DESERTING.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1225, 6 September 1911, Page 4

DESERTING.

The resignation of the Hon.' G.. Fowlds of his office as a member of the Ward Government has caused rather a flutter in political circles, but his ■ secession is merely a sign of the times. The eyes of the public have bsen opened to the evils which have grown out of an Administration absolutely lacking in guiding principles, aud animated only by selfish personal and party interests, and Me. Fowlds is shrewd enough to know that it is time to stand from under. He knows quite well that the Ward party has very nearly run the length of its tether; that its best friends and stauncbest supporters in past years arc thoroughly disgusted with it and sadly disheartened ; that it is split with internal dissension; that members distrust their leaders, and that their leaders disagree amongst themselves, and are divided on vital questions of policy; that they are clinging together with one purpose, and one only—the selfish desire to retain office, with its emoluments and privileges. And so Mr. Fowlds, on the eve of a'general election, "scuttles from the sinking ship," to use a phrase which he anticipates will be applied to him. This attempt of the Auckland member to forestall criticism of his action is somewhat unfortunate. Why should he imagine that he would be charged with scuttling fvjm the sinking ship, if the ship is not in danger of sinking? No one accused Mr., Hogg of scuttling from a, sinking ship when he retired from the Ministry not so long ago. But times have changed since then. The retirement of Mu. Fowlds will be very embarrassing to the Government. Though never likely to catch the public eye as anything more than a rather commonplace, though painstaking and hard-working, Minister, he served a useful purpose in attaching to the Ministry a. certain non-conformist section of • the community which could not possibly have found any other ground for lending its support to the Government. Also, like the Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council, he could preach pleasing homilies which appealed to simple folk who wors prepared to lake the word for the deed and accept the professions of Ministers as evidence of what they practised. But beyond these things he has not been a prominent figure save in the eyes of his single-tax friends, and his achievements have boon limited to a plodding but commendable attcn-' tion to his duties. Where the retirement of Mr.. Fowlds will most affcet the Government, however, is in the evidence it affords of the desperate straits of the Ministry. Mi;. Fowlds, of course, makes out as good a case as possible for ths Government he is deserthig. He has to so far as the Administration is concerned. He is as much responsible for the administration of tho past four or live'years as any other member of tr;<3 Ministry, and in consequence be cannot afford to do otherwise than defend it. ]3uL could any more damning evidence of the utter worthlessiic's of the Wahd Administration—its utter unreiiablcneiis and lack 01 principle—be obtained anywhere thnn. is supplied by this ex-member of it, who, to serve

bis own purposes, h now dropping out of its inner circle? After five years as a mcinbci' of the W.MID Ministry, with a thorough knowledge of it from inside tho Cabinet, he says in the very act of retiring from its ranks: 'And now I linve only to express iny thanks la tho members of the Government party and of tho House generally, lor the kiiidno.s.4 and (lie courtesy they have .fiiowu io mo while 1 have boon a Minister of the Crown, and to say that, whenever a truly democratic party arises in this country, a party pledged to definite principles, principles which it believes in and which it is prepared to fight for, it shall havo my whole-souled support, ami it' it should become numerous enough to enable it to form a Government and invites mo to join it, my services will be nvailable. Mr. Fowi.ds could not have said more clearly that the Ward Administration is not a truly democratic party; that it is not a party pledged to democratic principles which it believes in; and that it is not a party prepared to fight for its principles. Of course we have known all this for years past—we have been exposing it for years past—and now after years spent in denying it, Mn. Fowlds throws over his colleagues and admits tho truth of our contentions. And why? Because he knows that tho public is at last awake to the weakness and the instability'and the recklessness of the AVaiid Administration, and Me. Fowlds, as a shrewd man, waits to stand from under when the crash comes- • But there is something more in tho action of Me Fowlds even than this. He has ambitions. Ho not only wishes to escape the crash which threatens the Government, but ho hopes to profit out of it. He hopes to succeed in moulding the "rising tide of a new democracy into what be believes to be the right channels." It is a most remarkable thing how inflated the ideas of individual members of the Ward Ministry as to their personal capabilities .and personal achievements have grown of late. We had Sir John Fisdlay the other clay telling us of his unfailing rectitude in personal and public life; to bo followed a few days later by v an almost pathetically absurd self-eulogy from Sir Joseph Ward; and now Mr. Fowlds comes forward proclaiming himself as the self-consti-tuted preacher of a new gospel and tho moulder of the rising tide of a now democracy. And ho tells us that lie is sacrificing all so that he might "express his whole soul to the people of New Zealand." We sometimes wonder how far the public are deluded by this sort of sloppy claptrap. Mr. Fowlds is an "ambitious man, and no one can object to him grasping after a position which ho may think offers bigger possibilities than the one he is abandoning. But the smug complacency with which certai.ri Ministers will persist in explaining how far removed they arc from the sordid desires and worldly ambitions of common humanity, and how entirely their purpose is confined to benciitin'g "the mass of the people," no matter what the personal sacrifice may be, grows nauseating. In no other country in the world do the people have to bear the infliction of these ludicrous "testimonies" of selfapproval from public men holding such responsible positions as Ministers of the Crown.