strong enough to have a v(y<d try; perhaps strong enough for the Government to think better of it, and deny,theni the opportunity.

THE APRON-STRING POLICY. One feature of the debate with a bearing on the land question was the cry of " Canterbury laud for Canterbury boys," voiced in more diplomatic language in the Governor's Speech, but echoed and re-echoed with blunt and narrow parochialism by Southern member after Southern member. All the- power of ridicule available from the North was turned on . this curious phase of colonial politics. The apron strings of the mothers of Canterbury were dangled before the eyes of the House. The nambypambyism of the notion was ruthlessly rubbed in. but in spite of it all Canterbury and her boys came up smiling again and again, and even in the dying stages of the debate the idea had no lack of champions, one of them being no less a person than the Premier, who fostered it with all the argument and lung-power he could command. The inequity of taxing the whole colony to buy improved estates for the Canterbury boys, while millions of acres of Crown lauds are unoccupied, is, I gather from the tone of the debate, a mere circumstance in the eyes of some compared with the necessity for keeping the Canterbury boys at home.

NATIVE LANDS. Then the native land question has bulked largely in the discussion. Mahuta and his private possessions in the shape of landhave been much talked about, but of more importance than Mahuta, his position or title, i? the question -whether the Maori councils are to prove of any real benefit in ihe settlement of the native lands of the colony. Three years ago the law authorising the formation of Maori land councils was passed with a flourish of trumpets, and members are getting tired' ot * waiting for the councils to do something in the way of settling Maori lands. From both sides of the House the utility of the whole machinery has been seriously challenged, and many members have predicted, that the law, as now in force, never will be of any real benefit to the colony. It fell to the lot of the Native Minister to defend his Department, and right well he did defend it- but Mr. Carroll's speech, which in many respects was the best speech of the debate, amounted to no more than —that the pakeha would need to have a little more patience, and give the Maori time to settle his land difficulties. He dates the operation of the Act from a year later than his critics, as it was to his mind really onlv made workable in 1901, but whether it is two years or three years even Mr. Carroll's eloquence was not sufficient to convince the House that anything of real advantage has yet come out of it. The Minister was full of figures representing areas of land transferred, and in course of transfer to the councils; but on his showing the taking up ot five sections, comprising 2306 acres, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Wanganui, represents all the transactions leading to actual settlement which the councils have so far completed. Something more than this will have to be done before the new Parliament accepts the work of the Maori councils as a solution .of the native land difficulty.' THE ASSETS BOARD.

Less attention has been paid to the Assets Board and the realisation of their estates thau might have been expected, but then 1 members have to remember the time limit, and there is a tendency to drop subjects which of a certainty will come before the House by Government measure during the session. The Assets Board is one of these , subjects. The matter did receive more at-

tention during the dying hours of the debate than in the earlier stages. The Premier, as a member of the Board, asserted that a policy of reasonable realisation had. been followed, and that where the land was suitable for close settlement the Board had forced the sale of the properties, and he made out that the policy of the Board had resulted in the saving of half- ion of money. Mr. W. Fraser, Wakatipu, who is a member of the Assets Board', stated that when the Board was set up it was known that the book values and the real values could not be made to balance. He expressed the hope that a committee of the House woiill be set up to inquire into the matter, and the belief that the Board would come out of such an inquiry with flying colours.

LUNATIC ASYLUMS. "A burning question during the debate was the conduct of lunatic asylums, and the classification of the mentally afflicted; but this subject has already reached a stage where it will be left for a time, at least, for the Cabinet to take action, and it is satisfactory to know that Ministers apparently realise the necessity for something being done.

THE BIRTH RATE. « Among the numerous body of young members who find time for the discussion of abstract political questions, a favourite theme has been the decrease in the birth rate, and the Government has got some good material for the next Speech from the Throne in the suggestions thrown out as to how Parliament might put a premium on large families and penalise small ones. Every manner of encouragement for the rearing of large families, from cheap railway fares to a bonus per head in the nursery, was suggested, and all were received with respectful consideration, except the time-worn idea of a tax on bachelors', which somehow always seemed to strike the House either in the light of a joke or as an unworthy trifling with a really serious problem.

PREFERENTIAL TRADE. Preferential trade figured in almost every speech, but on the whole it was handled with the finest of kid gloves. There was no lack of sympathy, but a great paucity of initiativeand a good deal of timidity. The House is willing to think over what Mr. Chamberlain or Mr. Seddon may have to suggest, and to think it over sympathetically; but it is content to wait till the suggestions come along. THE 'FRISCO SERVICE.

A number of Southern members found a text in the San Francisco service, and the reference in the Governors Speech to " coastwise laws of other nations which are prejudicial to New Zealand and the Mother Country," helped to make the visionary " all red " line appear for the time something of a reality but after all the subject of the 'Frisco service does not take such a prominent place in public debate as in the lobby gossip of its opponents. All sorts of stories go round with a direct and indirect bearing on the service and its continuance; The

latest is given as "emanating from the French colony of Papeete." There is a rumour that France is to hand over her Pacific possessions to America, apparently out of pure love and affection and you are left to infer what the effect of the American coastwise laws might be on New Zealand's trade.with Tahiti an! other French possessions. I have a notion that the rumour emanated a good deal nearer home. Then somebody has been, in Parliamentary phraseology, " pricking a card," and the fate of the 'Frisco service is found to be wavering in the balance, or depending on a single vote which may be won over by the next rumour from some of the lone islands of the Pacific. Such are the ways of some of our Parliamentarians, particularly when Parliamentary debates are dull. Undoubtedly the service has many opponents, but it has also many friends. It is useless pricking cards until it is known what proposals are coming before the House. Provincial jealousies will no doubt be brought strongly to bear on the question, and provincial jealousies will upset reason; but provincial jealousies notwithstanding, the Parliamentary prospects for the new contract are not in nearly such a bad way as some of the unreasoning opponents of "the service would have us imagine. The debate has helped materially to let the Premier and his colleagues take the measure of the new Parliament. With the help of bis Whips Sir. Seddon ought to be able by this time to judge what the House will swallow and what it won't have at any price. " , *: