The Dominion WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1913. THEIR SENSE OF DUTY,

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1886, 22 October 1913, Page 6

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1913. THEIR SENSE OF DUTY,

It is only reasonable that somo allowance' should be made for the efforts of the Opposition to injure the Government. After more than twenty years' unbroken tenure of office it could nob be expected that the members of the party now in Opposition would accept in a philosophical spirit their loss of the opportunities for patronage and self-aggrandisement which they had enjoyed for so long. Therefore, when at times they have become more than ordinarily violent in their methodsof attack on the Government, it has been generally recognised that some allowance should be made for the soreness of their feelings at witnessing the successful.administration of. the country's affairs by a party which they have so .often declared would never attain to office, and which, if it did succeed in getting on to the Treasury benches, would repeal all that was good in the legislation of the Continuous Ministry and revert to the worst form of Toryism. It would no doubt have been much more pleasant for the "Liberal" party had the Reformers not been successful in reaching tho Treasury benches, but it must be quite as irritating to the Wardists to find, in addition, all their prophecies respecting the Government's evil intentions falsified in every particular. Conceding that these things must be extremely unpalatable to the Opposition, and granting that some display of resentment at the loss of office was only to be expected, still the fact cannot bo overlooked that the conduct of the opponents of the Government has of late exceeded all bounds of reasonableness, and has disclosed an unfortunate lack of selfcontrol and inability to suffer adversity with dignity and courage. They are not merely bad losers. They are not only unable to conceal their , chagrin at the loss of office, but they are prepared to sacrifice everything ] to their desire to injure the party ; tbat has committed the unpardon- . able crime of ousting them from | popular favour. That is the only i explanation that we can see for their \ behaviour during the past few weeks. )

Now a still further departure is being witnessed. For the first time that we can recall members of the Opposition are during the sitting of Parliament neglecting their duties to their constituents and travelling about the country electioneering. The absence of Messhs. J. O. Thomson', Atmoue, and Isitt from the House of Representatives cannot by any stretch of imagination be regarded as a loss where the serious business of Parliament is concerned. All three are very fluent talkers, but, apart from that qualification, which proved rather a hindrance than otherwise to the sound progress of business this session, the.v are not likely to be missed. The principle of the matter, however, is quite another thing. Presumably the electors of the three members ill question sent them to Wellington to attend to their Parliamentary duties and to the business of tho Dominion. Instead, they are gadding about the country neglecting those duties while engaged in the more congenial task of heaping abuso on their. political J

opponents. We are not going to blame them for attempting to injure the Government; that is at present their conception of the duty which they were elected to Parliament to perform. But it is just as weil that the public should know that wherever j, a chance appears to present itself - for prejudicing the Ministry, the t Opposition as now constituted arc 1 prepared to sacrificc everything—including duty to constituents and to the country—-in order to take advantage of the opportunity. An example of this neglect is to be found in tho case of the member . for Nelson—one of the curious trio electioneering in the Taranaki district. This member was in charge of a Bill which is of considerable importance to his constituents; but instead of attending to his duties in the House lie, as stated, went electioneering against, the Government, neglected the Bill which came on in his absence, and but for the generosity of the Prime Minister the interests of the people of Nelson might have been seriously prejudiced. It is perhaps an evidence of the goodnatured contempt with which Mb. Massey regards the attempts to injure him which are being made by the back-benchers who are used as the tools of the Opposition that, ho should have consented to Mr. AtMoee's Bill going through all its , stages while that member was irar properly absenting himself in order • to revile the Government to the good r peoplo of Stratford. Of course it is unfortunate for the standard of our politics that so many members of the Opposition should have become so engrossed with the idea that their one purpose in life is to assail the Government, regardless of all other . considerations. It has meant the waste of a great deal of. valuable time; it has on several occasions degraded the proceedings of Parliai ment to a very low level; it lias led ' to misrepresentation of Ministers ' and their actions in a gross and in- | defensible fashion; and now it has produced the spectacle of members deliberately absenting themselves ' from their Parliamentary duties in ; order to rush about the country into constituencies with which they have , no concern electioneering against the Government. When .they -get more accustomed #to the cold shades of Opposition,'_ however, Sir JosEPrt Ward and his followers will probably bear up better, and'in time they will no doubt come to realise that even members'in Opposition owe . a duty to the country beyOnd the effort to regain office for themselves, Their sense of duty, which appears for the time being to. have entirely disappeared, will, it is ts be hoped, ere long return to them.