The Dominion. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1911. BLUFFING THE ELECTORS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1301, 2 December 1911, Page 6

The Dominion. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1911. BLUFFING THE ELECTORS.

One of Sir Joseph Ward's strong points has been liis_ skill in the art of bluffing the public. We give him every credit that is his duo in this respect. He has not the judgment of his predecessor in office, and he is too greatly out of sympathy with the mass of tho people to bo able to

form any very accurate estimate of their feelings, but where _ nothing more is required than point-blank assertion ho is not easy to excel. He has escaped, not altogether unscathed, from many awkward situations, by mere force of assertion, and he is playing this card at the present time with very great persistence, though with doubtful success. Facts at times talk more emphatically than words and the facts of the political situation to-day cannot be obscured by bald assertion. Sir Joseph Ward, at Christehurch on Thursday last, as at other places on recent occasions, stated with all the assurance-one would expect from him that the Government would come back after the elections as strong as ever, and also asserted that there wero no particular arrangements made on his behalf iu connection with,his receptions on tour and that whatever was dono was . dono spontaneously. There was a f;ood deal moro in tho same strain and Sir Joseph Ward announced that "no public man could have reason to be more satisfied than I am with what I have seen." This no doubt is only what one would expect from a party leader at such a time. Sir Joseph Ward had to put the best face possible on things and we do not blame him for doing so. But it is perhaps desirable all the same to point out that his assertions do not square with the facts and that his professed optimism is, on tho face of things, nothing more than tho bluff and bravado of a greatly-perturbed politician.

Let us look at the facts. In the first _ place there was the Winton meeting. There has been ample, evidence that Sir Joseph- Ward's reception at this one-time stronghold in his own electorate was the reverse of cordial. Tho Tress Association report of the proceedings bore tho telegraph office time of receipt as 8 p.m., at which hour Sir Joseph Ward had not even commenced to speak. It was evident from this that the speech had been supplied to the press and put on the wires before it was given. As a result the report contained no mention of the frequent interruptions and evidences of dissent which occurred. Nor did it rccord that the Prime Minister and member for Awarua was vigorously hooted on his way to the railway station. Docs Sir Joseph Ward consider what he saw at Winton in his own electorate a cause for satisfaction 1 Then we had Mr.. Massey's address at Winton, which evoked so tremendous a burst of enthusiasm that Southland, and in fact the whole Dominion, were for days talking of little else. Dofs Sir Joseph Ward. regard this as a reason for satisfaction? Then there was the Danne- ' virkc meeting where the head of the Government was so badlv heckled that he appears to have lost his temper and given utterance to expressions which ill suit the lips of tho PitiME Minister of the country Does Sir Joseph Ward think h'is Danrtcvirke experience a reason for satisfaction 1 And then as to these "spontaneous" receptions. Possibly in his hurried travelling and with so much to upset him the Prime Minister has overlooked the copy of that interesting epistle sent to the stalwarts of the party at Marton, published in The Dominion a few days ago. Was that invitation to his supporters to rally round him on the occasion of his passing through Marton a sample of his 'spontaneous" receptions? Were the telegrams received by the ''true blues" in Wellington inviting them to assemble 'at the railway station on his arrival from Hawke's Bay a further evidence of the "spontaneous" manner in which supporters of the party rush to welcome their leader and cheor him on his way 1 Really those efforts on tho part of the Government to delude the simple elector with their machinc-madc demonstrations of popularity are very amusing. We shall havo Sir Joseph Ward telling us directly that the parlous plight of so many of his Ministers is an evidence of the "spontaneous enthusiasm" of the • people for the Ward Administration. That the desperate position of Messrs. T. Mackenzie, Buddo R M'Kenzlk, Millar, and even ' the head of tiro Government himself stimulates his confidence in the pros- < poctsof the Government party. The fact is that behind the Prime Mix- ■ ister's bluff is a deep, cold fear that the day of reckoning, so long delayed, has come at last, and that : the public are determined to dis- i cover for themselves the true posi- ] tion of their affairs in. tbo only i jpoadhle way—by Uttoiriug out the i

Ward Administration. \Vc should ihiii 1c Mm one cheerful circumstance --(.lie bright spot on IJkj Pimm Minister's horizon at tin: present inonKMit —is the fact that lie lias lib IjaronoLc.y, ;uul in case of fln; worst lifi|i|joiiiiiK. liiif Jf-ft (lit! hack (loot open to retreat to London—by way oi' l,lio vacant High Commissionersliip.