WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 29 October 1925, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

PARLIAMENT AM) LICENSING. THE PRIME MINISTER'S VIEWS. (Special to “ Guardian.”) WELLINGTON. Oct. 28. The views ronrerniiig the J iffnfrii iifS pill and tlii* duration oY tin’ lilt’ of I’arliaiiK'iit. v.liicli the Rev. il. Kings extracted from the Prime .Minister at papai'oa the ether flay are gravely pettnrhilie Millie el this Minister s liiends here. There are many politicians, who :i ( heart would like to extend the period het" ecu the licensing polls and the general elections from tlirce years to live, or even to six or seven, hut. not many of them admit as frankly as Mr Coates appears to have done that they would like to lessen the opportunities and curl) the authority of the electors'. Thirty years ago w lieu triennial Parliaments and popular control of the liquor traffic were new

concessions to the progressive spirit i hat had grown up on both aides of polities any Minister who had expressed the views (o which Mr Coates now subscribes would have received the shortest piossible shrift. But the edge n f political enthusiasm has been sadly limited since those days and probably ike Prohibitionists on one hand and a<> Labourites on the other arc the i nlv people likely to make any prolonged fuss over the Ministers unexpo: ted suggestions. The former, hnw- < -. or. never have counted Mr Coates as lacir friend, and the latter, lor technical reasons, always will preler Reform to Liberal, so that in the long run the Minister probable will lose lilile bv his confession of faith. THE PI IOHTT’.TTION 1 STS’ YTEAYS. The view of the Prohibitionists in

regard to the appearance of the State ( nntrol issue fin the licensing ballot

naper in its present form, and the prolongation of the t eriod between the nulls is pretty well known, but the Prime Minister's statement on these subjects seems to entitle them to another word. “Mr Coates appears to l e Pent on Hunting the whole Prohibition movement.” protested a (Horan in the Incusing light to-day admittedly speaking with considerable warmth. “What may have been his opinions as a private member or as a junior Minister did not matter very much. But when 1 ;■ speaks as Prime Minister and with an appeal to have his term of office in-

definitely prolonged, his opinions, which presumably are his intentions, become a verv different matter. The Stale Control issue on the licensing ballot paper, as it stands at the present time, is simply a sup to tiie liquor trade. It is a grossly unfair handicap noon I’rohMotion. Mr Coates lias been denouncing the three-party system in Parliament, and lie must know pcrlectly well that the three-issue svstem as it appeal's on the ballot paper to-day is a much more llngrant abuse ot the vital principles of popular government. The extension of the time between the polls is another plank in the liquor platform and with Mr Coates m office at the head of a sen ile majority it easily might become the law of the land.” ft "ill be interesting to hear what Mr Coates himself has to say on these matters.

I KOPHKT IN Ills OWN CO ENTRY In Wellington, at am rate. Sir .In

stqih Ward's first public speech in the Invercargill campaign has been only poorly reported, and no prominence at all has been given to that part of the deliverance in which the ex-l.iheral leader referred to the dill'erencos of opinion between himself and his Reform colleagues in the National Cabinet concerning the acquisition of land for soldier settlement. Of course. Sir Jo-

soph dill not reveal any Cabinet sci rots. nor. indeed. allude to anv disagreements he may have had with his Uefnnn colleagues; hut. lie limited from “11 ft• I>iil'tl’’ a. si tccch lie delivered in the Hiiijsh after the di olntiini el the Vi'ar .Ministry to shea tiiat lie was til n ; wav responsible for the ill-starred pnrehas.es of hind made hy the Oovernmeiit after Ids retirement from the Cabinet. ‘•Fourteen and a-half millions,'' lie read from “Hansard.’’ “is a prodigious sum to use for Lite purchase of laud within a year. ... ft means that before we tire three or four years older a number of these soldiers will have to go off the land every year or tivo. They will he faced, it mav he, with inaneial ruin. Xo sane or serious man can do other than feel alarmed at the future position of soldiers who are being driven to go on land at excessive prices. The landowner and the landseiler are getting the benefit of the excessive payment." Apparently Sir Joseph Ward's own political friends had forgotten all ahont these predictions till the author's own timely reminder. Ml lM)i:i;i\C Til F. MMX. X:,i‘ \wis i his the whole of lie l warnii.g the l.ihcral leader. nlilmed to his own ide of the FTou-e. herpicatlied to his Iteform colleagues. ‘To my judgment." lie wenL on to say. “in the interests of the country and with the ' iew of | reventing an abnormal inllat inn of the value of hind wo should mil hurry them on as we are doing. We should make up our minds to provide land lor them, and take the opportunity of adjusting land taxation so as to •■"’■a l hitt the abnormal rise and the high prices ruling for our products a? the result ol the war do not compel these men to tal-e up land at excessive [it ire,. We ought lint to drive tliiT 'ltey as fa.-t as the (iovernment is doing. We si tot tlt I inn a reasonable valuation on it, and not an abnormal valuation. which is going to murder the nun who go on it. In the years to come. ’ 1 1 is common knowledge -because the idea v-as ridiculed after he left the Cabinet that Sir Joseph Ward pinposed that the land rei|tiiretl for soldier settlement .should lie purchased hv Covcrriment stock at uninllated values, and that the accumulated surpluses, uiii.-h suhse.picntly were used for the purpose should he transferred to London to lat blit.ate the Dominion's financial operations there. And .so history is made.