The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER, 5, 1919. THE LAST SESSION.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3328, 5 November 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER, 5, 1919. THE LAST SESSION.

With which is incorporated !~"1‘«he Taihape Post and Waimarino ' ~ New.”

After to-day New 'Zealand’s long Parlianlent'~will virtually have ceased to exist. It may be said that the unprecedented troublous times experienced during its administration are due entirely -to the war, yet it must be patent to any thinker that occasions for trouble have been sought by interested seekers and profiteers which might well have been avoided. Chief amongst the duties of a Parliament: is the voting of supplies, to exercise supervision over Ministers of the Crown and other functionaries, but the present Parliament has, by -violation ‘of the constitution surrendered its rights to supervise Ministers, and the well-worn usages of Parliament have been departed from to such an extent that Parliament had become a body of nonentities, at which l\linist'ers could," a-nd did, snap their t.humbs‘.'— The "House of Representatives . should wield in a’ general way, the power to“introduce-'le-gislation;"._'it has} the sole right to o-ri'gin'~ate'all-taxation ‘ measures, and Bills‘-afi:‘ec‘ting public in- i come and expenditure, bu-t the National a,nlalgama=t'io'n of parties hfas relsultedin all the pdwers of. Parlianient- being relegated to, or seized by, only a few‘ men'"wllo questionably had the will‘ of the country behind them. That imp_ol't‘ant duty entrusted to Parliament! ‘of'examining -into the validity of its own body. by election in accordance with the constitution, has been dragged in the mire «and trodden under foot.‘ That sacred thing, the will of the peo- 1 ple, which asserted itself at the signing I of Magna Charta, never more to be suppressed, has been treated lightly, deliberately flouted,,.gand even ‘the Parliament, whose duty it is to supervise Ministers, has been told by a Minister that evbn fuiictioiiaries under him should not be discussed. Troubles have arisenibecause «all cl'i‘tici’s‘m was‘abandoned- that could‘, and would, have checked abuses. Beyond the few pro-I fiteers that [have Lbeem ‘g}ivenf-filegal I run to exploit as they please, who will say that the Board of Trade has serv-J, ed anything but an evil purpose? Ont the eve of a general election Parliament and Ministers admit the great Board of Trade sin, by passing another 3 Board of Trade measure, which, if ad-‘ ministered with ihonesity, will scmihl revolutionise the cost of living question. Producers have not received by millions of pounds what they should have been paid for their produce according ;to its market value; they have been c-ajoled into believing that the best has been achieved for them, while as a class they were being specially sacrificed to the interests of the Empire. All the patriotism and love that can be due to the country of our birth cannot /prevent the lthouglft arising. that the Crown was not acting in the interests of New Zealand in urging the form-ation of a Government which should sow the seeds of revolution so deeply that they may yet grow and blossom when those who planted them have been delegated to semi-obscurity. When the National Compact ceased to exist who were the men who howled and wailed about a strong government being a. necessity‘? Government proclaimed in Press and Parliament their weakness and legitimate lielplessness; the country needed a strong government that had been destroyed by the reversion to natural spheres and elements of the two incompatible parties of which the National niis-Government was constituted. On almost every occasion when the. interests of New Zealand producers were _conflicting with the interests of the Imperial authorities the New Zealanders were sacrificed. Their meat Was sold for less %than half the Price paid to the Meat Trust, and Such Condit-1011s were allowed to grow "D Which gave no opportunity to break away from disregard of business princiPles. Even today, a year after the C 1036 of Armaggedon, it-is disclosed in Parliament that while Australian meat Fwd 3;i.";~£-‘HT P.}_§_f-0 meat is the subject of Purchase the British Government,” i’lofllin§§,V,'gll,a’t-ever has been: done toW3;l'dsp’So9,,illgL‘, that New. _Zea.l=and meat-~3‘l'°W‘-‘TS ‘are. protected. In fact, after’ -,be‘ins, urged ‘by Parliament to cable for "

an explanation from the High Com-l missioner, Mr Massey has" to tell the] House ‘that nothing cangbie done until } Australia and R-ivei"'Plate are settled‘ with. Is it not «apparent that the Imperial authorities have come to regardl New Zealand as a mere teetotium to be spun at their will and pleasure, a negligible sicle-issue that doesn’t count in making meat deals involving hundreds of millions of money, as well as life and death interests of this country"s production‘? If Parliament had not spurred the Premie\r_on to do something in this meat deal there is no doubt at all that other country meat would have been taken, and «all available ships would have been diverted from the carriage of New Zealand meat to taking that which the Imperial authorities had purchased; and even now greatest uncertainty exists as to what the outhome of negotiations for the future of our meat will be. It is-apparent that New Zealand has been dragged at the tail of -all Empire business procedure, all after-thought, something to be thrown in at the last minute at the cheapest rate, and it seems that. these conditions are to continue to the last ‘ minute present administrators hold ‘office. Evils of cost of; living and ‘ grossly inadequate pay in almost every lavenue of employment have not been stressed, chiefly because they are the i outcome of the great blunder of putting i men to conduct the saleof the national produce who were utterly unequal to the occasion. The day ‘of reckoning is at hand, and no one need feel surprised if the antithesis of magnanimiiy, sympathy, and-business capability of Reform is discovered to have forced over a la.rge number of’ desperate people to the ranks whose leaders will -not hesitate to hoist the banner of Bolshevism. The making of New Zealand is in our hands, -are we, by thoughtless-l ness, or greed, going to pass the work. oVel' to ‘incapables -or Bolsheviks‘? The sale of our produce must be entrusted to more capable businessmen. if more fair prices are to be obtained; present neglect of producers cannot continue without disaster overtaking them, and yet they are told" that nothing can be done until Australian and other meat is arranged for. Until‘ a more virile, far-seeing energetic board of business managers occupy the seats around the Cabinet-room table it._ seems that the drift frombad to worse must continue, both with respect to sale ‘of: meat and all-. other primary produce, "and-rtlie already increasingly menacing shipping situation.