News of the Dominion.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIII, Issue 16, 20 October 1909, Page 4

News of the Dominion.

OUR WELLINGTON ’ETTER. October 16. The Premier in Form. POLITICALLY the week has been given to the Address, both Houses talking at large about many things. The thing, however, that counts chiefly in the week’s work is the fighting speech of the Prime Minister. It electrified the House, and you hear of it at every street corner; even the “Dominion” declared it to be, from the Liberal point of view, a very fine effort. Which was magnanimous of the “journal specially created,” as Sir Joseph Ward called it during the proceedings, by the Opposition, considering that the fiercest thing said about the Opposition birds who have fouled the New Zealand nest had hit the “Dominion” hard now and again. Sir Joseph hit out at these critics with great force, quite in his old form. He carried with him the prestige of victory over them, brandished the money as it were that he had got in spite of their worst efforts in London, brandished it in their faces, as he taunted them with their conduct. We have been listening to many of the Opposition threats of what that party is going to do during the session to make things uncommonly warm for the Government. But the only people who have been thoroughly warmed up so far are the Opposition themselves. It is not they by any means who have made the running. Mr. Massey led off on their side with a speech, saying nothing in particular. He had listened to the Minister of Education exposing his inconsistencies on the Second Ballot; he had not been reassured by the failure of his lieutenant of Bruce to ge't away from his old unhappy form, or to rise above his strange exaggerations of speech. When the Prime Minister got up, however, he was still hoping for someone to make good. But when Sir Joseph started on the critics there was no more hope for him. Nothing could have been more complete than the Prime Minister’s demolition of the huge fabric of Opposition misrepresentation and abuse which has been disgusting the country so strongly through the reeess. At the same time, nothing could have been more satisfactory than the bal-ance-sheet presented by him as the real state of the finances. Every account in credit, over two millions available for all purposes, the revenue coming in better than was expected from the Customs concessions, and the railways almost booming with their betterment of £167,000 over the corresponding period of last year! We have been through a depression surely enough, but there is nothing to be alarmed about, or to regret, except that all our citizens did not behave with commendable reticence and courage when the pinch was on us. It is now most clearly manifest, »s the result of the splendid effort of the Prime Minister, that the Opposition have been making capital out of the hard times, and that they have gone bankrupt in the process. It is the only bankruptcy that has justified the numerous predictions of stieh catastrophe that we have been listening to with the feelings of disgust that the Prime Minister has sketched to well from his own experience. The Land Question. Tn the same speech he astonished the whole Legislature and the tipsters by his declaration —the culminating point of that great fighting effort —about the land. Tie declared that the whole intricacy of that question is going to be threshed out thoroughly before we separate for Christmas. The declaration went like an electric shock through the galleries, passed with a shiver over the floor of the House, was commented on by the newspapers, and has been the one subject of talk outside for days. Mr. Taylor struck the right note at once, complimenting the Government on their courage and, incidentally, on their good tactics. Every man, it is needless to sav, puts his own construction on the intentions of the Government, leaseholders, freeholders, and inter-

mediates are all insisting that the intion is to favour their particular faith. We shall see what we shall see in due course. In the meantime We are all seeing what we want to see. But we are all agreed in thinking that the Government has done right to take the bold course. The time is well chosen for advanced tactics. The Prime Minister’s magnificent conduct at the Conference is acknowledged all round, the depression has lifted, the finances are in the best order, the calumnies are in the dust. It is time for the line to charge, and the Government is getting its men ready for the move. The session has become all at once interesting, and not by the compulsion of the ■ Opposition. The boastful tail is not going to wag the dog Parliamentary. Mr. Ngata Defends the Native Case Mr. Ngata has taken a good part in the advance already with his energetic defence of the native case, and his vindication of the native element on the Cabinet. On the unearned increment hr was immense. “I thank thee for that word” he seemed to say between the lines of denunciation he hurled at the Opposition who had had the bad taste to draw the “colour” line. Men are saying that he has proved his right to be where he was put by the Prime Minister. As for the lands, he pricked the bubble of the huge colossal native estate which obstructs settlement according to the glib authorities he has convicted of knowing nothing whatever about the matter. It is really very interesting to follow his crisp sentences of exposition of the acreages and what has become of them, realising how the great bulk has already passed into the hands of the Crown or the pakeha. And the prices at which the transactions were effected! His treatment of them reads like the pronouncements of a Nemesis. Land sold at three shillings by the Maori now valued at nine pounds for the goodwill, and the remnant waiting for more unearned increment of that description! There is a comprehensiveness about the hon. gent’s criticisms absolutely startling. And when one considers who it is that is making those remarks, one wonders at the moderation With which the fervid orator displays in his choice of language. It is vastly to his credit that he is so restrained in his denunciation. But he is, one sees, bent chiefly on exposing the ignorance of the other side, and determined to make the actual state of things clear. Hence he has not been led away into perhaps justifiable heroics of rhetoric. Mr. Ngata is an artist. He understands the proportions of the work he has to do, and does it without too much disturbance of the main ideas. To hear him was a great refreshment. To mark him was a great satisfaction. Tn the Connell. In the Council the debate opened with appreciation of the Conference and its work, and in the appreciation the picture was not forgotten of the representative of the Dominion seated between the leaders of the great parties in the State, accepting the applause of the great majority of the House of Commons. Justice was done to the big programme unfolded in the Speech, which was described as an attempt to discharge conscientiously the duty of telling everything, both great and small, committed to the care of the Cabinet, rather than as the list of things to be forced through Parliament in the current session; and the Government was asked to be wise in its selection of that programme. The speaker, who took this line, said he had no doubt that programme would be worthy of what the Conference had done and of the initiative still strongly possessed' by the Liberal leaders after fifteen years of effort, lue Labour question was enriched by the offer of a scheme—very earnest the offer was—of insurance against unemployment, and a reply equally earnest warningly suggesting that too much consideration might, after all, be disastrous to industry. From these two presentments something good will no doubt come in the understanding of these questions which are troubling the whole world just now. Military service bad its votaries veering round the compass of the difficult subject, and there was evident a consider-

able progress in the feelings of hon. members regarding the compulsory principle. One member expressed Astonishment at the moderation of the Government in making so little of the Conference and the great services of the Prime Minister there, placing it after a vast number of subjects which surely no one could say were anything but most inferior in importance. There were references to the Timber Commission, with hope that the great subject of afforestation would be adequately treated before the end of the session, with full realisation of the fact that in fifty years there will be almost no timber for the people of this Dominion to cut for their needs. The Police Commission was not forgotten, receiving a few well-meant and not undeserved sneers. The feeling seemed to be that every constable wants to be a sergeant, every sergeant an inspector, and every inspector a commissioner. And so the week passed, the debate standing adjourned till Tuesday next. Labour Day in Wellington. Labour Day passed off in quiet fashion. No drums, no banners, no procession—just the picnicking that befits the enjoyment of men who celebrate a great principle, established beyond dispute, and enjoyed as a matter of course. The British Revolution. We have had time to turn to Home politics, and we are reading every day dissertations on the crisis daily growing nearer in Landon, wondering whether the King has intervened with a view to compromise, reading with enthusiasm the speeches of Lloyd George duly appearing in the local Press with all the glory of head lines, sensational and sympathetic; reading between the lines of the Irish Land Bill, the possibility of the developments awaiting the compulsory principle of resumption of estates, and the effect possibly on the broad aeres of the United Kingdom, the emptiness of which makes the landscape so mueh like a wilderness. In this connection some returned travellers somewhat astonish us by talking of the Irish Nationalists as the great apostles of land settlement, who are destined to do great things for the submerged tenth by their pioneering of the land question. In other words, All Liberals are watching the British revolution with much interest. I have seen a letter from an old politician of ours, now settled in London, who talks glowingly of the satisfaction in which he has been plunged, and in which he is swimming with mueh delight. He knows the whole course of the fights we went through in these parts when reform was first introduced and fought for. And he says he is astonished at the close resemblance of the thoughts and words of the Conservatives lamenting their vested interest threatened. He wonders if they got the words out of our “Hansards.” Yankee Journalism. A New York paper publishes what purports to be an interview with Lady Ward while in America, in which she is credited with having said that women are a powerful factor in New Zealand affairs, that they can make or mar candidates, have been factors in many great victories for righteousness, have practically stamped out the liquor vice, and that she hoped to see the day when the.e would not be a saloon in the land. Questioned on the subject, Lady Ward said she was asked by the representatives of many papers for interviews when abroad, but declined in every instance. She expressed surprise at the report of the alleged interview. She had stated privately that the women of New Zealand took full advantage of their right to vote, and that the conferring of the vote on women had, generally speaking, had a good effect. She was not ask d by anyone for an opinion on the liquor question, and had expressed no opinion on it. 'The remarks made in the alleged interview were not correct. The American Fleet. In the House of Representatives last week Mr. James Allen, in attacking the Government’s financial position, charged the Ministry with extravagance in spending £9OOO in entertaining the American Fleet in Auckland. Mr. Laurenson, who followed, said he was amazed at the attitude taken up by Mr, Allen. The increased revenue consequent on the arrival of the American Fleet was £20,000. Mr. Massey: Paid by Americans? Mr. Laurenson: No, but by our own people. Those 15,000 Americans while in

Auckland spent between £60,000 and £BO,OOO. To attack the Government for thia expenditure is the depth of unspeakable meanness. (Cries of ahame.) Trade With West of England. “The export trade with the western ports of England during the year has been unsatisfactory and shows a considerable shrinkage,” says the Minister of Industries and Commerce in his report to Parliament. The position was due to some extent to the trade depression, but there were other influences more particularly bearing on the point. The irregular' running of the steam service had been a serious factor in bringing about the present position of trade. Coupled to this, special terms were being offered to London merchants to buyers in the western districts, which had gone far to cover the cost of railage from London. This, added to facilities for obtaining regular supplies, had diverted a good deal of the trade via London, which previously went direct to western ports. The steam service between Vancouver and New Zealand ports, which was subsidised by the Government, had been discontinued on the expiration of the contract in June, 1909, as the volume of trade being done was small. hdental Hospitals. “The number of patients admitted to the mental hospitals of New Zealand during 1908 was 744 —a truly phenomenal advance on the previous year, when the admissions, less transfers, numbered 600.” This ominous sentence occurs in the annual report covering the working of the mental hospitals of the Dominion,, and presented to Parliament last week. Of the 744 admissions, 134 had been previously resident in mental hospitals, and 610 were admitted for the first time. The number of patients on the register at the commencement of the year was 3240, of whom 1909 were males and 1331 females. At the end of the year there were 3414 patients on the register—males, 1997; females, 1417. The proportion of insane to the total population, exclusive of Maoris, is 1 in 285, and inclusive of Maoris, lin 295. In the treatment of insanity advances are being made which the medical officers here are studying, and this further stimulates the public confidence, but it is stated that such confidence cuts two ways; it is found that many irrecoverables, patients who could and would have been kept at home under former conditions, are now being sent by relations to the mental hospital, knowing they will be comfortably housed and humanely treated. For this reason the recovery rate is not a standard for weighing the value of treatment, though the general figures show that during the year there were 692 patients who were classed as more or less curable. “The proportion of cases at any one time is a small fraction of the number resident. On January I, for instance, in only 4.94 per eent of the inmates was there reasonable expectation of recovery, and if possibilities were added to probabilities, the proportion was merely advanced to 8.55 per cent.” At the end of the year 713 patients were under special care, or 22 per cent of the total. Last year the percentage was only 13.56. The increase has greatly added to the anxieties of supervision. Making allowance for head office salaries and expenses, the net cost per patient, compared with the previous year, increased by 18/10. The total expenditure on farms was £8655. The produce sold realised £5770, and the value of produce consumed was £10,996. The net income from farms was, therefore, £Blll, Capital and Land, Not the least interesting feature of the Prime Minister’s speech on the Address-in-Reply on Thursday was that bn which he referred to the capital being driven out of the country. The point he made was with reference to the A.M.P. Society. The directorate of that institution was opposed to the Government, and the general body of the shareholders was favourable to the present administration, and it was remarkable that the whole of the £225,000 lent to the Government was paid out of the company’s funds in Sydney, and not out of New Zealand funds at all, and it was suggested that the New Zealand Government was collaring the chairman and directors and everybody concerned. He had heard this statement of capital being driven out of the country until he was absolutely sick of it. The only people who were taking capital out of the country were a few who had

money out of the efforts of other people, which had Increased the value of their land. Take the Hatuma Estate, for instance. It eost originally 10/ an acre, and the Government paid for it £5B an acre. The increased price was made by the railway passing through the property and by the erection of public buildings of various descriptions. In the ordinary course they would have the whole question of land thrashed out and settled this session, but the Government would not go on purchasing landed estates from these landed proprietors at the enormously increased prices put upon them. The Government would not go on buying land at a price which meant too big a burden on those who entered on it by way of occupation. He believed that the system to be established would enable small men with small means to go upon small areas and make a reasonable profit. • Cause of Insanity. , One of the most interesting features of the annual report of the InspectorGeneral of Mental Hospitals is that relating to the causes of insanity. Of those patients, numbering 434 males and 325 females, admitted to the various institutions during the past year, “congenital and hereditary” was the cause in 149 cases, but there are several others which are more significant. For instance, “disappointment, anxiety, and worry,” was responsible for 48 cases, nearly equally divided between the sexes, and no less than thirty, including three females, were ascribed to syphilis adolescence, and pubescence accounted for twenty, and in the case of 70 males and 21 females alcoholism is set down as the cause. “Dissolute life” accounted for one male and two females, religious excitement for five males and nine females, influenza claimed six victims, ill-health was responsible in eighteen cases. In 73 cases senility is given as the cause, sexual is made responsible for 18 cases, five cases are Baid to be due to domestic troubles, one female was admitted on account of a love affair, ten cases are said to be due to solitary life (eight of them were from Auckland), and two are set down as being due to spiritualism.