UNION PARLIAMENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10196, 4 July 1911, Page 2

UNION PARLIAMENT.

EXCELLENT WORK OF THE FIRST SESSION. I ABSENCE OF RACIALISM. The Union Parliament, has concluded its first session, after sitting for ninety-eight days, writes a ent of the Westminster Gazette. During that time it lias worked liaid —harder, indeed, than any previous Parliament has worked in South Africa. Nevertheless, as many had anticipated, , the time has proved all too short, and : not a tithe of the many pressing legislative enactments that the country reqairjes lias fountl its way or t-o tlio Statute Book. Not only hate such Bills as the National University Bill, the Asiatic Immigration Bill, the Solemnisation of Marriages Bill had to be dropped, hut > 110 attempt was made to introduce such a Bill as that to unify the Insolvency Laws of the four provinces, or to reorganise the Civil Service. Nor, again, beyond certain provisions in the Stamp ; Act, the abolition of the income tax in, the Cape province and of the pollj tax in Natal, has much been done to [ equalise and make uniform the iiscal ' burdens throughout the Union. These ! are only a very few of the measures ' which aro vitally needed, but which for the present have had perforce to Ibe shelved. The truth is, when South i Africa decided to adopt unification as opposed to federation, she imposed an exceptionally heavy task upon her Parliament—-a task that will take it years to complete. For in South "Africa Parliament cannot, if it would, sit all the year round; the members are farmers, merchants and professional men; hardly any of them are men of leisure. To many of them even four months is a serious sacrifice. Nevertheless, a decidedly hopeful start has been made. In all, close upon fifty Bills have become law, and though the bulk of them are of an inevitably uninteresting nature, there are among them some of the greatest importance. There is the Dutch Reformed Churches Union Act, the Stock Diseases Act, the Miners' Phthisis Act, the Prisons Act, the Audit Act, to mention only a few taken at random. There is also the Post Office Act, with its provision for the breaking of the Shipping Ring and its system of rebates; that, too, now is law, though whether it will remain a dead letter or not yet remains to be seen. So that it will be seen that the Session under review has been by no means barren of constructive legislation.

But the chief work of Parliament in this its first Session has been financial. No fewer than four Budgets have had to be passed—the ordinary Budgets for tho first ten month** of Union and for the current year, and the lailway budgets for the same periods. Mr Bauer and Mr Hull —especially the latter—have been kept very busy ; the Minister for Finance, on whom the heaviest burden has fallen, has undoubtedly enhanced his reputation. There has been occasionally a slight tendency towards extravagance, there has been some chafing at the control of Parliament over not only the amounts to be spent but- over the actual method of spending. These faults have been criticised with his old force and fire by Mr Merriman. who commands as much attention in the I'nion House as ever ho did in the old Cane House of Assembly. But on the whole Mr Hull can look "back on the Session with every feeling of satisfaction. To-dav. the credit of South Africa stands higher than it has done for many years, and trade is month by month increasing in volume and in value. Nor hare the achievements of Parliament stopped at legislation. Numerous Committees have been appointed, and have produced valuable reports. Above all, a coin promise, has been arrived at on the apparently almost insoluble education difficulty. This compromise. which secures the equality of

the two languages without infringing! the right dither of the majority or of tho minority in any district, and with- I out imperilling the interests of education itself, is still subject to confirmation by the various Provincial Councils, within whose jurisdiction the matter J lies, but little fear is felt in responsible ; quarters on that score. The spirit of give and take which has made that settlement possible Ims been the feature of the session. Admirably led by General Botha, the House has shown that it realised that it had a grave dutv to discharge. Members have, on the whole, recognised the fact that at present it was especially necessary to look at matters from a broad national standpoint, and not to view them either in a narrow party or in a still narrower provincial light. Unfortunately, ill-health lia'j kept Sir Starr Jameson from leading the Opposition during the latter part of the session ; but Avhethor under his leadership or under that of one of his deputies, tho Opposition lias shown itself as amenable to reason as the Government has shown itself ready to yield whenever a convincing case for doing so could be made out. Above all, this session has shown that the croakings of those . who predicted that a party Government would mean the ruin of South Africa, that racialism would triumph in the new Parliament unless a coalition Government was installed in office, have been conclusively proved to be as groundless a-s some of us i ventured to hope they would be. It is no exaggeration to say that the almost ! entire absence of racialism in tho pre--1 sent Parliament must have astonished i as it must have pleased even the most ! sanguine. To the Opposition must be ' given credit for its share in bringing • this about, but still more must credit be given to the Government. Tt would have been so fatally easy to indulge, if only occasionally and to a small extent, in the " top dog " policy. Of this there has not been one single trace. General Botha and his colleagues have indeed earned the thanks, not only of South Africa, but of the whole British I Empire. It was. indeed, a happy in- ! spiration when Sir Henry CampbellBannerman, with fearless reliance on true. British principles of freedom, of ! equity, of justice, and of trust, conferred responsible Government on the new ' British colonies. To-day we are reapi ing the priceless benefits of that mas- | ter stroke of statesmanship.