A GREAT PERFORMANCE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 973, 14 November 1910, Page 4

A GREAT PERFORMANCE.

The Prime Minister has always been unusually fortunate in obtaining applause for his numerous appearances at the penitent stool. He prosecutes a policy of squander and waste; trouble ensues, and ho confesses the need for retrenchment. He is applauded as a hero. He does his best to block the movement for compulsory training. Finding the movement too big and strong to be controlled, ho quietly _ executes a right-about face, and is cheered as the saviour of his country. He forces the bookmaker upon an outraged and indignant public; after three years of this, ho sweeps his former Act away, and is everywhere felicitated as the constant friend of the higher life. Not to multiply illustrations, he is constantly marching up to the penitent stool, and receiving on each occasion volleys of admiring cheers. But never, wc think,, never, has he scored such a triumph for undoing, what he did the day before as he has done in connection with the Licensing Bill. From the comments of our local contemporaries, we should say that this must be accounted the greatest of all his achievements in this line. There is a charming naivete in our evening contemporary's observations:

Tho Premier is to bo congratulated upon the achievement of another ' "record " Ho did not get the Licensing Bill through its final stages in the Houso of Representatives at yesterday's sitting, as ho had been bold enough to prophesy on Monday, but ho succeeded in completing the Committee stage of tho Bill, except as to tho schedules, which are for tho most part a formal matter, and Fomo new clauses proposed by private members, which will also not take long. To get 42 clauses of a Licensing Bill through Committee at a single sitting,, with amendments involving tho reconstruction of some of the most fundamental of them, and to do this without keeping tho House sitting beyond a few minutes after 2 o'clock in tho morning, is an astonishing performance.

Most people will envy such a capacity for- admiration and astonishment, for; to most people there is nothing astonishing, though there is cause for satisfaction, in the. approval of a "fundamental reconstruction" that meant the_ withdrawal of a thoroughly objectionable proposal. But it is to our other contemporary , that we owe most pleasure It said:

Tlio prophets havo again dishonoured their calling. Only a week ago wo were told that tho Gaming Bill would require "ssveral days'" discussion, and were given to understand that in all probability tho measure would not. bo passed. It is now almost ready for the Statute Book. At the-same time the country _ was solemnly assured that the Licensing Bill would necessitate debate for "at least a week," and this Bill, too, was said to be a mere demonstration, unsupported' by serious intontion to proceed on the part of the Government. Yesterday's proceedings of the House show how much reliance these precious forecasts were entitled to receive, and reveal how expeditiously the business of the country can bo discharged when the Houso abandons obstructive taotics and settles down to work.

"The prophets" certainly must be content to look foolish. They have no excuse for not having guessed that the Prime Minister would turn his Bill exactly upside down so far as the vital point of it is concerned. In future we shall look with grave doubt upon ourselves whenever we indulge in the fancy that-the Prime Minister is i really going to stick to his policy this time.