THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8232, 8 September 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1906.

"The Legislation of New Zealand under the auspices of the late Mr Seddon," was the subjeot of a paper read reoently by' the Hon. W. P. Reeves before the Society of Comparative Legislation, in London. Mr Keeves, in the course of his address, said that the (starting point of the great mass cf recent experimental law-making which had made New Zealand so famous or notorious waa the year 1891, shortly before Mr Seddon became Premier. This legislation was generally summed up as aooialistio, and ao in a broad sense it was. In the colonies the tendency undoubtedly was that when a man ceased to be a mere Conservative he took up some kind

of practical Socialistic policy. It was remarkable that the democracy of the colonieß should have shown this tendency towards State Socialism, while the great deraocraoy of the United States had gone until recently bo much in quite a different line, and the contrast might form the basis of a very interesting study. In spite of its Socialistic tendencies, the aim of the State, in New Zealand, at any rate, at present was not pure Socialism, although it intervened in the Held of private industry, to an extent which was, he thought, unparalleled in any other democratic community in the world. The women in the colony made a very general use of their vote, in almost [a larger proportion than men, and there was no sign that they would oea ß e so to use their votes. He was often asked his opinion as to the results of female suffrage in New Zealand, and his answer was that, so far as he could tell, it bad done no barm either to the women themselves, to the other sex, or to the community. On the other band, it was only fair to say that female suffrage had not given them the offeots for good which some bad anticipated. The land policy of the Progressive Party in New Zealand was not in tbe direction of land nationalisation, but rather towards keeping down the size of the holdings. In spite of what was heard of the large State holding in land, he said that 17,000,000 acres were held in freehold, and of the rest portions were held in leashold from private owners and by the native tribes, while the remainder was held temporarily by tenants of the Grown. Tbey possessed in New Zealand, oonoluded Mr Reeves, a graduated income tax, State arbitration in trade disputes, which had resulted in stamping out sweating and putting an end to strikes and lock-outs, a system of State insurance, and an arrangement by which the State advanced money to allow people to settle on the land, local option law, and a system of old age pensions, under which ail deserving persons of 05 years of age and upwards were entitled to a pension of 10s a week.

The necessity of Having a larger and more up-to-date crane in usu at the Mdsterton, Railway Station was again emphasised,, yesterday, when Messrs Donald and Sons, Ltd, received two oases of engines, each weighing under two tons. The time oooupied in getting the oases into a dray was no less than two hours, while they were unloaded in the town by means of a crane belonging to a local firm in about twenty minutes. The orane at the Railway Station was probably of Buffloient capacity for th» work that bad to be done with it some years ago, but with the rapid growth of Maaterton of late years, and, consequently, the largely increasing traffic, it is now entirely out-of-date and altogether unsuitable. The Masterton Chamber of Commerce have had the matter in hand for some time, and it is ut>derstuod that the Minister for Railways has promised to have a new orane erected, but nothing beyond promising'.has been done up to the present.