The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATEE THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 1918. NOTHING TO DISCUSS.

Taihape Daily Times, 22 August 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE E

THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 1918. NOTHING TO DISCUSS.

(With which is Incorporated The T.aihape Post and Walmarwo News),.

According to the Acting-Premier Parliament will meet on the day to which it has been prorogued, namely, the fifth of October, and, as far as he knew, Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward would be back in New Zealand in time for the opening day. He deals with the subject in quite a casual way; it was not of sufficient importance for him to suggest anything further than that Members rvould want to get home before Christmas; ho did not anticipate a great deal of discussion, and he, did not hold with the view that there rvould be any need for a double session. This is the first we have heard about the holding of a double session; what need can there be for holding two sessions in one year Unless it is quite in the order of things that even Parliamentarians should do a little profiteering to bring themselves into line with those who have made cheating and extortion fashionable. If work coming before the House cannot be completed between fifth October and fifteenth December that seems to be no valid reason why two sessions should be held; hut, perhaps Members, and particularly the Government, think a. other session should be held early in the coming year for the purpose of | playing to the constituencies preparatory to a general election in the foi lowing December. The real fact at bottom is that Parliament and Ministers are doing so much as they like untrammelled by anyone or anything that they have clean forgotten that there are any constituencies to call them to account. With almost casual flippancy we are informed by the Acting-Premier he sees no cause for much discussion; everything in the political garden is so lovely that he does not anticipate any discussion thereon; there is room for nothing but expressions of satisfaction and eulogy. Unfortunately, constituencies, here and there, are looking ever the fence which the Government has built around its Ministerial garden; they do not smile at the beauty with which Ministers have surrounded themselves, but they are amazed at the evidences of audacity they see displayed. They are confronted with 1 the fact that, although there is not a penny in the exchequer for roads and bridges in the back country, where farmers have been plodding, plunging, and wallowing along mud tracks for the past twenty years, there is no shortage of cash for the provision of j luxuries that are unproductive. With ! strikes threatening, and while sonic members of the community cannot | live and pay their way owing to the i | blocd-sucklng proclivities of profiti eers, whose cold-blooded operations I are legalised by Parliament and Govj eminent. Sir Janies Allen does not anticipate discussion in the coming session. With scandals concerning enemy alien internment camps, which are a weird reflection on the Defence Commission’s findings; with an incipient religious strife that promises to expand to , troublesome dimensions, and a campaign on the never-ending I liquor question that is already looming threateningly overhead, the Act-ing-Premier cannot understand why Parliament should not get through all the country’s legislative needs in a few weeks without discussion. While the people continue to be deprived of the franchise, and while there continues to grow up such diabolical robbery and exploitation of the disfranchised people the Minister expects Parliament will close its doors against the helpless victims and shut its ears to the cries from the troubled constituencies. With war conditions that.have conferred hitherto unknown , prosperity on producers and traders,

and despite criminal exactions, shipping is not forthcoming to bring sufficient horse-feed from the South Island, and so, even the poor animals are to starve because there Is a fictitious demand for shipping space. Will the Government decide to allow the starvation of man and beast to proceed while absurdly audacious pretexts are invented for hugely increasing the price of the necessaries of life? While low quality of chaff is at fourteen pounds a ton with immediate prospect of that price being further increased; while millions of bushels of wheat are being imported to keep mills going whose owners are taking huge profits; while these profits are more essential to the well-being of the country, or Ministers, than the production of bread at a price the mass of the body politic can manage to pay, Sir James 'Allen’s inability to see that there is anything to discuss ®in the coming session is truly marvellous. It seems probable that just as the Act-ing-Premier and his fellow-Ministers have come to feel quite secure from interference by the disfranchised masses, they will have their career of callousness cut short. The people of this country are writhing in the toils cast about them by the legalised vultures of greed, and there is resentment heard on every side, and yet there is nothing for Parliament to discuss. Such matters as after-war conditions, peace terms, permanent Imperial Cabinet, Defence Commission, and a host of other reports, mining of the New Zealand coastal waters by which the lives of our people, and our ships are sacrificed, the prevalence of laws that permit disgraceful land aggregation, soldier settlement, repatriation, levying of increased taxation, inability to get our produce to market, are of no concern, and are, the Minister thinks, not likely to evoke muett discussion. There is simmering discontent everywhere one turns; even in quarters where two cents per cent, profits are already being made there is obvious the struggle to increase it to five cents per cent; but in coal/mines, tramways, railways, and in all other public services, in the Education Department as well as-in privatelyemployed labour,, the - ‘ discontent is general. , Judging from the ActingPremier’s statement, that there is nothing coming before Parliament to cause much discussion he is among the lucky few who are anxious that present war conditions should continue. Perhaps, this is all in the category of human nature; it may be natural for one man to control the needs of existence of ten 'thousand so that half that number die of starvation while he becomes intolerantly rich; but we regard such as a perversion of human nature, a fallingback into a lower kingdom, but while j conditions obtain which permit ana legalise such obvious robbery, wo think Sir James Allen will meet witn a surprise when the people do speak. We were under the impression that in the coming , session Parliament would have before, it many questions of the most vital importance to discuss and, if possible, to determine, and we think so still.