POLITICAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2346, 12 November 1908, Page 2

POLITICAL.

AIR. ELL’S RANGE OR SUBJECTS. ‘•The Opposition., on account of_it&. extreme weakliest;, is-trying to bring about a coalition.” Thus Mr. Ell at Christchurch. One would have thought. the vast range of subjects that engage Mr. Ellts attention as a politician, from the* preservation of tourists to wild cat schemes for establishing a State bank, would have afforded him sufficient material for a two hours’ heart to heart talk with the electors,' and that ho need not have ventured into the radius of pure imagination. The desperate anxiety of the Opposition to form a coalition need not keep Mr. Ell awake at night, for it does not exist. AIR. FISHER ON AGITATORS. "There are men in this Dominion, 1 ’ observed Air. Fisher the other night, “whose, trade—or they may prefer to call it profession—is to stir up strife between employer and workers. J tain one of those who will he up I against them every time. Is there ono . person in the Dominion wl» would like to see another maritime strike of 1890?'” At a later stage Mr. Fisher spoke in favor of. the clause in the Arbitration Amendment Act, which provides that there shall be fourteen days’ notice of intention to strike. “During that period,” lie remarked, “there will be time for meditation. Half the strikes which have occurred could have’ been settled in that manner. Unfortunately there are, however, men. in the Dominion, who don’ t want because it is their business to live on strikes.” IN DESPERATE STRAITS. The desperate straits to which the opponents of Air. Massey have been reduced find illustration in an angry and abusive editorial in tho “Lyttelton Times.” As everybody knows -Mr. Massey has stated jn- almost every speech which he has delivered since the end of the session, and in, many speeches in Parliament, that the nationalisation of private land is going on at the rate of £500,000 a year, time being, the annual expenditure under the Land for Settlements Act. In u southern report of the interview with Air. Massey, which was printed on Monday, “£-5,000,000” was printed tor "£500,000”. The Christchurch Ministerial organ, greatly worried by its failure to find a joint in Air. Alassey’s armour, seized upon this simple misprint with delight, and thus dealt with it in an editorial: “Air. Alassey’s statements that ‘the .nationalisation of private land is going on at the rate of £5,000,000 worth, every year’ is, no doubt, based on the fact that half a million is spent annually on the purchase of estates under the Land for Settlement Act, the little error of £4,000,000 being nothing to .an Opposition financier.” That our contemporary could print such a statement is a fact eloquent- of the weakness of its case and of the kind of intelligence that animates, its readers. TRIBUTE TO AIR. MILLAR. Mr. Heaton Rhodes, in ins speech at Xrittle Rive* on \\ ednesday, gave ail example of that courteous desire to-give honor where lie thinks honor is utie that lias helped! to make him the most popular member in the House. .Speaking-of the new Conciliation and Arbitration Act, he said that in guiding the .dill through the House Air. Millar was tactful anci linn, and showed that he .had every intention of being absolutely fair. He proved himself a very fit person to occupy hi s position in the Cabinet. ELECTION PROSPECTS. Tue members of the Govern in cut should really agree between themselves as to what they -should say on ejection prospects. Speaking no a reporter in Christchurch, Dr. Findlay said that the prospects of the Government in the north were very bright. There were signs that the Government’s following in the North island would be increased. This does >iiOh agree with the views expressed by -Sir -J oseph \\ ard ust to the probable results of the polling in the North island.

THE TWO AUNAiBS. The Christchurch “Press” in an article under the heading “Tile Two AlcNubs,” points out that three years ago Mr. AlcN ah’s land policy, so far as the set-ri-ernent of the land was concerned, was to a very large decree the policy that the “Press” advocated. He believed that quite enough money had been spent an buying land* for division, and that in order to obviate the necessity of borrowing for that purpose, settlers should be enabled to buy the freehold, the • receipts from this source being used to purchase more estates. He did not favor the limitation of area so as to prevent reaggregation of large estates. As soon as lie entered tho Cabinet room his principles disappeared. He fathered a Land Bill in which the freehold found no place at alii, and then* when he saw that the measure had no chance of becoming Jaw he brought in another Bill, under which the right to the freehold is severely limited; while land for settlements tenants—tho alien who, in his pre-Alinisterial days, lie claimed should be allowed to purchase the freehold—cannot get it at all. By his trimming on this question—one of deep importance to a community of farmers such as the Ai'ataura electorate- —Air APNab has forfeited the confidence of large numbers of his former supporters. The electors who voted,for Air APNab in 1905 on account of his views on this land question cannot consistently vote for him this year, now that he has abandoned those views. DEFENCE.

“Tho press of the Dominion has been .agitating for adequate defence; various bodies throughout the country have passed resolutions in favor of it; the Defence Council set up by the Government say that it is necessary. The only reji-ly from the Prime Minister is a lot of grandiloquence about “shedding the last drop of blood.” AVhat we want to do is to avoid shedding the first drop of blood. If there is to' be any blood-letting we want it to be the other fellow’s. The only way to ensure immunity from attack is to let it be known that our defence is such that any people contemplating coming here will get such a warm reception that it won’t be worth their while.”—Air, R. B. Williams at Wellington. -

CROWN LANDS. “I shall vote on. every occasion for the conversion into perpetual national eudywincaii’S yf gli the j'epiaiuuig

Crown lands,” says Mr. T. Ev Taylor. “I am entirely opposed to the -alienation of moreland. if the people want freehold, then the bulk of the land in New Zealand is now treehold and they can buy some of it. If they want to nee land belonging to the State they should occupy it under the leasehold system, and when, theland is renewed at the end of thirtythree years any increase in rental value created by the public works policy and the general development of i\ew Zealand will come to the State.” CAPITAL AND LABOR,

“Capital and Labor are like husband and wife. Now .and again they have little ‘tilt's,’ which should be allowed to pass off—not to form the ground of a perpetual feud.” With these remarks Air Wright, at Newtown, commenced a series of pertinent observations on the unsettled state of industrial affairs. Ho stated inter alia that numbers of workers quite erroneously held that the employers were mere exploiters of labor. There were, he said, employers and employers, and the fact that one or other of the employers, might at ono time or another have done something which was nek fair to his employees was no reason why -all employers should be- condemned. It was his opinion that the workers should return a fair return for their labor. BORROW AND SPEND

Air J. M. Twomey wields a caustic and a fluent pea (writes a Christchurch correspondent). He doesn’t like the Opposition, but his. views regarding it are as mikl as milk and water compared witli his opinions of the Government. In the “Loader,” after mentioning several of the planks in the platform put forward by the Opposition last election, ho goes on to ask what happened to them. “Simply they were stolen one by one by the Ward Government and put into law. Is there a human being alive in this country who can deny it? When Sir J. G. Ward has for the .last three years practically lived on the platform of the Opposition, does it become him to ridicule it now? I certainly think the Opposition were very foolish to issue such a manifesto, but whero is Sir J. G. Ward’s manifesto? Ifc consists merely of the three words, •borrow and spend.’ ” TERSE 'ANGLO-SA NON. Air AVm. Richardson, the outspoken candidate for Auckland City East-, said at his last meeting that many people seemed to think that if he was elected he would turn Parliament into a bear garden. There was not, however, a man in New Zealand who had a- higher ideal of Parliament than himself, and he assured the audience that ho would endeavor, if elected, to carry this ideal out. It was said that he would not- be in tho House a week before the sor-geant-at-arms would have to deal with him, but, ho added, “I can use Anglo-saxon quite tersely enough without making the skin and hair fly.” (Applause.) “THEM’S AIY SENTIMENTS.” Air Craigio, Alayor of Timaru, made his first election speech last week. The speech was a case of taking any one of tho Prime Alinister’s addresses to the electors and remarking “them’s my sentiments.” He recited a long credo, showing that he believes heart and soul in the Government’s policy and administration, and his assertion that he meant to exercise the right to criticise, and would not give away his independence, was the only amusing point in the whole speech.

EARAI LABORERS

Air Shout, tho Opposition candidate for Riccarton, was one of the employers’ representatives on the Conciliation Board during the farm laborers’ case. He told a rural working man audience the other night that it had come out in evidence that there was five per cent, of the employers, who did not know how to treat a dog, let alone «a man. He would have liked to have anadc them sit up, but 110 could not have done so without penalising the other 95 polecat. His advice to the farm laborers was not to work for the five per cent, of bad employers.

JOTTINGS. “A good hearty song will not harm the children,” was the Hon. George Fowlds’s answer to the question as to. whether it was right for scholars in public schools to be taught to sing “Somebody’s Sweetheart I Long to he.” ‘ ‘The cost of governing the country should fall not upon the income that is within tho limits of a man’s needs, but upon the surplus wealth of the country,” says Air T. E. Taylor. “Until the wants of a man and his children and his wife in the matter of food and clothing have been supplied he should not be called upon to bear a burden of taxation. In tho Customs taxation to-day the people are hearing a burden that not one person in a hundred, understands.” “Sometimes I think we are being legislated to death. The Prime Minister is reported to have said to the New York Lawyers’ Club: ‘We first find out what the people want, and then wo do it as they want it done.’ Well, he ought to know that what we want now, for a while, is jacace, legislative peace, and having found out that that is what the people of New Zealand want, we devoutly pray that he will apply his rule and give them what they want.” —Air It. B. Williams, at Northland. “Alost of the supporters of the present Administration are merely ‘phonographs’ who re-echo the platitudes of others, ami vote-registering machines.”—Air Wright at Newtown the other night. “When we see tourists with their draughtboard suits and baggy trousers ducking all over the country, do we seriously think they are doing New Zealand any good?” asked Air Rosser of the Auckland City Central electors in his first address. “The l money that is spent on the Tourist Department might be better spent in reading the hack-blocks,” he added.