POLITICAL SITUATION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1434, 19 April 1905, Page 2

POLITICAL SITUATION.

MR LISSANT CLAYTON'S VIEWS, [(To the Editor Gisborne Times.Sir,—The chagrin which you naturally felt at missing an opportunity to interview Mr Herries should be softened by your later interview with Mr Hall-Jones. You will doubtless have felt that your resentment—expressed in your leading article of the 17th—was somewhat hasty, when so profound a statesman as the latter gentleman deigned to favor your columns, and the public likewise, with his views. If, as you assert, Mr Herries was “lacking in good taste ” when he replied t'o the questions of a smart reporter, you have certainly left your own taste open to question by attacking a guest, invited to the celebrations at, I believe, your own instanoe. Probably few of your readers, however, will agree with you in your deductions, and certainly I for one can hardly see how Mr Herries’ mild remarks can be characterised as “ remarkable opinions,” or as having much “ electioneering ’’-value. It also strikes me as strange that while censuring that gentleman for giving unsought advice (for which I have sought in vain) you fall into the same error yourself. I bow to the power and wisdom of the press, and shudder at my own audacity in pointing out that perhaps it would have been more profitable if you had turned your attention to Mr Hall-Jones, as a little wholesome criticism in that. direction might have benefited the hon. gentleman after the fulsome flattery with which he has been satiated. Had you drawn attention, for instance, to his figures, and questioned how this district had received £14,000 from the Government as he implied towards roads and bridges, your readers would bave followed you with interest. With a lesser man, one would feel tempted to describe his utterance in language more forcible than polite ; but as it is, having due respect for greatness, let ub call it merely a diplomatic hyperbole, as I think you will find it hard to trace that more than £2IOO has been expended as described by the Minister in Cook Countv, even though you be conversant with the strange and tortuous ways which govern us. Perhaps this £14,000 is arrived at by the same rule of arithmetio by which we are credited with haying had £3OOO voted for the Uawa bridge, whereas to an ordinary dull-witted man like myself I it seems that the same £IOOO was re-voted | each year, until the third, when it was ultimately spent. While you accuse Mr Herries of “ electioneering,” I presume you exonerate the Ministerial party from the suspicion. You must be right, but so perverse is human nature that I, for one Bt least, remark as extraordinary the activity of the Ministers in taking opportunities to give vent to oratory throughout the country. The unaccustomed sympathy with our settlers’ difficulties, the number of requirements "under consideration,” and the impression our vast possibilities have made, all seem to forebode an approaching election—especially when the visitors endeavor to impress us with the insistence of our member for graDls on our behalf. Indeed one looal gentleman in an oratorical flight described Mr Carroll as “ energetic,” an application which, I think, no one ever heard applied to the hon. gentlemaa before. When the Hon. Hall-Jones takes his cue from his master and complacently anticipates a triumph for the present Administration at the polls, mainly because of tho prosperity the country is enjoying, one is disposed to wonder if tho Government regulates the Bradford wool market, the demand at j Homo for frozen moat, or controls tho price of butter in London, and whether the beneficent sunshine and rain is a part of tho gifts which fall from the hands of Mr Seddon in response to support at the elections.—l am, etc.,