The Dominion. FRIDAY, JULY 25, 1913. BASE METHODS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1810, 25 July 1913, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, JULY 25, 1913. BASE METHODS.

That section of the Anti-Reform press which for the past six months has been deliberately ancl systematically distorting facts and inventing scandals in an endeavour to discredit the Government appears to be rather hard-pressed just now for want of new material. Some of its latest attempts at misrepresentation have been singularly weak, and it appears to be growing somewhat timid of venturing on any definite charges, preferring to rely on suggestion and innuendo to achieye its purpose. The local Anti-Reform journal, for instance, has had so many of its mare's nests exposed that it has been forced to either grub amongst the mouldy archives of the distant past for its sources of inspiration or to confine its virulent attacks ■to trivialities which escape criticism and exposure because, in the first case, of their utter futility, and in the second because of their mean and petty nature. It is a very remarkable and significant fact that of all the many bitter attacks made on Ministers by the local organ of. the Opposition, in practically every case there has been proof forthcoming of distortion, misrepresentation, or deliberate falsehood. Even where there might have been ground for legitimate criticism, the extreme violence of the language employed, and the extravagance of the allegations of impropriety, based as they were on the flimsiest possible pretexts, discounted the venomous attack's made. The record, we should imagine, is unparalleled in the history of Now Zealand journalism for reckless mendacity. To take a few of the exposures made; there was first of all the allegations in connection with the control c-f the Public Trust Office. Two direct charges were made, as follow, in an articlc published on April 26:

(1) "That while the law gives the Minister for Finance a prominent place ou the Board, and j)articulari&ea that

member of tlio Cabinet as having power ] to appoint, suspend, or remove officers, and so on, those duties have been carried out by a gentleman who is not .Minister l'or Finance, but AttorneyGeneral, and have consequently been illegally performed." (2) That notwithstanding "tlio amazing and endless virtues of self-styled lieform, " ail nppointeo wlio had _ been examined for efficiency and been rejected was at tlio last mimito appointed to tlio Public Trust Oflico through Ministerial influence. These, being definite charges, were open to a direct answer, and it came from the Public Trustee himself. Here it is, addrescd to the Minister: "On March 2S a young lady wrote to vou asking for an appointment as typiste in tlio Public Trust Office. You forwarded the letter to tlio oflico with a minute to mo, 'For your consideration, and plca?o draft reply.' The Deputy Public Trustee returned the letter to you with a minute that there was a vacancy for a junior typiste, and the applicant might be appointed at a named salary. Tlve Deputy also forwarded to you for your ? signature if approved an official roplv to th>o lady, informing her that a position was vacant as junior typiste, and naming the salary. Tlio lady accepted, and was appointed accordingly. Everything was done in the usual official way, and the appointment was made on the recommendation of tlio Deputy. I am glad to say that tlio lady is performing lier duties with entire satisfaction." "The statement [that the AttorneyGeneral was acting illegally as Minister in Cliargo of the Department! is quite incorrect. Tlio Interpretation Act pro- ! vides that 'Minister' includes any responsible Minister of the Crown who for the time being is acting for tlio Minister. J? or very many years past the practice has been to plaeo tlio Public rrust Office under the control of some other Minister than tlio Minister for Finance. For example, Mr. Ngata acted for years. Prior to him Mr. (now Sir Jas.) Carroll acted. There is nothing irregular or unusual about it. The practice' Obtains not onlv with the Public Trust Office but also with the other Government Departments, as, for example, the Government Life Insurance Department.

So much for these "facts _ upon which the local Anti-Reform journal based its bitter attack on the Attorney-General. , . A week or two later it republished from the columns of an obscure little country paper of strongly partisan views a series of allegations respecting reaggregation. It supported ana amplified the views of its AntiEeform contenlporary, and attacked the Government on approved lines as the friend of the land shark, the monopolist, and all the rest of it, endeavouring to show by implication that the Government was responsible for whatever had occurred. It challenged the Prime Minister to face the charges made. Mr. Massey promptly took up the challenge. A Crown Lands Department official was sent to investigate. He called on the editor of the obscure little journal, who had offered to produce his proofs and substantiate _ his charges; and he also made inquiries in other quarters. And what was the result? Another marc's nest. The whole of the charges so far as they affected the Massey Government, built as they were on the foundation of innuendo and falsehood, came tumbling to the ground. The report of the responsible officer appointed to investigate the charges showed :

(1) That there had been •no aggregation as the result of the passing? of tho Massey Government Land. Act of last year. (2) That in the districts the aggregation was supposed to havo taken placo there had been no such cases since the present Government came into office. (3) That any aggregation which had taken place had occurred under the party which the local Anti-Reform journal supports, and which it is endeavouring by its dishonest tactics to again impose upon the country. The exposure of the bogus_ charges of aggregation levelled against the Government had hardly been made before the Opposition journal began afresh in a.new direction. This time ,it was a- road scandal. A circumstantial story was told of how this shameless Government had squandered the people's money on the Waipukurau electorate. According to the harrowing picture painted by thev distorted imagination of the local mouthpiece of Anti-Reform, the backblocks■ were being starved while money was being "lavished" in providing motor roads for squatters. Here is an extract from the "tissue of untruths" which the article subsequently proved to be:

"Now if there is no money to spare for back-blocks roads, which are an urgent necessity, why is this .£SOO being lavished on the principle of 'to them that have shall 1)0 given,' when the work is purely a luxury, and tho district can well afford to carry it out unaided ? The answer may be found in tho fact Hint the district is populated sparsely, it is true, by squatters, and is represented in Parliament by a squatter. The new road, it may be mentioned, practically traverses only ono estate, so that the fortunate owner, with the aid of Government money, will .be furnished with a road frontage on each side for a mile and a half."

The article from which the above extract is taken was elegantly headed, "Greasing the Fat Pig." It was bluntly and more accurately described by Mr. G. Hunter, M.P., as a "tissue of untruths." (1) The electorate in which the road is situated is not Waipukurau. (2) It is not represented by a squatter. (3) The road runs through closer settlement, and there is a school in tie locality. (4) The road is absolutely of no benefit to squatteTs, and not likely to bo used for motor traffic.

(5) Certain bridges on the road were in a dangerous state, and the money was voted to repair these bridges. ■ (6) Tie member \dio represents the district is a small farmer, who liad applied for the vote in the interests of small farmers and as an urgent public necessity. These are indisputable facts—the Anti-Reform journal in pursuance of its design to do injury to the Government at all costs simply published what it thought most likely to serve its purpose, stupidly ignoring the consequences of the inevitable exposure of its reckless mendacity. So also with its unscrupulous invention concerning the new postal regulations. It cha'rged the Government in connection with these_ of being "peculiarly partial to this system of underhand espionage." Now the attempt is being made, it continued, to impose tho mean, underhand, and unfair system upon the postal and telegraph officials', who we may say constitute a most exemplary branch of the service so far as habits and character are concerned. Hut why in anv case are the Post and Telegraph officials singled ont for invidious and undesirable treatment? A more unjust audi dishonest-attack on a Government was never made. The regulation which the Government was alleged to have introduced to the prejudice of the Post and Telegraph Service—this "new Massey law," as it was falsely described —had actually been in operation fourteen years before the Massey Government came into office. It did not- matter in the least to this daily slanderer of the Government that the regulation had been introduced by Mr. Seddon in 1899. The Massey Government had to be attacked, and the simplest method was to give a lie a start in the hope that it would never be altogether caught up. Even now, after the exposure which has been made of this glaringly false charge, the paper _ has never had the honesty to admit its fault and seek to remedy the wrong it has done. And so on through a host of other matters. Snace docs.

not permit of any complete review of the exposures which have been made, but some idea of the methods which have been pursued by the enemies of Reform may be gathered from the instances we have quoted. Now- they are becoming more wary. Direct charges have been found to have a boomerang effect. They arc open to answer. But mean and underhand innuendoes and suggestions are not so easily dealt with, and so, as we showed a day or two ago in connection with an article on Judges' salaries, new tactics arc being pursued, and in some respects they are of an even more contemptible character than those which have disfigured the columns of the local Anti-Reform journal in such marked fashion during .the past few months.