The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, AUGUST 18, 1906.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1837, 18 August 1906, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, AUGUST 18, 1906.

i Evidently it is not the intention of some of the “dumb dogs” of the Government following to remain dumb dogs any loDger, for one by one they are showing ju9t a little of that pluck and outspokenness that ought to have I characterised their political career | since they became representatives of | the people in Parliament. From If present indications it looks as if Sir I Joseph Ward will not be allowed to | wield tho same away over the tongues | of members as did his former chief I Tho latest indication in this rospoct I comes from Mr R McKonzie, M.H.It. ( | who thus expressed himself at the | opening of tho Tadrnor section of the | Midland Railway : “It had, he said, | been a big struggle to got so far. I Twenty miles of extension had been i done in twenty yoars - a mile a year. ! 'i'his rate of progress meant the throwing away of public money, and beat anything on tno face of the earth. (Laughter) A contractor would have completed tho extensions for a third of tho money they bad cost in one tenth of the lime. (Hoar, hear) The fault was at headquarters.” Tho curious thing about these expressions is that what tin so gentlemen are now saying is exactly what a certain section of the Press has beon trying to convince the electors of the country for a very long time past, and as soon as tho statements were published those very members and others of their kind took every occasion to contradict them Even from tho busting during last election every one of those gentlemen declared themselves as whole-hearted supporters of the Government they now so scathingly condemn, and 3et not a tittle of change in the methods and muddlemeut of public works that then existed has since taken place. The same policy, tho samo methods are n r w beirig pursued by tho same people in tho prosecution of tho public works of the colony, and the questions naturally arise, did the now dissatislied members not know this, and if they did, why did they not pub’icly proclaim it before tho elections Y Of courso they knew it; but instead of admitting the sad state of things then they chose to deny the truth of the allegations made by the Opposition and independent Press of the colony, and to impute sinister motives to all and sundry who dared to say that things were not as they should be in a well-governed country. Every candidate returned on tho Government

tiokot fit tlio last olection spoke in terms of unqualified approval oi tho

Government policy and administration, and many of tliom abased tlio Opposition moat unmercifully for daring to suggest contrary opinions on tlio administration question. Among these who spoko in that strain were tho very men who now condemn that administration in no uumistakoable lungnngo. What thou has since occurred to altor thoir opinions and to loosen thoir tonguos 'i Absolutely nothing save tlio death of thoir

autocratic chiof whom they wore nil willing to follow to political pordition if ho chose to loud thorn thero. They

know they woro wrong, but davnd not | say so ; thoy know as tlmy know and admit now that tho country was governed by a system of political porlidy and rcokloss wasto ; they know that votes in support of tho party woro being bought by votes of public mouoy on tlio estimates without hope of adequate return to tho country, and knowing all that, thoy dared not raise thoir timorous voicos in defence of

right nml pure administration, because thoy know also that to do so would mean to thorn, political extinction, or ‘ ■ carpoting,” as Mr Rutherford mildly puts it. A “ carpoting ” now by their constituents would bo thoir just rovvard for not speaking out like men and taking tho consequences. of a manly, straightforward course, instead of assisting the party in power to hoodwink tho constituencies, as by own admissions they have done. Yet, it has ol'lon boon said that peoplo like to bo gulled, and a study of the political history of this colony in recent years alfords ample evidence of tho truth of that saying. A eouplo of instances of this that are worth citing come to mind at this moment. The Wairau election was largely influenced by the amount to be spent on the construction of tho Blenheim Waipara railway. The Hon. 0. H. Mills said at Picton that he hoped to ride in a railway carriage from there to Inver-* cargill within ten years, moaning of course that the work was to be vigorously pushed on ; bnt almost at the samo timo Mr Seddon was speaking in the North, and t>ir Joseph Ward at WintOD, and both clearly indicated what railways it was intended to complete in rotation; but neither mentioned the Blenheim Waipara line. Then thore was a threatened stampede of votes sufficient to ensure the return of the Opposition candidate and the defeat of Mr Mills. Ofhcial memos were wired to and fro, and Mr Mills was able a day or two later to read one from Mr Soddon declaring that in his estimation tho Blenheim-Waipara lino was second only in importance to the North Island Trunk line. Sir Josoph indicated he surely must have been misunderstood,, and that he yearned to see the fulfilment of his colleague’s desire for that loDg ride to his own constituency. That sottled the matter, and we know the result. The peoplo of Wairau have been successfully humbugged, and that ride will not be available in the lifetime of any member of tho present legislature. In the oilier case tho son of a Legislative Councillor who votes straight owned three perches of land fronting an alley way in the back-blocks of Nelson city, with a rusty iron shed thereon worth one pound to anyone who wanted to erect a cow bail or a fowl house. This valuable property captivated the desire of the Defence D-partment to possess it, and £o oo was paid to the fortuuate owner, or, at the rate of £IG,OOO per acre, whereas the best business site in the city was valued at about half that sum per acre, and land immediately adjoining was set down in tho department’s i valuation books at about £-100 per acre. It was tho rankest pplitical job, but the exigencies of tho service and ' the owner’s reluctance to part with such a valuable property at any price must satisfy our fastidious people that 1 tho deal was a good bargain for the ' colony, for no other explanation is forthcoming. Government supporters in the House knew of these things and more, yet elected to remain “ dumb dogs ” and to avoid being “ carpeted,” Now r that their tongues are being unloosed we shall await further revelations with some degree of expectancy.