OPENING OF PARLIAMENT

Observer, Volume XXVII, Issue 41, 29 June 1907, Page 2

OPENING OF PARLIAMENT

An Important Session,

THERE is every reason to expect that the session of Parliament which opens at Wellington today will exercise an important influence on the future history of the colony. Practically, there is a new Liberal and Labour Ministry in power, which has drafted measures more or less consistent with the policy of the last sixteen years, and the attention of the whole colony is at the present moment focussed on the attitude of Parliament towards the proposed new legislation. It is not that there is any expectation of either reactionary or revolutionary changes. On the contrary, the policy appears to be to amend and improve existing laws rather than to embark upon fresh experimental legislation. Nevertheless, there arc considerable potentialities in the political atmosphere at the present moment.

The light of the session wiH nn questionably be over the land policy of the Government. Throughout the recess, a persistent and insidious endeavour has been made to instil into the public mind the poisonous conviction that the Government is opposed

to the freehold system of tenure and 19 resolved to abolish it?. This conviction will unquestionably be reflected, in the attitude of members/ towards the Land Bill, because the farming districts regard the right of freehpld aB their sheet anchor, and are terrified at the thought of any interference •with it. On the other hand* the towns are opposed to the accumulation, of large estates, and regard the leasehold system as toe most satisfactory and elective method of colonization that has yet been devised.

This is where town arid country will come into conflict: As a matter of sober fact, the Government harbours no sinister or aggressive designs against freehold tenure. Sir Joseph Ward is himself a staunch freeholder. All that the Government demands is that, the area of Grown lands available for settlement being limited, no further part of the public estate should be sold outright. The balance of the public estate is to be treated as endowments for charitable purposes. This seems a very prudent and reasonable policy in view of the fact that the Government is buying back the freehold from large occupiers and cutting it up. Where is the consistency in taking the freehold from one owner and giving it to another?

The tariff question will undoubtedly become another bone of contention. There is a clamour from the trades unionists for higher protective duties, while, at the same time, indignant protests are being made from the same quarter against the excessive cost of liviDg. If the protective duties are still further increased, it follows aa a matter of course that the cost of living must continue to rise, chough at the same time it is difficult to see how the manufacturers are to bear the burden of high wages and short hours unless compensating advantages are assured to them in the form of higher protective duties. In the fiscal question, we have sown the wind with our labour legislation, and we must expect to reap the whirlwind. Some relief may certainly be given to the working classes in the direction of the free breakfast table, seeing that there is still a large surplus, but any policy of increasing an already heavy protective tariff will meet with strong hostility from the country members.

One very important change in the compulsory arbitration law is foreshadowed in the proposal to substitute wages boards for the present inoperative boards of conciliation. Mr Seddon was accustomed to say that he was determined to reinstate the boards of conciliation in their former position of bearing every dispute, prior to an appeal to the Arbitration Court, but there was never much likelihood of Parliament taking this reactionary course. Conciliation boards were of little use, were costly and vexatious in their proceedings, and almost invariably left a dispute in the unsettled state in which they found it. Wages boards may be a serviceable and ac-' ceptable substitute, but much depends on the nature of the Hon. J. A. Millar's proposals. It is certainly undeniable that the Arbitration Court has too much to do under the present system, and it is reasonable to believe that the burden of work might be considerably lessened by boards* of experts consisting of employers and amployed in the trades concerned.

It will probably be found that Minister*, new to their responsibilities and full of vigour and inspiration, will place before Parliament sufficient work to occupy it for half-a-dozen sessions. That is only what might be expected. But if the land and tariff questions are fully threshed out, and due consideration is given to the proposed amendments of the labour laws, there will be little time for any other new measures. The Land Bill involves one important possibility. It may lead to an appeal to Li.c country. Bat with many Government supporters pledged to oppose it, the greater probability is that means will be found to avoid a direct issue on the freehold, question. In this coarse lies. the safety of the party in the present crisis.