NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2301, 7 November 1914, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

Some of the explanations and apologies being put forward by Opposition candidates just now would almost lead us to believe that we had : followed' Alice into Wonderland. For instance, Mr. G. Forbes (member'for Hurunui), when he addressed his constituents the , other evening, declared -warmly that it was utterly untrue to say.that Sir Joseph Ward had "advocated the Riot „Act in connection with the strike." If Mr. Forbes had left it at that some people might have accepted his statement, but he must needs add one of those fatal explanations which so often have unpleasant consequences for " our Wardist friends. The member for Hurunui stated his version in the following terms: — "Sir Joseph Ward had brought the matter (of the charge in Post Office Square, Wellington) up in the House, and Mi. Mnssey had 6&id that the people had no right there, and. had added, 'What ■would you have doneP , Sir Joseph Ward's reply was, TRead the Riot Act,meaning simply that if the people had no right there, they should have been warned to go home." The enlightened electors who listened to'that "explanation" must have been momentarily dazed.' When they recovered.it no doubt occurred to them that when a responsible publio man says "read the lliot Act" he must be taken to mean it. According to Mr. Forbes,, he means something totally different, Obviously this type of explanation, if it were accepted, would explain'anything, but after all it is no new thing to find partisan advocates asserting that bkck is white. It would be a new thing, and a ead thing, to. find any; body taking them seriously.

In giving ""the reasons why he intends to support the present Government, Mr. 0. J. Pake, the Eeform candidate for Eden, stated in an address at Mount Albert on Wednesdaynight that there was no stronger or better Government in sight. Sir Joseph Ward and Mr. Russell, his lieutenant, did not appeal to him as better administrators than Messrs. Massey and Allen. If Sir Joseph Ward and Mr. Russell wore returned to power, they would have to depend on the Socialist vote. He feared that Sir Joseph Ward could not keep office a day without • the support of the Social Democrats. Would that be a good thing for the country? This question evoked a prompt."No, no," from the audience. Ample justification for Mr. Parr's fears are to be found in the facts brought out by_ Mr. Fisher on Thursday morning in his references to the alliance between the Wardists and the Labour-Socialists.

"Why did I leave the Liberal Government?" asked the Hon. Geokge Fowlds in the course of his address on Wednesday evening as a candidate for the Grey Lynn seat in the Liberal-Labour interest. "I left the Government because if was not progressive enough for me," was the reply. But Mil. Fowlds, who failed in his advances to the Labour-Social-ists, now finds it convenient to return to his old love. He apparently finds that his position wants a. good deal of explaining,, too, and so he proceeds to tell tho electors of Grey Lynn that the Government he left was by no means the same as the one he joined, "there having been a drift away from the principles which the Liberal Government stood lor when he joined it"; but, he adds, since it has been out of office the Opposition has made more progress than during the six years it was .in power. This is indeed delightful.' If it means anything at all, it means that while the Wardist Party, had the power and opportunity of going forward it went backward; and as soon as it lost the opportunity 'of doing progressive things it began to talk about them and to promise to do them if it only had another chance. Mr. Fowlds, maybe, has forgotten a somewhat hoary couplet which fits

the position of tho Wardists verji well: When the Devil Was eick, the Devil £ monk would be; ■ ■■ When tYo Devil got .well the devil & monk was lie. ' Wardism. wo know, has been very, •' sick politically for some time past*