PARTY WARFARE.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14842, 6 December 1913, Page 11

PARTY WARFARE.

VAIN OPPOSITION ATTACK. DISCREDITABLE METHODS. (special to "tids pbess.") WELLINGTON, December 6. The o—-"sition iTave been endeavouring to score some cheap points against the Government by publishing a letter circulated by the organising secrebai-y of the .Now Zealand Political Reform League. This letter "was issued on November 22rjdj and was sent to various quarters of the country, asking that thei Reform organisations should pass resolutions condemning the action of the Opposition in wasting time in the House, and blocking the business of the Government in a time of great national stress. Many such, resolutions were so passed, it will have been observed, and that fact, of course, has palpably irritated Sir Joseph Ward and tho Opposition, who have not been too happy in the false steps they have niade towards becoming associated with Red-Fedism and and its anti-social programme.

By securing possession, of one of the letters sent out by Mr James, the Opposition imagined it had ecqred tremendously, when first of all the tho Wellington Opposition journal published it, and later Mr Isitt read the document in the House, with something of a melodramatic affectation. But the credit which the Opposition imagines it has scored disappears lamentably when the.full circumstances are displayed, In place of stigma attaching to the Reform Government because of this supposed exposure, it is seen that the action indicated in the letter was the mere commonplace of party organisation.

The lector seems to have been stolen. Tho facts are that several days ago the organiser (Mr James) found that one of his letters had gone astray. A letter was sent to the Waikato, but when the envelope reached its destination the contents had been abstracted. The recipient reported this to Mr James, who communicated with tho Secretary to tho Post Office on tho point.. The envelope was marked "Roform League," and the suggestion is that the contents wero abstracted and. sent to the editor of tho paper which first published' it. ,' There is a further point of morals in connexion with this matter. The letter wni marked "confidential," but that did not hinder its theft; it rlid not hinder tho editor of a supposecTTv reputable paper publishing it; it did not hinder the member for Christchurch North reading it in the House.

There is only tho further point to be mado that whatever the secretary of tho League did, neither tho Prime Minister nor any membor of the Cabinet is responsible. The secretary acted entirely on his own responsibility, and the effort of tho Opposition to "fasten the stigma upon the Government itself therefore necessarily fails.