A GROSS OFFENCE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2458, 11 May 1915, Page 4

A GROSS OFFENCE

The bitter tirades against the Government which our morning eontemporary has maintained even during this period of national stress, when party politics have been almost universally subordinated to a harmonious unity of effort directed against the enemies of the Empire, culminated yesterday in a gross and wholly unwarranted attack on His Excellency the Governor. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to recall anything in New Zealand journalism in more execrable taste or less justified- than the reflections passed upon His _ Majesty's representative by the New Zealand Times in the following extract from a leading article which appeared in its columns: —

As we hare previously said, the present political situation is wholly unconstitutional, and tho wonder is that representations have not already been made to the Home Government concerning the partiality that is being displayed by His Excellency in allowing a Government that failed to secure a majority at the General Elections to continue in office for months after a practical defeat, and to go on making important appointments and administering the affairs of the country contrary to the will of the majority of the electors without calling Parliament together to test the feeling of the House. There is 110 parallel for such an unconstitutional state of affairs in the history of this country. Mr. Massey at the present time has only 3!) pledged supporters out of a House of 80. Are he and his Government entitled to remain in office indefinitely under these circumstances? We are satisfied they are not.

Until Saturday last, when the Election Court disqualified Me. Reed and thus necessitated a fresh election for the Bay of Islands seat, the Government had 41 supporters ready to vote for it on a no-eon-fidence motion. Sir Joseph Ward had 33 supporters, and there were six Labour members who would no ' doubt give him their support to oust the Massey Government. That was the position up to Saturday last. Now, with the Bay of Islands seat vacant, the Government majority is reduced to one, but surely the most jaundiced party advocate should be able to see the absurdity of suggesting that either the Government or His Excellency the Governor could be foolish enough to take any step such as demanded by the New Zealand Times, even if the Government majority had vanished, until the contest for the vacant seat is decided. It is not our intention to engage in political recrimination at a time like the present, when all parties should be working together and striving for a common end, and we will not trouble to put our contemporary right in its inaccurate _ comments on the constitutional position. Indeed we should not have referred to the matter at all but that we felt some protest was called for by tho gross attack on' His Excellency the Governor—an attack without a shadow of justification, and the offensiveness of which is aggravated by the circumstances under which it is made. Lord Liverpool no doubt will treat it With the contempt it deserves, but the public must feel a keen resentment that such an insult should be heaped on one who, both- personally and in his official capacity, has done so much during the most stressful time in the history of the country to win the esteem and goodwill of all classes.