THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1908. 'A GOOD AND A CLEAN RECORD'

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3010, 6 October 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1908. 'A GOOD AND A CLEAN RECORD'

During a speech he made at the dinner given in Wellington, on Saturday last, to the retiring members of the Opposition, viz., Messrs Lethbridge, Reid, Allison, Aitken and Le„wis, Mr Massey claimed that the Opposition had a good and a clean record. We do not suppose that anyone will seriously dispute the contention. It is generally admitted that the Opposition Party for many years past has been highly virtuous, and its record has been quite clean, but then, paradoxical as it may seem to say so, the Opposition has really no record at all, beyond a painfully long record of failures and defeats. The farce of 1905 is to be played again in 1908. Apart from its failure to achieve success, the Opposition Party's record could hardly be otherwise than good and clean, for it really has had no chances to go astray. However

"there is no virtue like necessity," and Mr Massey is not to be condemned for teaching his necessity to reason in the way mentioned. The

record of his Party, greatly loved and sadly limited in number, has been good and clean, but Mr Massey does not add consistent. But, of course, there is no need to claim consistency for his Party, though Mr Massey could do this with a very much better grace than the! Premier and his colleagues could fbr their Party, because until recently Mr Massey has repeatedly stated that it was not the duty of the Opposition to submit a policy—hence a policy of consistency is, obviously, unnecessay, and in fact it should not form part of the stock-in-trade of a really respectable and traditional Opposition. Limited, however, as the number of the Opposition is, that Party contains men, whose service* the Dominion, in the present state of affairs, cannot afford to lose. Yet, five Oppositionists are retiring, and several of them are able politicians, well respected by the people as a whole! They have, of course, explained that they are all very sorry to disassociate themselves from the Party, but nevertheless, they have decided to retire, and there is no gainsaying the fact that their withdrawal renders the Opposition Party weaker than ever. Mr Massey declares that there has not been a time within the last twenty years in the history of New Zealand when strong, reliable men were so much needed in the Parliament of the country as at tfcie present time. We believe that this statement is absolutely true -the great need of a strong party in opposition to the Government has been patent for years past to every thoughtful elector in the Dominion, and the Opposition Party is partially responsible ior the maladministration from which the country has suffered, and suffers today, at the hands of a too puwerful Government. The failure of the Opposition in the past has been largely due to the presence of certain politicians in its ranks, and to the absurdity of its tactics. Is there any reason to hope, that the election of 1908 will bring about an improvement in the state of parties in the House? We fear not. Speaking generally, the Government Party is as strong as ever, and by the time that the machinery of the Premier's Second Ballot Bill has done its work, it will be questionable whether the Opposition Party will in 190S be as strong ar. it was in 1908. Of course, the moral to be drawn from what has been written is that New Zealand's chance of political salvation lies in returning independent candidates, wh& are not tied and bound hand and foot to an obsolete Conservative Party, or to a Government that de mands slavish obedience from itssupporters.