THE MAN WITH A GRIEVANCE

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2119, 9 April 1914, Page 6

THE MAN WITH A GRIEVANCE

It is to be feared that to, substantial section of the .largo audience s-liich gathered in the town Hall last, evening to listen to Sir JosilWi Ward's political address did nut find their evening's diversion quite up to expectations. The Leader of the Opposition made the most of the material he has got together for his electioneering tour, but- it ia on the whole very poor stuff on which to conduct a political campaign. The greater part of it relates to petty issues which have been threshed threadbare over and over again by Sik Joseph Wasd and his lieute-n-----aatei while pa the lai'ger tjueatiom of in&Bieni Bzr Joseph w*ftn *■&» con-

'■'Cent'Ho'generalise' arid-put 'forward ha nds'ome professions of noble', intentions. ■ Unsatisfying'is perhaps the' 'word which best Bums up the speech. It'was'barren of ideas and entirely lacking in any signs of statesmanship. The Leader of the Opposition seems to have almost completely lost his Konse of humour, or he would never have been guilty of rounding off one of his heroic periods with the declaration that he and the Liberal Party "had believed for the last 20 years" that the large landowners would l ha-ve- to give- way to make room for closer settlement, No doubt, if left in office for another 20 years, he would go on "believing 5 ' just as hard as over,. and the big landowners would still go on flourishing as much as ever. That is where Sir Joseph Warp is so unconsciously amusing. Ho seems to have utterly forgotten that hfi and his' party during their SO years of office ncglficted or refused to do all these splendid things which, he now vaguely hints at doing—if he is given the opportunity. Moreover, he actually blames his opponents for Mfc having accomplished in 20 months what his own party failed to do in 2(5 years, That, however, is party politics. As is usual with ham Sir Joseph Ward had a long string of personal grievances. He is above all else a man with a grievance. Someone is always doing Eornethiftg to hurt his feelings. If he is to be believed, rto public man that ever jived could have been so misunderstood and so ■misrepresented. • It must be rather depressing to his friends to have him so constantly bewailing his troubles, but perhaps they have grown -used to it. One of his little grievances last evening was that he had heon libelled_ by the Piress Association in connection with the reporting of that very interesting legal action in which a MR. Cox sued two pillars'of the Liberal Party as the outcome- of a Liberal newspaper enterprise. The allegedly libellous statement was as follows:— Plaintiff was appointed to conduct the "Northern' Advocate," W'ianearei. tak«rt over fvofli Mr, MiMider. M.P., by defendants. The, twe qualifications' required w|rp tftui plaintiff steuld pctees-.; the goodwill of Sir Joseph Ward, then Prime Minister, who was interested in the paper and invested M(& in the- business. Sir Joseph Ward was quite in his best form in denouncing the person who had "maliciously .sent out through the Press Association this dreadful misrepresentation. He had not invested a" penny in the paper, and,, of course, the inaccuracy was a "malicious'' endeavour on the part of the Wellington agent of the Press: Association to do him injury politic" ally. It is very regrettable that the Leader of the Opposition -shxHikl be so r-eatty to took for evil intentions whenever he happens to receive a knock, and it. is'still more regrettable that to should be- so ready .to pub* HcLy slander a journalist and do him injury in his profession without making more certain; of his facte. We do not know* who_ the agent of the Press Association is who-sent out the particular message, but we have scrutinised our files and in not one of them ean we find the message as rea,d out by Srit Joseph Ward in an endeavour to win thd sympathy of his audience last evening. • On; the contrary, in the LyUeltm Times. Christcljurch Press. Qhrfstehureli Sun, Auckland Hcralcl, Auckland ■Star, Outgo Baihj Tini&s, and ether papers, the,vital,part of the message reads as follows :'*— Tho . two qualifications required .wore Hint . plaintiff should possess'. tlio goodwill of Sir Joseph Ward, .then frinie JHttister, who was interested in tlio paper, and im-esfc JBSOO in the business. It will be seen from this- that the message as sent from Wellington made it clear enough that-it was the plaintiff and not Sir Joseph Ward, who was to invest £500 in the- bust.ness'—it \yas the second of the two qualifications he was required., to possess; the first being the goodwill of Sift Joseph War-D. The matter is trivial.enough in itself, but it is of ■ interest as showing the extreme eagerness with which the Leader of : the Opposition grasps 4t any ehanee to pose as a, martyr j and is instructive to those who do -not realise the reckless manner in ■which he throw's about aceusatJons which may reflect on the integrity of quite innocent people. What has happened probably is that some unfortunate little ctfttn* ; try paper has accidentally fallen into error in "filling in" the skeleton i telegram sent from Wellington, And ' Sir Joseph Warp, having' had the paper brought under His n-ofjee, jumped to the conclusion that' ' the Press i Association agent has "maliciously" sent ' a misleading message all over IjFow Zealand. Sir Joseph Ward may think he can win jmblic sympathy by constantly airing his ireal or imaginary grievances—there* are tender-hearted people- no doubt who could be persuaded to vote for a howling dervish as their representative in Parliament if he pitched them a sufficiently doleful howl—bat the average elector usually prefers the poliMfii-aia who takes hard Knocks smilingly and gets all the comfort he requires out or the hard knocks liegives in return.