NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 918, 10 September 1910, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

v.- —-;..»-„ ',---,;;.; y ; ,- . A eemarkable statement, was imade in the, House of Bepresehtatives last evening coiicerhing':the:charges aris-: ing outof the Land and Income Tax cases. The House had been: led to understand': that the .report of- .the Commission of Inquiry into :the' working of the Department :in creation had found two : of the ofhcers ( guiltyon two of the charges made. Mr. Taylor, stated'last night that other charges/,0f.-an : .'even ,more' serious nature than those disclosed by the Prime,. Minister. 1 had been, proved. One of these charges, Mr: Taylor stated,;-..was the acceptance by an officer of the' Department of a sum of money running into dreds of pounds for;s6me service ren : dered in connection, with the-adjust-' ment of an income/tax account. This is a most serious- matter, -ahci' we quite- fail to: understand how : it is that Parliament tolerates the attitude of the-Prime,.Minister!in .regard to .this question.- He; takes up' the stand that' he, - and .he-alone; is. to be trusted with any,knowledge of, the State Departments which he chooses to label private.: The Public Service may be reeking with corruption ; Parliament and the' may- insist'on,inquiry, -but it is.-the-Prime 'Minister', alone': who shall' say what Parliament ahdjhe'".'public shall bo told about' the discoveries made as the result of. that inquiry. So far as the land and income taxcases are concerned we cannot pretend to say what was in the report.of the Commission of Inquiry beyond what Sir Joseph Ward has deigned to disclose. In face of Mr. Taylor's, definite and emphatic statements, however, the country, will not be satisfied with'the little that has been tossed to them by the head of : the Government., The attempt to shelter behind the pretence that the private affairs of those haying.business with the Taxing Department-would disclosed if any further information were given will, we venture to think, deceive no one. Anyone following the politics of the country . during the past 12 months: cannot fail to have been struck with the increasing number of unpleasant episodes _in connection with.the administration of the affairs of the Dominion;; and the unpleasantness has been-, accentuated by thejnvariable effort to hush them up or'shroud them in mystery. The Government's credit never "stood lower than it does to-day. and this -is due ,in no small measure to its lack of candour .in matters regard--ing which.the country-is-entitled to the fullest information;, and to the grave doubts which are growing up in the public mind as to the reasons which actuate the Government in adopting this attitude. Never has a Government in New -Zealand; shown- so little readiness to "trust the people.", ~.

The position has now been reached —it began to develop as soon as the late-Mb. Seddon passed away—when, if we were to note, every case in which a Minister contradicts himself or otherwise trips in the darkness that he has no light of settled principles to illumine,, we' should bo doing nothing else. A particularly .flagrant case involving Me. Millar must not. however, bo passed- over. We recorded yesterday : how, _ in giving evidence before the Petitions Committee respecting the Sanson tramway extension proposal, ho said that "if they [the Railway Department] had any trouble with Foxton, the Government would deal with Foxton in the same way that they, did with Oamaru." Speaking in the House yesterday ho' was more he .said, he would make the Foxton Harbour Board "go bung,"

'To-day we print a statement by'him, in which he "declines to admit that the Railway Department had been a contributory factor to the Oamaru Harbour Board's trouble." .The'Oamaru Harbour Board, it will be remembered, "went bung" to use Mr. Millar's phrase,'as the result of the manipulation of the railway rates. Mr. Millar therefore stands committed to the following statements : (1) That the Railway Department will make Foxton "go bung" just as it made Oamaru "go bung''; (2) That the Railway Department did not make Oamaru "go ■bung." ■It is extremely bad luck for Mr. Millar that the Oamaru _ episode happened to come on for discussion about the same time as the Foxton case. Had a few weeks elapsed between tho appearances of _ the two cases in the House, ho migbt have hoped that his reckless inconsistency would go unnoticed. 'We! wonder' whether Ministers' fully realise the effect upon tho public of the rapidlyswelling 'flood of evidence—the proof—of the Ministry's lack of principles on almost every .debatable question.

Already there is abundant evidence that the: confiscation proposals, of the Land Bill have thrown the public into a state of mingled amazement and alarm; Even such extreme Radicals as - Messrs. . Hoqg , and M'Laren are shocked and astonished. .Whatever hope the Government may have had of removing this feeling, it has lost it. at the very' first step: ■ As we explain elsewhere the Bill as it stands - proposes, . not. only to evict the of'estates over £40,000 in value, and to rob them of, ; their capital for at-least ten years, but also to pillage them— to. extract from fhem every year the. full graduated tax.on the lands wrested from them. : The Prime Minister, in a; statement to- the "press, .which we', give/ to-day, -.has "climbed.' down" ,in a'ludicrous manner. He has wit. enough now to see that his. precious Bill is monstrous beyond all precedent.' .He is : obviously staggered at'. ' his ; handiwork; and he has hastened , to. ask the public to believe that he never intended to add eviction. It was by"an oversight," he pleads, that there was omitted, from the Bill a clause exempting his victims from the graduated tax. This, clause,: he, apparently wants the public to.-,be r lieve, appeared in the original draft of the: Bill, but somehow it slipped, out. Perhaps'one of his .colleagues absent-mindedly ;used it .'as a pipe■iight .at. the final Cabinet meeting on the Bill. 'No doubt there may be', scdrcs'of. "original drafts" .of the Bill, : in manuscript. arid, in print, and it would be, strange if one; of them is not of a -sort to .give some, n6lour to the Prime Minister's "plea.. As to that, we do not know; /. and we are sure the-public The general opinion'will, be - that when .the point was. brought under the Prime Minister's .'-notice '/he exclaimed/ "Good Heavens!" We ■ forgot all about, the graduated tax;" In any case .one thing is -.certain— that;, the' Government (has '.■simplyplunged without giving'the slightest thought to the consequences of' its .action. When/ii can make, such :agross blunder on a vitally important point, what confidence can anybodyhave in'any:of its. proposals ? _, What, sort ot>'ay, is. this to deal \ with.. im-j portant'questions 1) .--We,,'shall : haye;. to 'discuss the effect of.the ■ Prime Minister's .rapid, rush" to cover later : ■on. , In ■■■the' meantime, • it. is enough to point out that:he has'blasted any tiny hope he,'may;have had.that his Bill, however . it: might:/ have/'.been ; condemned on general '■ grounds, ■would be .regarded as. an .honest and well-considered, if misguided, measure. And this is only the first act of' tho play.' '-';-."■:.. -\/ : -H/-'- '■'■''.'■'■.