The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, MAY 7, 1007.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2073, 7 May 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, MAY 7, 1007.

AVhatever tho result of the by-oleo-tiou for tho Taranaki seat may bo, one thing is quite certain, and that is that the Government will not gain a voto in tho House on the Land Bill by it. There arc three candidates for tho seat, two Government supporters and one Oppositionist. Tho ehesen Government candidate, Mr. E. Doekrill, advocates roservmg what ho calls “a reasonable portion of Crown lands for education, old-age pensions, and hospitals,” the balance to bo sold under tho optional tonure;. while the other Government supporter, Mr. Malone, has squarely pledged himself to “fight the Land Bill tooth and nail.”' Speaking upon this question, Mr. Malone said that “the Land Bill was not, and never would bo part of the Liberal policy,” and if that is so, one naturally begins to wonder what thero ; s left of a Liberal i>olicy with the Land Bill taken out of it. Tho only thing that can ho remembered is the reduction of Customs duties on the necessaries of lifo, which tho present Premier did somoivhat vaguely refer to in one of his speeches when he said that with an expanding revenue the reduction of duties in the direction of affording a free breakfast tablo might bo attempted. But when we remember that this identical thing has been positively promised on many occasions by tho previous Government, and that there was no excuse for its delay, an over-sanguine feeling that it will bo granted on the first opportunity is scarcely justifiable. On Friday night last tho Acting Premier made a boast of having remitted thousands of pounds on railway fares and other tilings, and of having raised the salaries of Government officials; but so far as Uie telegraphed report of his speech goes, ho said not a word about tho free breakfast table, so it may be taken for granted that the matter is again forgotten, and will bo conveniently forgotten until it is required as an election cry, when it will bo mado as prominent as possible, in order to catch votes. The extra shilling n day to railway workmen was held back until a few days before the last general elections, and it may be expected that a similar card will be played with the free breakfast table, and with the 'Land Bill then out of the way, as it is certain to be, this other part of the policy will be launched forth as the leading reason why the Government should be returned to power. Yet is voter: looked into tho insincerity of the thing, and thought for a moment that the object of these remissions and concessions being granted long after they should have been made, and at a time only when they were likely to influence votes, the true spirit of independence that usually characterises the “free and independent” voters would assert itself, and the votes would go in another direction, for the very reason that they would not be bought and sold in that way. The late Mr. Seddon went so far as to announce this reduction, together with a reduction of the duty on tobacco, before the last election. The reduction of tlie tobacco duty (was rightly condemned as a sop to tlie huge monopoly that controls that trade, so he withdrew his proposals, anc! with it the other duties on the necessaries of lifo, though there was not .probably a man in Parliament who would have opposed it, and the surpluses year by year were so largr (on paper at least) that there was not an excuse for retaining those duties except that the reduction of them would have reduced those surpluses to a reasonable sum and robbed tho Government of a popular flag to wave in front of tho electors lit the opportune time. The idea of. boasting as the Acting-Premier dr the other night of having raised the salaries of Government officials, many of them already too well paid, and of having remitted thousands of pounds to those who travel for pleasure mostly, while screwing Customs 1 duties out of the many who can ill ’

afford to pay for what they cat and drink, is not the form of Liberalism that should meet with public approval, and yet it appears to bo the kind of Liberalism which the present Government seems to bo proud of. and it will continue to bo so until the eyes of the electoi\s are opeixed to tlio humbug of the situation, and express their disapproval of it through the ballot boxes of the colony, for so long as voters are content to he played with in this'way, so long will the metaphorical bunches of carrots he dangled before their anxious though undiscerning eyes.