Mists and Mirage

NZ Truth, Issue 1197, 8 November 1928, Page 6

Mists and Mirage

JHROUGH the closely textured clouds which billow across the eleption sky emerge the wobbling piers of Reform and Labor, whilst now and again may be distinguished the house of Liberals, disappearing and reappearing like the unstable crust of Atlantis. 0 '■.*■'.. . .

Occasionally, one perceives the fronds of some enticing vegetation planted by Sir Joseph Ward, but these will need to be carefully tested before the analysis of public sympathy passes the product as edible.

Uniteds they may stand, but the, question is : Will Uniteds they sit? — a problem which alights the sole spark of national interest m an uncommonly dreary election.

Is the real reason for national disinterestedness m this election struggle rather one of caution ; that we have long since ceased to believe everything which social saviors and pamphleteers would pour down our dry throats? It is impossible to perceive anything novel m the toys whicn multitudinous Father Christma*.es have promised we children shall drop into our political stockings. Save, maybe, that of Sir Joseph Ward and his merry ones, but whether ..their mirth shall endure beyond the night of November 14 is quite apart from the purview of fair question.-

Still, though the heavens may split and the stock exchange fall, Coates still is Gordon, his smile of unfounded hope still is breaking, as it probably will continue to do after the. ballotteers have crammed the boxes with their slips of paper.

1 When the present Prime Minister takes his seat on the dais once again, his smile will mean just as much — or as littje— as it: has within the years between 1925 and 1928, and the country knows what that signifies! ,'••'•/

.Although he may be crowned again, it is believed that his majority will be materially reduced. Anyhow he is a fairly poor alley m a particularly nondescript baij of marbles. ■ '■ . '