The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1917. MR. MASSEY GETS ANGRY.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 26 July 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1917. MR. MASSEY GETS ANGRY.

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News).

• An innocent-looking, insinuating little question asked in Parliament on Tuesday was the wee small cloud from which sprang a great storm. The present session has been one long complaint against the high-handed-ness of some Ministers, and questions nave been asked that made little impression on the oburate Cabinet. It seems, however, that Mr. Forbes has sheeted -home to the Prime Minister, what may, at the very least be termed a serious non-realisation of the proper fitness of things, if not of out-and-out discourtesy. He made a long rambling explanation in which he entirely shifted the blame from his own shoulders to those of his Private Secretary. He got very angry with Mr. Forbes and threatened the House with condign punishment. What his particular "Sword of Damocles" was he did not state, but if members persisted in preventing him conducting the administration in his own little temperamental ways they would experience something to their disadvantage. The Prime Minister has in a general election a trump card that he does not attempt to hide, but do such actions come under the category of honest politics? Mr. Massey was accused"byMr. Forbes, member for Hurunui, with an act that proves what we have urged on many occasions, that the Government is not a National Government, that everything about it is conservative; that the old-time conservative policy is being pursued as persistently and relentlessly as ever it was in any straight-out Conservative administration. "What Government is in power does not concern us one tittle so long as it is an honest government, so long as there is no pretence, that it is what it represents itself to be. While we have so-called National Government,, however, we look for equal rights for the two political parties of which it is composed. Mr. Massey has been accused inside and outside the House with disregarding the existence of the other side's rights and thereby making the i idea of a National administration a falsity. Up to the present a glaring case could not b~e sheeted home, now Mr. Forbes has unmistakably cornered the Minister and he got angry. He didn't relish the audacity of the Member for Hurunui in laying the charge and remorselessly pushing it right ; home. It appears that very important issues were to be raised by' a large Second Division Deputation, who requested that Sir Joseph Word should be present, but at which Mr. Massey alone put in an appearance. Mr. Forbes wanted to know from Sir Joseph Ward why he was not there, seeing that his presence had been specially requested by letter. Sir Joseph Ward knew nothing about it. Then Mr. Massey got up and said his Secretary had handed Sir Joseph Ward's Secretary a written invitation to be present. Sir Joseph's Secretary denied having received any such communication. Then 1 " just before adjournment Mr. Massey said his Secretary had inadvertently omitted to seri"3the invitation for Sir Joseph to attend

this particularly important event, more particular because difficult, matters respecting finance were to' be raised, and he apologised, but his excuses resulted in anger; he vaguely accused Members with wire-pulling; he refused to take any responsibility about who should be present, but he regretted what had happened, and no one seemed surprised. He heatedly said it was an attempt to put him in an unfair position, but it seems that although the position was an unfair one there is no evidence that the attempt that disclosed the position was unfair; the facts were all admitted, and an apology given. Whatever the Prime Minister may have meant by the threat he hurled at the House w< cannot of "course, say precisely. He said he would not put up with it, and Members, perhaps, would find that out in a short time. Whereupon Mr. Forbes cruelly pushed his charge right home. He said Mr. Massey's explanation would be understandable, but for his actions. Mr. Forbes said that Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward were sitting side by side in the House, when Mr. Massey got up and went to meet the Deputation without saying a word about it to his co-partner in the Government. Sir Joseph Ward, questioned, said he knew nothing about the deputation, and it had not been mentioned to him by anybody. He had no idea that Mr. Forbes was going to bring the matter up in the House. He was sorry that the Deputation misunderstood the position, and thought that he refrained from attending for reasons connected" with their request. If he had known that he was'fequested to be present he would have had something important to say, not only to the Deputation, but to the country as a whole. Mr. Massey's statement made it clear that he had no invitation to Be present. We are referring to this irregularity, not in any political party interest, but merely to press home our contention that designedly or otherwise, voluntarily or involuntarily, the Government has little or no National characteristic. The same old Tory policy of disposing of land in large areas to favoured people; the rampancy of aggregation; the removal of all State concerns from the control of the people; the huge and costly farce of setting up Boards, and Boards upon Boards, on whom the Government may cast responsibility for its policy of disregard for the people's rights; the establishment and flourishing of meat trusts that are already ruining our meat industry; the entry of a butter trust that will very soon commence its work of strangling our dairying industry; the complete isolation of this country in the South Pacific by allowing its last hold on a ship to be seized by the great shipping combine which by one rise only in freight took a million and a-half ,of money unfairly out of the country's earnings, and above aljl that dangerous and detestable method of governing by Order-in-Council instead of by Act of Parliament. To say that the Board of Trade, the Efficiency Board, and the Cost of Living enquiries are white elephants is to put it very mildly, they are hugely costly farces. There is not a farmer knows when his meat is going to market, and I*js not unlikely a similar fate to that of butter will ; overtake it, simply because there is ino finality in arrangements made, but too much trust in Trust promises and too little insistence on the responsibility of the Briitsh Government. Mr. Massey is filled with admiration foT the smart body of men who are open ;to do business anywhere, but if he thinks hrs "Blarney is going to influence them in his favour against their own interests in squeezing wherever possible his aspirations to statesmanship will receive a severe shock, for they are fore-doomed to failure. Neither Parliament or people are being trusted; the "Square Deal" is a jibe which even Mr. Massey does not defend. If Mr. Massey will put into practice his threat of a general election it will be the best thing that can happen to this country. Farmers would have the air cleared so that they could see through their difficulties, and a clearly defined poilcy would be enthroned, and the blundering on in darkness ended.