The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1911. THE LEADERS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1040, 1 February 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1911. THE LEADERS.

It is not a fortunate coincidence, from Sir Joseeii Ward's point of view,, that while iie was delivering Ins speech at Pukekohe Mr.' Massey was speaking'at AVhangarei, for the simultaneous appearance of tho speeches furnishes a study in contrasts that no friend of the Government can contemplate with any pleasure. The only thing that need bo said of Sir Joseph's speech— which was mainly a reiteration of the unconvincing stuff which has in so many :placcs already led up to tho stereotyped resolution concerning "tho Government of which he is the distinguished hsad"— is that the only parts of it that were interesting were the funny bits. Of these the funniest was the assurance that th-3 Government which now borrows £6,80Q,000 in one year "recognises the importance of limiting its borrowing!". The next funniest thing in the speech was the suggestion that but for the Government we.should havo people "employing, weak men and girls till midnight at sweating wages." We must not omit to call attention to the fact that Sir Joseph finds himself reduced to the necessity of laying stress upon the more respectable of the achievements of his party in the long ago. Mr. Massey's speech has the great advantage of being fresh, but apart from that its matter and its manner differ from the .matter and the manner of the Prime Minister's stock oration as earnestness, terseness and vigour differ from insincerity, hollow verbosity, and labouring weakness. In dealing with the Government's borrowing policy, Mr. Massey had, of course, a very easy task, since the mere. statement, of the facts is criticism enough. We showed on Saturday that the necessity for borrowing large sums would, havo ceased to exist—as BjU-lance himself hoped and expected—if ordinary prudence and honesty in administration had been exercised. But even with this handicap,' . Mr. Massey showed, there need have been no occasion for tho raising of so large a sum as five millions in one issue. The adoption .of the freehold policy and the empowering of local bodies to undertake water-power development would have furnished the Government with a hicans of avoiding borrowing either for closer settlement or hydroelectric installations. It ought to havo been unnecessary for the Leader of the Opposition to emphasise such an obvious fact as that there is a great, difference between moderate plunging and borrowing, but there are unfortunately a number of people who'are misled by tho constant assertions of tho Government and its friends that those who oppose extreme borrowing oppose borrowing altogether. Similarly it is entirely due to the Prime Minister's , persistence, which would be ludicrous were it not so improper, in saying that the counsellors of prudence and the oxposers of abuses arc "traitors to the country," that it is necessary for Mn. Massey to repeat, what all sensible persons know to . be true, that tho best friends of the country are those who advise caution. In outlining some of the planks in tho constructive policy of his party —we never hear any statements of policy from the Government, by the way—Mr. Massey, wo are glad to note, gave a prominent place to tho reform of the present system of public works expenditure. He is reported as having advocated control by a Public Works Committee, and, with an honest- Government, that would be sufficient; but nothing short of an independent' Public Works Board, responsible only to Parliament as a'whole, can purge the country of the evils of parochialism and political patronage. So, too, we dissent 'from Mr. Massey's opinion* that anything short of independent control of the railways will prevent their being made,a burden upoß. the taxpayer. Wo havo always suspected the .honesty, where we have not' doubted the intelligence, of those-.who occasionally mako the supremely absurd suggestion that the Opposition policy and the Government policy are the same; and after tho clear demonstration in the Whangarci speech of the vital differences between the Opposition's policy and tho Government's negative policy of retaining all the machinery of patronage, the repetition of tho suggestion will bo possible only to the dishonest or the hopelessly dense. Most honourable men will very heartily applaud the references of Mr. Massey to the attempt of the Government and its friends to connect the Opposition with tho circulation of the "Black" pamphlet. Tho Government's supporters dare not mako any direct charge, but they are' doing whatever can be done by means of suggestion and innuendo. The PitiME Minister is not free from blame. He accepts with gratitude addresses in which, as our evening contemporary noted, there ayn plain suggestions th.it the Opposition i« responsible for the pamphlet. He has carefully refrained from admitting, _ as, in the opinion of most people it wan his duty to admit in the earliest of his post-ses-sional speeches, that the Opposition has nothing and had nothing to do with what was obviously the product of ono man's venomous memory. He allows tho rules of political fair play to bo outraged—and, incidentally, tho post office regulations to

bo contravened—by the circulation, as "a compliment" to him, of α-pam-phlet as unfair as the "unauthorised Biography." When he sets this example of silence whore every rub of fair dealing and every maxim of clean politics require from him a frank public admission of Mr. Massey's repeated assurances on the point—assurances that the Prime Minister and everyone else know to bo true—how can anyone wonder that his followers and agents are construing his silence as an encouragement to continue their campaign of calumny) His policy is a very short-sighted one, for lie may rely upon it that by the time the next obetion comes round the respectable portion of the public—and.these are the vast majority—will have greater sympathy for the parly that is calumniated than for the party whose leader, after enjoying the generous sympathy of his opponents and his friends, has shown such a bitter and ungenerous spirit.