PASSING COMMENT.

Matamata Record, Volume III, Issue 164, 31 December 1919, Page 2

PASSING COMMENT.

Elections always have a large element of surprise about them, but it has been a long time since one caused so much excitement j as the last; As a surprise packet the defeat of Sir Joseph Ward by a political novice was IT. Awarua -i was just as much surprised as the 1 restof the .Dominion. Even his strongest opponents were stunned ; with the result. Thfy had .wrought better thahUhey knew, and success beyondrtheirdreams rewarded thiir efforts. The supporters of Sir Joseph'are still in a state of numbness, and in a dazed way are wondering how, it happened. Some* of, them fake the ' defeat far more badly than the ■= candidate. • Yet it is possible to give • some reasons for the happening. For one thing, Sir Joseph is regarded mote or less as an 'absentee in his electorate, and' change has brought jfaariy, into ; the. district to whom ,he is not known' personally. The RE.A. was also a big factor. Southland; is strongly Protestant, and the ; P.P.A. is a , very strong body throughout" ihe province, j The support of; this, body went to Sir Joseph's opponent. Then, again, he needed' saving from bis friends., ; Some of them in their zeal Became subject to. bigotry, and caused a good deal of resentment/ Without doubt some of his friends helped to turn' .the sweets of : I victory into the bitters of defea:t» •■?•' "♦.', ,',- ■•''■''' Surprise' packets were yielded by other places far-removed from AwarUa. The removal of old oolleagues *. prominent in the liberal party'.' must be sufficient to prove to Sir Joseph Jhat the stairs ip their courses did not work for him. They, seemed to favour the Reformer ;i yet evefn spme of these were ill-starred. -Which . goes to; show that a big disturbance took plaoe v on December , 'l7th after all. But it was electoral, and not electrical,' as so .many were led to' suppose; The tribes of flesh and blood throughout the Dominion are glad that it is over, .'and have entered into the spirit of the holiday season with the , zest of those who have something attempted and something done? It is to be hoped that the ♦ distur;bance which contained so many surprises may yet .surprise us m»re—by giving us a Parliament of men who will help Jo bring peace and goodwill to this troubletossed bit of the earth. '

It is no uncommonAthing for . families to dwell in the shadow I cast by one of its members. The same is true of organisations.' The presence of oneVwbd is corrupt detrimentally affects'the others. ! The tragedy of the, thing is that the presence of one bad member in a body does more harm than any good member can dor good. Many people judge families and organisations not by the number and standing of its honorable members, but by the indiscretions of the black sheep. This is, not Justice* but it passes for justice with a great 5 number of people. Political parties in general and the Labour party in particular have to submit to this sort of thing. Several incidents at the polls; go to show that the whole cause of Labour is penalised on account of the conduct of 'a handful of leaders. This is unfortunate, but it. ia unavoidable. To say that the extremists, do not ; ; jepresent the bulk of Labour is not enough. Their actions and ' words must be repudiated by the bulk whose sentiments are differ- > ent. What is. more; they must put menintoParliamentthose who represent them Uuly in word and deed. Until this is done Labour s worst entmies of its own household. '•'. sp ■:'/';'.•. ■ '• • •■■

Much of our labour trouble is due to shortage of labour, so we are told. It is undeniably true. As a remedy a strong immigration policy is urged and weighty arguments are used. But are we not a bit contradictory in this country? It is true enough to say that jnoreased population of the best sort is needed more than anything else. But the best is home-bred and grown—not imported. Yet natural inorease of so hedgedabout with penalties that it hasn't much of a chance; No wonder we have to import a population already grown up. To have children is to destroy your chance of getting a house to live" in unless you buy it, while the cost of living is such that few people can afford both baby and house. Each little replica of yourself is an extra bar to your'entrance into a boardinghbuse. Though few have the blunt honesty of the farmer lookingforhelp who regards children as •'encumbrances," and says so, many others'create the same impression. A country which regards children as encumbrances and penalises parents for having them, deserves all it suffers from shortage of population.

A subject which has caused a good deal of discussion in quarters is' that of prohibiting anonymity in the press. There is muoh in favour of the proposalthere is something against, bo far as ,the leading articles are concerned,it doesn't muoh matter | whose name is tacked on seeing they mostly give expression to the views of the management. But the correspondence columns are on a different footing. No edi,tor who is sane would endorse every sentiment expressed in the letters of correspondents. The compulsory signing of many of these letters would give them a different value, especially during an election campaign; ' One whose opinions wouldn't weigh an ounce if he signed his' name carry a little more if his letter 'is , signed, "Probono publico," or any other high-sounding and threadbare nbm-de-plume. Many wouldn't send letters at all if they had to sign their names. During an' election campaignythe candidate has to come, out into the open' Why shouldn't his critics V This would make the correspondence bolumns of some papers much .cleaner... '■"■ , /••//..■,-.,. ■'..

' . The fact that has linked Australia td,.Britain by air shows'how foolishat would be' to mark the limits, of human achievement. In their, haste'men ; say 'ft is impossible," but in their leisure they say "it hasn't been done yet.' The impossible things /are being tapidly diminished. Before this fresh act of pioneering we may stand in expectant wonder for things very Wonderful , are likely tp happen. The achievement gives birth to more possibilities than we can count at present. Men haven't harnessed the air yet, but it isbeirigmastered and will soon be a useful servant The experiences of war yielded considerable knowledge which will help us in the days, of peace to use the of v thc air. ,In this Country we have made a start toward an aerial postal service* but it is easy to see that air must and will enter other activities. But the layman must be like Mibaw T ber of immortal tr|emdry--he must wait and see what turns up.