COMING TO THEIR SENSES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1880, 14 October 1913, Page 6

COMING TO THEIR SENSES.

g Some 22 hours were spent by tho Hon bo of Representatives over Clause 2d of tho Land Bill, which gives tho right t-o settlers op the rough lands of the Hauraki Mining District to acquire tho freehold of their holdings. In tho end tho clause was passed by 34 votes' to 25, every member of tho Opposition present voting against the settlers being afforded the opportunity of becoming the owners of the land they are engaged in breaking into cultivation. The clause provides for tho purchase price being arrived at on equitable terms, securing for tho State its full interest in the value of the land, and preserving for the State also its mineral rights. No ono could object to the advocates of the strictly leasehold tenure fighting reasonably against the introduction of tho freehold, but tho preposterous waste of time over the clause is indefensible. In 1912 the Auckland Commissioner of Crown Lands, writing of the lands which form tho subject of Clause-25 of tho present Land Bill, said: — In the Coromandel Peninsula the most serious drawback is the difficulty of getting tho land settled under present conditions. Thousands of acres of unoccupied lands are becoming seriously overrun with noxious weeds, especially blackberry. Much of tho land, though poor and rough, could be successfully occupied: for sheep and cattle-grazing, and if a sufficiently attractive form of tenure could be offered, would in all probability be taken up readily. This was written before the present Government came into office; and now that the Government is providing the "sufficiently attractive" form of tenure to induce settlers to convert this, rough, weed-infested country into productive holdings, the Opposition resort to persistent obstruction to prevent the passage of a clause which is not only in the interests of the settlers, but of the whole country. However, the clause lias now passed, as the other clauses of tho Bill .will pass, despite the efforts of the Opposition to obstruct them. At time of writing _ there are signs that tho obstructionists are coming to their, senses. They passed quite a number of clauses during last evening, and the Pkime Ministee promised them that'they could go home when they reached Clause '40. It is apparent that tho only policy now left to tho Opposition is one of obstruction, and it may . therefore bo expected that before the session ends there will be witnessed many more such farcical happenings as that now under review. If tho people of New Zealand could be transported to the House of Representatives and witness the behaviour and hear tho speeches of tho obstructionists in tho early hours of the morning during these occasions when business is being blocked, it would shock them beyond belief. That grown-up persons of ordinary intelligence could sit up all \night, and night after night, talking- such obvious twaddle and making themselves ridiculous by their clumsy pretence of seriousness, merely to prevent their' political opponents from doing the business they were sent there to do, is the strongest possible ovidencc of tho state of political bankruptcy tho Opposition has reached. There are few indeed of the obstructionists who would see Parliament again save as onlookers from the public galleries could their constituents witness the manner in which the.v are wasting the public money and bringing the Legislature into contempt.