THE OPPOSITION SIDE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16486, 27 February 1914, Page 6

THE OPPOSITION SIDE.

The leader of tho Opposition appears to have had a very cordial reception from a large audience at Dunedin last night and to have made his various points with force and precision.’ Perhaps ho gave a little too much attention to tho newspaper criticism that is being directed against him from one end of the dominion to the other, but probably if he had given less he would havo been charged with having no answer to the ridiculous stories of his political opponents. His nllusica to his land policy, for instance, was necessary to correct the impudent report that is being assiduously spread abroad to the effect that he is more intent upon taxing tho small farmers than ho is upon breaking up the big estates. However short the Liberal Government may have fallen of our own ideas with regard to close settlement there can be no doubt in the minds of unbiased people that it did a hundred times more than the present Government has yet attempted to bring the lands of the dominion into profitable occupation. This always will be the crucial test of statesmanship in New Zealand and so far the Liberals havo responded to it much more satisfactorily than have the Reformers. Sir Joseph Ward has been over the ground in connection with the Government’s defencepolicy so often that he may be pardoned for having little that is new to say on the subject, but the public can scarcely be reminded too often that Mr Allen’s local navy is threatening to involve tho country in an enormous expenditure. Either we are going to hare two or three useless ships or we are going to cripple ourselves in a hopeless competition. The best we can hope for under the present Administration is the useless ships. Sir Joseph will speak at other centres on his way north and wo trust that by the time he leaves for Wellington the South Island will have obtained an intelligent grasp of the political situation.