NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2150, 16 May 1914, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The subdivision of large estates in Hawke's Bay announced by the I'iuhk Minister to have taken place during the twelve months ended. March 31 last will prove a little disconoertiag to the opponents of tho Government. They have enjoyed themselves hugely depicting for tho edification of the public tho big landholders entrenched behind tho bulwarks of the Reform Party, ned have given free rein to their imagination in seeking to-discount tke efforts of the Government k> promote closer settlement, If the "Plying Squadron" and tho other leading lights of Wardisui had not wilfully shut their eyes to what was going on around them they must have scea the folly of committing themselves so completely to a campaign of deception which in duo course was bound to be exposed. Probably tlray hoped tho exposure would come too late to ' discount their effort's to mislead- the public. ' Unfortunately for them, it has corse at a time when their attacks on Ministers are too fresh in- tha public mind to allow the misrepresentation indulged in to be overlooked. Hawke's Bay too is the. district which is all.ways held up by the Anti-llefofniers i us a "shocking example," and this despite tho fact th-sit'in attacking the conditions prevailing there, they are passing - the strongest possible condemnation on the "Liberal" Party which for over twenty years ruled tho country, backed by majorities in Parliament so large that they emiM have, done practically what they pleased in the way of a Land Settlement policy. It has been left to the Reform Party, which thft Wardists so persistently condemn as the friend oi ' the large landholder, to bring about that closer settlement in tills and other districts which gin Joseph i AVahd and his associates in their twenty odd years of office nogketed to accomplish. It is just one more instance o| the failure of Sin Joseph Ward to live up to his political pro.' fessions. Since tho advent; of the Be.for.ra Goverts.nieiit the;, process fll voluntary subdivision pf big holdings has been accelerate:! By,the impo.si- ? tion of an increased Graduated JUtud Tax.a-ttcl the Government has galvanised into life the moribund Laud Purchase system, with tha result that many large estates have been purchased and subdivided into small holdings. Yet we may expect to find the ATMO.RES. the Isms, the Wn,l'onDS,_aud the other small fry of the Opposition repeating their par-. tot-story a*id fur the* discrediting their party with its transparent humbug.

AfTEfi wasting a great deal of tirfle on -tie cea'stvi'c motion, the Australian federal Parliament has given its considcratioß to the Goverotticnt's Bill providing for the abolition of the system qI compulsory preference to urtioai.ste. This measure a.fitl the Electoral Iteform Bill are tho test questions -oft'which the Govemffiosfcis relying for "the purpose of bdiigirtg about a. crisis whieh they hope will result in a dissolution of both tiio Hoaso and the Seaate. The Bill abolishing preference to unionists has now been c&rriecl en the-casting vote of the Speaker, but it is sure to be either .rejected or laid asicte by the Senate, and a, similar fate prol> ably awaits the Govcffinkcnt's electoral reform proposals. Both these measures were rejected by; the Senate during the previous session, and if they are thrown -out a second time the Government will prebaMy call upon the Govethot'-Geaeral to exercise the pWcrS o'oaferved oft him by the Constitution and granfe a< double dissolution. He is not compelled to adopt this eoursD, hut he- ina.y do so: the'rtiattor is feft ta his discretion.. i There is a great .deal of .discussion as to what view ho will take, but the ! whole position is full of uncertainty. The Liboxals nve thoroughly disgusted with the present state of affairs, and aile anxious to put the matter to ttoft.tc-s* as soon as possible-, but thp, Labour Party contends that tho , rejection of th.6 two tncastures refcrred to would npt create such a situation as to justify the QavetnotGefteral *.f;.nding both Souses to tka sloe-tors. It was stated recently, thai. ■Opposition were inclined' to abawcton theif obstritetlve • tactics, and ro-Iy upon the Labour majority in tb.e Senate- to kiil thft. Government's test Bilß kit the- lon-sf sfccitwswall on the roeasHTe ab&ljslung preference to ttfiiernsts indioatps that the Labour Part* has derided to fight every inch of the ground.

O'HBlßtoauflte people ' have just! ■had an ogportufttfcy of enjoying aa ! illuminating illustaiWftn pi the QW,avnt controversial fnetfeods of a certain .class'of Wafdist newspaper.. The infiidenj arose out of a sfcatenftnt made feySiß Joseph Ward during his recent'opon-air meeting at Christehureh, '"'The worthy baronet, throating aside his natural .modesty, sou.ght to win the .jrlaudite of the crowd by ■a .rocifei'of Wβ own achievements and those o.f the Liberal Party, and eattied away, perhaps, by the exhil- ; arati&g nature, α-f the theme, informed Ills astoftished audience that the : Liberal Party had reduced the cost of Hying on ordinary foodstuffs and i-equii'-enients ffoJfl 20 per ecat, toi'l per cent. Naturally this anta?iivg assertion pfovoketl controversy, and t.hti Chfisfcchurfth Press proved its absiurdlty' hy quotiH-s the report of tho Cost of Living Commission set up by the VLiboral" Oovcmintmfc. On Pago xvii, of the report, it was pointed out, the Commissioners say that between '"the raidcJlo 'lainetles ami 1011".{during.which period the Liberals were in power) "thnre Was a, rise in prices of foodstuffs of 31 per cent." Taking, tiro cost; of living gencmlly, and after ninking every nlInwance for the change, in the quality of Hi* articles chosen, they say oa Pago tlja,t "tho goiieral result is an jacrefcsed post of living of

at least 16 per cent.;"' between the:' middle end later 'nineties and the j dates of: tiwi report There being no', convincing answer to this indictment; the Wardist journal in Ohvistclnivck sought refuge in the accusation that the l J rcss had published ;i "distor-; ted" report yC Silt Joseph's remarks. ■ and that he had not said tbfi Liberal; Party had reduced the cost of living in the manner stated, but something, quite different. The I'ros.i, however, was not to be juit off by this sort of bluff, and it published a literal transcript o ; £ its reporter's shorthand notes of what Sift Joseph Waiu> did sny, and defied contradiction of their accuracy. This literal transcript completely confirmed Uic report published. The Wardisi jour sal then played its last, card. Not being able, to support its assertion that the Press report was a "distorted one," and being unable te dispute the accuracy of the literal transcript of the reporter's shoffctiand notes, it Bought to , justify its own attitude and its own miswipei'fcing of what Sm Joseph actually said by this strange confession :

A rapul speaker like Sir Josejill Ward,", it saijj, "is apt to .gjvo afl obecutc tur-ii to a sentence sometimes, .and. a gkortltiißcl writer migivt J>& ivble to convict him of errors in abunjfira.ee Ijy in-akiisg literal transcripts of isolated passages."

In other words. Sir Joseph Wamo's inaccuracies and misrepresentations are to bo accepted as correct and allowed, to pass unchallenged because he happens to b© a rapid an-d obscurespeaker; while in order to report him fairly it is necessary to reproduce something which ho did hot say at all. A "distorted" report oi a speech by Sift JasEta Ward is, to judge from his > ingenious Chrktchurch apologist, a report which records exactly what he said. -It moot increasingly entei't-aining to follow the eeeentriG convolutions of some ol our Wardist contemporaries.in bhcir efforts to cover up Sift Joseph's weakuesses.