The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1912.) THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3035, 15 May 1912, Page 48

The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1912.) THE WEEK.

" Nnnqnam aliud natura, aliud sapisatia dixit."— " Good nature and good sense mast «tbc join. Sopb. In printers' parlance the introduction of a three-em rule signifies an r\e Three-Em altered aspect of the same Rule. subject, and it is the introduction of the three-em which constitutes the interest of the political situation at the present time. It may be nothing more than a coincidence that the names of the three men -who count most in the party -warfare now proceeding should each commence with the letter " M," the thirteenth letter in the alphabet, and consequently considered the unlucky omen. .On the other hand, as a numeral the letter "M" stands for a thousand, and is therefore a symbol of strength. The. curious who have a belief in omens may see significance in the fact that the letter " M " is the lip nasal;"to sound it "the mouth passage is closed by the lips and the breath passes through the nostrils." And others may take meaning from the fact that " the final ' M' shows a marked tendency to become silent in some languages."^Also abbreviations in which the letter "M" figures first are abundant in everyday use, as for instance M.A., M.C., JM.B., M.D., Ai.R.C.S., and lastly M.P. Thus out of the idea of the three " M's " it is possible to .contract quite a number of political theories according to the particular viewpoint of the constructor. Since Parliament meets in six weeks' time it is idle to indulge in airy speculations, hut there are at least one or two conclusions that may safely be drawn. Mr Millar's declaration that the Mackenzie Government will be defeated so soon as Parliament meets practically decides that particular issue, for Mr Miliar speaks not alone for himself but for others of his mind. Many complaints have been made that the present Prime Minister and his colleagues, instead of remaining in Wellington and endeavouring to get a grip of the several departments they have been entrusted to administer, should have spent the greater part of their time since their appointments in gadding about the country and attending banquets and other festivities. Considering the circumstances under which the Ministry were pitchforked into their positions, we ace inclined to the opinion that they have chosen the better part, which, however, will soon be taken away from them. The Prime Minister ((Mr Mackenzie) and the other members of the Cabinet may reasonably enough have argued that little good' could come of devoting themselves to learning a business which in a few ■wfeks would pass from them ; far better to take advantage of the opportunity to run about the country delivering speeches and otherwise getting into touch with the people who eventually will be called upon to decide the issue. What will happen ■when, thanks io the cooperation of Mr Millar and his friends, the Mackenzie Government goes down and the Massey Government comes up it is rather early to declare, but the probabilities point to a coalition sufficietly strong to enable the Reform Government to retain the reins of power during the life of the present Parliament. It seems probable that ultimately the two permanent parties remaining in the House will be the Reform party under Mr Massey, and the United Labour party headed by a leader yet to be selected. And there will be a certain number of irreconcilables who, hesitating to fight under either of these Jjanners, will remain as a menace to stability of Government and suggest an ever-impending change. The coming Parliamentary session will thus possess considerable interest and will compel an attention to politics on the part of the average man which generally is sadly wanting. If such should prove to be the final disposition of parties, there Single Tax can he no two opinions on Simplicity. which side the sympathies and support of the 1 arming community will be cast. Fiom every pointof view Mr Massey is the farmer's friend, and so long as the Reform party is in power, agricultural interests will ever be kept to the front. The very fact that the party of United Labour have hailed the accession to their ranks of Mr Fowlds means that farmers as a class must regard that party with a certain amount or disquietude. The single tax simplicity of the late member for Grey Lvnn is altogether too abstruse a philosophy for the agricultural intellect. The doctrine of the eingle-taxer, that the land should bear the entire weight of taxation, is too monstrous and mischievous a one to be calmly contemplated or judicially discussed, whilst the whole matter of the unearned increment is wrapped in mystery and obscurity. It is a fundamental axiom In farming that land is only worth what tt will produce, and that the variations In the prices of produce affect the value of the land. Also that the price obtainJ,blo for produce depends, to a large exent, upon the facilities provided for profitably marketing that produce. From the tnoment when the farmer sows his seed or pastures his flocks, to the time when the various articles of produce are in the hands of the consumer or the nmnufacturer, all is part of a great chain; to attempt—as Mr Fowlds, following in the gteps of Henry George, proposes to do—to separate the chain into links is absolutely unscientific, and conclusions basea upon unscientific reasoning are altogether Inaccurate and unsound. Thus, the com-

ing into power of a Labour party whic swallows at a gulp the doctrine of the single tax must be resisted strenuously by the farming community. And such resistance can most effectually be engineered in a whole-hearted support to Mr Massey and the members of the Reform party. It is all the more necessary to stress this fact since the programme of United Labour is being presented with a speciousness which seeks to disguise its most obnoxious features under garments of allurements. The party which has welcomed Mr Fowlds with open arms poses as a party of moderation —a party which fights shy of strikes, and pronounces sentence on syndicalism, and which is opposed to all violent and revolutionary measures. And in the open hand held out to everyone, without restriction whatever, to join the ranks, there is a bluff heartiness that might under certain circumstances disarm suspicion. But any programme which comprehends a proposal to lighten the burdens of taxation on all other classes of the community and fix the whole weight of the imposition upon the land, can never commend itself to settlers, either as individuals or as a class. The settlers are the backbone of New Zealand, and as time goes on their wellbeing will be wrapped up more and more in the wellbeing of the Dominion. Any legislation which harasses the settler and renders his lot more difficult will come to be regarded as distinctly retrograde, and in this sense nothing but retrograde legislation can result from placing in power a Labour partv in whose councils Mr Fowlds takes a prominent part. This verv fact should serve to postdate indefinitely the victory of the party of United Labour and should serve to establish a Massey Coven, ment in power for many years to come. Although the Turco-Italian war no longer occupies a prominent place the cable news, yet the or Italy. messages which occasionally trickle through, show that Italy is still prosecuting the campaign with considerable vigour, and apparently intends to persevere to the bitter end. In the face of the enormous cost of this attempt at the colonisation of Tripoli, it is not easy at this distance to lightly comprehend the motive which sustains the Italian Government in so expensive an undertaking. The Italian point of view is sueciently put by an American—a resident of Florence —in a letter contributed to an American journal, and from which we extract the following:—"For historical as well as for geographical reasons, Italy is, more than any other nation except Greece, vitally interested in maintaining itself upon that great sea which, under whatever name, Tyrrhene, lonic, Adriatic, is essentially one and Mediterannean. As the channel between the French coast and the English is necessarily the English Channel, so by equal political necessity the channel between Italy and Epirus is Otrantine, not Epirote, and the channel be. tween Sicily and Tunis is not Tunisian, but Sicilian. 'ltalia fara da se,' said her greatest statesman; she will not exist, as does the kingdom of Greece, by the sufferance of her neighbours. Obviously we cannot fulfil the prophecy of Cavour, hemmed in on every side by powers; each one of which is individually more powerful than she, while the supremacy of the Mediterranean is divided between England and J ranee. Imagine England in the geographical situation of Italy : would not England's stake in the Mediterranean be immeasurably greater than it is now? As to France, where she has two great doors opening upon the Mediterranean, she has four upon the Atlantic. The disintegrated despotism of Turkey, weak in all that respects efficient government, strong only in fanaticism and ferocity, exists only by sufferance—and not by what may be called, as in the case of Greece, <on enlightened sufferance. If there be such a thing as manifest destiny, it would seem to point to an Italian protectorate in Tunis, which stretches its arms towards Italv, halfwav across the sea, —can, indeed, be eoen in fair weather from Sicily. Italy was too weak to dispute the claims of France in that quarter, but she has other and better than stategical reasons for still insisting upon a footing ;on the north coast of Africa: the same reasons that Japan has for demanding a footing on the nearest mainland. The over-exploited Italian peninsula, rich as it naturally is. has not bread enough for all her swarming ch;ldren. who are obliged to seek it through tite world from the Levant to Areentina. What more natural than that Italy should anticipate France or Germany or .Austria. in r.-fb-liching a colonv on that part of the North African shore which is still Practically vacant and ungovemed ? It is a question of economic as well as of national independence. The justifications that English, French, American statesmen put forward for fch*>ir rwDect ; ve acts of 'benevoVnt absorotion ' in the Transvaal, in .Meiers, in the Philippines, were shadowv in comparison with those of Ttalv for her adventure in Tripolitania. and Cvrenaica. Tf results have ir«»*-.ifipd thp KoorlWl ' condominium ' in I J levT)t and the French colonisation of Al(?*rm, we may fairly expect that the Ttab'an empire ' over the wniting desert may equally justify itself."