THE CENTRAL SEAT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1308, 11 December 1911, Page 4

THE CENTRAL SEAT.

The success of the Reform party at the first ballots should have a marked effect on the polling next Thursday in the Wellington Central electorate. Those citizens who. discouraged by a long scries of reverses in tho fight for better government, entered half-heartedly into the fray, or who possibly for personal reasons voted for Mr. Fletcher, can no longer have any reason for half-heartedness and no | excuse for allowing personal considerations to override their plain duty. No reader of The Dominion, we think, can have any doubt that the Ward Administration stands for J the very worst evils in our political life. We have proved this again an J again from indisputable facts, tho only answer to which has been abuse and misrepresentation. We have shown that it abuses the trust which the people have placed in its han;isby using public funds for party purposes. • This has been proved up to the hilt in connection with the distribution of Government advertising and the boycott of papers opposed to it. We have shown that it infuses- to give the public the information they are entitled to concerning the country's affairs. This has been proved beyond all question by its refusal to give information concerning the cost of loan flotations, and particulars regarding the- dismissal of public .servants, and so on. We have shown that it is_ unfair to the State employees and is demoralising the public -service by favouritism ami injustice. This lias be?i proved by its treatment of the railway servants, who have been in a state of serious discontent for so long; by the appointment of a Minister's son to . a responsible postwhich he was not entitled to; by differentiating between the sye> phants who fawn on Ministers, anil the men who do their duty honestly but will not demean their manhood by prostrating themselves before Hi , . , members of the Government. AVo have shown that it is a corrupt Government. This has been proved on numerous occasions by the exposure, of its attempts to bribe electorates; and, to take recent cases, by its brazen attempts to bribe tho railway servants on the eve of the elections. We have shown that it is weak and cowardly and unprincipled. Th's has been proved by its chopping and changing on the land question, ami by the abandonment of its Bills when hard pressed. We have shown that it is wasteful and extravagant. This has been proved by the increased cost of railway construction, notably the duplication of the Hutt lino; by the manner in which mon\v is thrown about at election'time; )'y the enormous increase in the cost, of government. We have shown that it is unutterably selfish and grasping. This has been proved by the manner in which it has made the interests of itself and its immediate friends the first consideration at all times, vide the baronetcy, the various knighthoods, appointments to the Legistivo Council and public service, etc. But, what, failing or misdemeanour is there that has not been proved against the Ward Administration" What the electors of Wellington Central have to consider is this: that i Mr. Fletcher, despite nil that has been proved against; this Administration, is pkdi/cd to keep it in power. Every vote that is cast for' Mr. Fletcher, no matter what reason may actuate the elector casting it is a vote to retain the Ward Government, with all its attendant evils It is well that electors should face the position as it is. A vote for Mn Fletcher means a vote for Wardism! [ A vote for Mn Fletcher means a which may prevent that change in the Government of the country which H so imperatively necessary after twenty years of the Continuous Ministry. Can any elector who realises what the Ward Administration stands for vote at the present critical juncture for a candidate, however much they may esteem him personally, who is pledged to keep that Administration in office? Every vote will count in this contest, and no elector can afford to miss the magnificent opportunity which now presents itself of ridding the country of tho incubus of the present Ministry, with its evil growth of touts and hangers-on, who are a drain on the public purse and a degradation to the polities of the Dominion.