POLITICAL SURPRISES. Confessions from Public Men.

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 203, 21 May 1904, Page 6

POLITICAL SURPRISES. Confessions from Public Men.

BANQUETS and social festivities have their political uses The little social gathering at the Commercial Travellers Club last week, for instance. It furnished two prominent public men with the opportunity of making open confessiozi to the people at large Open confession, they say, is good for the soul, and it is to be presumed Mr. John Duthie and Mr. T W. Hislop are feeling all the better for their voluntary purgation Those little secrets must have lam heavily upon their chests until, m the convivial atmosphere of that social gathering, they found courage to throw them off * * * Mr. Duthie's confession is that the House of Representatives is a Place of Humbug Many outsiders have dared to say so at divers times and places, and the great body of the public have been haunted by an uneasy suspicion it might be so. Mr Duthie speaks from mside the holy of holies, and his assurance that it is so must carry much weight And when such a keen expert as Mr. Kennedy Macdonald says ditto, and an artless youngster like Mr. Barber, of Newtown, gives his modest voice m the same direction, why the thing s as good as proved Mr Duthie also tells us quite naively that you never know What a member is driving at, or what his speech really means Yes, like other people, we've often felt like that, even m listening to Mr. Duthie Now we know all about it It is all part of the great game of Humbug, which Mr. Duthie further told the gay and festive "commercials ' is "a wonderful game," which he greatly enjoys * * » Next time we listen to the middle member for Wellington City delivering a furious philhpic from his place m Parliament against the Ministers seated opposite, we shall remember his words about Humbug. When he is chipping off his adjectives, pounding the desk, and looking most in earnest, there is no need to worry yourself with the difficult task of finding out what he is driving at A member never knows, you know, what a member is driving at. It is the great Place of Humbug Mr. Duthie is our authority He himself has said it v * * Mr Thos. W. Hislop is the other politician who cheerfully tripped into the confessional at the Commercial Travellers' Club He held a portfolio in the Atkinson Government, which the present Liberal party expelled from office He has always been identified with the opponents of King Dick and his Ministry. But, it is all a mistake. Mr. Hislop has always believed in the progressive legislation of the present

Government. Business people might gall and wince under it. They might think Thomas shared their views. But he felt sure all the time those laws were wise laws, and would better the condition of the people He may have given Dick and his colleagues many hard knocks • — said many sharp and bitter things about them— but that was part of his winning little ways of showing his love and affection. * * * Mr. Hislop is like the man. who dissembled his love by kicking the object of his affections downstairs He has been in love with the Government and their legislation all along Only, he has been dissembling Still, he can conceal it ho longer He is quite satisfied now most of the Bills of the present Ministry have gone m the direction of bettering the conditions of society. The Seddon Ministry is doing its best for the colony and its inhabitants. And finally, Thomas, with a little more jam for Richard, himself toasts "The Ministry." King Dick may take heart of grace Even his foes are rising up to call him blessed Just when they were saying the nastiest things about him, they didn't mean it How absence makes the heart grow fonder ' Eh ?