POLITICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8491, 20 July 1907, Page 5

POLITICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

t(From Our Parliamentary CorresponI dent.) WELLINGTON, Friday. THE BUDGET. The Budget, the tariff, and the land question—that important trinity in I unity constituting the Financial Statement of Tuesday last —form the .staple topics of discussion in and out of the lobbies. The Budget proper is generally considered the ablest and ■most satisfactory that has been presented for some years. The consolidated tariff, with its reductions upon foodstuffs, meets with wider approval than is customary with new tariffs, and the Government is lauded for the comprehensive grasp it has shown in dealing with a subject that bristles with difficulties as an irate porcupine does with quills. There will, of course, be almost endless discussion upon the schedules of the Bill when they come up for formal discussion, but that is only to be expected. The proverb, "There's nothing like leather," will be applicable to the numerous industries concerned, and in their representatives the House will find wordy exponents of the views of the interested ones. The demagogue will find it easy to declaim upon the fact that while the poor man's perambulator is taxed the rich man's motor is admitted free. But anomalies could hardly be avoided in such a vast undertaking as that of entirely reconstructing the Customs tariff of the colony, and it may be hoped that calm counsels will result in their rectification! THE LAND QUESTION.

The land phase of the Budget deliverance does not meet with such general approbation. It.mixes things considerably in the political arena, but one thing is certain —it has secured a present political victory for the Government; and "vae victis" might appropriately be written over the portals of the consulting room of the Land Reform Party who were straining every nerve to maintain the leasehold idea. But while the Government may have done the right thing in the end, so far as the demands of the country are concerned, it can have little cause for glory. Its most ardent adherents admit that Ministers have had to submit more than they find palatable in adopting principles which they for nearly a year had sworn to oppose. There are many members on the Liberal side who are delighted that what they conceive to be pure justice has been done to their constituents, but feel, nevertheless, that their chiefs must, by their vacillating attitude, have lost caste throughout the colony. The whole trouble has arisen not so much because of what Ministers have ultimately decided to do, but because of their ill-considered attitude at the outset, and up to the very week of the assembling of Parliament. The lesson they have learned will doubtless be taken to heart in the future, and in important questions they will, doubtless, in time to corno, recognise the futility as well as disadvantage of prophesying without knowledge. If,the Land Reform Party, composed of a dosen or so of members, is wroth at the set-back it has received, the equally small Cou.ilry Party prides itself on what it believes has been achieved mainly by its instrumentality. It declares that it has justified its existence, and claims that its quiet and earnest insistence has brought about the modified land proposals that are to be submitted to Parliament. It may be so. Two facts "are conspicuous. The lessee gets his chance of acquiring the freehold of his area, and the advocates of the leasehold tenure pure and simple are hopelessly outmanoeuvred. The Land Bills are to be circulated this week. THE WASTE OF TIME. The necessity for adopting some rule to prevent waste of time in Parliament over Bills that have no chance of passing was again exemplified on Wednesday last. The Noxious Weeds Bill, fathered by Mr R. McKenzie, has been before the House many times, and has been jettisoned therefrom as often. It seeks to impose intolerable burdens upon local authorities already overburdened, and members generally have decreed that it shall not become law. No sooner was the Bill in Committee of the whole House, on Wednesday last, than a stonewall was set up and for a couple of hours the crowd of spectators in the galleries were treated to an exhibition, free of cost, which rivalled in drollery anything that has ever been afforded the public on the stage by any vaudeville company charging half-a-crown foxadmission. To use a theatrical expression, the house was kept in roars of laughter from the beginning of the performance to the end. No progress was made with the Bill, nor is Ihore any likelihood that any progress will ever be made with it; yet it blocked the way for hours against other and better measures. THE QUACKERIES BILL. Mr Hornsby succeeded in getting the second reading of his Quackeries Prevention Bill carried. He made a very effective and very amusing speech in his opening address. His recital of the analyses of the various pills, hair restorers, tonics, etc., was most entertaining, and showed how the public were gulled by com pounds the virtue of which depended entirely upon the unlimited faith of the consumer. Well, perhaps that is too much to say in regard to some of the pills at any rate, seeing that, according to analysts, the chief operative ingredient is soap! THE MINISTER FOR LANDS TO VISIT TAW A HA. The Minister for Lands, Hon. R. McNab, has fixed Monday next, 22nd instant, as the day on .vhich he will visit the Tawaha Settlement to take into consideration the needs of the State leaseholders on that property. Mr McNnb is an eminently practical man, and believes in seeing for himself where wants are to be supplied. The Minister will be accompanied by Mr J. T. M. Hornsby, the member

for the district, and it is expected that the journey will be made to a point where the site of the proposed road on the hill can be inspected. From there the Minister will go to the flat lands, via Bidwill's Cutting, and inspect the whole of the lowlying sections. As the Minister must return to Wellington the same day, it is hoped the settlers will be as concise as possible. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. On Wednesday the following replies were given by the Government to questions:— Mr Hogg asked the Premier, whether the desirability of having such electorates as Wairarapa, Masterton, Palmerston,Pahiatua, Napier, Hawke's Bay, Waipawa, Otaki, Manawatu, and Rangitikei represented in another place has been considered in connection with recent appointments; and, if not, whether these appointments have been made on any defined lines whatever? Reply—The whole colony was considered. Mr Ross asked the Minister of Lands whether he will at an early date take the necessary steps to acquire the Balfour Estate for close settlement?

Reply—The Balfour Estate, situated near Pahiatua, contains 3,343 acres, and is the property of Messrs Balfour and Stevens. Negotiations were commenced in 1903. The owners were unwilling to sell, and if compelled to do so desired to retain 1,000 acres each. The remainder was considered not worth taking compulsorily. Mr Hogg asked the Minister of Lands whether he would endeavour to carry out the promise of his predecessor to establish a State nursery for the culture of forest trees at Trenj tham? Reply—No suitable area of land has yet been secured at or near Trentham, whilst the Chief Forester reported that the locality itself is not favourably viewed by him as a site for a future State- At the present time the money at the •disposal of the Forestry Department will not permit of the establishment of another nursery. (Note —The object of a nursery at or near Trentham could only be in furtherance of an attempt to reforest the Rimutaka ranges and State-forest areas, and, the heavy head of steam required for the locomotives used on this section renders the locality specially lisble to fires in the sum-mer-time.) CIVIL SERVANTS' PETITION. Mr Ross presented a petition to the House, on Thursday, signed'by Civil Servants in Woodville, Pahiatua and Eiietahuna, praying the Government to pass a Superannuation Bill during the present session. TERMINATION OF NATIVE LEASE. The Government has decided to terminate the lease of the Pipiriki Block, near Dannevirke, and the compensation to be given to Mr Price, the present lessor, has been decided upon. The amount is not stated. NOTICES OF MOTION AND QUESTIONS. The following notices of motiun and questions were tabled on Thursday : Mr Ross to move, that there be laid before this House a return showing the sections, blocks, areas, and localities of education endowments and other reserves within the Pahiatua electorate, exceeding 20 acres in area, together with the names ol lessees of same, amounts of rent payable ard dates of expiry of each lease; also the areas of land otherwise held by each lessee. Mr Hogg to ask the Acting-Mini ter for Railways, whether trains i onveying explosives cannot be arranged at stated intervals, so that settlers engaged clearing their lands may not be compelled to resort to smuggling —to the great risk of the travelling public and themselves—if they wish to avoid loss of time, disappointment, and uncertainty? Mr Hogg to move, that there be laid before this House a return of the amount of land purchased and the expenditure on the same within the several electorates in the colony under tht Land for Settlements Act.