THE Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1893. POLITICAL PERSONALITIES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2528, 13 July 1893, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1893. POLITICAL PERSONALITIES.

In reply to Mr George Fisher last Friday evening in Parliament, tho Premier said that tho New Zealand Times was paid for Government advertisoments at the same rate as the other leading morning papers in tho colony. The Premier at the same time stated that he would not answer personal questions of the same nature in future, in consequence of which Mr Fisher made a violent attack on him. In order to understand all this it is necessary to go behind tho scenes, and show what object Mr Fisher had in asking the question. Mr Fisher, it will be remembered, was taken into the Cabinet by the late Sir Harry Atkinson, and kicked out because ho tried to screen a Wellington brewer who was defrauding the revenue. Mr Fisher then turned round and was elected on the Liberal ticket last election, but when the late Mr Ballance formed his Ministry he was not included in it. He next tried to get to be Chairman of Committees, and was suspected of having his eye on the Speakership, but. he got neither position. He next published a letter in one of the Wellington papers, in which he said that he would "make the Government expiate the way they had treated him," and since then he has studiously insulted Ministers on all possible occasions. With regard to his question last Friday night, his object was this : The New Zealand Times belongs to a Company, and some, if not all, of the Ministers are shareholders in it. Mr Fisher by his question, therefore, aimed at insulting the Government, by trying to make it appear that they were using their position to give the New Zealand Times a higher price for advertising than other papers were getting. He was, in fact, trying to show that they were corruptly throwing public money into a concern in which they were personally interested. It was not, therefore, surprising that Mr Seddon intimated that he would not answer sueh questions any more, and what has astonished us is that Mr Rolleston should have played so low down as to stand up as champion for Mr Fisher under such circumstances. There is no Parliamentary record less creditable than Mr Fisher's, while in private life ho is not all that he might have been. That Mr Rolleston, therefore, should champion the cause of George Fisher, more especially considering its nature, denotes a sad falling off from the traditions of his whole life. We have on frequent occasions referred to very peculiar ideas given expression to by Mr Rolleston, but we never had any doubt about his respectability. He has always appeared eminently respectable, it js certainly not respectable, nor creditable; for him to support Mr Fisher in turning Parliament into a bear garden. But this fs not ail, He said he turned the New Zealand Times out of his house because of the way it was conducted, and he abused Ministers and their organ wholesale. Now it is not true that the New Zealand Times is by any means conducted in any way that any reasonable mau could object to. It certaiuly supports the policy of the present Government, but it discusses every subject in moderate language, and in a calm, dispassionate spirit. Can the same be said of the Christchurch Press, which Mr Rolleston hugs so fondly to his bosom? Does Mr Rolleston object to the vulgar, brutal language, and scandalous personalities which are to be found in the leading columns of that paper. He does not; he hugs it to hia bosom because it abuses the present Government. In Mr Rolleston's idea, therefore, no paper which does not abuse the present Government is respectable; that is tho criterion by which ho forms his judgment. He will not allow that there can be a fault on his own .eUfff nor can ho see any virtue on the other side. Mr Rolleston is making a very great njistekp ; and he will find it out before he is many worths older.