Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1895. MR. WARD AND MR. GILLON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5148, 5 October 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1895. MR. WARD AND MR. GILLON.

Tin: press of the Colony is quite unanimous in expressing an opinion that Mr Ward made a blunder ill his personal attack on Mr E. T, Gillon, but public opinion is divided as to whether the latter Ims not overstepped his position as a public journalist. For somo years past, in tho case of the Jimiimj Post, there has been a strong personality that hasbeengencrally recognised. Nominally the paper, like other journals, has been impersonal, but actually tho Jtimiiig Fust and Gillon have been convertible terms. The Government Ims been always nervous about Mr Gillon. Captain Marryat related a story once of a braye naval officer whose stout heart quailed at only one thing—a eat. In much the same way the lion Sedtlon and the leopard Ward—who changes hisspots —dread only the editor of the Evening Post. The identity of Mr Gillon with the Post is as much a matter of notoriety as the identity of Mr Ward with the Colonial Treasurer, and it is in this way that a strong personal antipathy has arisen betweci) the press and the Cabinet, It is almost a sort of duel a la murk between Mv Ward and Mr Gillon, although tho weapons may be on]y the pen and the tongue, In tho long run the editor is likely to have the advantage over the Minister, Of the two ho is the abler combatant, and he has a capacity for being vitriolic on certain occasions, which hisadversarycannotwithstaud. The weak point on either side is that there is not the slightest sense of humour. Mr Ward does not realise that he is ridiculous, when from the Ministerial bench he calls an elderly journalist bad names, and the elderly journalist takes Mr Ward, Mr Seddon apt! everybody else under thesun,ingrim6nrncst. Tlietension with him is nover relaxed, but with a thoroughness which does credit to bis head, if not to his heart, lie pursues .with merciless insistence his avocation as a critic. No Minister oan be quite as bad as one or two members of the Gabjnet depicted by tho Editor of the Evening Evou Mr Sedtlon and Mr Ward have redeeming ttaits, and if the Editor of the Evening Fast- bad some sense of humour ho would recognise this fact, and mix a little wjth tho' daily doso of .vinegar .which ho is wont ,to administer. Mr Ward and

Mr Gillon, for the time being, are the two corner men of the parliamentary show, but a smile or a grin on the visage of either would be a great, improvement, and an immense relief to the public. There is nothing new under the sun, and this puny combat between the sensitive Gillon and the susceptible Ward reminds us of a quarrel on n largerstngeandbetween bigger men in the days of ouryouth, We remember the fracas as if it were yesterday! Mr Cobden, a leading man of the century, startled England one day by calling the then Editor of the London Times before the public, naming him by his name, and challenging him as a calumniator, The Editorof the Thhcs picked up the gauntlet, and we are not quite sure whether Mr Gillon, on the pi'cseut occasion, is not ut nderst ndy ing the great Delaney. At anyrate, in spite of the masterly ability of Mr Cobden, the editor got the best of the quarrel. If a man of consummate ability, like Cobden, could not score in a persona! encounter with a pressman, what chance lias poor butterlly Ward ? Our Treasurer may fancy that he is a David, and that he had only to sling a stone to slay the Philistine of Willis-street, but alas! the stone is Hung, he bus only woke him up, ami made liirn lively.