POLITICAL “WEATHERCOCKS.’

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1332, 3 December 1914, Page 4

POLITICAL “WEATHERCOCKS.’

There is no uncertainty as to where Reform members and .candidates stand. They proclaim their views and abide by them. Not so many of the “Liberals.” Mr Craigie, who has represented Timaru in the two last Parliaments, furnishes a case in point. Although he has been in the House six years, as many as So of his constituents found it necessary last week to hold a special meeting to find out what his views are. As for Mr Russell, Sir Joseph Ward’s first lieutenant, it seems that if the matter were important enough a Royal Commission would be required to discover his opinions on many matters. His “flexible political conscience,’’ as one of his opponents aptly put it the other day, is not illustrated merely by the complete somersault that he has turned on the defence question. Three years ago he said that to give Crown tenants the freehold would be a great political “steal,” yet he voted with Mr Massey on that point. Even during the present year he has first opposed and afterwards supported proportional representation. On the licensing question he has changed from -‘three-fifths” to “bare majority,” and back again to “three-fifths,” ilr Russell is indeed upholding his reputation.