CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 20, 11 June 1914, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

LAND AGGREGATION.

As regards converted Crown lands, there is, so far as we know, no proof yet that the Acts of 1912 and 1913 have actually caused aggregation; but their suspension of the limitation-of-area, in the case of mortgagees, is to bo viewed with grave suspicion, and .its future working should be carefully watched. As regards private freeholds, the Liberal Governments took no anti-aggregation measures at all, and that which Mr Massey took last session appears to be totally inadequate, for reasons that have repeatedly been stated. For what has happened, the Liberal Governments should bear tho principal blame; but that ftas ceased to be the issue. The question is not who failed in the past, but who will check tho evil ag it exists. All that Mr Masscy has done is to prescribe Statc-purchaso (already overburdened) for convicted aggregators and to knock a hole in the limitation laws at the bidding of the mortgagees. This is certainly not progress, and it bears a very close resemblance: to retrogression. —Wellington Post.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. Speaking in Christehurch last week, tho Prime Minister stated that the Government intended to make the Legislative Council elective, and it would be made elective within three months. The Legislative Council had been given two chances to effect reform from within, but the Bill had been laid aside each time b'y the Council. It would not be laid aside next session, for the Government was going to appoint a sufficient number of members to the Council to carry the Government's proposals into law. He made no secret of that. Previous Governments had only appointed men of their own views, hut the present Government had appointed political opponents awl,' Labor representatives. When the Government found anything better than the present system of election—and they might find it—it would be adopted. So far no better system Ihtul been found. The second ballot system wa3 the most objectionable measure ever placed on tho statute book. The system was a worn out one, having been abandoned where tried elsewhere, and it was only introduced into New Zealand to serve a political purpose.

PREJUDICED OPINIONS. Most persons are dependent for their knowledge of what' is going on politically on their daily newspapers, and when they read day after day reports of rancorous speeches made by men who have no hesitation in imputing base motives, dishonorably conduct, and general political unworthinoss to their opponents, and when they find all these things backed up by a wealth of detail in the leading columns of the party papers themselves, it is not surprising' if highly prejudiced opinions are formed in their minds. If what the party politician and the party newspaper says is true, then it is surely an act of righteousness to go out and create a disturbance at the meeting held by such political villain. The average elector cannot he expected to know that nine-tenths of the controversy between party newspapers is all humbug.—Christehurch Sun.