The Daily News. FRIDAY, MAY 15, 1914. MR HINE AT STRATFORD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 294, 15 May 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, MAY 15, 1914. MR HINE AT STRATFORD.

There was quite a refreshingly frank and independent ring about, tlie speech delivered by the member lor Stratford at tho latter place the oilier evening. He freely criticised some of the actions of the Government, notably in connection with the remission of taxation on the incomes of the well-to-do, whilst doing nothing to reduce the cost of living to the eight or ten shillings-a-day man, and also agreed with Sir Joseph Ward in his Imperial naval policy, which, of course, is diametrically opposed to the local navy advocated by the leaders of his own party, and from this it was easy for Mr Hine to pass lo condemnation of the action of that resourceful gentleman named Mr .hinjos, who is the "man behind the gun" of the Political Reform League, in his endeavours to surreptitiously manufacture public feeling against Sir Joseph Ward and his party at the time of the strike. Anyone, of course, with a proper regard for the fitness of things, and the decency of public life, must dissociate himself from such contemptible tactics, but the good effect arising from Mr Hine's repudiation of the famous circular was lost by the analogy he tried to draw between it and Mr Wilford's action in having a resolution passed at his Stratford meeting fur publication in outside papers. The <\ims are not at all on all fours. Mr .James, by secret means, endeavoured to inflame public feeling against the leaders of the Liberal party. There was nothing straightforward about this. Had there been, the "rigged" resolutions would have fallen flat. Indeed, they never would lmve been suggested. Mr VYilford was quite open about what ho did, besides which the mere telegraphing :yid publishing of a resolution or a rep<-rt of a political meeting is not confined to the party of which Mr Wilford 19 a member. In this respect, the members of the Ministry arc becoming expert, as' a reference to the files of some of the party's favorite mouthpieces will show. In other matters, Mr Hine kept strictly within the shafts of the party's waggon. He reeled off the same old storied about the extravagance of the Liberals causing a depleted Treasury, tho wonderful administrative acts of the new Government, the unpatriotic actions of the Liberals over the strike —g!>"d old strike! —the great confidence .-.liown by the people and outside financiers in the Government as revealed by the Post Office Savings Bank returns, by the terms cm which the 'London loans were secured, and by the commercial state of the country generally, and the rest of the Reformers' musty stock-in-trade. It is n dreary story they all have to tell, these politicians; they give you little or nothing original; they s#'in afraid to get out of- the pu „v ruck and to advocate principles before party shibboleths. They have no national aspiration, their chief concern being the welfare of their party and the advancement of their own political interests. The people meekly submit—and pay. Indeed, the more pettifogging and parochial the views of the candidate, the more popular he seems to be, as witness the calibre of a big proportion of those that adorn Parliament. For the thinking and rftpaale man, the public have little time. For illustrations of what we mean we have not to turn from Taranaki, the representation of which important and growing part of the Dominion is for the most part obviously and pathetically weak and inefficient. But the people are represented as they deserve to be.