STILL SLANDERING

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2328, 9 December 1914, Page 6

STILL SLANDERING

The local organ of Wardism long ago realised that it had a hopeless task before it in inducing the public to support" Sir Joseph Ward on his merit's as a politician. It therefore devoted itself to tho task of abusing the Reform Party on the p!d principle tlmt if you throw enough, mi eomo of it will stick,

Its readers, familiar with tho long procession of exploded scandals that nave been trotted across the stage by our contemporary, were probably not so much impressed as it was intended they should be by the large headline in yesterday's issue: "More Masscy Muddling"—a heading in itself typical of the class of journalism into which the Wardist organ has sunk. Under this heading appeared tho message containing the allegation by a correspondent of the Sydney Sun that H.M.A.S. Australia was called away at the request of the New Zealand Government to convoy troops to Samoa when it was close upon, the heels of the German cruisers in the Pacific. From tho statements by Mr. Massey and Ma. Fisher,' published in this issue, the whole story is' shown to be entirely without any foundation. Everyone who reads the cable news unfortunately knows that too much of the matter emanating from the Sydney Sun office has to bo'accepted with the very greatest reserve. The local organ or Wardism knows this. But any stick is good enough to beat the Government with. And_ if. as in this case, the whole story is shown in twelve hours' time to be"; totally untrue, well our morning contemporary is used to that experience.