From Behind the Speaker's Chair.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7871, 13 July 1905, Page 4

From Behind the Speaker's Chair.

(From Our Correspondent). The week has not been at all eventful from a political point of view. The first thing to determine was th, state wf parlies. That was done cfcrly by the simple process of publishing the names of the new party of the Progressives and adding the names 01 the Opposition proper. The result was the discovery of the irreducible minimum of the Government majoiily. h is not necessary to'enter into laborious detail of the names of these parties. At first the details appeared to work out to an irreducible Government miuimum of .fifteen. But a rather angry chorus arose ; several men protesting thai that had been misplaced. Mr Alison, of Auckland, diclared that he hail never attended a single meeting ol tl»c Progressives, and Mr Moss repudiated the :iew party wi;h equal I ostentation. On the whole it appeared iu be hardly worth while to take ' the movement seriously from the pally point of view. The plain fact islarcil the ,ipslcrs in the face that lupon all crucial questions more than [half a dozen of the new men stand I pledged by their hustings promises to stand by the Government, and the definition of what is and what is not a crucial question lies with the leader oi the Government. The Irreducible minimum of majority (Ministerial) thus might at any time U increased to twenty-five by the wih ot the Government leader.' Why pursue an unprofitable speculation any further ?

The new men have nailed their colours, or what pass for their colours, to the mast of administration. Bin as none 01 tliem have in the fights that have ensued shown any .acquaintance with any detail ol administration of any single department the comlusion is obvious ; so long as a party relies upon froth for the defeat of the Government, so long is it doomed to failure. There was a time when it was otherwise. Old Parliamentarians for example, remember the day when ;he Opposition under Sir George Grey fairly talked Hie Government out of office. But the experience was not happy, for the victors, having no administrative power themselves, went to pieces under the great pressure ot their own weight. The experiment has never ixiii repeated in New Zealand, ami it is not likely to be. Listening to the speeches during the small trials of strength vousaled by the new men under the blaze of the limelight, so to speak, one thinks that they arc not one iot belter than thai old Grcv Government in this respect of adminsitration. Mr Taylor, of course, stands hea». ami shoulders above his fellows of malcontent, but even his speeches brilliant as they are—and they are' admitted to be marvels of brilliancy by his bitterest opponents-strike one as being without bottom. It is a fine display 0 f rhetoric, mere froth Without a single fact to support the .superstructure, and the day has gone |by when rhetoric rules the world. tlicre is a general consensus of oi>nion that Mr Seddon, whatever his j faults may be, is a masU , r of fac)s and figures and general principles 01 loses^ ( nCVeta,,WS, ' ls P w P | '- ">

With the Bill for the inceasc of Od Age.Pennons ;| 1(T0 camc combination of which mighty things were, after the maimer of these days 01 seeking for sensation, predicted on Hie spur of the moment. Hut the spur m the moment i.s known not to w a reliable authority. The Youiw New Zralandcrs have a son oUdca tha every one in the colony ought to have he pension , or „id 4' They would give largesse to the itel surd Th °, "" |HH,r - II » »ba single cigar the more while the oJ m the eternal wolf from the '£*<- '. «ill cost, according to Mr Seddon, upwards of fsflO.noo to g e Uwsse toall. Plain « lr , '»lall} asking why tax „ lp - , p lun.rS"-*- PUrpose °' a<,di '*K to the sup,-rtluities of the rich Tne immoralities o[ Tatlersall ,■■,„«. m for a ? ood ~,..,, 0 , vj » ll «' Ration on Thursday. BuTm long

as indtananl persons can draw an occasional cool thousand or two, and the (act is undoubtedly that they do draw such sums occasionally, all the sermons and all the moralities will be powerless, even with the aid ol an Act o( Parliament. Everybody, moreover, understands that there are some thousands of lawyers in the colony all trained to the evasion of Acts ol Parliament, the evasion of which pays the pilot of the evading operation. Again where hankers lend thcn.-elu-;: o ;!;e forwarding of cash and the coll,x-;ion of accounts, when can the rcfoimer hope lo come in Tlie only way, some one was bear., .o say, would be to pass a law raakiug the Hue for evasion on tin law equal ;o the sum won in the jTattersall consultation. 'Hie resuli I would he that Tattersall would ceast to publish the informalion. It wouh jbo a searcher, however, for the in (formation would surely leak out. Ii would be, iu fact, just as difficulty keep ibc winnings secret as tc prevent the law from being broken, indeed a good deal more difficult. But a simple matter like this do,-, not ocoiir to the people who defei to the "goody goody" ideas that are in vugue to the extent that wc know of in the present day. When the people don't want to keep the law w> ihing will induce the masters of tin people to force them beyond a en tain point, and outside that point i. the place where the lawyvis din their proverbial coach ami six through the best efforts of the Legis lature.

The Land Commission has got another extension of time. It give.. them till the 11th of July, the very last day of the order of reference. They are not to take any more evidence, of course; it is a mere matter of report, and after all the; have been obliged to put their report back to very short time. FourWen orders of reference do not get themselves done in a jilry. The 1 tension is therefore reasonable, and after all the order contemplated the fourteenth day after the opening 01 Parliament. If the Commission reports within that time it will n. very well. The politicians are a little disappointed -Ifxause tliey ai looking out keenly for the report. Here is an example of the wa\ i which the strong ones do theur bus: ncss. Last session several memfcvi. declared openly that they would sin port any proposal to give Crown tenants the option of the freehold. The; took care, being on the Government side, Ifr limit the- thing to the. Tv;. ants who had acquired their boh! ings under the Act of 18H2. Hut M: Massey was not content with tinscore he might have made by lakin; these gentlemen at their work. Hi wanted to make them go furthv, and be tabled a motion for the op tinn of the freehold to everybody, including the tenants who had acquit ed their holdings under the Laud foi Settlement policy. The others at once went against him, for they drew a very clear distinction between the twe classes of tenants. It . was their view that the back block settler who has fought the wildcrnes: in every possible way, has right: which are. not to be mentioned in the case of tire man who has tiai everything done for him, and who moreover, is the basis of a gnv financial policy which depends on tli payment of rent with punctually an: despatch. This is one of the thing: which it is supposed the Commission will show the House and com. try how to negotiate with ease an system. They are not to he envic' their task.

The gunboat Sparrow, just reeeiv ,cd from the, Admiralty, is lying ii a forlorn sort of way iu the strean She is the object of much attention from 1 lie hecklers of the Government They waui lo know what Wicy ai' going to do with her. Mr Seddoreplied in a rather masterly wa; that they are going to make, her 'y .training ship for lite clanof boys ; going to make her a training ship for the Royal Naval Reserve, but nothing will be done until Parliament has had an opportunity to sanction some scheme. The matter rests at that. It v reallv not possible lo see how anything more can he done at the prcsen" stage. The boat does not look inviting, and one wonders how anybody is to be trained in her for an up-to-date service under the whit ■ ensign that has always faced tinbattle and the breeze in a manner that leaves nothing to he desired 01: the part of the men to whose keeping the honour of the navv and li., Kmpire is consigned. Hut then it i.-. to he remembered that it is possible lo teach the elements in ;■ craft that, is not un-to-date. Th. rest, after some training has bee. acquired, can be taught, in the King's ships on ,he Australian station. It is, after all, a question of getting the squadron up lo the marl,. The .Japanese war lias opened ali eyes to the right view in this mailer.

The night of Friday passed of! without any of the threatened consequences and also without the secon! reading of the Old Age Pensions Bill. The only remarkable incident was the friction between Mr Laurenson and the Leader of the Opposition, whom he has lately joined in the hostility to the (lovcrnmcnt which is their common ground of policy. In the beat of the debate he charged the Farmers' Union with having through its official organ insulted the old age pensioners by calling thvm all "wasters." Mr Massey challenged the accuracy of the slak'mcnt but his new-found political bed-fel-low informed him with freezing politeness that he would he happy to show him chapter and verse. The incident is one more, nail for the coffin of the new alliance. That receptacle, by the way, it i.s remarked funic wits, is lying now close beside the cradle of the same political organisation. For the rest, the debate was remarkable chiefly for Hie revival of the old arguments against, the principle of pensions a»d in favour of the theory of compulsory thrift, a i„| lnaiiv olhn . thj which were much in evidence during the lo» K am j historic for the establishment of the system during the last sessions of (he last century. There was an exception, of wurse; it was (be slashing and masterly manner in which the Premier look his measure into action and fouglrf il -, h ro;H, i tfwrmght. The debate will probably consume many hours next week.