NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1290, 20 November 1911, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

We have clisniss-ocl lln. Massey's Winton specdi in a preceding article, but there is <111 interesting fact in connection with it that the public will be glad to learn. Although the mooting was on tho fnee of it, attended by curcumstaaccs that ma4c

it of far greater si^nifn-nno; ami importance than any other pulil.ii'.'il meeting held in any part nf tin: country during (lie. clcctiun nmipaign, our local morning mnlrniporary thought fit to give it onl.v an obscure little paragraph of eight lines. Jts excuse was the In-li'in-nt of the arrival of the message, hut it omitted even to tell its reiident the fact, mentioned in the fin;t few linen of the message, that the gathering was an enormous one and that M it. Massey received a tremendous ovation. The Christchureli organ of the Government, which pretty NyKtematically allows its bins to influence its news reports, made nn apology, and printed a two-inch paragraph which its readers would find only hy diligent searching. Kvery newspaper must sympathise with every other in the problems set hy the over-pressure of news, but it is quite apparent that in the present instance, the essential space value of the report of the AVinton meeting was far greater than that of any other item of political news. Of course, Mi!. Massey is thoroughly well used to the unfairness with which some, of the Ministerialist papers treat him in their news columns, hut this is a particularly glaring case. And .yet Mr. Massky will probably not feel much annoyed, for he could have no hotter testimony to the political effect of his spccch than the obvious anxiety of some of our "Liberal" friends to prevent their readers from being alarmed into bolting from the "Liberal" catnp.

"Our people," said the Prime Minister in an' interview in the South last week, "do like a straight deal in all things, and some of this opposition is not straight." This is quite the funniest thing that i3ik Josepii Ward has ever thought of saying; and its humour is heightened by the fact that the speaker had only a few days before made his grotesquely wild mis-statement concerning the Reform party and the defence system. It was bad enough for a_ harassed and reckless politician, in a moment of desperation, to accuse the Reform party of a conspiracy of silence against the system; hut there may bo a sort of excuse for him. But what excuse is there for a newspaper which in cold blood lends its support to the Prime Minister in this matter and then after some days repeats the performance. This, wc are sorry to sav, our evening contemporary did on Saturday. "Now," it said, "wo entirely agree with Sir Joseph Ward that it is a very deplorable and a very discreditable performance on the part of the Opposition if they aro endeavouring to make • party capital out of the administrative 'difficulties in connection with the carrying out of a scheme i which came into existence by their votes." That is correct enough, but. did our contemporary go on, as its knowledge of the facts required it to go on, to say that it was a still more deplorable and discreditable thing to bring a false charge against the Reform party for party purposes? On the contrary, it went on to blame the local Reform candidates for not "grossing the defenco question," but said not a_ word about the attitude of the Ministerialist candidates, who are generally the roverse of friendly to the scheme as it stands, Our contemporary also said this;

That Mr. James Allen of all men should desire to profit by such tactics or has in any way weakened in his enthusiasm for the schcme which ho helped to bring into being is mpro than we can believe. Yet ho has done nothing, so far as we havo observed, to clear himself from the Premier's criticism, nnd a charge of which wo did not think much at tho time gains colour from his silence.

And .vet, on another page of the same issue, the Post reprinted a strong statement by Mr. Allen on Wednesday last in reply to the Prime Minister, thus:

Speaking at T&ieri Mouth on Wednesday, Mr. James Allen said that in asking why no member of the Opposition had published a line in support of the Defence Act, Sir Joseph Ward had repeated an unfair and entirely incorrect statement. Irrespective of what was done by tho Opposition to help tho Defence Bill through Parliament, ho (Mr. Allen) had from every platform at this election taken his full snaro of responsibility for the Act and had dealt with it on tho lines of Sir Joseph Ward's Bluff speech.

It was just by good luck—or bad luck, according to the point of view —that this paragraph got itself printed in tho same issue, thus destroying tho unworthy attempt of the Post to discredit the Reform party. Wc_ shall be interested to know how it can escape from the dilemma it has made for itself.

The Hon._ J. A. Millar has not been long in discovering—perhaps his chief may have helped him to discover—that it was rather indiscreet of him to talk bo freely to his Duncdin audienco of his hankering after the Premiership. He does not appear to question the accuracy of the newspaper reports, or to deny that he said that "he proposed to ask his constituents to elect him again with the object that if anything happened to his chief, and Sir Joseph Ward had to give up the leadership of the party, he could present himself to the party as the natural successor to the honourable position of leadership." He does, however, repel the inference that we all made, namely, that he hopes the consummation of his ambition is a great deal nearer than the horizon. He "never dreamt" that bis words would be interpreted to mean that the Prime Minister will shortly vacate his post, and he went c.n to give a dementi of that comprehensive kind to which people accustomed to the practice of Cabinet Ministers everywhere pay . very little attention. "In fact," he said, "I know nothing which has ever or at the present time pointed in such a direction. The Prime Minister has the confidence of his colleagues snd party, and I feel certain the coming polls will show ho has the confidence of the people." As to the corninj' polls, we can wait and see. But the public will not feel satisfied that Mr. Millar did not, in the enthusiasm of the moment, permit a Cabinet secret to overbrim into his spccch. And when the Ministrv could not be trusted to cariy on whon the Prijie Minister was absent in Britain, what is gof.ng to happen to the party when ho decides to leave the ship altogether?