The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1910.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10629, 5 December 1910, Page 3

The Oamaru Mail. MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1910.

PROLONficn for live months the session of 1910 is the The Session of 1910. longest in our record. That it owed its length chiefly to the Mine charges is true. It is at the same time true that the work done was useful, varied, and most important. It will he known partly for the charges because the failure of these has cleared I lie public life of the. Dominion and the reputations of its leading statesmen from all suspicion of corruption. This is too important a result and too satisfactory to an honorable self-respecting people to be lightly forgotten,, though the people already knew that they could trust the men in power. But the session will be known for other results showing, all of them, the prescience, genius for initiative, constructive ability and thorough democratic spirit of the Government. The session has placed the whole power of temperance reform in the hands of the people; it has practically abolished the bookmaker and reduced tho volume.

of racing'; it has passed into law schemes for paying off the public debt within a reasonable time, and for harnessing electrically the water powers of the Dominion, the latter policy having received the unexpected tribute of immediate acceptance by the expert engineer of the capital, which is the object of one of the schemes of the Government. The session has also passed a Crimes Act —one of the most advanced in the world and likely in all probability to effect epoch-making reforms; it has helped the destitute by a system of compelling men of evil mind to respect their obligations; it lias protected rightful ■journalism by enlarging its privilege; it lias prepared a rod for the back of the guttersnipe who disgraces journalism, and a prison cell for the slanderer whose one object is blackmail. Land settlement has been advanced by the amendment of the Land Settlement Finance Act; thrift has been offered the encouragement of a national provident scheme, restricted, as a beginning, to persons earning not more than two hundred a year, by an Act making annuities inalienable, and by an amendment of the Old-age Pension Act enlarging the property, limit, which is the factor that regulates the amount of the old-' age pension. Labor has to be thankful for ten measures passed for its benefit Chief of these are the Acts dealing with the Shops and Offices Act (in settlement of the hotel employees' requirements), with the Factories Act, bringing laundries into the scope of the controlling statute; with "Workers Dwellings Act, offering a house and plot on terms of payment within reach or the lowest purse and- more favorable than can be seen in any other part of the world; with a. Stone Quarries Act, enlarging the area of protection for workers; with an Education Amendment Act, affording opportunity to youths to learn their trades more thoroughly at no cost to themselves; with Gold and Coal Mines Acts amendments, in several wavs beneficial. But even this is not all. The Public Health has been safeguarded by the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act and the way made clear for a measure which shall respect manhood and womanhood while protecting them against evil. Local government benefits with a Bylaws Act, which simplifies a complex problem; with the Tramways Act, providing for due control without impairing the local powers; with the River Boards Act, which settles a cause-for dissatisfaction; and with many other

Acts too numerous to mention. On? of these—the Act for the regulation ot the milk supply of Wellington—will probably be found good enough to serve as a model for the other large cities of the Dominion, whilst it will also help the smaller to a solution of the milk difficulty: and there is now a Graduated Income' Tax Act touching the public shoulder in the right place. We need go no farther. Our summary, brief _ as it is, shows the vast extent over which the policy of the session has been carried by a Government which has again proved itself fit for the position accorded to it by the people of the Dominion. There is no Land Act, but that will -. cause no disappointment. May we not congratulate the country on a session which/has,provided a list of practical «; 'greafjength. • \ _.

Tuk Attorney-General's protest against the political methods Public Life. in vogue at Hie present ilny is both necessary and timely. It is necessary because the Hino charges have revealed the new methods, and timely because the sudden holding of the mirror up to nature has opened the eyes of all sides to tho awful consequences which have actually been reached. These consequences are reflected in the scurrilous pamphlet which is being so sedulously circulated to, the detriment of the Prime Minister anil sfbr -■ the purpose of degrading the party, behind him. When Mr Taylor suddenly, held that pamphlet up in the House there arose a .strange' feeling as if every man present realised the holding up of the mirror to nature. Every man disclaimed sympathy with the abominable production, which disgraces decency and manhood, but every man understood in his heart that on tho linos of the. pamphlet much of the political criticism of the day is '.laid.- While in the House and on' the public platform the worst motives are imputed always as a .matter of course, and the most shadowy appearances are regarded as convincing evidence of all evil things, the style is still regarded as in a sense political merely as in the Pickwickian* story. Cut in the streets and houses this practice is thrown oil' and men talk without reserve of the most sinister things. The extent to which they do so is revealed by tho things brought to light about the distribution of the pamphlet. Prominent supporters of the Opposition, as Mr TavJor said, are in the habit of circulating the filthy thing, of chuckling over its contents, of repeating the nauseous stuff from its pages, and vouching for the truth of the hall' truths with which it is filled. The announcement was greeted with a fervor of protest; but the protesters nevertheless knew well bow true the statement was. In a moment of sudden revelation they grew ashamed of their own supporters, and they united with the members of the Government side in expressing horror of the pamphlet and everything it contains. On the one side wo see a united Liberal I'arty framing congratulations to the Prime Minister who has seized the psychological moment for the vindication of his character, history, and methods, and who has performed his task with signal, brilliant, and most convincing success. (in the other side we have the Opposition sitting silent and dejected in their places, while- its organising secretary finds it necessary to write to the newspapers expressing contempt for the pamphlet and disavowing all connection with the same. That, of course, effectually disposes of the pamphlet, which from henceforth by common consent of all honorablo men is relegated to Coventry as a thing loathsome and evil, mean and dishonorable, beyond adequate description. At the same timo the triumph of the Prime Minister in tho personal realm is as striking as the victory of his party in the House and at the Committee of Inquiry. We may trust that the pamphlet will now die of shame. But will its death purify the political part of political life 'r Wc fear not, for the reason that the cause of degeneracy lies deeper than anything in pamphlets*, no matter how abnormally scurrilous they may be. If we project our vision across the globe to Great Britain and consider the political battle now being fought there we will find the resources"of the gutter employed by the bluest blooded and the biggest moneybagged in tho land against their political opponents. The scurrility of earls towards Mr Lloyd-George is equal to the scurrility of tho Labor newspapers which once denounced John Burns in a way worthy only of the infernal regions. By joining the two extremes in the indictment we indicate how general is tho disease which we deplore as widespread in our own country. It is to be found in an enlargement of the area of ground forbidden to politicians by the Disqualification x\ct. If members of tho Legislature arc left to their own honor ■ there is a crowd of critical creatures waiting to denounce every pennv they earn by transactions honorable in themselves and connected with Government, business as the wages of proved iniquity and the gilded marks nf reeking corruption. To protect the name of public men from unscrupulous , ghouls the Disqualification Act must be amended.