The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1919. RECITAL OF MIS-GOVERNMENT.

Taihape Daily Times, 30 August 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1919. RECITAL OF MIS-GOVERNMENT.

With which is incorporated . “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.”

It was hoped and expected by the f)eople.of this Dominion that when their Parliament met on the firs: oeeasion after victory over their enemies had been assured, and peace had been firmly established, the assembly would be eharaeterised by unprecedented enthusiasm, and present an opportunity for mutual and general congratulation. Yet, even in war-time openings of the various sessions \V"Cl‘(‘, not less leaden and dull than that re~ corded in our issue of yesterday. If this Dominion has experienced the horrors of war in any way comparable with Britain and France, and mom

the comparisons Ministers have constantly been making one would think it had, why is there not similar eclat and enthusiastic eicpressions of joy and thankfulness as characterised the meetings of the Legislatures in those and other Allied countries? is it not because ineffectual government ‘has, by its bunglings and drift, spread a pail of depression over every section of the people? The Governor's Speech instead of being redolent of supreme joy and gratitude might have‘ been an excerpt from the Book of Job, so crammed full of lamentation is it at the over—powering sorrows which oppress the people. It is little more than a. list of the troubles that the administration has :been impotent or careless to prevent, and of promises to try and do better for the future. It is a categorical enumeration of accumulated administrative bunglings, and blind promises to achieve something better in the future_ It(_ is a frank admission that soldiers have been badly treated, that insufficient has been done to repatriate men who have fought the Einpii-e’s battles, that the assistance that was their right in getting into civil occupations has not been forthcoming. At, this late hour it is. at last recognised that the Railway Act, Labour Laws, VVorkers’ Dwellings Act, Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement set. Land Laws, Mining Act, Coal Mines Act, Chattels Transfer Act, Post and Telegraph Act, all need very serious attention; but what a list of admitted failures of duty these constitute, and these are not all. This ocean bound land is almost devoid of shipping to carry away its produce to profitable markets and thousands of tons of it now congest the total eool storage farmers have erected to ensure their meat and dairy products against dccay. The Governor’s Speech admits the calamitous want of shipping, but it foreshadows nothing In the way of permanent improvement. Farmers are having “more production” shouted at them, but they are ‘bewildered at the Want of prospect of ever getting away to market that which they have already accumulated; they are puzzled and perplexed to know what is to become of the output of the various freezing works during the season that is on the eve of'- commencement, and the Governor's Speech gives no indication of relief beyond expressing hODCS for something‘ to turn up. Fariners will note that. the one question above all others that most eoncerps this Dfoducing country has not received any attention worth mentioning. The men who drafted what was put into His Excellencéfls hands to read evidently thought ,»they had the fn.rln-

ing industry under their thumb, or at! their disposal in the coming elections. ' Only urgent matters are to be dealt‘ with in the short session predicted, but is there anything more urgcnt[ than making provision for getting our produce out of our cold stores ‘by an‘! adequate supply of shipping? There! is not two opinions about shippingi Sllol‘tage being the Shoal upon which‘ this COIIIItI‘Y’S progress is stranded, and Yet, for some unexplained reason, the GoVol‘llmoDt is afraid to. launch upon any scheme for shipping ixn-I provement. Want of shipping is onel of the two causes of the coal short-i age, which the speech says has given! Government much anxiety; Ministers' have had only the anxiety while the’ 13001310 have suffered most cruel deprivation; and still iniprovem-cnt is only: dependent upon what is transpiring in Australia, and certainly to nothing the rulers’ of this country have been able’ and willing to achieve. Ministers, through His Excellency, tell the people that a deficiency of shipping exists and must continue for a time, but have not the people a right to] know something more than this from :1 body of alleged reformers who claimed to possess a monopoly of administrative and legislative faculty and capability? The people did not require any dolorous recitation of their ills resulting from incapable government, but they did expect to be given some indication of how and when those ills were to be removed. The country is chock-full of farm produce and empty of coal wherewith to run railway trains and enable industries to be kept going, and all His Excelleney’s speech does is to “hope: that some satisfactory basis of arrangement may be arrived at_” Truly, the people expected bread and have, been given a stone. From the entire absence of indicatign as to how im‘provcment is to be effected in the fgrcat problems that most deeply conlcern the people, it seems evident the‘ §RCfOI‘m Ministry has no idea of al practicable nature to advance. The! speech is a multitude of words recounting the miseries the country is experiencing, with no expressed thought about how improvement is to be brought about. The reign of Reform claptrap still cont‘in_ues;_ panderings and hopes are there_ in plenty to‘ fascinate and confound, the unwary,‘ ‘but for Sheer political) drivel the‘ Peace and Victory Gubernatorial"; dreary narration at the opening of the! sixth session of a self-legislated Pariliament is an easy record for New IZealand. ’