The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, MAY 29, 1917. THE COMING SESSION

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 29 May 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, MAY 29, 1917. THE COMING SESSION

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News),

Parliament is to meet, says the Act-ing-Prime Minister, on or about the 28th June, and all information he vouchsafes to trust the people with concerning the business of the session at this momentous turn is that the House will largely have its time taken up with war regulations. There arc indications in all parts of Zealand tluit the National Government has been gi ven all the rein it is entitled to in evolving and putting into practice its war regulations, and dissatisfaction with its efforts is out-cropping in most unexpected places. It is freely stated that if just on three years is not sufficient time for the collective administrative ability of the National Government to find effectual war regulations, they could do no better and would go blundering on till the erack-o '-doom. Then we are not told whether it is something hew, or whether it is a strong application of patchwork legislation that is wanted to make present regulations respectable, or whether it is feared that members will insist upon ripping and tearing the past work of the Go vernment so thoroughly into shreds that the House will have to contribute its common-sense in replacing what they seem determined to scrap. Whatever course the House may take with regard to many matters, there is, from the (simmer of concern thav is obvious in all parts of the country, something going to happen that is quite out of the ordinary. The Prime Minister and Sir Joseph Ward will no doubt entertain members with narratives of what they have seen in their nine months’ sojourn in Britain, and they may relate what is taking place in the Government of the Old Land that will open new vistas of possibilities for New Zealand They will at least have learned, if they do not say so, that the strength of a nation lies in the health, intelligence and education of its people, and that the old idea of just two classes —Lords and Serfs —has had its rottenness and its unfitness for present-day national safety and progress fully exposed. They have learned that to the class system of .government there is no qnd; that perman flqgrecs more often raises up the conferring of decoration's, and su. the selfish scheming clown than the virtuous benefactor. Whether'our future legislation will be shaped on what they have learned will depend largely on the pressure that may be brought to bear by the constituencies. We .are approaching the eve of the opening of another session of a, self-constituted Parliament and all that the Govern, ment cares to tell the people about what important business will come, before it is that the time will largely be, taken up with war regulations. The cTiuutry. has reason to cry out against a further crop of experimental war regulations, for many of those in force have created chaos and have fallen into disuctudc in consequence. We do prcssingly need the evolution of some intelligent, understandable scheme fm absorbing, the men that are coming back back to us. A truly amazing story is told by Sir James Allen about the large areas of land the Government has

acquired and the large areas of Crown lands which have been set aside for soldier settlement, and which th e returned soldiers refuse to have anything to do with. Why won’t soldiers take farms that are ready prepared for them. Is it because of the mightily conceived regulations with which they are hedged about acting as a scarecrow? Sir James 'Allen has almost convinced us that our people don’t want land, that the Government has to coax, wheedle and finally press men to go on the land; that ther e is an almost supreme difficulty in getting men to take the land, even when it is converted into fruit farms, dairy farms or something else sufficiently attractive to get any man to commence farming. We cannot get the men to go on the land we have and therefore it would b e bad business to acquire further land for soldier settlement. wrong it was to take thirty? five I thousand acres of land from the Maoris the other day, knowing that it was next to impossible to get men to go upon it. The Maoris were offered a fairly huge sum of money from syndicates for the land, why do the Maoris out of the chance of selling it, if it is not required for soldier settlement, there already being thousands of acres of land available in farms that arc idle because returned men will not have them? We fear something is at fault in the regulations; New Zealand workers can no longer be fooled with specious talk that is as transparent as daylight. It is this class of regulations that will claim the time of members in the coming session. The country needs common-sense, organising, intelligence and experience to regulate its industrial processes, and evolve regulations for their progress. No wonder there is a cry of land aggregation going up while we have a Government that tells us it cannot get men to go on land that is virtually given to them. This land aggregation will, however, prove somewhat a stumbling block when members take it into their considerations. There arc many very pressing subjects that the coming session will deal with. Mr. Mas- 1 sey’s cabled speech about the American Meat Trust, which we discussed yesterday, indicates that he will bring that old saw up for discussion again. We shall be surprised if the National Go, veriiment does not seek a new lease of life and then set about devoting the remainder of the session to the imposition of new taxes upon all and sundry. There is an undiscovered cause for getting through in the shortest time possible, but th e restlessness of members generally is indicative of trouble. There is going to be a demand for information that will not be denied. Labour unrest, sedition, strikes, exploitation, food, land, perhaps liquor, shipping, prices of essential commodities, and a host of other questions that cannot be sidetracked will have, to be dealt with, but notwithstanding the seriousness of the times and the : evident necessity for settlement offi those great questions of domestic, social, industrial, agraiian and general policy with which our conn try is beset the electors are allowed to know less about Government intentions, prior to this session than they have been about any other session in the country’s history. From this disregard of the people’s rights they might as well be under an avowed absolute autocracy.