THE UNWISDOM OF ONE-SIDED QUOTATION.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12640, 30 October 1905, Page 4

THE UNWISDOM OF ONE-SIDED QUOTATION.

We do not suppose that even th« " Herald" will pretend that the four gentlemen who are- offering their services to the ,-electoirs -as supporters of the Seddon Government hold identically the same opinions regarding all the principal political questions of the day. Indeed, such a claim could not be esbablashed in regard to the members of the Soddon Ministry themselves. Yet because Mr Bassett cannot see eye to eye on everything with every member of the Opposition he is accused of being "in strange company," and " Hansard " is ransacked to find two or three expressions of opinion at variance with that expressed by Mr Bassett in support of the. principle:; of., progressive taxation. One can find all sorts of things in' " Hansard," and our contemporary is treading on dangerous ground when it invites a .close inspection of that publication. Here, for example, is an extract which is peculiarly appropriate in view of the belated concessions which have just been made to the railway men on the eve of a general election:—

MR. R. J..SEDDON: Those who had been following public works (the trade navvies) got together in gangs and made 9s per day, at the price paid, which was fixed by tihe ganger. Now that was not ■intended at all. What was intended was that there should be two or three trade navvies with two or three artisans, co that the combined earnings of those who did a little should altogether make something like 5s per day. What was intended was that work should be given at a price at which the men should not make less than 4s or 5s per day, but that they should not be in a position to go and make good wages out of it.

It is quite as flair, and quite as appropriate, to quote this five shillings a day speech which Mr Seddon delivered in 1887, as it is to cite the opinions expressed almost as many years ago by two or three members of the Opposition. There is nothing in this sort of warfare. So far as Mi* Baspett is concerned, ,the local electors are not at all concerned about what somebody else may have said Gome twelve or', fifteen years ago. They are going to judge Mr Bassett and the other candidates for the seat on their merits, individually and politically. The electors know Mr Bassett. They know that he is not the man to sacrifice his convictions, and although his views may be too Liberal for Seddonism and the " Herald," they will, we feed sure, commend themselves to the majority of the electors.