NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1292, 22 November 1911, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

. 4) . We begin to believe that Sir Joseph Ward's greatest • misfortune is his lack of any sense of humour. Yesterday we. set his remarkable statement that" 'lib"" "docs' like a straight deal" alongside a few examples of the Government's extremely crooked--practice. In his Waimate speech last week he posed as the Chesterfield of our politics. "There was no necessity to. be calling one another names," he said. "That did no one any good. Not the least good could be done by simply indulging in generalities and personalities such as he was subjected to." This pious sentiment appealed so strongly to the - Christchurch Press that it culled "a little bouquet of the flowers of speech" with which, in his references to the Opposition,' the " Prime Minister adorned his Winton address. Here are some, of them:—. "Tho baselcssnes of their innuendoes." "Supporters of tho Opposition so devoid of fairness." "Tho diseased imaginations of some of these critics." "Basely engaged in detracting from tho efforts of the Government." "Their criticism is tho more despicable." "The hollow inconsistency and political hypocrisy that characterise their actions." "Hypocritical economists." "Arrogant defiance of the rules of tho game." "Deliberate misstatements contrary to fact." "Wilful mendacity." "Tho miserable, fault-finding Opposition." "Grossly inaccurate statement." "Grossly unfair and incorrect." How impressive is a lecture on the avoidance of "generalities and personalities" coming from a gentleman with so chaste and courteous a tongue!

One of the most interesting of the election contests in this.island is the struggle in Wanganui. The presence of Mr. Geo. Hutchison as a combatant is in itself an interesting fact; but there is also amongst the contestants a railway servant, Mil. Veitch, who has long been a leader in the Railwaymcn's Society, and who has resigned in order to fight for the interests ' of Labour as against the Government. Mr.' Ho.gan has cut such a poor figure in the House during the past three years that the final round in the contest will almost certainly be fought out between Mr. Hutchison and Mr. Veitch. It is significant of the degradation of the party founded by Ballance that in Balance's own seat the ''Liberal" candidate should be in this position. Mn. Hutchison and Mr. Veitch both stand for something definite in their different ways but Mr. Hogan stands for nothing but tho coutinuanco in office of the Baronet who has so tragically betrayed the ideals of the Ballance to whose policy he is actually appealing as a reason for a fresh charter to plunge the country deeper into' debt and misrule. It is not poor Mr. Hogan's fault that ho has no policy upon which to stand. His leader has none to give him. The Budget is full of bis and little bribes of all kinds—bribes that are not even genuine—but of broad policy there i;s not a trace. Our "Liberal" friends arc talking loudly of the splendour of the Government's policy, without indicating what that policy is; but the public has not forgotten tho election of 1008. In February of that year, just after what tho hack press of the Government called "a great policy speech" by the Prime Minister, the Ohristciiurch organ of tho Government, alarmed into candour, said the Government had no policy and called upon it in panic to frame a policy of some sort. The _ policy refused to materialise (and it has not materialised since). In the election campaign of that year, however, the Christchurch paper, alarmed once, more at the demand of the public for a. policj-j and knowing it wa3

100 late to expert, our, declared l-Im-l» Ih<: (lovernmoiil's policy was set forth with great, force mid power in Mil! I'll I,UK MINISTER'S IHllllifl.'Si/i. After llie election was over, and (here was, for three years, nolhiiu; to lose h,y telling the truth, it, de-c-hired that "the. party went, to the country without anything in the sha.pi! of a. constructive policy.'' The I'lli.\ib Minister's manifesto, which on November ll—lic/nrr, 1./ ii: rlrr.Utm —it had hailed as a, "mercilessly complete survey," a. "forceful enunciation of the principles of progressive Liberalism,'' an "impressive, declaration/' it descrihed on November "in--after the rlre.linn.~ttn "a sad disappointment to the progressives"! After the coming election, when the "Liberals" count their slain, wc shall again hear them saying that the disaster was due to the, lack of any policy. It will be peculiarly fitting it Wanganni' does its share towards castigating the bogus thing that masquerades as the parly of Baelancb.

Mb. E. Newman, the present representative in Parliament of the Manawatu electorate (now Rangitikei), one of the ablest and hard-est-working members of the Reform party, in a recent speech emphasised a, point which his party sometimes neglects to make sufficient use of. Discussing the question of land settlement he said his policy was one of leasehold with the right to acquire the freehold. This also is the policy of the Reform party. There arc many people who, when they first take up land, have not the money to buy the freehold and arc glad enough to obtain the leasehold. The Reform party would give all an equal chance—the poorer settlers as well as the man able to pay cash—to become the owner of their own farm and so give them the incentive to work and develop their holdings to their fullest capacity. Mu. Newman is one of the few members returned for the first time at the elections of 1008 who have given evidence of possessing qualities above the average in the carrying out of their duties as members of Parliament. He is more thorough and has a sounder grasp of_ the larger issues of statesmanship than the general run of members, and is always listened to with respect. Parliament would hold a higher place in the eyes of the country if there were more men of his stamp in it.