THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1914. THE MINISTERIAL PROGRAMME.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16226, 9 November 1914, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1914. THE MINISTERIAL PROGRAMME.

The electoral programme of the Reform party, as presented in the manifesto which the Prime Minister has issued, recommends itself by the fact that it promises a progressive policy along rational and prudent lines, it makes no such frantic bid for public support as is contained in the Opposition offer that the State shall set twopence halfpenny a week aside for fourteen years for each, child that is born in New Zealand, but it is a programme which, carefully considered, should appeal to the electors as one that seeks to put into practice the principles of a sound Liberal Imperialism. As the security of the country necessitates the maintenance of an adequate system of defence, the Ministerial policy begins with an affirmation of the Reform party's adherence to a system of national training for domestic defence and of its attachment to a system of naval defence which, while providing for the training of personnel for the Imperial navy, will "maintain the supremacy of the British flag in the Pacific and render safe the trade routes that are so essential to the continuance and prosperity of the Empire." And as the whole structure of colonial government is dependent oh the existence of a sound basis of finance, the preservation of safe finance is the second cardinal feature of the Reform party's policy. The party aims at the bona fide settlement of small areas of good land, with encouragement to the settlers to become their own landlords, and, as a means to this end, will promote the subdivision of large estates. Already it has improved upon the efforts of its pro decessors in power in the direction of specially taxing the holders of large estates, and it is prepared to improve also upon its own efforts in this direction by the adoption of an automatic increase of the graduated tax. The announcement that this tax is to be applied discrimiis to be viewed with satisfaction. All owners of largo estates are not to be equally considered to be obstructive to a desirable settlement of the countryside. Some large estates are unfit for close settlement; others are being only partially put to good use; others again are being worked virtually to the limits of their productivity. There is justice, therefore, in the argument that an increased graduated tax should be applied with discrimination, and that the basis of the policy of subdivision of large estates is, as it is phrased in the Ministerial policy, a taxation of any large landholders' inertia or indifference to the needs of the dominion. The policy of the roading of country districts, the need of which seems to have been overlooked by Sir Joseph Ward in his exposition of the Opposition's proposals relating to public works, is one of immense importance to the settlers in the more scattered districts, and the promise that " roading is to be vigorously prosecuted, especially in places where settlement has gone ahead of roading," justly occupies a high • place in the Ministerial programme. The decision on the part of the Government to establish a Board of Trade and Commerce, the duties of which will include the provision of information relative to the markets 'of the world and the movements of trade, represents a departure that should be of value to the producing interests, and it may be suggested that the functions of the Board may conveniently be extended to include an oversight over the course of trade and the fluctuations of prices in the dominion itself. Consistent with the encouragement of manufacturing industries that are suited to the country and of the fishing and fruit-growing industries, a proposal to increase the preferences that are granted to British manufacturers and to enter into reciprocal arrangements with other countries within the Empire is included in the Reform party's programme. The negotiations into which the Government entered

with the Federal Government in Australia nearly two years .ago for the adoption of a policy of reciprocity have, from various causes, not yet been brought to fruition, but it will be surprising and disappointing if a sequel "of the great "war of the present time is not a considerable extension of the system of inter-Iniporial preference. In respect to public health, the establishment of pensions for the physically infirm, the institution of a scheme of insurance against sickness and Unemployment, and the revision of the railway tariff the programme of the Reform party is progressive as well as reasonable. The whole policy is, indeed, of an unquestionably liberal character, constituting in itself an effective refutation of the stupid gibe that the Government is composed of political reactionaries.