THE PREMIER ON TOUR.

Waikato Argus, Volume VI, Issue 448, 15 June 1899, Page 3

THE PREMIER ON TOUR.

A writer in a Southern contemporary writes as« follown, in reference to the tours of the Premier and Captain Russell :- The platform campaign between the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition has not been' quite the one-sided affair that many people thought it would be. At the outset the odds were all on the side of the Premier carrying everything before him. The nature of the popular ovations with which he was received here and there was largely misunderstood. It was " Dick " himself and the exaggerated history of various kinds associated with the name, rather than the enthusiasm of political belief, that set the backblocks in a roar. During his progress through the interi. r he more than verified all the traditions that hang round his name. He was hail-fellow-well-met with everybody. At the wayside inns he alighted, fraternised w r th the small groups that awaited his passing, greeted the men warmly, but carried his attentions to the women—the family womeo, particularly much farther, then pushed his way to the bar and *' shouted" in the orthodox old-time digger style for the crowd and waved hia hat affectionately many times in answer to the parting cheer that sent him on his way to the next stage. At those places where he was billed for a speech he didn't, as others Premiers had rone, shut himself up in the solitude of his room, meet deputations by closely measured appointment and confine himself to the discussion of public or official matters. Mr Seddon refused to be hampered by Drecedent of this kind. In the bar-room or in the bar itself he talked to deputations, which afforded opportunity for moistening in the usual way the dry details of roads and bridges. It was probably such little peculiarities as these that caused the Leader of the Opposition to wonder that "the man who holds the highest powers in the State should hobnob with everyone at a drinking-bar, affecting friendships that he does not feel, and pretending an interest in persons he had never seen before." The photograph is lifelike and might do credit to the descriptive powers of a much more gifted speaker than Captain Russell. It describes the daily lite of the Premier during the period of a stumping tour with accuracy, and all else besides in which he appears is very much of the same pattern.

One of the Premier's finest stage properties is his old man and old woman w ho, after a long wedded life, are being torn asunder to end their days apart iu different wings of a charitable institution. The horror and pathos of this part of the serio-comedy are hair raising, but the old age pension, one of the most splendid efforts of Liberal legislation he contends, has henceforth made the continuance of that unnatural separation impossible, and that too, in spite of the hostile efforts of the Opposition. Captain Russell's reply to this is that the Opposition, so far from being opposed to an old age pension, are determined on raising the pension to 10s a week and making its bestowal independent of any conditions except those of residence and age. Nevertheless, the Premier continues to repeat his charges, and tells his audiences that if returned to power the Opposition will wreck the old age pension scheme. There are also other charges made, of a kind most of them that might be expected to appeal to popular prejudice, and though denied and denounced by the Leader of the Opposition they are repeated and enlarged and emphasised on each succeeding platform by the Premier. In a duel of this kind the advantage cannot possibly be on tho side of the Premier. He is, of course, able to speak for himself and his own party, but he cannot expect to command the same amount of public credence when he insists on sketching a programme, which must necessarily be an unpopular one, for his opponents. But regardless of this altogether, any man with the smallest claim to intelligence or the smallest understanding of public thought and sentiment, must know perfectly well that the Opposition dare not attempt to force a reactionary policy on the country. Were they to do so, their teuure of ttlice would be very short. But, so far from showing such a disposition, the Leader of the Opposition is, so far as the campaign has gone, distinctly in advance of the Premier in the direction of popular legislation. To speak in the vernacular, he has not only trumped every card played by the Premier but has " gone one better." In such a case, the running being so close, the personality of the men, their public antecedents and the relative degree of confidence they inspire, must count for much. In view of recent events, it would not be difficult to forecast the result of such a test.