The Daily News. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1912. "LOOK AT THIS PICTURE AND ON THAT."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 159, 22 November 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1912. "LOOK AT THIS PICTURE AND ON THAT."

It is notorious, of course, that circumstances do alter cases, and we have seen a whole lot of justification for fhis countryside wisdom in political circles since the Reform Party took charge. Mr. Massey hag found it necessary to adopt the abhorred system of legislation by exhaustion, he has found it necessary to drive the House by the usual end-of-the-session methods, and lie has found it advisable to say very directly to a jaded House that with a majority at his back he intends to have whatever he wants to have. This is a plain and simple statement of the political situation. The "ins" are in and the "outs" are out, and what the "ins" objected to in the "outs" is not being objected to by the "outs" in the case of the "ins." The situation, of course, was inevitable, but it is easy of illustration. Let us see. One of the oft-repai ted charges levelled by the Reformers when in Opposition against the Liberal Ministry was that they were continually running about the country banquetting and electioneering at the expense of the taxpayers when they should have been attending to the people's business in Wellington. The Reform newspapers denounced the practice as scandalous and Mr. Massey and his friends promised that when they came into office there should be no cause for complaint on this score. But parently circumstances have been too strong for them. The Dominion, which is the admitted organ of the Reform Party in Wellington, recently published the following announcements in regard to the movements of Ministers:—

The Hon. W. F. Masscy (Prime Minister) is at Auckland. The Hon. J. Allen arrived in Invercargill last night. The Hon. F. M. B. Fisher will leave for Auckland on Monday next. The Hon. W. H. Herries will go to Auckland by the noon express on Monday. The Hon. Dr. Poniare will leave for Huntly on Monday next, to attend the tangi which is to be held in honor- of the late Chief Mahuta. The Minister will go on to Auckland a few days later. The Hon. R. H. Rhodes arrived from Lyttelton yesterday, and will leave for Auckland on Friday next. There can be no possible objection to Ministers moving about in this fashion, because we have always held that it h essential that the Cabinet should know

something from personal experience about the country it has to administer, and while they are junketing in the North, where they ought to junket, the South must await its turn. We have a vivid recollection of Sir James Carroll being taken seriously to task for attending an important tangi, but Dr. Pomare has apparently satisfactorily explained to the Reform Party that, despite this indiscretion on the part of the late Minister, it is still necessary for him to he present at the funeral obsequies of the late King Mahuta. It is notorious that "all cats are grey in the dark," but it is curious what diversified colore someof them show in the daylight. We place this little episode on record simply in the hope that when the present Government is once more relegated to the shades of Opposition that it will moderate its criticism of certain situations and positions which it once attacked but has since adopted. It's marvellous inconsistency and its bare-faced throwing overboard of principles that it once professed are among the strangest virtues of the new Government. It shows at least that the Reform Party is open to conviction, and it is prepared to alter its expressions of opinion when they do not coincide with their ascertained beliefs. We can ask r.o more.