THE Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY. 9th NOV. 1903. POLITICAL NOTES. An Uneasy Week

Southland Times, Issue 19198, 9 November 1903, Page 2

THE Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. MONDAY. 9th NOV. 1903. POLITICAL NOTES. An Uneasy Week

Throughout the entire week the Parliamentary 'atmosphere was suli try with the after-effects of the Licensing CUI disturbance of Friday niglu and Saturday morning. Mem- ~ bL<vx, already jaded and run-down by the fatigues of a prolonged and cantankerous session, were finally unsettled by the introduction of so angry a question at the fag-end i,-i tho session, and. not unexpectedly, the morale of the House was mutual to the strain. There were one oi' more scenes, described by correspondents as " disgraceful incidents " and ■■ humiliating episodes," that throw the House into a state c«f excitement .so intense that the feeling did not subside fcr several days. That tho proceedings of Parliament should bo interrupted by noisy brawling**, violent threats, and coarse language is an affront to the ordinary rules of 2 decorum and decency in the place in which, übove all others, those rules - should most of all be respected and protected. Who is to be blamed for the outburst of temper and rowdyism that occurred ? The members' directly involved cannot of course be freed from responsibility. They are blameworthy, but the gravity of their offence is mitigated by the fact that, to some extent, the House has been physically and mentally demoralised, and that demoralisation must be laid at the door of the leader of the House— Mr Seddon. If it had been the Premier's sole object to fret and irritate, the House beyond all patience he could not have chosen more effective methods than those he has used this session. He has wasted time in a manner annoying in the extreme to earnest and busy men. He has tantalised those who go to Parliament to do the serious work of government by trifling with compar-^ ativeiy unimportant matters and withholding questions of the utmost moment. He has so retarded -aud mismanaged the business of the session that now, when members should have been back in their homes a fortnight, he is inviting attention to 1 some questions of the utmost contentious and vexatious kind. It is - not surprising that tho moral condition of members has deteriorated. From such treatment as that to which they have been subjected no other result could ensue. Accordingly, while tho participants in tha scenes cannot be exonerated, tlie blame lies heaviest upon Mr Seddon for reducing the House to that state of impatience and irritability in which alone " scenes " are possible. And the business taken up during th« I week was not calculated to tone up the House. The Premier simply continued his process of exasperation. The House, nervously anxious to address itself to the Public Works Statement, the Banking Bill, tho 'Frisco service, and the Licensing Bill, was put off with local bills, Game Laws and Water Power Bills, and other measures of the samo kind that could be disposed oO in three days after the work that remains to be done had been finished. Why does Mr Seddon not take tho House into his confidence ? He talks oracularly about the session boing in its last month, but his acts belie his words. Mr Seddon is not acting as a Premier would who had only a week or a fortnight in which to transact v great deal of business requiring careful consideration. He is acting rather as? a Premier who has no weighty business to lay before the House, and who therefore occupies its time with trivialities. Mr Seddon has trifled with Parliament ; he has trifled with the most serious questions — his passing: of the Referendum Bill on Wednesday was mere trifling: and it is no wander that both the House and the country are disgusted with him and all his works. The session has become na us eous. Apparently Mr Seddon is trifling with the Licensing Bill. If he is not making a sincere effort to improve tho liquoi i legislation on the Statute Books, he | had better srop the bill altogether, j As we have said, wo approve of many < of the provisions of tho bill — thej < are on lines that we have advocated j for years and that are approved by « all " moderates." But there is that t in the bill which is wholly detest- l able—the "no -'license, no - grog j clause," and if, as there is reason to { bolievo from, tho activity of tho j ' trade agents in. the Lobbies of the r House, that clause is the real centre t of the bill and the rest only so much c embroidery intended to cloak the t Premier's design e»d 'dupe the coun- .

try, we would rather see the whole < measure perish swiftly than any part ! ol it pass by simulation and deceit. < It is all this doubt and distrust, i and uncertainty and procrastination, i I that has unsettled the House and 1 made members perverse and irascible. > The week was consequently dull and oppressive, the House ostensibly attending to certain .matters in hand, but in reality speculating c<n tho prospects of the coming week— and and let us hope that the week will sec some questions settled for tho time one way or the other, some definite progress made towards the end of the session, and some regard paid j to the patience of the country and J the self-respect of members. The' Frisco Service During the week some correspondence that has passed bettvivn thy tioverainent and the representativeof Ali- J. IJ. Sprcckles, the contractor the San Francisco mail service, w a s laid, on the table of the House, and it furnishes some clue to tho intentions of the Government with regard to this service in the future. It appears that the Spreckles firm opened the correspondence with a plausiblo effort to obtain an in-, crease in their annual subsidy from £15,000 to £25,000. It is gratifying to learn that whatever hopes, the American linn had .of squeezing an extra £10,000 per annum from this colony were promptly extinguish- ! od by an intimation that the quest ion of increasing the subsidy need not be discussed. Defeated here, tho agent endeavoured to persuade tho Government that it would tie an, advantage to extend the duration of the contract to five or seven years. ' But the Government, knowing that the 'Frisco sorvice, already insecure, would certainly be rejected by tho House if further concessions wero made to the foreign firm, declined to consider this suggestion also, and practically informed Mr Spreckles that £15,000 for a term cf threo years was the limit to which tho colony would go. This was the position on 22nd October, and when tho Government proposals ure laid before the House, it will doubtless bo found that Mr Spreckles has come to , the conclusion that " half a loaf is ! better thuta, no bread," and has agreed to accept the Government's i offer. If the information of o«r Par- - liamentary representative is well founded the House this year will agree to the continuance of the present contract, but only with a slight " margin between the supporters und the opponents cf the . service. Tho feeling against the 'Frisco service is strong and we shall be surpris .nl ii

tht! Government is not taken to task lor its inaction in regard to the mail .services of the colony. Whe'i the Service was renewed in. 19oi a distinct promise was made to the House thut an effort would be made io arrongo for an alternative .service to tho Frisco, leaving it to 'lie Houoc to . decide between the t»vo. The extent 1 of the '• effort," to U U appearances has been the writing of a couple of letters to the Union S.S. Co., whoso proposition was such that it could not be entertained by the Cabinet. The Government has not made a serious attempt to secure another mail service, and we are confident that the majority of tho people ol>ject to the policy of paying a J ival country £15,000 a year to carry our mails and compete in our shipping trade. This feeling will grow into one of active resentment unless the Government evinces a somewhat more active and sincere desire to obtain a service in which our mails will bo carried under the British flag! in British ships. Such a service should lio given all preference that is compatible with the . commercial wellbeing , of the colony, to which rapid transit and communication is vital. Room Forimproverncrt»ne jjf.e_.jji,> l_J" rt. , .iiu.n.-.iiii 0 ' lilt. lIIKS Oil \V Jilt 11 UIV 17 >(.->! I Kofi VJ J-iU-lianicni is cuiMiUcietl has oven i,rougui IjjLO plOUilueilCU t;..iS Session, so iai"ye a piopojli^n oi vvliii.li lias been uiUercu away in useless tarn vi course oiner causes have u»ecii ai 1 uoik io produce this tnu. Jhe I'lemicr ' ior reasons of his own, Jims dela.uu Ui inking l'oi>,vui'U pi/licy me-usure., una I uiiportuuL proposals, the puthnce ol 1 ujeiuoeis has been sorely tried, and, 1 in fiat, the House has uoen uu'owtt ' out of woriving gear. But to this j tho domineering Mi- Seddon is indifferent. (Jn Thursday he franMy ue--1 cuued that he would bring on the ' business oi Parliament in his own way, which is equivalent to saying ' thut Mr Seddon Can be accused neither of cherishing consideration for members, nor of having regard to the 1 nest interests of the country, and that he intends to manipulate the 1 order ol" business so as to serve his own ends and retain his place ol power with us little difliculty as possible. One would naturally expect that this insolent autocratic assumption, this cam avowal of political usurpation, would be relented in the House, but, the protests of the Opposition hu\e not a, sullicient fcunda--1 tion in votes to, be thoroughly effective, and the Premier can still count on a majority at his buck. Still, improvement might be made in tho rules of procedure by which the business would be expedited. The passage of a measure through th-o House under present methods invites needless discussion and idle repetition. The process is spread over several days or weeks, one stage being taken at a time, and each time that a bill comes before the House the wholG subject is reopened and tho same ground gone o.ver again. If tho Standing Orders were altered so that the different stages in the passage of a measure were taken consecutively, the- great majority of bills would be disposed of in one day. Members would not repeat their speeches, and vuluniblo time would bo saved. Of course it would bo inadvisable to pass all measures in. one sitting. When important and involved amendments are made, it is necessary j to have the bill reprinted, so that members can review calmly what has been done and avoid tho unconscious blundering that follows in the train of haste. In these cases an interval between the Committee stage and tne third reading is eminently desirable, but there is no necessity for tho lapse of a week or two, as sometimes happens now. A «lay would suffice, and the measure would be Pnally passed without undue expenditure of words. The system now in vr^ii, is very cumbersome and needlessly involved, and the alteration of the Standing Orders on the lines indicated would ensure despatch und increased efficiency. The Naval Defence Bin With, commendable unanimity and corresponding celerity the Australian und New Zealand Defence Kill was Passed through all its stages on Friday night. Tho measure proposed tomc rouse tftjo payment amide by thq colony towards tho maintenance of thu Australasian squadron from i 121,000 to J_40,000, in return ior which increase the squadron was to be strengthened, a better class of vessel was to be stationed »i» '■> n * waters, and New. Ze a landers and Australians would have favoured treatment in regard to the manning of a proportion of the vessels. No reason could be given for opposing the suggested new agreement, und it was heartily supported by the le-ider of the Opposition and Sir William Russell. It is, indeed. tt little remarkable that someone was not heard to express the opinion that even £40,000 was little enough for New Zealand to giivc towards the naval defence of the Southern Pacific outposts of tho Empire. The sum represents hardly Is per head of our population,'— the British taxpaj-er pays 15s. We must recognise that our trade depends uoon the ability of our navy to protect it. The countries whoso foreign trade isj

expanding most rapidly— the United States and Germany — both realise that it is impossible to build up and maintain a sea trade without a fleet sufficiently strong to protect it, and both Germany and the United States are carrying out ambitious naval

" construction programmes." We are discussing preferential trade and other questions that identify wt> mora and more with the Mother Oaf'ntry, and render our prosperity dependent

upon hers. We must also realise that obligations are also involved and that one of them is a joint liability for the fleet that guards tiro * commerce of tho Empire, in which wo share so largely and hope to share

more, from depredation and enables it to exploit every part of the globe in security. The £40,000 now voted does not, wo believe, represent New Zealand's full proportion of this liability, but it is at any rate, a more

respectable contribution than that which we have hitherto given. For it we should get an ample return in the form of a very much superior squadron on our coasts and a welltrained colonial naval reserve. It is a matter for congratulation that the

bill was so heartily supported by all parties in the House.