NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 808, 4 May 1910, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

4 ; The attitude of those newspapers which feel bound to support the "leasehold'' policy, and which at the samo time cannot allow themselves to falter in their general devotion to the Government, is at times very interesting. Their plight, though painful, is often comic, and the things they say in thoir distress of mind are often very strange and sad. Our evening contemporary, for example, suggested last night that the Government will next' session reintroduce the Land Bill of last year. It then went on to say: ' We should havo been thankful to seo the Government taking its stand firmly by the leasehold, but wo recognise that it is vain to hopo for such a thing. In the Honso of Representatives as it is at present constituted compromise of some Rind or other offers the only possible means of checking a serious reaction, but wo hope to see a compromise nlore favourable to the popular cause than that which the Government put forward last session.

Our contemporary is a groat admirer of the British Government and the British Radical press. It ought therefore to be able to realise what the Daily News, say, would do if Mr. Asquith wcro to bring in a measure of tariff reform. AVould the Ncivs so philosophically resign itself to the position, and mildly "recognise" that it was vain to hope that Mr. Asquith would stand by Freetrade 1 Wo hardly think so. But, of course, that Mb. Asquith should be a passionate Free-trader one day. a neutral the noxt, and a" Tariff Reformer the day after is .an impossibility only less grotesque than that our Government should stand or fall by any sort of land policy whatever. The "leasehold" friends of the Government do lead a rather wretched life—or, rather, those of them do who think they sincerely lwlieve in the "leasehold" principle. Their devotion under, torture is the most touching thing we know.

The fact that Sir Joseph Ward is about to break the long silonco of the Government by delivering a speech at Winton to-morrow night has set our local contemporaries speculating as to what the Prime Minister-will have to tell the country. These two journals have been drawing very much closer together in recent times in their attitude towards the Government, and it is a little amusing, therefore, to note that there arc still some points of difference between thenL One of these is the subject of Civil Service retrenchment. The morning Ministerial journal yesterday remarked:

It may be that in view of the improvement which has taken place in the financial outlook there may be some diminution in .the retrenchment programme which has been carried steadily forward for some time. It is certainly to be hoped that there will be an indication that tho cheese-paring which has been going on in connection with tho essential services of the Agricultural Department will shortly cease and determine.

The evening journal, discussing the situation the same day, felt itself called upon to protest against the suggestion of "cneese-paring": This I'the more satisfactory financial position] is a matter for all-round con-, gratulation, but it is not a matter for congratulation that the improvement in the financial outlook should be made the ground for suggesting to the Prime Minister that tho need for retrenchment has passed, and that what was approved as economy thirteen months ago may now bo condemned as cheese-paring. The frank statement in which Sir Josoph Ward made his announcement of the Government's intention to effect economies to the extent of ,£230,000 a year plainly showed that the Publio Service had been hitherto run in an unbusinesslike and wantonly extravagant fashion. If the policy of, retrenchment is being ■ wisely carried out, not a' less, but a more efficient service will be the. result.

No one can doubt that the evening journal is on sounder ground than our morning bontemporary in this matter. The ' retrenchment which was forced on the Government by the stress of bad times should Dover have been neccssary—good times are no excuse for waste and extravagance, but should be taken advantage of to provide against the rainy, tlay which inevitably comoß. However, our reason for referring to this subject was to suggest that it is quite time that the country knew something about the retrenchment that was promised. We know that the services of a great many Civil Servants were dispensed with. We know that a number' of Departments were abolished as separate Departments and absorbed'By others. But the full details have never been given. Has tho Prime Minister saved tho £250,000 a year that he promised would be saved ? If so, how has ho clone it 1 If not, why not ! It would be interesting to know how many Civil Servants have lost their positions since the retrenchment scheme was inaugurated, and how many additions have been made to the servico.

So far as can bo judged from tho very brief reports in the London papers, Mr. Pember Reeves was not uninteresting in a lecture which he delivered to the Liboral Colonial Club on March 21 last oh "Legislative .Second Chambers in tho. British Empire Overseas." He told his audioncc that "if the colonics had lauglii them one lesson more than another, it was that thoy should have nothing to do with an Upper Chamber the members of which were nominated for life or elected by a limited constituency." What should be the ideal method of forming an Upper House Mr. Reeves docs not appoar to have indicated. Nor did ho, apparently, discuss our own Legislative Council

at any length. Ho did say, however, that "'in iN'ew Zealand, where the Liberal party had been in power for 19 years, the effect of the gradual strengthening of the Liberal element in the Senate had been to make it a highly respectable, but not actively obstructive, Chamber." "Not actively obstructive" is a delightfully euphemistic phrase to apply to a Chamber that has been so carefully stuffed with selected supporters that the Government can rely upon it to .approve anything that is sent up to it from the House. If the experience of New Zealand proves ,anything, it is that the nominative system can be hopelessly vicious. Every system yet tried has been shown to be unsound. What is wanted is a Senate elected by large constituencies. In this connection Mr. Hai.imne made a speech oil March 19 of which the following passage deserves the attention of thoughtful people in New Zealand

You -might have—l am only sketching possible ideas—a Second Chamber very small in numbers and representative of very groat constituencies. ' You might have the electoral law so amended not that there should be any difference in the voters, because the same voters would vote for hoth, hut so that tho expenditure that is increasing!*- going on in connection with election should at any rats be restricted to n minimum in the case of l.he«e great constituencies. No man shoiild hopo to be accepted by such a great bnrly of electors unless lie was a man who had mndo his mark in the public life of his country, 1 don't care whether lie was a great Conservative like the late Lord Salisbury or men who havo the confidence of the working classes like ilr. Burt or Mr. Shaeldelon. You might get' in that way the veTy pick of tho nation, and the very pick of the nation so elcctcd as to be a good mirror of the opinion of the constituencies. 'In that ease revision and delaying power in legislation, cxercisoii :is it. would be by men of that calibre, a calibre secured by tho assent of the constituencies, would be exercised for the purposo of seeing that there wns not too great impulsiveness on the part of tho Tories when in office any more than when the Liberals were in power. Wo should then get something like a rigid check, on revolutionary legislation from tho Tory party, and in these dnys of Tariff "Roform" we may require some check upon the impulsiveness of a fyture House of Commons.—{Hear, hear.)