The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8. 1909. THE GOVERNOR’S SPEECH.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2627, 8 October 1909, Page 4

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8. 1909. THE GOVERNOR’S SPEECH.

In another column is published the full text of the speech which His Excellency Lord Piunket, as Governor of New Zealand, presented to the representatives of Parliament upon their assembling at Wellington yesterday. As everyone knows, His Excellency had no more to do with the wording of that speech than had Mr. Lissant Clayton with the preparation of the Mayor’s policy. Yet the same absurd fiction is perpetrated year by year, and the Governor is made to voice sentiments with which he possibly disagrees most profoundly, and occasionally to murder the King’s English in a manner most abhorrent to his vice-regal soul. This, however, is one of the legacies from British traditions, and as such it is idle to revile it in the meantme. As Governors’ speeches go, that delivered yesterday is a faifly satisfactory document. There is, of course, the customary flap-doodle about the bountifulness of our harvests, the marvellous productiveness of our industries, the progressiveness of our people, their spirit of enterprise, and other verbage of the kind that sickens a man possessing some measure of dignity and a sense of the fitness of things, but, having conceded this draw back, the speech can be commended as comprising a fairly lucid exposition of the Government’s intended programme for the session that has just begun. Assuming the Cabinet to bo earnestly desirous of carrying into effect the policy thus outlined, there should be every prospect of some excellent work being achieved. Indeed, if but half, or even a third, of what is promised reaches actual fulfilment, the record of the session should be sufficient to make it a notable one. I irst

and foremost, in our opinion, comes tine promise of Native land legislation. In this connection the Government makes the striking admission that the legislation at present on the Statute Book is “perplexingly profuse, intricate, ami inconsistent,” and requires “revising, re-casting, and harmonising.” The statement is in no sense overdrawn, and must be welcomed as an exhibition of remarkable candor on tho part of those responsible 1 for placing Native affairs in such a shocking, tangle. At any rate, the admission makes a useful starting point for future action, and we feel sure that Mr. Massey and the other members of the Opposition will cordially assist the Government in any really earnest effort that may be msdo to carry out its avowed intention of vigorously promoting European settlement on the surplus Native lands. Other land legislation is promised, and it is significant that so far as vague references can show intention, the Government is beginning to display °ore and more of a leaning towards -ho freehold principle. Highly important is the suggestion that the scope of lie Advances to Settlers Department shall be enlarged, so that that Department shall be competent to arrange loins from London for use either for local bodies, for individual farmers, or lor the State itself to purchase land joi settlement. This is a very decided extension of the present functions of the Department, and although the principle involved is sound enough, the interests concerned are so great that the details will have to be worked out with care, and the subsequent administration will have to be of the strictest nature. Next in importance is the National An. nuities Bill. The importance of this measure can hardly be over-estimated, but we can scarcely believe it will be carried into law during the session about to commence, or that the Government has any 1 serious intention to see it through. It is much more important that the State should insist upon the average members of the community making provision for their old age, and should assist them to do so, than that it should confine its efforts in this direction to the Civil Service, the members of which, as a rule, have much more regular employment than those outside its ranks. However, the actuarial complications in this connection are so great, and the financial issue so huge that we scarcely hope to see a practical scheme brought into operation for some time to come. On the great question of defence, the Governor’s speech touches, with commendable brevity, on the doings at the Defenco Conference, but the silence concerning the G-overn-ment’s intentions in regard to land defence is still very noticeable. Is Sir Joseph Ward about to rise to the occasion and prove his statesmanship by introducing a scheme for compulsory universal training, of will he shirk the issue on financial grounds? It is upon this question that the country anxiously awaits a pronouncement, and the Premier tantalisingly persists n avoiding reference thereto. Is it his intention to spring a surprise upon Parliament? Sir Joseph dearly appreciates the value of a dramatic situation, and ho may have something really worth the saying on the question of our land defences, and may merely be waiting for what appears to him the pschyological moment to say it. ‘ Many other matters are touched upon in the speech, but those just mentioned appear to represent the more important of the Government’s legislative proposals, and for details we must await the Premier’s statements in the House.