Wairarapa Age. MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 1911. BURSTING THE BUBBLE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10270, 23 June 1911, Page 4

Wairarapa Age. MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 1911. BURSTING THE BUBBLE.

Mr A.'R. Barcfciy, formerly a Government otneimbier fox one 'of'.(the Dnnedin City .seats ini the- House of ; ,Rieplixt«s< blossomed out into one of the most caustic critics- of the alleged, liberal Party that the Dominioii possesses, He is not a brilliant politician. He never .was. But he lias ia method of ispeaking his miind which is quite refreshing in these days of toadyism and hypocrisy. In a recent tetter to' •Slue Otago Daily Times, he .says:—"Surely tit must he plain even tto a oMLd now that Sir Joseph Ward is mot a statesman. The .painful exhibition that lie has juist made at. Home—a tilling te be shuddered at, to 'be talked of with bated, kmth-.the ridicule that he lias covered us. with, wail! isurely not lightly be forgotten. I wfant to ask this: .What were his , colleagues in, the Ministry doing, what were the imejnhe<ro of Parliament doling, .itiiat. they ,slurald- iaillowthis gen/blemain, in their names .and as their representative, to make ius the UaugJringHstock of the world ?, Have they ino control over him at ■ •all? Had they no means of saving' us from *he position in which w© j now find ourselves, with the Minis- j ters and tlhe people of Britain and j our sister colonies doing their best 1 to conceal ! their amusement, but ail 1 the time, laughing heartily at us in their 'sleeves P And small blame to j them, for isurely we deserve it. Sed-' don made us respected in the world. He ilifted lis to a front place even among the nations by his personality, his genius, his marvellous /tact, his wise legiislation, his social reforms. Ward, so far as in him lay, has undone the whole of that work. We now figure as am ignorant littjie community that .sent a represeii/tatire. to London to propound a ischemie so wild and ridiculous, so absolutely impossible in its suggestions, so utterly opposed to the- foundation principles of democracy, of freedom., of our own British Constitution, that the statesmen who were compelled to listen to the tstrange- display inmsrt have had to look down their noses, or at the iceiling,—-anywhere but at each other. I think I hear him speak-' ing and blandly telling his .story with the sublime confidence of an imfnocent child, that (shocks the compainy by bran gang out some family skeleton. And yet all tlie time he was sending cold shivers, down the baoks of ihe people he was talking

to. I can imagine his audience looking at each other afterwards and asking among themselves "Are these people of New Zealand quite sane? Hav.e they lost their senses? Have they no idea at. .all of the basis of the free constitution .we have so long and painfully built-up that they desire to tear out its corner stones? Have they ever read anything—have they learnt .anything P Why do they send us tins unspeakable scheme .that can only he the child of gross .ignorance iand amazing impudence?" And, truly, they might indeed well so say and_ think." This is only a portion of quite a lot that Mr Barclay writes in the. same strain. He winds up has remarkable effort by saying:—Sir Joseph has clearly ibeeii> weighed in the balance and found wanting. He has no principles and no views. He lias no strength and no backbone. A® for this last escapade of hsi,s at- Home, overwhelming us, as it does, with ridicule and disgrace, the sooner the British people know we had nothing to do with it the better—<that we never heard a word of these unspeakable proposals until the Prime. Minister left the Dominion—that he did not represent our view when be made them —and that what he did was an amazing (piece of impudent Muff, entirely on has own account. Having in view the importance of letting the Home people' know these /things, I would fain add to these words the line, we so often see in the births., deaths, -and marriages notices—- ' 'Home papers please copy,''