NOTES OP THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1851, 10 September 1913, Page 6

NOTES OP THE DAY.

The Land Bill introduced In the House of Representatives yesterday by the Prime Minister is a most comprehensive measure, and will require a good , deal of study before the full effect of the whole of its provisions is clearly grasped. The satisfactory feature of the Bill is the evidence it affords of the determination of the Government to popularise settlement on the land, fc> provide necessary land for eettlers desiring it, and to prevent reaggregation of land. The Government has been accused of the friend of the squatter and big . landholder. Tho lie direct has been given to this allegation by the actions of the Government since it came into o'ffice, and is specially emphasised by the policy laid down in, the present Bill. Tho holders of lands for settlement aro. to be given the right to acquire the freehold of the land they are occupying; improved conditions of settlement are/provided for back-blocks settlers on Crown lands, one innovation in this respcct being that taxation contributed by settlers having no roads' shall be specially set aside for expenditure towards constructing roads for .their benefit; holders of pastoral leases are more liberally treated in tho matter of improvements; an important departure is made in the methocl of securing the subdivision of large estates; and an attempt to prevent aggregation of land is embodied. It is essentially a Bill calculated to encourage and promote closer settlement. The "man on tho land" has not been too well treated in the past, and the present Bill does not pretend to do all that might be done for his benefit and to the advantage of tho Dominion. But it. mUrks abig step forward—or rather several big steps forward—and from the somewhat hurried glance through its provisions, which we have been able to give, most of them appear to be in the right direction.

"This Government is in office, but not in power. . . . This Parliament cannot be of long- duration." These significant words were spoken by the Australian Federal Prime Minis-

ter (Mr. Cook) a little over a week ago, and since then tho situation has become even more critical. A motion by the Opposition attacking the general policy of tho Government has been defeated on the Speaker's casting vote, but it has been followed by another attack directed against the AttorneyGeneral (Mr. Irvine) for holding a retainer for the_ Marconi Company. The Opposition is now endeavouring to break down the Government's majority of one by challenging Mr. Irvine's vote on the ground that' he is a pecuniarily interested party. This new development emphasises Mr. Cook's recent remarks regarding the precariousness of the Government's position in having to depend continually on the vote of one man

—tho Speaker. _ In the House'the progress of business is being blocked, while in the Senate the Opposition is taking the control of affairs out of the hands of the responsible Ministers, who are almost helpless. Tho recent election proved that Labour is in a minority in the country, and yet it retains its majority in the Senate, and is thus in a position to defy this wishes of tho people. As Mr. Cook recently declared, the position is intolerable, and the Government does not intend to put up with it for long. • Ho added these words: "Our aim at tho present time is to get another appeal to the country, with every interest thrown into the scale, and every member in both Houses into the scale in the bargain." This, of course, moans a double dissolution, and it is this that

the Labour members are doing their utmost to avoid. They desire to force a dissolution of the House only, as they do not want to jeopardise

their numerical superiority in the Senate.

No better illustration of the plight in which the Opposition party finds itself to-day could be offered than is given by the statement that as. the price of his Leadership Sir Joseph Ward ' has forced from the party a promise of implicit obedience to orders and an absolutely free hand for himself as Leader. This, no doubt, is very pleasant for the member for Awarua, who appears to be well able to look after his own interests. Even when he'led the party to disaster he did not' emerge from tho shipwreck following on his brief term of office without some consola-

tions d.enied to his less fortunate follower: and now that he is about to tako t£LQ load again tho unhappy

rank and file are to be pushed once more into the background while ha dominates their political actions. It would seem the basest ingratitude cn the part of the party, however, if (ns reported} Mb. Hanan and Mn. Witty are to do relegated by Sir Joseph Ward to obscure places in the fighting- ranks of the party. No one, except perhaps tho member for Avon, Mr. Russell, has'done more to keep- the party alive than the two members mentioned. Even in tho most despondent moments of the Opposition, .when Sir Joseph Ward was enjoying himself elsewhere, the member for Invercargill and the member for Riccarton nave stood at their posts striving to instil a little spirit into the "Liberal" factions. And now we are told they are to be passed Over in favour of tho member for Hutt. Mr. Wilford's advanoe will no doubt be gratifying to his friends. His removal from his present close proximity to tho public galleries may have tho effect of enabling him to concentrate more of his attention on the business of the House, and less time to the entertainment of the onlookers. On the whole, we should say the member for Awarua has got rather the best of a bad bargain in the arrangement he is said to have come to with tho party. We fancy his followers will Be disillusioned when he comes put into the open, and that they will discover that they have been led into attaching a fictitious value to his services by his seeming reluctance to take the Leadership of the party. It is satisfactory, however, to know that the Opposition has at last a definite prospect of being able to i®> duce someone to lead them.

It iB only to ba expected with party government, that the Opposition will always discover something to disagreo with in the actions of the Government, but tho present occupants of the Opposition bencheß are extremely unfortunate in their choice of subjects for fault-finding. Yesterday, for instance, they had a vory bad time. They started off on a Bill authorising the Government to raise and expend £100,000 on irrigation works. The member for Avon roso and professed to be horrorstricken at tho vicious principle which ho considered to bo embodied in this proposal. It was, he submitted, creating a most dangerous and undemocratic precedent and all the rest of it. When he had sufficiently recovered from tho shock following on "his dreadful discovery of the wicked desire of the Government to secure the right to expend this money without specific authorisations for each particular item of expenditure, he suffered what was probably a still greater sbpck. His own party, it .appeared, had been doing this very thing in identically the same manner for years past;and the Massey > Ministry ■ instead of creating this improper precedent were merely following the precedent laid down by Mr. Russell and his friends. It was amusing later on to witness tho ingenious wriggling and twisting of the member for Avon as he endeavoured to extricate himself from the awkward situation in which he had landed. Several Opposition members also endeavoured yesterday to score off tho Government by charging them with not having kept their election pledge to relieve tho burden of taxation -affecting the cost of the necessaries of life. In support of this contention the increase in the graduated land tax of last year and the proposed increase' in .the graduated income tax were quoted. Here again the Opposition were unfortunate. For months they have been shrieking at the Government that the Graduated Land Tax was a sham—that tho Government, as "tho friends of. the squatters, had juggled, with the Graduated Land Tax and made a pretence of putting on a "turn of the screw" without doing anything of the kind. Now, _to score a point in another direction, our Opposition friends somersault. They are nothing- if not inconsistent. Incidentally it might bo pointed out to them that practically the whole of the increased taxation about which, to suit their ends, they are. now making such a pother is directed against the big man who is supposed to be best able to bear it—the little man escapes altogether. Furthermore, it does not seem to have occurred to Opposition members that if a sound financial position' is to be. maintained before tho Government can grant relief in the directions promised itmay bo necessary to provide revenue to replace part at least of that likely to be Jost. But, of courso, the Opposition are not to be taken seriously just now. Perhaps when they get a Leader they will show a little consistency and make fewer blunders.