WIRE-PULLING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1372, 24 February 1912, Page 6

WIRE-PULLING.

It is very, doubtful whether anyone takea seriously; the meetings which are Being engineered in different parts of the country with a view to influencing the political situation. In some cases no doubt they are genuine enough, supporters of tho Government anxious for the welfare of the party they belong to being desirous of doing something to sway votes in the right direction. But it must be very plain to any thinking person that there is not an electorate in the country in which it would not bo possible to get a meeting together to vote either way. Mr. Herdjian, for instance, had a very large majority over both his opponents in Wellington North, yet it is quite probablo that a meeting could be engineered to-morrow calling on him to vote for the Ward Government. Of courso tho meeting would not be representative of anything more than a mere fraction of tho voters in his electorate, but it would most likely deludo a few people into the belief that it voiced_ the feeling of tho electorate. In times of stress and excitement people are often inclined to lose tho correct perspective of things and at tho present time there is a tendency on the part of a good many people to attach too great an importance to the probabilities of the moment in politics rather than to the prospects ahead. Those.' for instance, who are labouring under tho desire to see the Government win at any price on the no-confidence issue now under discussion do not realise that too high a price may be paid for what may prove a very small gain. Even if tho Government did win it would only bo a temporary advantage and it must already be plain that in its endeavour to seouro that advantage it has sunk lower than ever before in the estimation of the public. What can the future hold for such a party f Mb. Hindmarsh very proporly made protest last ovoning against the_ delay which had taken place in coming to a division on tho no-confidence motion. There is hardly an elector in the country at all interested in politics who does not know that the delay caused by the Government is mere trickery.anil designed not in the interests of tho country, but to cheat tho verdict of tho people given at the polls. Wirepulling and "bUdi" tactics may score temporarily, but they cannot win in the long run, and the public just now is full weary of the-tor-tuous methods of Wardißm and longing for a change to plain-deal-ing.