POLITICAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2342, 7 November 1908, Page 7

POLITICAL.

CANDIDATES AND THEIR SPEECHES.

TIME-WORN SNEERS.'

Mr Hardy devoted part of liis address at Mayfield, to replying to the speech of Mr Flatman, a candidate for another district, a rather unusual proceeding that was justified by the fact that Mr Flatman had gone out of his way to make a bitter attack on the Opposition. He raked: up a number of time-worn old sneers that Government supporters have, parrotlike, been repeating for years and years. It is the commonest experience, comments the Christchurch “Press,” to hear such politicians declaring that the Opposition represent money, the inference being that they have no sympathy with any other than tho wealthy class. Tho charge is, of course, ridiculous. Some of the Opposition party aro well-to-do, hut tho same thing can be said with equal truth of tho Government party, and of the Ministry itself, and others again are blessed with on'ly a modicum of means. There is one thing, however, in connection with this subject that cannot bo charged, against Opposition candidates. They are not, as is the case with at least three Government candidates in Canterbury, appealing for the support of the electors, because they have “sufficient of this world’s goods.” They are not flaunting their money in the faces of the electors as if lit in itself was a claim for election. They recognise that the possession of money, while it may enable a man to enjoy life and to lend a helping hand to others, gives him no olaim upon the suffrages of the people. They base their claims to support on the qualities of honesty, sincerity, and truth, and a desire to assist in passing legislation .which shall benefit the Dominion as a whole, •and shall not set class against class.

SIR W. RUSSELLiS SPEECH. The “Hawke’s Bay Herald” makes the following comment on Sir William Russell’s speech at Hastings on Thursday evening:—“Sir William Russell delivered .what was easily the best speech we have heard in this part of th|j country for a. long time. It was the speech of a man who has convictions. and whose grasp, of the political situation is masterly. When we compare it with the speeches of some of the candidates who have previously spoken, who have made themselves mouthpieces for the usual Ministerial platitudes, it is difficult to conceive that there should be any hesitation on the part of the electors of Hawke’s Bay in returning him to Parliament. If men like Sir William Russell are not wanted in the House we are sorry for the constituencies. It seems to us better to have a staunch Opopsitionist with his experience than a Government man, who has neither the experience nor the ability to make himself felt in Parliament.”

NO CAUSE FOR SHAME. “The country,” says the Christchurch “Press,” “hears a great deal at ejection time about the ‘hidebound Conservative party.’ It is a figment of the servile Government supporters’ imagination, just as is the ‘great Liberal’ party,’ which never existed as a truly ‘Liberal’ party outside the columns of the Ministerial journals. The present Opposition is charged with being the direct descendant of the so-called Conservative party, and when it thinks of tho men to whom that title has been applied*— of Hall and Bowen, Rollest-on, Atkinson, and Russell —it sees no cause for shame in its ancestry. The party that owes Mr Massey willing allegiance is different- in many respects from tho party that was led by the men we have named. In common with science and religion,' political thought is constantly developing, and no political party stands still, but the principles of sound politics, honesty, justice, the determination to study the commpn good, to look beyond the the immediate needs of the present, and to pursue ta safe course, even at the cost of some popularity, these do not change, and they are held firmly by the Opposition of to-day.”

TIRED TIMI. Even tlie calm of Mr Balfour was never more philosophic than the Hon. J. Carrofil’s (says the. “Post.”) From the broad of-- his back (only figuratively, of course), in the shade of a nibau patch, somewhere far away from the hurly-burly, the Native Minister catches strayechoes of the strife, and between puffs of his pipe he ntters soothing comments. 'He pleads for a “legislative rest,” and continues the restful example which he set long ago. Compulsory military service gave him a little languid reflection while he blew pretty clouds through the fans of the nikau up to the blue vault of ■heaven. “Compulsion is not what the British -mind adapts itself to,” is the statement with which lie momentarily breaks the elemental peace with which he has surrounded himself. Happy Minister! He carries •his portfolio as lightly as my -lady flourishes her headed bag. His confreres may-profess to be groaning under the burden of their packs, and Mr Carroll smiles pityingly at them. “Don’t worry. It will all come right in the end, if you wait long enough,” -is liis favorite doctrine. The Briton, who does not like compulsion, is competed to obey the law of the land, except when it refers to strikes, but he is not to be .compelled to save a land for the operation of the laws which he is constrained to obey. It ;i,s good for society to compel the units to be obedient (or -pay the penalty) about driving a vehicle on the right side of the road, hut it is demoralis-io-n to make the units of society‘do something for the salvation- of the whole fabric and the whole country, containing all the roads and sill the vehicles. -Mr Carroll is a genial humorist.