POLITICAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2329, 23 October 1908, Page 7

POLITICAL.

CORRUPT LEGISLATION.

WATER POWER RIGHTS

The -widest powers, unhampered by any right of Parliamentai'y revision (savs the Wellington “Post”) are conferred upon the Government in the matter of water power. Parliament has agreed that the Governor in Council —i.e., the Cabinet of the day —may grant any person an exclusive right in perpetuity to use water from aiiy fall, river, stream, or other source for the purpose of generating electricity. This exclusive right—alienating New Zealand water power and its profits for ever and ever—is to be granted to any person on such terms as tho Cabinet sees fit—for nothing, if the Government chooses. The grantee may be authorised to take any land he requires, and to enter upon'any Toad of railway. Once granted, this exclusive right to tho profits of water power—-as long as New Zealand endures—ranks as a grant from the Crown; and unless limited originally, can only be revoked by Act of Parliament. We unhesitatingly stigmatise this legislation as corrupt, and as tending to gross corruption. By that we mean that the legislation is corrupt in principle; and that, if ever a dishonest Government replaces the present Government, against, the ' members of which wc make no imputation of personal dishonesty, .the way is wide open for public robbery. We are bound to suppose that the Government and Parliament acted innocently and honestly in tho matter, to their best intelligence. But the perpetual franchise, on any terms or none, is such a known and proven engine of corruption that even in its use creates the gravest public scandal. The waterpower rights of New Zealand assuredly will be worth millions of money .in the future. Yet they may be ceded in perpetuity, with or without payment, and to any person whatever,-, if some future Cabinet proves unworthy of its trust, and fails to resist tlie enormous temptation to dishonesty which Parliament has given. Wc earnestly trust that the Act will be repealed early next session, and that- meanwhile the Government will make no effort to apply it.

THE POSITION OF LABOR.

AN IMPORTANT QUESTION

It is a convenient moment, says an exchangs, to ask what it is that Labor really desires. That question was answered, it is true, in some detail at the Labor Conference the other day. But it was not answered on behalf of the great body of workers in the Dominion. They, w'e feel sure, are at heart out of sympathy with the tactics of the noisy men who have got control of trades unionism by using their gift of frothy fluency to stir up the workers into an appetite for the good things that will folloiv the downfall of “capitalism” and “the wage system.” The worker of to-day is in an infinitely better situation than he has ever been. If the present condition of industry chafes him at any point, he, at any rate, knows that the Government fears him. He is courted by “Liberal” politicians; Acts of Parliament are suspended on his behalf; even Courts of Justice are dragged from their triumphant path. Nor can lie complain of the condition under which he works. The average ■worker knows all this, and he has sufficient sense of fair play to restrain him from endorsing the more flagrant of his leaders’ defiances of ordinary justice, and sufficient common sense to realise .that it is ho who must suffer most from the realisation of the Socialistic ideals of the Trades Councils.

THE NEWTOWN SEAT.

The Newtown seat has been generally regarded, as a fairly safe constituency for Mr (Barber. His opponents so far 'announced have not appeared to be particularly dangerous. A new candidate, however, has nowentered the field, and a hot fight seems certain. The candidate in question is Mr It. A. Wright, of (Messrs Wright and Carman, printers, of Wellington. Mr Wright, who has resided in Wellington for the past 27 years, has taken an active part in public matters for a great many years, more especially in questions relating to social reforms. He is an experienced platform speaker, a hard fighter, and has won some distinction as one of the reform party in connection with licensing matters in Wellington, being at the present time a member of the City Licensing Committee. He is a man of broad views, strong convictions, and great energy, and may be relied on to conduct .an active campaign. Mr Wright offers himself as an opponent of the Government, believing that a strong Opposition is quite as necessary to the welfare of the country as a strong Government. JOTTINGS. A contemporary utters the following warning to the workers : —-A recrudescence of the cynical lawlessness that necessitated the patching-up of the Arbitration Act will not mean ■merely another attempt to keep the Act alive. It will mean simply that the abandonment of the Act will be decided upon sooner than would otherwise be the case. . - “The {Economist” of August 29 last deals with the finances of New Zealand. [Referring to the Budget proposals for the current year, our contemporary sayd: —“There is a good deal of the expenditure, however, which cannot be termed really reproductive, .and at any irate a time of depression in the wool market, and a falling off in trade all over the world, is not an, opportune, moment for launching out on a scheme of expenditure more lavish "than ever. . . New Zealand’s .finance and her legislative experiments will continue to be watched in this country with some, degree of sympathy not unmixed with anxiety.” Departmental enquiries are matters that usually cost the country money. As an example, the recent inquiry re the police-surgeon at Auckland can be quoted. • This inquiry piled up a bill of £l2O, by way of attendant expenses. Witnesses had to be brought from various parts of the Dominion, including Dunedin, Wellington, and Gisbore, which accounts in part for the expenditure on a five or six days’ inquiry. - . ■ . , . , Ten years ago the tax pei’ head or population was £3 Jls; to-day:it was

no less than £4 14s 7d. —an increase of 23s 7d. for every man, woman, and child in New Zealand-' and- this was in consequence of being represented by tho Liberal party! This meant that the Otalci electorate, with a population of about 10,500 souls, was paying some £13,000 more in taxation than it did ten years -ago. At last election the taxation had stood, at £4 Ss 4d per head, and it was then said that the tax would not got any higher, but even since then, it had increased by 6s 3d per head. Thus in three, years, the Otalci electors had paid £IO,OOO ill extra taxes, and the Liberal Government had given them some £7OOO hack in bribes, because they had returned a Liberal candidate. —Mr Byron Brown at Otalci.