The Dominion. MONDAY, JUNE 27, 1910. THE COMING SESSION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 853, 27 June 1910, Page 6

The Dominion. MONDAY, JUNE 27, 1910. THE COMING SESSION.

The opinion has been expressed that the coming session will be a fairly long and lively one, and although we have seen similar promises in the past go without fulfilment, there are special circumstances this year which point to a session full of interest. Tho Government's hold on the country has steadily declined since the death of Mr. Seddon, and the Ward Administration has to face the fact that it is steadily losing in popularity. It is not so much that its legislation has had a bad aspect, and that the tendencies of it are making people uneasy and discontented, as that the administrative methods of the Ministry are constantly showing signs, plain for all to see, of a, progressive deterioration. To those whose political memories are long enough to extend back over • five years it is unnecessary to point out the curious and significant difference between the Ward Government as it stands to-day and the Seddon Government at any time prior to June of 1906. However loudly the storm of criticism might blow, Mr. Seddon was able to go his powerful way undisturbed; even his weak colleagues were serene and confident in the strength of their chief; the public was cowed and helpless; whatever tho Government chose to do it was able to do. To-day the position , is vastly changed. The Government has shrunk in power: it is not popular as tho Seddon Government was popular; it has to manoeuvre anxiously where the Seddon Government rode roughshod over opposition; there is timorousness and un-caso where once was the courage and confidence of unquestioned strength. The Wakd Administration, in fact, is living on the unexpended force of its predecessor; and that force is decreasing. Signs of all this have boon given by Ministers themselves during tho recess. They have been incessantly travelling through the country to make what electioneering use could bo made of their personal suit of the voters; for a long period they made no speeches, and the recoss has only contained one Ministerial speech oi any general importance, that delivered by Sir Joseph Ward at Winton. It has, indeed, been pretty plain that Ministers have been anxious to secure immunity from criticism by letting the public alone. It is therefore not a very powerful or self-confident Government, for all its ample majority in the House, which will meet Parliament to carry out the programme sketched by the Prime Minister at Winton. There is still, of course, no appearance of a general policy that would enable the Government to claim the championship of any recognised set of political principles. It is not Liberal, in the true sense of that much-abused word; it is not Conservative, save in a bad sense, since its conservatism only shows itself .in the maintenance of conditions that operate against the country's interests; it will not frankly admit that it is Socialistic—it can only be described as the Miscellaneous Party. % What the Government regards as lhe % principal measure for the session we do not know, but perhaps the amending Defence Bill will be regarded by most people as of gi eater moment than anything elsa we are likely to have brought down by the Prime Minister. Although thenarc disagreements on both sides of tho House upon certain aspects of the proposals of Lord Kitchener, the House as a whole will be at one in approving legislation designed to give effect to those proposals. There is scope for great usefulness in the proposal to establish a sinking fund for the repayment of the public debt, but it is impossible to feel any enthusiasm for the scheme suggested by the Prime Minister, or to give any but a very low place on the list to a debt-extinction measure that not only names a paltry annual sum for repayment, but is certain, unless the House knocks on the head the Government's views as to the destiny of the sinking funds, to be a worthless sham. Local government reform and a system of national annuities are promised, but we very much doubt whether it is not a waste "of time and space to say anything on these subjects just now. They have figured for years in the Government's programme, and there seems to be no reason why their appearance this year brings them any nearer to the Statute Book. The present is at any rate not a favourable time for tho production of a sound measure in either ca.se. A Government that is unsleeping in its anxiety to centralise local government and to clip tho freedom of local bodies that bureaucracy may grow stronger is not the sort of Government best suited to set the local government of tho country on a sound basis; nor can a scheme of national annuities framed and administered by a Government with the bad financial reputation and record of the Ward Administration be looked forward to without anxiety. Of greater immediate importance is the proposed measure, for the vesting of all water-power rights in the State. Any Bill that is brought down in this relation must bo very carefully scrutinised, for although it may be years before the State takes practical action, despite tho Prime Minister's airy talk about £500,000 a year, Parliament must act as if the scheme were to l>e put in operation at once. We cannot enumerate all the measures spoken of by the Pnian; Minister, which range from beet sugar to the law of libel, from tho post-audit system in electoral reform, but. a word is necessary upon tho anti-trust measure forecasted in the Winton speech. Sir. Joseph Ward knows, wo hope, that having threatened this measure he is bound to briug it forward and carry it through, Hβ

has heard, we presume, of what are known as "strike' . Bills in the .New York State Legislature. Of the ex- > cellciire of his intentions we have no ' doubt, and we therefore trust that he realises what a very unpleasant impression will be left if, after announcing this measure, he docs not j make good his words. [ The one measure concerning which > we had a right to receive some defi- , nite statement, but concerning which > very few people dreamed of expects ing anything definite, is the Land Bill. According to his Winton speech, the Bill, though "perhaps modified in form," will "contain the same principles'' as the Bill of last session. This tells us nothing, and in any ease the Bill of last year contained no coherent, principle at all. How much longer the Prime Minister expects the freehold majority in the country to allow its wishes to be thwarted, and the interests of the nation defied, by the Government's desperate attempt to "balance" on this question, wo do not know; but it is quite certain that the country is sick and tired of the wretched ' manoeuvring of tho Ward Administration, and sick and tired of those • freehold members who are ready to • sacrifice their principles, on <i ■ transparently unsound excuse, to , their well-founded fear that their political existence depends upon the favour of the Government. On this 1 question we may expect to see an ■ early conflict. There are many i other subjects which arc bound to ' give rise to sharp debate. It is impossible, for example, that the scandal in the Land, and Income Tax ' Department shall be allowed to rest ' whore jt is. Tho country is uneasy, . and will not be satisfied if Parlia- ! ment does not insist on publicity , being given to tho facts of this un- \ pleasant affair. Enough has been , said and done to make it imperative . that the utmost efforts be made in '. the House, and at any cost, to tear , away the veil of mystery with which ■ the Prime Minister seems bent on ! hiding away tho truth. Much must ; be said, also, concerning tho relations between the Government and \ "Mil. E. A. Smith"; the Piume . Minister has yet to explain, , amongst other things, the direct de- [ nial which Mb. Pember Beeves gave to some of his statements. Tho manner in which tho Departments cx- . change the confidential information , supplied to them will also come up ', for debate, and we may note that ! although the matter was widely , commented on, and made the subject ! of many severe public criticisms, '■ tho Government has not had a word to say in reply. Our examination , of tho Government's baseless claim to. have effected a real saving under ; its retrenchment scheme has boon given such general publicity by our I contemporaries that this question is [ certain to provoke some interesting discussions, the more so as, after having tricked the country and made ; only a pretence of retrenchment, the Government intends, if the Prime I Minister's words mean anything, actually to turn to further extravagance. It now seems assured that the allocation of public works . expenditure, so far at any rate as railway construction is concerned, will be discussed from a new standfoint, namely, the national interest, t is to be hoped that the friends of reform will seize every opportunity to push the cause of non-political control of this expenditure and nonpolitical control of the Civil Service. ' Only by an uncompromising determination to thresh matters out can tho friends of good government further and strengthen the case against extravagance and deceit. One of their first duties, however, and a duty they have steadily neglected, is to open tho session with an imperative demand for the immediate, or at any rate a very early, production of tho Government's Bills. The . Government can offer no sound objection to complying with a demand so manifestly in tho public interest. '■ In conclusion we have not the least' ' doubt that if the Reform Party is alert, and lets nothing go by default, the session will result in a great strengthening of tho growing opin- ' ion in favour of a change of Gov- ■ crnmont or of a radical alteration ' of the Government's aims and methods.