The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1918 THE GOVERNOR’S SPEECH.

Taihape Daily Times, 26 October 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1918 THE GOVERNOR’S SPEECH.

(With which is incorporated The hape Pont and Walnmrl'm Nows).

The Governor’s Speech, to Members of both Houses at the opening of Parliament was, like its predecessor, without either colour or bush. It is the sort of twaddle that only could be expected from a National Government such as that in this country has developed into j a Government to increase taxation, levy profiteering profits _pn public ■services, and spend the result without let or hindrance from a body of Representatives with a sword of dissolution hanging over their relationship with Parliament which might send them home to their constituenccs at ,any moment if they dared to seriously question anything their masters suggest. The speech takes up half the paper it is printed on with inanities about the war, not one word of any- j thing about the wmr that every sixth standard boy and girl docs not know, but crowded into the tail there is contentions material enough to keep the present session going until this time next year. Can His Excellency mean that giving power to local bodies to initiate hydro-electric schemes for their respective districts, that the end of the war is so near as to make the release of hoarded capital advisable? Without a reversal of the present public’ works attitude and policy of the Government it would bo cruel irony to grant any such powers. Prevention of the aggregation of land is to be rehashed up once more for legislativeconsumption. and assimilation? Not having any confidence in the Government’s sincerity, a want begat of long and disgusting experience, it .seems idle to discuss the question. We would seriously suggest to the Government if it does really intend to even try some honest means of .ending or improving their mad land career, that whatever is adopted with that view shall be retrospective to first October 1914. Something much more than prevention of aggregation is essential to meet the coming taxation needs; with it must be linked a radical policy of segregation. It is segregation of land ownership that this country is languishing for, and not the prevention of aggregation which in the hands of New Zealand legislators has proved a farce and an insult to men of intelligence and honour. After land aggregation has well-advanced in its deadly work of closing up district schools and leaving farm homesteads to decay for want of occupants, proposals for prevention of land aggregation arc to be submitted; merely a shuttlecock for tho House 1 ” when a little diversion, is needed by its jaded Members. The smile sardonic ,appears at the mention of the dignity and importance of deliberations while there are blots on British rule as black as those of any other country; blots not there by the will of the people but held there by a gang of so-called British traders and plunderers. The speech also informs us that His Ministers will submit proposals for the prevention of acquisition of land by persons of enemy origin. Both this proposal and that for prevention of aggregation stand j utterly self-condemned if they are not I to bo retrospective from the day war was declared. While one enemy alien is permitted to retain possession of huge areas of land and lord it over British workers, it is manifestly absurd to say no other shall acquire the ownership or occupation of land. There are no indications at present that the Government has any real intention of effectively dealing with those questions, we should indeed bo glad to think otherwise,, for we want neither party factions or meaningless political shibboleths. There are trivialities in the Speech which are not matter for serious comment; there are proposals, however, which indicate what a parlous condition of legislative muddlement the Government has drifted into. The time of Parliament is once more to be devoted to considering the cost of living; after the masses of the peeople have for four years been regarded and treated as an inanimate commercial commodity, the question as to whether they are entitled to any consideration as human beings is again

to be discussed The supply of labour is evidently more plenteous in comparison with the commodities by which labour is kept alive, and therefore its value since war commenced has only appreciated two thirds less than the means whereby it lives; and as labour has to purchase its own necessities, the prices of them place a sufficiency of them far beyond his reach. Although on first glance the proposal to limit the export of timber does' not appear to be part of the cost of living question, it has a very important connection. Why is the export of timber to be further limited; is it because there is a scarcity of timber, or is it because it has increased® in price somewhat in sympathy with the increased cost of everything sawmillers touch or use? A very pertinent question every wageearner should ask himself is, “Would rents be one penny less per week if building timber was ten shillings instead of fifteen shillings per hundred feet? Because the obvious answer will prove beyond all shadow of doubt whether it is the sawmiller or the tenement owner that is responsible for high rents. Is it not a fact that many houses in city and country, built when timber was eight shillings and loss per hundred feet, are bringing equally high and higher rents than newly erected houses? Is it not plain that an affirmative answer eliminates the sawmiller from the high rent curse, and that he has been dragged in as a red-herring to conceal the rent racking stench? This all goes to demonstrate that the Government and tho Efficiency Board, upon whose advice the Government is acting, have not a complete understanding of the question, or that tho timber industry, owdng to the overwhelming "force of timber users arrayed against it, whose interests it is to have cheaper timber that their own profits may be larger, is to be made the goat of immolation in tho great game of pretence and insincerity that is being played to hoodwink the people. There arc other important aspects of His Excellency’s speech that invite lengthy criticism, but there is also one that gives cause for feelings of comfort and satisfaction. Tho time has arrived in the course of war for considering and adopting some ■ workable comprehensive scheme for demobilisation and repatriation. When the unprecedented wrongs of Prussian militarism have been righted by our brave and honoured soldiers there is yet ample time to right onr internal wro’ngs which seem mean and insignificant by comparison. The cause of the returning soldiers is the, cause of the musses from which they were taken, and the Government will doubtless be mindful of this fact. The announcement that tho time for demobilisation is at hand is the onO outstanding plum in the 'political pudding -served up through His Excellency the Governor; it overshadows every other consideration, and gives general cause for world-wide gratification.