The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1912. SIR JOSEPH WARD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 203, 24 February 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1912. SIR JOSEPH WARD.

Sir Joseph Ward often invites retort by losing his temper and making references that have nothing whatever to do with his position as Premier of New Zealand. He has been stung so persistently by detractors that he has utterly lost much of the suavity that once characterised him. The fact is that the slanderers have done their work so well that it is beginning to tell, possibly to their gratification. There is nothing quite so paltry and miserable among the many violent efforts of the opposing party to reach the Treasury Benches as personal attacks on Sir Joseph Ward as a man, irrespective of his position as political head of New Zealand. It has not been sufficient that these aspirants have stirred muck heaps. They have invented them. The particularly biassed Press which was created and still exists for the sole purpose of placing a party in power has not scrupled to employ every means, either fair or foul, to besmirch the character of Sir Joseph Ward. He, on his ■ part, has been weak enough to allow himself to be stung into angry retort. These detractors make carefully manufactured statements, but never prove them, and the still small voice ef slander, carefully controlled by political opponents of Sir Joseph Ward, has been even mor» damning than that section of the Press which simply exists to snare places for persons, irrespective of fair fighting. Tongues have been busy even in Taranaki circulating slanders against this unfortunate man, which, if spoken to him, would, one hopes, mean physical encounter. No man would, we feel certain, meekly submit to the atrocious accusations levelled against Sir Joseph Ward. A political bias in this country is most unfortunately deemed to be perfect justification for personal and malevolent attack. The detractors of the leader who is retiring from the leadership nearly always reiterate what somebody else told them. They produce no proofs. Even the religion of the Prime Minister has been villainously used as a stick with which to beat him, and there is not a shadow of doubt that the assiduous work of mean political touts did much to displace more than one man professing the same religion at the elections. Poisonous sneers, biting untruths, scurrilous attacks have all been used against the Premier because their use works insidious harm to him personally, thus aiding his opponents. A precedent has been established in New Zealand of using snake-like devises to poison the public against public men. The great bulk of the public does not think. It accepts slanders without ques tion, and, as delicious morsels, givea them longer life. The question of the

Premier's political programme has no(thing to do with this phase. We simply desire to protest that the methods that have been employed are absolutely unworthy. We do not infer that Mr. Massey is in the least responsible for the loads of slander that have been tipped on the Premier, but we desire to say that where these innumerable and poisonous falsehoods have been met by the members of- the Opposition they should, in common fairnesa, have been nailed down and denied. This unscrupulous striving for place will grow a large crop of political dishonesty, subterfuge and place-seeking. If it h considered fair fighting to aim every slanderous clod at Sir Joseph Ward, it will be considered fair enough to throw equally slanderous clods at Mr. Massey, when he becomes Premier. The effect of this generally recognised system of "conducting the business of the country" will be to prevent high-minded men from entering politics, and 'ultimately Parliament must be filled by men who are too thick-skinned to heed attacks, as long as place and its emoluments are theirs. To dissect the policy of a public man, to criticise it, to object to it is fair, reasonable and honorable. To dissect a man personally, cruelly and malevolently, simply because you hope by so doing that your crowd will handle the reins and give you some of the' pickings, is playing it as low down as it is possible to play. The discreditable and unclean tactics pursued prior to the election, and subsequent to it, aimed at Sir Joseph Ward, simply because he was in the way of the strivers, will be pursued in relation to other leading politicians if the public remain so devoid of the instinct of clean sportsmanship as to permit the dissemination of foul falsehoods, unsupported rumors and unprovable canards. We take the liberty of expressing the belief that if Sir Joseph Ward had always maintained a' dignified silence in regard to calumnies, if he had scorned the paltry crowd who fatten on the spread of falsehood, if he had philosophically decided that his enemies might howl, his most sensitive feelings would »ot have been wounded to the extent that is now so evident.