POLITICAL POINTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 May 1916, Page 3

POLITICAL POINTS.

URGENT LEGISLATION. PRICES AX)) PROFITS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, May 17. A significant feature of the Address-in-Reply debate, which is still running the usual course in the House of Representatives, is the unanimity with which the speakers reject the suggestion of His Excellency's advisers that the session should be devoted to war business only. The rank and file of both parties have evidently made up their minds that the war will be just as well won if Parliament gives some attention to the domestic affairs of the ee-untry as it would be if these affairs were relegated to the limbo of neglected things for an indefinite period. The difficulty, of course, from the beginning was to define what was war business and what was not. His Excellency's advisers did not attempt this task. They merely expressed a pious hope that controversial matters would be avoided. But the cost of living, land settlement, taxation and labor unrest are such vital questions at the present moment that they cannot he postponed till next session or to the one after that, simply because there are likely to be some differences of opinion in regard to their settlement.

A WIDENING PROGRAMME These questions are, as a matter of fact, so closely associated with the war itself that it is impossible to believe Ministers ever seriously eonternlated leaving them over till a more eonenieut season. They have, indeed, aire?.'" circulated an amended Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Bill and foreshadow-d edditional taxation and when the Address-in-Reply debute is out of the way, other measures of a similar character will follow. To-day only private members' bills arc on the order paper, but th'ise are not likely to enjoy this distinction very long. There are three "Fair Rents" bills among them, figuring under different names, one introduced by Mr. ljayne, another by Mr. Wright, and a third by Mr. Wilford, but if anything is to be done to relieve the. burdens of the sorely tried tenants who have moved these members to action, it will have to be done by the Government in a well-con-sidered, comprehensive measure. Mr. Veitch's name is attached to two of the Bills set down for their second reading, the Police Force Amendment Bill and the Dominion State Banking Bill, and as the member for Wanganui is given to neither kite-dying nor self-advertising, it may be taken for granted his proposals will prove to be of some public interest.

THE COST OF LIVIXG. Many members are complaining in a very pointed fashion of the delay in giving effect to the legislation of lust session designed to assist in keeping clown the cost of living. Rightly ov wrongly, they attribute the delay to lack of sympathy on the part of the Minister of Industries and Commerce in the administration of the law, and probably that gentleman will have something to say on the subject later on. In the meantime, it is only fair to the members of the Board of Trade to say they have worked unceasingly since they were installed in office and have collected a large amount of valuable information The deductions they have drawn from this information are not yet available to the public, but it is understood they have submitted to the Minister a report which deals with several commodities in common use. The Board seems to have had something to do with the assurance Mr. Massey was able to give the House the other day that the price of sugar would not be raised on the expiration of the present agreement with the Colonial Sugar Company, and it is believed it has made recommendations in regard to other "necessaries of life" which would effectually check the upward tendency of prices.

WAR PROFITS i There is an insistent demand from tlio ' Liberal and Labor groups in the House for a measure that will secure to the '■ State a much larger charge of the war | profits being made by individuals and companies than can be obtained through ' the agency of the existing income tax. 1 This is altogether apart from the agi- : tation for the "conscription of wealth," } which the Prime Minister has denounced as unreasonable and unjust. Member after member has urged this, question upon the attention of Ministers during the past week and, though Sir Joseph Ward has given no hint of. his intentions in regard to the matter, there is a feeling abroad that in his "Budget" proposals he will go much further than he did last year. Some of the Reform members, evidently with a very hazy idea of the position, have protested against any additional burden being placed upon the shoulders of the farmers, but there is no reason to suppose that Mr. Masscv himself takes this restricted view or that he is at serious variance with the Minister of Finance on the subject. The composition of the Cabinet may necessitate some measure of com promise, but it is fairly certain that a substantial share of aseertoincd war profits will be appropriated liv the State. Mr, Witty has mentioned .£5,000,0(10 as a sum that might easily be obtained in this way and probably his estimate could be reached without inflicting the slightest hardship on a single member of the community. LAND FOR SOLDTERS. Tn quite its best style, which it usually assumes when dealing with settlefmoiit questions, the Evening Post condems the (iovcrnment's proposals for placing returned soldiers on the land as a subterfuge. The only good feature it can see in the proposals is a provision by which the Minister of Finance can insist upon paying for land acquired by ' the Government in debentures instead of in cash—a tribute to Sir Joseph Ward's financial genius, which is no small compliment coming from such a source. For the rest of the Bill the Post takes the Minister for Lands sever; ly to task. "To bring in a Bill," it declares,

"piirportiiifj to establish compulsory acquisition of land for soldiers—at the same time taking fine care that the big rural land-owners will not be hurt— is a superficial trick thai will not for long deceive the electors. This cheap patriotism, this attempt to run with the soldiers and hunt with the land-owners, is admirably calculated to undo its promoters. It is most likely that, when the war terminates, a wave of radical thought will sweep the country, and when that time comes acts of flagrant hpyocrisy will not be forgotten," Mr. Massey scarcely deserves so badly as this at the hands of his friends and no doubt when the Bill is before the House he will be able to put a very different completion upon his proposals. THE COMPULSION BILL. The member for Hutt has given notice to ask the Minister of Defence whether he will, when introducing the Militjff.V Bill, include the following

clauses: "(1) All male inhabitants of New Zealand between the ages of twenty and fifty years (not hereinafter exempted), who have resided in Xew Zealand for six months, and are British subjects, shall be liable to render military or civilian service either in or out of New Zealand as may be required. (2) All persons who are certified by a registered medical practitioner, appointed by the Governor for the purpose, to be physically unfit shall he exempt from the liability to render military service or to render civilian service according to the tenor of the certificate. (3) For the purposes of this Act, the Governor may make such appointments and constitute such authorities and make such regulations as he thinks fit. (4) For the purposes of this Act, 'civilian service' means service of any kind under the Government or serve in any productive industry."