The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, May 26, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1250, 26 May 1914, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, May 26, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The current issue of the Australian magazine “ Life ” contains the following appreciative reference to the attitude taken up by the Prime Minister of New Zealand (the Right Hon. W. F. Massey) towards the Red Fads: — “ New Zealand has in Mr Massey a Premier with a genius for courageous speech. At a great political meeting in Auckland he discussed the recent strike —which, by the way, cost the Dominion in solid cash over £9o,ooo—and there were many interjections from some Red Feds present. In reply Mr Massey flashed out, ‘ I don’t go back on a single action. If you think we have .done wrong vote against us. If there are any enemies of this country, it is the set of men who are going about not earning their living as honest men do, but living on the earnings of others, meiTwhoare endeavouring to set ’class against| class, country against town, employee against employer. We want population in this country, but we don’t want that class. I say, as leader of this country, the sooner these people go and shake the dust of New Zealand off their shoes, the better it will be for the people of the country.’ This brought out a tempest of applause, for a public meeting always admires a speaker who bears himself with decision and fearlessness. Mr Massey went on to say ‘ that he did not care a snap of the fingers for the votes of the Red Feds.’ “I am thinking of what the strike leaders in Wellington said. They said th«.t they would have the streets of Wellington running with blood ; they said that they would fly the Socialistic flag over Parliament Buildings. They are nice people to fly any flag. It would be a flag of distress.' “That was courageous talking, and Mr Massey has excellent reasons for courage. The general public sentiment of New Zealand is with him ; and, incidentally, he is able to report that the finances of the year end with a surplus of some ,£400,000. This is successful finance ; and in addition, it is honest finance, for the full amount of ,£675,000 has been transferred to the Public Works Fund, and every Treasury Bill has been paid off. New Zealand, like Australia, is a country of illimitable resources, rich, both in the type of its population and in the gifts of Nature.”