Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1916. THE PAST SESSION.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 11643, 9 August 1916, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1916. THE PAST SESSION.

THE session of Parliament which has just closed has been remarkable on several accounts. One of the features of a negative rather than a positive quality which commends it to our approval is the fact that the National Government has again successfully weathered what at the opening of Parliament promised to be a stormy time, and emerges from it most compact than at the beginning. On the whole, too, the session has been distinguished by greater amity between the parties than might have been expected from the omens which preceded the opening. That there has been criticism, and that of a very invidious nature, cannot be ignored. But that was due far more to the nature of the critics than to any circumstances which justified their criticism. The rank and file of the two parties, however, have certainly exhibited a solidity and a loyalty to the sentiment that has brought them together in the face of the enemy which w o hope will tend very much to soften the asperities of party warfare in the* future and enable members to exercise more tolerance towards each other’s views than in the past. We should be glad to hope, too, that the more moderate political elements, which have found it so easy to work together for the common good, may find it advisable to fuse themselves into one party for mutual protection, and establish a basis upon which they may in common direct the destinies of the Do-

minion. There can be no doubt that the Ministry have come through the ordeal of dealing with the tremend- ■. ous responsibilities of their office y and of political criticism with very great credit. Considering the fact that they have had to face the task of raising and equipping an army which, a few years ago, would have been regarded as a sufficient the effort fora nation of many millions; have despatched reinforcements a almost to the hour, drilled and g efficient to take the’tield against the troops of a military Power; have been able to finance the great effort; and during a period of veritable famine in freights have managed to secure sufficient steamers to prevent any serious block and piling up of £ exports in the Dominion, we are t sure that all fair-minded men with - the slightest conception of the thought, the work and the organisa- • tion involved will he glad to admit that they have well earned the approbation of the country. A great I deal of vituperation and invective , have been levelled at the Governj ment by a few of the free lances of i Parliament, And mistakes, no doubt, have been made. But the xind of man that does net sometimes take an erroneous course when there are so many wrong ones and only one right one at his disposal has not yet been evolved. Perhaps what has excited the greatest amount of unfavourable comment is that which'provided for the extension of the life of the present Parliament, Indeed, some journals generally favourable to the Government havecoudeinned[the project, bat only because of misconception of the reasons which actuated Parliament in taking the step it did. Some people appear to think that the proposal might well have been loft over to the next—and last—session of the present Parliament, and if the war still continued it would then be time , enough to block political agitation fcy making it unnecessary for mem- ■ hereto appeal to their constitueu- j cies. But, assuming, that the Act ' had not been passed, should we not 1 almost immediately. have been . plunged into a war of factions? It j

would have been taken for granted by all parties that the existence of Pariiament would he only of normal length, and long before the next session ope; e 1 candidates would have been chosen, committees formed and the whole country be plunged into a ferment of political agitation. In fact we are of the opinion that elections should he postponed, not only till the end of the war, hut until onr men are all back again. If anybody has a right to have some part in influencing the future of the country it is they rather than those who have stayed comfortably at home.