MR. MASSEY AND SIR JOSEPH WARD.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 462, 22 March 1909, Page 4

MR. MASSEY AND SIR JOSEPH WARD.

On _ Saturday last we printed another '} contribution to the apparently intermin- a able controversy between Me. Massey and o Sirc Joseph Ward. Much as it may ad- c mire the staying-power of the combatants, j the public is probably a little weary of s tho duel. Mk. Massey may score as many t points as he chooses, but he will not find n it easy to score the last word. If for any n reason it suited Sir Joseph to maintain t: that two and two are not four, we be- o lieve that it would require a very shrewd f mathematician indeed to maintain the contrary and overcome the fog of the 0 Prime Minister's supple evasions. . In ii the current controversy, however, Sin - a Joseph has made a slip which Mit. Massey has been very quick to take advantage of. r ' Mr. Massey had quoted Sir Robert q Stout as saying that many improper ap- S pointments had been made to the Civil d Service. The Prime Minister cabled to £ Sir Robert Stout, now on his way to b England, for an elucidation of his re- w marks, and he was gratified to receive J from Sir Robert a message expressing [i amazement that he had been construed as 5 i making an attack on the Ministry. "The T incident I cited," he said, "happened h fourteen years ago." This message the " Prime Minister naturally quoted very f< gleefully in Christchurch, and his local ci journalistic friends were delighted. "The H Leader of the Opposition," they jibed, *! "can scarcely say that this very em- e: phatio refutation 'makes no difference.'" p In the statement which we printed on j| Saturday, Mr. Massey was so unrepent- f v ant as to say just that, and for a very k good zeason. Sir Joseph and his friends, w in the ardour of the chase, overlooked the *' fact that "fourteen years ago" the Colonial Treasurer, Postmaster-General, Electric Telegraphs Commissioner, Minis- n ter for Marine, Minister for Commerce a and Industries, and Commissioner for t( Trades and Customs were all one person, , and- that person no less than Sir Joseph 0 ' himself. As Mr. Massey puts it in his b blunt way: "Sib Joseph Ward is in this si position that he must accept his share of lc the responsibility of what occurred four- £, teen years ago as a manly man would do, G or place the blame on a colleague or col- s< leagues who have passed away. I leave ,v him to choose which horn of the dilemma I s he prefers." Exactly how the Prijie /, Minister can slip out of the trap ho set ti for himself wc do not know, but there is al no end to his resources. At tho same JV time the task will require all bis ingenu- t ; ity, so that we shall probably find him t< leaving unnoticed the astonishing list of ff Government billets which the Auckland if . branch of the Liberal and Labour Fcder- . ation has managed to secure for its mem- s( bers. Mr. Massey possibly did not think ti it necessary to mention for tho defence of sc his quotation from Sir Robert. Stout's speech the fact that the speech was before the public since January 22, and the C i further facts, that at tho time no men- V s tion was made of dates by Sir Robert Stout, that his remarks as reported in of 'the Auckland papers, and reprinted °~ ! locally, wore clearly to bo construed as co ' censure of the Government, and that they th were so construed in various journals at pc the timo without any move being made by way. of correction. "h