POLITICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8504, 7 August 1907, Page 5

POLITICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

(From Our Parliamentary Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, August 6.

IMPERIAL RECIPROCITY.

When the Premier returned from the Imperial Conference there were ' not a few persons in political circles who predicted that Empire questions would be used as a means of evading or delaying some of the larger subjects of Colonial import. So far these predictions have not been fulfilled and, apart from the discussion on the Address-in-Reply, and that on the Defence speech of the Premier, when discussing the Loan Bill, very little Imperialism has been talked in Parliament or outside the sacred chambers by ministers or members. The honour of evoking the most distinct reference to Imperialistic sentiment rested with a deputation of members of the House representing agricultural constituencies, which waited upon Sir Joseph Ward on Monday afternoon. The deputation, which, by the by, set an example of brevity, asked that the preferential duty placed by the new tariff upon dairying machinery and parchment paper for butter-wrapping be rescinded, because, practically, none of the machinery came from Great Britain, while the whole of the parchment paper was made on the Continent. It was pointed out that the duty upon factory separators which were landed in the colony at about £97 would add about £9 to the cost, and this was inimical to the butter industry. The Premier, in his reply, straightway brought Imperial sentiment to bear upon the question as the simplest method of temporarily disposing of it. In effect he said: "Parliament has approved preference being given to the Mother Country, and now when the Government proposes 10 do something in the way of granting preference, as in the case of dairying machinery, the representatives of those interested in the dairying industry at once cry out 'don't touch us!' '* That did not, said Sir Joseph Ward, look very encouraging for the proposal to have reciprocity with the Old Country. Members did not say much, but it was pretty evident that their anxietv to benefit the people of Great Br I 1.: ::i the expense of the dairying industry was not overwhelming. The Premier subsequently indicated that the Government had no wish to injure in any way an industry that was so important to the colony, and he would submit the matter to Cabinet. He, however, impressed upon the deputation that dairying machinery and parchment paper had not been placed upon the dutiable list; they had been placed upon the preferential list under the 'belief that the Old Country was entitled to some special consideration seeing that this country sends eleven-twelfths of its dairy pxoduca to Great Britain. , It is the opinion of several of the members who wore present at the deputation that when the Cabinet has duly considered the representations that have been, and will be ma le on the subject, the Government { wii! not adhere to the import. J LIFE ;N THE BACK-BLOCK?.

Speaking on the Aid* to Public Wotks and Land Settlement Bill last week, Mr Ross, member fur Pahiatua, made some very interesting and practical observations respecting the condition of the "way-back" settlements. Like many other country members he was natu: a ly disapoiuted at finding that the vote this year under the Bill for the cons! raction of roads, tracks and bridges for the purpose of opening up back-Llocks and settlements had been reduced by £50,000, as compared with last year. He pointed out that the loans svhich the ratepayers in his district had to pa'y interest on constituted a large burden when added to the ordinary load of taxation for local government purposes. Proceeding, he said: — "When we recognise the almost exhaustless nature of the work —that is, the construction of and maintenance of roads in bush districts where there is no metal—it will be readily recognised that if the Government does not come to the rescue of the settlers further taxation must be levied on the occupants of the soil." In this respect he was pleased to no 4 'e that the Government had made proposals to reduce the rate of interest on loans to local bodies by half per cent. He had, he said, received a letter from a bac':-blocks settler in his district telling him he was payingspecial rates to the extent of 4d in the £, in addition to ordinary taxation to local bodies, and notwithstanding the fact that he had been paying this extremely heavy rate he had neither a road nor a bridge to his section. Excessive rains had done thousands of pounds worth of damage in the Akitio, Pahiatua, and Weber Counties, in the autumn, in the destruction of fords and bridges, and roads had been transformed tc sludge channels. In one locality—between Alfredton and Weber—the settlers had to struggle through two feet of mud. He mentioned that, quite recently, when in his district, he came across an unfortunate settler who was attempting to get some sheep to his sectio.i, and in the process one got bogged. In assisting it out of the mire the settler "got down to his armpits." Mr Flatman interjected: "What nonsense! What about the sheep?" Thereupon Mr Ross exclaimed that it was impossible to make members from the South Island, where there were splendid roads, comprehend facts in regard to back-blocks settlements in the North. He added: "Their knowledge of such places is obtained very much in the same way as their knowledge of Siberia —namely, by reading or from travellers who lived to tell the tale." Mr Ross quoted the following remarks from two recent visitors to his district in illustration of what the settlers have to put up with. One visitor thus wrote: --"I visited the settlers on the way throuhg the back country. I was as tonished at the past blunders of the Lands Department. I found settlers who had been isolated for eleven years at Waihi, between the top of

the Puketois and Pongaroa. They had never been able to get a vehicle in, except a dray, which was hauled over the Waihi River by means of block and tackle. One settler has a six-feet track on one side blocking him, and on the other the Waihi River, unbridged." The other visitor says:— "You will find settlers driven up the steep slopes of the Ruahine Range, and you will find others lost, as it were, in the loneliest recesses of the North Island bush. During the dry weather of last summer settlers at Pongaroa and thereabout, were careful to lay in supplies, for the reason that in winter they are isolated as completely almost as if they were in a beleagured city." "That then is the condition of affairs in my district so far as roads are concerned," concluded Mr Ross, "and I say it is high time that it was ended."