VARIOUS POLITICAL MATTERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 February 1920, Page 2

VARIOUS POLITICAL MATTERS.

To the Editor. Sir,—lt Is now a good long time since 1 troubled you with any remarks on public affairs. My last communication was written souse time before the general election, and was, as you will largely in the way of prediction. That prediction, I am happy to say, has been fulfilled, in the major part, up to rhi- letter, and beyond the letter, and doubtless the details will surely follow after. My main contention was that Mr. Massey was the only possible leader then before tho country who would hnve a .sufficient following after the election lo enable him to successfully carry on the political business of this Dominion. I estimated his following as sure to be well over 40 strong. Events have proved that Mr. Massey was the only possible leader, and that his following is nearly 50 strong. There is a certain meanness in human nature that begrudges tho credit richly due to a prophet in his own country. In this particular instance I take pains to rid my soul of such meanness! Tho fulfilment of my prediction has had an exceedingly beneficial effect on the pulse of tho whole country. Everybody now knows that we are safe for the time being; we can now breathe freely; can now go to bed and sleep soundly, like people who have successfully weathered an Impending peril that threatened the safety of the ship in which they sailed. But what makes us feel hurt, and small, and not a little contemptible even in our own eyes, is the pitiable fact that Taranakl North "failed to play the game." Leaving out Mr. Jeunings, who has earned his victory, and on whom we can always count in a time of trouble, we can honestly say that Taranakl North played the game of the "slacker/' which is not the game of loyalty, nor of honor. Suppose, for a mome-iit, that New Zealand as a whole had acted as Taranakl North acted, what would have been, the state of this country tit the present moment? Neither more nor less than a state of chaos! Anarchy would have had you in its grip, and tho loudest-voiced Irresponsible would have been the chief authority In your Parliament. But the country, as a whole, was mainly sane, and so saved itself from ruin, anil prevented Taranakl North, in Its insanity, from committing economic suicide. New Plymouth did its honest best to mangle Us own throat, and her poor nose is hardly attached to her face at all 1 New Plymouth voted a thumping majority for isolation, and she obtained her object. She was mad enough to cheer loudly at the accomplishment of her own defeat. She is now an isolated community, with an isolated politician to represent her isolaled requirements in Parliament. It must be admitted that Mr. Smith got imany considerations in the way of grants for various purposes*, he also received at. the hands of Mr. Massey what may bo fairly termed "sur- ; prising courtesies" in response to his eternal ; nagging and hostile attitude. In his platform ! addressee Mr. Smith made the most of his success in getting grants out of the then Government, and showed his eagerness to get rid for all time of the man who had treated both him and his constituency with mow than favorable consideration. But there Is an end to human endurance, and It is. quite on the cards that Mr. Massey will at last recognise that since Mr. Smith and Now Plymouth have no tkne for him, it is only right and just and perfectly - fair that he should have no time for ihem. Mr. Massey has behind him nearly fifty good loyal supporters, each with a body of constituents requiring Government and who undoubtedly have the first clnlni to any assistance thnt the country can afford to give them. After these would naturally come the honest opponents of the Government, known as the Opposition, and after them, the rag-tag and bobtail, w ; ,Mr. "Nagger" Smith bringing up the rear. The ironsand industry, the petroleum industry, the 1. vdro-electric scheme, the harbor works, the now railway, etc, are now (after tho style of an old woman's washing) hung up on the line to dry I Such is the fruit of disloyalty to the co-operative principle, as applied to the maintenance of the integrity of the State, and of the Ernplfe.—l am, etc., J O. TAYLOR. Lepperton, February ?>, 1920.