MUCH-CRITICISED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9021, 7 January 1908, Page 4

MUCH-CRITICISED.

Imperialism and- the Press of New Zealand are things hateful to Britain's premier Labour leader, Mr Keir Hardie. He dealt with both these subjects in is address to the people of Wellington, at the Town Hall, on Sunday. His opinion of the Press he has previously given expression to, and on Sunday he amplified his former utterances. "I have had some criticism in my time," wailed Mr Keir Bardie, "but never.any,thing: so insulting as the remarks of the New Zealand Press concerning myself, my personality, and my opinions." "Why don't you answer them in the papers themselves?" had been asked. His reply was that life was too short to instruct editors of the New Zealand Press as to how they should perform their workf If they could not do it properly, then they should stop drawing salaries under false pretences. Mr Hardie omitted to refer specifically in his speech to< the statements he had made in India, or, rather, his method of making them, upon which the Press of this dominion rightly based its criticism,, He informed his hearers at the Town Hall that he made made' it a rule of his life to ignore crticism. He has a unique way of showing his indifference to it, when he denounces his critics ad "unscrupulous cads" and otherwise, abuses them. We trust that before Mr Hardie leaves the dominion he will find leisure .to "instruct the editors of the New Zealand ptess as to how they should perfoun their work." It would be interesting to know his views upon the subject. We rather suspect that his notion of the duty of the Press is that it should listen "with bated breath and whispering humbleness" to the great Socialist leader, and set him up on a pedestial as a heaven-born genius, who alone is capable of righting the wrongs of this wicked world.