THE POLITICAL POSITION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 76, 16 August 1912, Page 5

THE POLITICAL POSITION

A MORIBUND OPPOSITIONBy Telegraph—Own Correspondent. Wellington, Last Night. There are many considerations which have to be taken into account in summing up the political position, but the outstanding fact is the attitude of the Opposition. The position is that the Opposition has gone out, and has gone out in a manner th&t makes it apparent that it had' reached the disintegrating" stage long before the division which sealed its fate. Judged by the light of subsequent events, it is evident that the old Liberal Party has been for years undergoing a process of disintegration, and that the decay began from within. The idea is growing, and it seems to be based on a reasonable theory, that the old Government had been dying long before it reached its extreme stage. Mr. Seddon left it fairly strong, but with all the attributes of weakness in its composition. For years he had built up a system of administration under which the strong man ruled—the beneficent autocrat was in possession. It is an axiom of beneficent autocracy, however, that the success of the system depends wholly on the beneficence of the autocrat. The benefieient autocrat died a few years ago; and he. was succeeded by one who was not an autocrat, by one who regarded the line of least resistance as the easiest way out of the political - difficulty. Fm> short months the new Liberal Government held sway. It ran up and down the country, declaring that it proposed to dr> this and to do that. It would make for everything that was for the good of the country. Then the end came. The Government of a day was defeated, and now none so poor as do it reverence." The old Government has apparently accepted its defeat in the spirit of cowardice that can only mean a realisation of the hopelessness of its position, and the certainty that its opposition must n.ecessarilv continue for quite a definite period. That is the outstanding fact of the political position. Rumor has it that "so and bo" is aspiring to the leadership, but underneath appears to be a feeling that na credit attached,to leading the politically bedraggled throng represented bv the \ arigated ranks of the Opposition, and there is a general understanding that they will be free and easy until some measure of coherence is brought about as the result of a conference among the conflicting elements, The most optimistic Oppositionist does riot consider the possibility 0 f ousting the present Government, which it considered as being safe for years to come. The past is rising up against it. Chances have been missed in regard both to administration and legislation, and the chickens have come home to roost.