THE MEMBER FOR MOUNT IDA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5579, 14 February 1879, Page 3

THE MEMBER FOR MOUNT IDA.

(From the Dunedin Evening Star.)

We notice the speech of Mr. De Lautour at Naseby last week, not because from his political position his utteranees are of any manner of importance, or that the speech itself conveys any information, or tends to solve the political and social problems of the day. It is in truth a very ambitious oration, assuming to deal with first principles, and setting forth, in turgid sentences, grandiose sentiments of_ moral and political right. There is a Daniel-come-to-judgment tone pervading the whole. “Thd world is out of joint,” and the member for Mount Ida is the gifted individual to set it right 1 By those not obliged to listen no possible objection can be raised to the long, wearisome, second-hand rigmarole about liberty, the rights of man, and the almost divine character of politics with which Mr. DeLautour must have confounded the “ free and independent ” of that intellectual centre, Naseby township, celebrated heretofore, we believe, for sludge and “spruce gin;” but in the times when posterity blessed to the full extent of the Premier’s heart shall walk the earth, to be identified with the name of the rising politician who now sits imbibing wisdom and high principles at the knee of the great Mr. Bees, distinguished in the Forum and the Senate for his eminent gifts in both these respects. If this scion of the dominant party had confined himself, we will not say to what he understands, but to matters abstract and unintelligible, he mwht have gone scot free, so far as we are concerned, and returned to his Napier home with such fame as four columns of the local paper would confer; but he has committed himself to so many carefully-detailed misrepresentations that it becomes a duty not to allow them to go forth unchallenged, especially as their diffusion with more or less ability seems to be no insignificant part of the tactics which are being made use of in view of influencing the not very distant electoral campaign. The Attorney-General gave a specimen of this in his address at the Queen’s Theatre, when he invented a land policy which had never been heard of in the House, and boldly, without the least regard to fact, attempted to fasten it upon the Opposition. The intellect of Mr. De Lautour is not of course capable of such strong distillations as that of Mr. Stout, and rather dribbles milk and water than fluid more potent. However, in his small way, he does his best, and the intention, casuists tell us, is as good as the deed. First, there is then, and he makes a great deal of this, the imprudent assumption that the party who placed the Ministry in power, and have hitherto maintained them there, have a right to monopolise the title of Liberal, and to brand every one who fails to agree with them as Conservatives in the very narrowest significance of the word. Mr. De Lautour does not mince matters in this respect, but boldly claims for the Grey Cabinet the initiation of every measure of reform introduced during the last few years, not one of which originated with them, but, on the contrary, have been impeded, perverted—almost, indeed, caricatured by the political charlatanism which is dignified by the

name of apolicy. Liberal, forsooth? Yes,liberal in the interpretation of political honesty, in the use of high-sounding phrases to conceal aims hardly exalted, and in defining the lightly-traced line which sometimes separates truth from falsehood. Aye, and liberal too iu pouring forth from the public cornucopia bounteous rewards of well-directed zeal and influence—to some the flowers of the titular magistracy, to others the more substantial fruits of place and power. The member for Blount Ida lauds his own petty clique, which, according to him, possesses and displays all the characteristics of the great Liberal party in Great Britain, who would hardly feel complimented by the comparison—and vilifies the Opposition not only in general terms, but specifically. For example, he has the audacity to assert that in the matter or local government Blajor Atkinson and his friends are strongly in favor of high subsidies from the consolidated fund, in order to effect that the landholders, great and small, shall be relieved from local taxation ! This statement is altogether contrary to truth, as everj'one knows who has followed the proceedings of the House during the last few years. However, if the existing county system is of so centralisiug and illiberal a character, why have net the Ministry, with a subservient majority at their back, taken care to amend it ? Why, above all things, impose a land tax which is paid into the colonial exchequer instead of stopping the subsidies and throwing the whole local expenditure directly on the counties'! Then, again, can anything be more monstrous than charging the Atkinson Government with endeavoring to centralise the administration of charitable aid institutions ? The Bill introduced by Blr. Donald P.eid in 1877, and shelved owing to the tactics of Blr. DeLautour and his friends, proposed to vest the management altogether in local committees having a corporate existence, and accepted “ voluntary contributions” as the leading principle of maintenance. Yet Blr, DeLautour says, “The Conservative is content that charitable aid shall bo borne by the Consolidated Fund. The Liberal would throw it upon voluntary aid.” The climax, however, is reached in the attempt to charge the Conservatives with the presumed injustice done to the Roman Catholic body by the Education Act of 1877. This, of course, is a special bit of bunkum intended only for the Blount Ida electors, and may well be considered, as no doubt it will be by all interested, as beneath contempt. This bit is very fine in its way. We quote from the Mount Ida Chronicle :—•“ It is no reproach to a Conservative to be a secularist. It is a reproach to him to despoil a section of the people, and because of religious scruples to educate his children with the spoils. Bluch more is such conduct a reproach to a Liberal.” We think it is indeed a reproach to any party or individual to endeavor to holster up a bad cause by such a string of false insinuations and wilful misstatements as make up the sum total of this latest effort of oratory on the part of Blr. DeLautour.