The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1908. THE SPEECH.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 155, 30 June 1908, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 1908. THE SPEECH.

Tor the cause that lacfcs assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in ihe distance, And the good that we can do.

The Governor's Speech, this year contained at least the ordinary proportion of official formalities; but though the programme of proposed legislation is not very extensive, it makes up in interest what it lacks in volume. After all that has been said by the Premier and his colleagues and other members of Parliament during the recess, it was hardly , to be expected that any portion of the Speech, would come as a. complete surprise, and our forecast of the session's work has already covered most of the ground. The Second Ballot, an amended Arbitration sy€tem, improvements in our land laws, our Education Act and our mining legislation, National Annuities, superannuation schemes, and a new audit these matters have been ■freely canvassed during the past few months, and we may confine our attention for the moment to a few topics to which, less public attention has hitherto been directed.

Among, these we may refer first to the consolidation of our statutes—a work of great public benefit, on the completion of which Government may be heartily congratulated. The decision of the State, to offer facilities for the utilisation of our rich natural endowment of water power is a policy that has been too long delayed, but if energetically carried out, it should do much to promote the rapid growth of our industries. The importance attached in the speech to the work of the Native Lands Commission seems to us to be by no means exaggerated, and the country may reasonably anticipate that, as a result of its recommendations, a large area of valuable land will shortly be available for settlement in the North Island. The demand for special financial aid to our settlers on account of roads and other means of communication seems to have been Heard at last, and we await with interest the fulfilment of Government's pledge to vote a substantial sum for these urgently necessary purposes. The naval subsidy is a matter that seems recently to have dropped out of sight, but we believe that the Premier will easily carry the House and the country with him when he proposes to increase largely our contribution to the fund that must annually be devoted to national and Imperial defence. The speech supplies no fresh information as to the country's financial and commercial position. But we believe that Government is thoroughly justified in claiming that the Dominion is in a highly progressive and prosperous state, and that our public works, and more especially our railways, are being pushed on with all the energy and speed that our numerous financial burdens will allow. We have always to face the possibility of a serious financial crisis, due to external causes, or a sudden "slump , ' in the prices of our staple products; but our prosperity is so firmly based upon rich natural resources that such a "setbock" could at worst be only temporary. At present, it seems to us that by far the most serious danger we have to fear is the dislocation or the paralysis of our industrial and commercial system, through the threatened failure of our Arbitration system. For there is no doubt that unless the awards of the Arbitration Court can be upheld, and the penalties imposed for breaches of the law can be enforced, the Arbitration Act is a failure. Our readers will notice elsewhere in this issue some interesting comments by our Wellington correspondent on this all-important topic, and undoubtedly the proposed amendments to the Arbitration Act will provide one of the most interesting debates of the coming session. But, whatever form these modifications may take, we trust that Parliament •will cling resolutely to the principle of the system. The difficulty of administering the Arbitration Act appears to be inducing in certain quarters a vague conviction that it would be as well to give up the experiment and fall back upon the primitive methods of industrial warfare. This tendency we regard as much the most ominous feature of the present situation.. For any kind of peaceful settlement is better for the country and its . workers than a strike, and wo hope that our representatives will devote all their energy and ingenuity to the task of remedying the defects in a system which, whatever Us disadvantages, has been of inestimable benefit to the wage-earners, and has saved the whole country incalculable losses by providing a safe and peaceful method of ; settling industrial disputes.