THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1907. NAILED TO THE BENCHES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8868, 31 October 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1907. NAILED TO THE BENCHES.

The passage through Committee of the House of Representatives, on Tuesday evening, of the last of the trinity of land measures justifies, to a certain extent, the pre-sessional boast 'Of the Ministry that it would this session place its land legislation upon the Statute Book. It is not there yet, because the Legislative Council has to deal with two of the bills, but no one who knows anything of the composition of the Upper House, and the methods of nomination to seats in that chamber, will be likely to look for the rejection there of any of the salient features of the tripartite land law; The comparatively successful accomplishment of the Ministerial boast, however, is not a thing of which the Government has any reason to be proud. Apart from the evil effect, the new land policy is likely to have upon the settlement of the lands of the dominion, and which Ministers themselves may, yet find reason to deplore, the methods by which they accomplished their end are not what ought to be expected of any self-respecting Administration. When, last year, the original Land Bill was brought down, most of the leading members of the Ministry were new to office, and they felt confident that they could walk over the Plouse with the royal tread of the lately-deceased j administrative autocratic Mr Scddoii. j Further, they were ambitious to do something new and startling in the direction of socialism, so dear to the heart of their late chief. Looking around the political horizon, they found a blank in the whole firmament of social and humanitarian subjects. Mr Seddon had practically wiped the political sky clear of them. Then it was that the idea of revolutionising the land laws struck them, and the outcome was the sudden launching of the great and original Land Bill. There was no special call at the time for amending the land laws—the country had made no demand for it; but something had to be done to justify the reputation Ministers bad unachievingly obtained of being "a Government of Strong Men." The Land Bill was the thing to do it. The

measure was introduced into the and it was then that Mr McNab, replying to Mr Massey's opposition to it, made his famous "stand-by-our-guns" speech. "I tell the honourable gent'.emen honestly," exclaimed the Minister, "and not in any political sense, that we are going to stand by our guns, and will, if necessary, go down with them, and in the twinkling of an eye." A few days later the bill was withdrawn, and the Government stuck to their seats instead of their guns. During the recess the principles and details of the bill were altered a dozen times,, and by the time it reached the House this session it had undergone the process of iissiparation, and was quite unrecognisable in its tripartite state. Setting aside the gun. metaphor of the original bill, the Minister now decided to nail the Ministerial flag to the mast in connection with his newly-evolved triune measure; but in the .end he let his flag be torn to tatters by the enemy. The flag has disppeared as in a conjuring trick, and Lo! in its place the spectators find the Minister nailed to the Treasury bench. There he and his colleagues sit complacently, an object lesson to budding politicians of how to retain power by evading its responsibilities.