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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8298, 29 November 1906, Page 4

If Mr MoNab has bean correctly reported by the pressman who interviewed him the othor day in Auckland his statement in regard to the possibilities of a dissolution of Parliament in the near future can only rfe regarded as most astonishing. Mr MoNab "jaid, that quite apart from any outcome of the Laud Bill, another eleotiun might be necessary next year, owing to the work of the Representation Commission. He said a constitutional question was invoked. The Government had an important duty in advising thfi Governor on the question as to whether the present Parliament should run its course. Three Southern members would be representing no constituency, and the Governor would have to say which oC theae members' seat would stand. If they did not retire, and three electorates in the north were clamouring for their representatives, a ohaotio condition might ensue, aud it wa3 a question whether an election is not desirable before the reassembling of Parliament. Constitutional * procedure, into whioh, ho said, he had nor, gone, 'might require this to be done. The Premier, when asked in Wellington for an explanation of the statement, smiled and said hia oolleaguo must surely have been misreported. Sir Joseph also added tha*: the present members would hold their seats until the next, election, as the report of the Commission, even if ulcimatdly oonhymed, did not take effect until after the expiry of the present Parliament, iu the course of a leading article, in its issue of last eveniug, the Wellington Post states that "Ihe doctrine to whioh Mr M ? Nab refers is based upon the praotioe of Great Briiuia in esses where the basis of political power has been radically altered. If Parliament decides upon a wide extension of the franchise, the decision is tantamount to casting a reflection on the competence of the present constituencies; and a natural result ia a desire to instal the now masters at onca, instead of waiting for a Parliament whoso authority has been impugned by its own decision to run its natural course. But suoh considerations have no application at all to the moro mechanical re-dis-tribution of the constituencies where the suffrage remains unaltered, and indeed their application is expressly excluded by legal enactment. Section 11 of tho Mlpotoral Act of 1005, repeating a provision which baa biieu 'ti part of om law ever sinoo lilio institution of automatic redistribution by Sir Robert Stout's Representation Act iu 1887, requires tho Representation Cora* missioners to report the changes proposed to the Governor, who has thereupon to proclaim tho same in the Gazette, 'and suoh report shall have the force of law i'roni tho date of suuh proclamation; but shall not come into effect until the expiry of the then existing Parliament.' It is surely absurd to attempt to set up a vague constitutional practice, ta ß ed upon entirely different conditions, in opposition to the plaij and reasonable letter of the law. Mr M'Nab again iguuros the plain requirements of the law when he saye chat 'in the past tho instruction to the representation Commissioners was to proceed during the last session of Parliament.' The electoral law from 1887 anwarde has required tho commissioners to proceed with their work 'within three months afcev the results of any periodical census have i>eon aadertained and reported to the said comraisiioD,

which report the Registrar-Gen era' is hereby required to make aa early as possible.* Nobody haa any authority to issue any instructions to the commissioner, nor have they the power to wait for any; and" the reason why they hare proceeded during the'firsi session of the present Parliament is simply that the censub |was .taken within a few months after the general fienfiiori." As Mr M'JJJqb is regarded as an..eminent, authority ou.constitutional law nobody' wants to argue the "nice" point, with him,, but those who, it may he presumed, know something of the position, smw to think that he is entirely wrong. It-will-cer-tainly be interesting to know what explanation, if any, Mi- M'Nab tins to ofTar in, rerly to the interest that his statement has aroused and tb3 advarse opinions that hare been elicited.

The New Zealand Herald remarks in a recent issue:—"Mr Kamsay ttlaodonald, the English Labour M.P., after a flying visit through New Zealand, has returned to Australia quite prepared to tell everybody how this colony ought to be conducted. He thinks the freehold should be 'kuoaked on the bead; 1 and has evidently gathered from bis leasehold acquaintances here that Mr MoNab's laud polioy 'is aimed at the elimination of the freehold.' Ue is also satisfied thai; freetrade would benefit; us, and that 'the cost of living has gone up out of all proportion to the wages.' In short, Mr Maodonnld thinks that things are all wrong here, and roust be deeply grieved to And suoh general prosperity and suoh general oontentment. That ie always the way with tho theorists, who would be quite interesting if they did not often manage to persuade foolish people to interfere with things of which they know nothing. Times are good in New Zealand because there is a good market for all its produce, and because every able-bodied man who wants work can get it. The necessaries of life are at least as cheap here as in England, while wages are from 25 to 50 per ;oent. higher. It is quite true that rents are high and even excessive, but this depends as much upon inferior transit facilities as upon anything else, and there is a very strong movement all over the nolony towards the emendation of whatis recognised as a serious handicap to the industrious workman. Our colonial spirit is all against the alum and all in favour of securing to everybody human, healthy, and comfortable conditions. Mr Maodonald tells us that the best way to reach the soal is to buy cheap goods from foreigners, even from Chinese, rather than to pay a little more to our own fellow-colonists, or to our British fellow-oitizons; and to 'knock the freehold on the head,' as h 8 has been given to understand by his sympathisers Air MoNab's Bill will help to do. And during the past fortnight our dairymen alone have won £35,000 out of Auckland dairy lands, and might win four times that amount if they were encouraged to do their best! Will a farmer do his best under the leasehold? And is it not by production of wealth and by its wile distribution that prosperity comes, not by the academic' theories of men who imagine that humanity has no instincts to guide it?"