NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 681, 4 December 1909, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

It: is a little puzzling in tho present state of politics to separate the,two,parties '■dn' the ; House of Representatives,,: If •the Government Btoqd: to its principles and pledged,itself:tq!stand,or fall by its policy measures, ut could' probably be .thrown out.of-'oilicej'noxt week... The posi-lti6riJi3lire£(lly;»'a-'very:icui)iouy!f6ne{ -.-The .most: important Bill/ofthe;'session .is the Land Bill,, and the Government: is quite unable to control, its own' members in re-; gard to it. The reason, of course, is that, the Government has-changed its policy and- produced a measure half freehold and half leasehold.;.' Those .leaseholders who are staunch; to their, convictions-aye fighting' -their own -party • leaders; who have betrayed therii bri'this question, and announceitheir'deteririinatiori to fight to a -finish. -. The.'Goycrnmojit is so. situated that it ; has, to turriy to : the' : Opposition Party,' and on .the-strength of the freehold clauses of tho Bill 'claim, their sup- , port for tho measure.;: So far the; Opposition have shown; an inclination to as-' isist the Government. But what'.will hap* ;pen.if. they' refuse'.to ; bo made; use,of l iWhat will, the Government do if the Oppositionl arrive at the conclusion'that the' leasehold clauses of the Bill, locking uplovet "seven millions.of acres under ; tho ■leasehold tenure, mako,it impossible,: for tKem to vote for the measurb as a .whole? Tho defeat of,the Government iirsuch circumstances iB practically, certain. -'What possible 'excuse', '.could ~the\,, Prime Minister' . offer•;. for retaining /office! If;defeated, presumably ho,would feel impelled'to resign or to appeal to tho country. The situation is decidedly interesting. ' ,\

■:■:""■ ;•:-': v- ~-, ..-•,.■,. . ; ;: v /■/.■;■■. ■■■.\W .■'' "\Vhat aro you paid for?' was a ques-. tibn ■"asked. by Mr. Fisher . in the House yesterday - afternoon .i in the" coui'se of': a protest against.the Government's anxiety , to, adopt a- policy of ."legislation by exhaustion'' . instead; of i the policy of ask:irig' members to* stay and do their' work properly.'-"It is .a- question' thatl'many,J people must.hayc asked themselves every session if or years past.; ..Yet Mr'.: Fisher's pertinent; inquiry; aroused all, the spirits of .wrath, and protest: iri the. bosoms /:of. many members. /Some:,of them/became, vocal in their indignation; Mr. Hoqan, for example, whom w;o 'should say was not any .worse off .in his capacity, as /M.P.' than- he was previously, was quite fierce in 'his resentment of -'the idea' that anyone should inquire; into the relation be-1 tween the workvand the pay of a.mein-/ ber of the House./ /''Withered,"; so'/ in : effect/he' said,:.''withered be'the nose ; that pokes into the /member's ■ doings." •.-''■.-,Yet, as:'it is the, public that pays;:tho M'.P., tho public has some, trifling interest in seeing that; it 'gets..its/money's 'worth. Mr. Hogan asks us to .imagine the M.P. as a person who/is- tottering under his weight of toil—legislating hard i between 2.30 p/m.and 2.30 a.m., working on committees from 0 a.m./to 1 p.m., and writing hundreds/ of ; letters every; dayi/atid doing this for quite four months : in, the year.._ The public docs not crowd.into the galleries, but it reads all the papers, and it knows that these toil-worn hcrocß are often asleep, or reading, or . chattering for the greater part of the time—or ab*. sent "from the . Chamber," to which they return/at such; times; as. the division .bell rings.' Curiously enough, the- men who attend most. closely; to business are the men who do'not feel affronted \vhon somebody asks them, to render an account/of thoir services. Mr. Hooak apparently thinks members should receive £500 a year.: 'It' would not bo wise for the member for. Wanganui to bring down a motion to that effect. ■;'-,

The half-yearly meeting of the shareholders of tho Bank of New Zealand held jcstoiday afternoon was icsponsible foi two interesting speeches The Picsident of the Bank, Mil Bemjchamp, 10vicwed the operations of the institution during the past six months, and dwelt especially on the exceptional faclois which ha\o influenced its business Also, incidentally, ho had something to say in reply to tho criticisms which ha\c from tnno to timo been passed on the methods of tho banking institutions of the Dominion The portion of Ins remarks, howc\cr, which will excite most general interest is that rofeinng to th 6 state of trade in New Zealand and-tho outlook.

The head of a'large financial institution'. such as the Bank of New. Zealand ncees- ' Barily' has special opportunities of. judg-. ■ ing the effect of financial movements ;; abroad oil pur ; local trade and industricsi :;■ and on r the commerce.generally, of thoA country; -Bankers have their fingers: on, tho financial < pulseV of the trading com- .•'•: munity, and the fluctuations which meanprosperity or. depression _conic .veryv ..; quickly under their observation. There- f: fore, when the President of the Bank of v; New Zealand tells' the country, in his" official „capacitj'j "the prospects before ub are decidedly good, _ .and.; supports his opinion with a cheoring analysis V of the market conditions and prices for our principal products, there is good reason to feet that better times'arc returning. If is well to''note, however,, that. : Mr. Beau-champ's watchword still is "Cau-: tion," and seeing that we Jiavo been; preaching in the same' Btrain ourselves for the past fifteen months, we can find." no fault with' this advice. The second '■. speech referred to was that of Me. Martin Kennedy; ai representative on tho directorate of, the shareholders' interests.' Mr. Kennedy is a very shrewd man _ of , business, and his advocacy of the claims.' of tho shareholders to larger dividends; must bo treated with respect. Tho policy, pursued by the Bank, howovcr, of build- • ing up a strong reserve, is not one to find fault with unless carried:to extremes.' It 1b a subject upon which opinions .'.cap-.;; reasonably differ, and ..'.'Caution" _'is, : after all; a very:sound guiding principle: in such matters. .'. ' ' . '■;

The Government suffered, another do«; feat last evening on a straight-out 'rm>: tion in the House of Ecpresentativcs.' A A'. : vote of £400 for, the late High Commissioner in a new capacity of financial ad* viser to the Government appeared on the Estimates, and was objected' toby ; tho: Leader of. the Opposition and other members.' While;, economy is being preached on; all sides, it certainly seems a little curious that an item 'of this' kind, -in-;' creasing the cost of the High .Commissioner's: office, should find a place on tho Estimates.' That members, thought w was evident from the emphatic manner ic which they threw.'it out, the voting being 35 to 25... There was a time when., a direct'refusal by the House to grant Sup-• ply in this way would have precipitated a- political-crisis. , In. Great, Britain Governments: have gone out of office on more trifling defeats. In this country, l however, under existing conditions, it is.' difficult to conceive a situation in ,which tho Government would consider itself so slighted .by Parliament as to';feel.'-that' it. must either resign: or appeal to the coun-. try. : It.'is'; a matter for, congratulation,' howcvcr,;;that: member's are beginning, to exercise' an; independent judgment. We commented a \fow| days ago on tho fact that in matters of detail somo members were breaking away, from the. tyranny, of the party'..whip, and wo have' not the slightest doubt that membors-who reasonably '■_ exercise their right of individual opinion stand very much better with the country .than those who>follow slavishly at, the heels of; the Leader of the; House,,

'-, As . wo. r go' to: , press ■ the ■■■: House of -.•■'Representatives'-'..is', discussing .the trouble/; in the Land arid; Income, Tax Department.; 'Members' properly claimed that tho report of the two. Judges who investigated the allegations made by an officer of the Department should bo laid More Parliament, names, of; private individuals of course being: omitted. It would 'bo t quite , ab: surd; to:: pretend : that two Judgci of tho Supremo Court would bo called ov to. investigate ( 'this. unless the alio-, gatiori^Wdel'^ei^^df-jS^lV^gravo'rri^L 1 ture.,';; It ,is''equally .plain"; that',^the' report, 6i the' Judges having .been presented the. matter.. is (not. sub judicc.' '•-. ■ Conceal.' merit of tlio facts, in ,'vieV,of.' the amount: of publicity has already been giver; to,the subject, 'can drily do still further harm.; The excuse offered by the Priiinj Minister that if the'.names, of thc-pri-.vatdlndividuals mentioned in the report wero: omitted,.the 'report of the Judges would- not be * understandable, is, sirigularly ineffective,:;becauso, ( if i correct, it should rcraovo'. any objection ; he might have to making the findings of the Commission public. There is a,very strong :fecling.:.hei l e.,that there-is more,in,.;tho matter, than;..meets the eye, and that it would be; in the public interest to haw the working; bf this important Depart-, ment 'of;,'the State,thoroughly investi-, gated.■'. Surely it is asking too much to' expect thc ; public- to belioVo that the-na-turo:of the charges could not bo stated, without; identifying any, of:.the; publi< with- them; and. we have no.doubt thai; tho findings of■■ the:;', Judges could be .sei: out with equal clearness without any risk: of disclosing tho. business of private. .in«'. dividuals., llcmbors would be quite justifiod', in .refusing- to pass the Estimates, until this'information is. supplied.