THE OPPOSITION CAMPAIGN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9083, 7 May 1908, Page 4

THE OPPOSITION CAMPAIGN.

Mr W. F. Massey, Leader of the Opposition, is doing good work from the standpoint of his party in delivering critical and policy speeches in various parts of the dominion, but these are all very much alike- in character and verbiage. His latest platform address was given in Gisborne on Tuesday evening, but contained no really new feature. Socialism as defined by Mr Keir Hardie and the Socialists of New Zealand came in for some adverse criticism, and a point was made of the fact that a very large proportion of the employers of this country at the present time had started, as wage-earners, and were all the better for the experience they had thus gained. On the question of arbitration in labour causes he expressed a hope that the • Industrial Arbitration and Conciliation Act would not break down, as he preferred arbitration to strikes and lockout?, but if the Act was to roraain upon the statute book it would, he declared, have to be very greatly amended. The land qutstion he dealt with exhaustively, but everyone now knows his views thereon. Dealing with the reforms which he considered essential, Mr Massey reiterated the necessity for an entire reconstruction of our local government system, and stated that the Government apparently refused to take any steps in this direction, because of the use that could be made of the present system for party purposes. He favoured the election of the Legislative Council directly by the people, the establishment of a Civil Service Board, the simplification of the public accounts, the option of the freehold, opening up of surplus Native lands, and other measures. He objected to an increase in the number of Ministers, contending that if they kept better hours, and attended fewer banquets, their average longevity would ! be quite equal to that of other members of the community! It is satisfactory to know that at all his public meetings the Leader of the Opposition has had crowded audiences, and has met with excellent receptions. This is well, for it is good that the electors should hear from the chief of the Opposition his views of the political questions of the clay so that they may compare them with the utterances of the Premier and his colleagues.