THE PREMIER'S RETURN.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9814, 25 August 1897, Page 4

THE PREMIER'S RETURN.

The statement contained in yesterday morning's telegrams that it is probable that the Tutanekai will be despatched to Sydney to bring Mr. Seddon back in triumph strikes us, we must confess, as absurd. Many people will reflect that when Mr. Seddon and his family can secure saloon tickets and first-class, accommodation from Sydney to Wellington for something under £20, the expenditure, running well into three figures on a special trip of the Tutanekai, sounds very much like playing ducks and drakes with the taxpayers' money. Tho coat of the Premier's trip has probably* already much exceeded reasonable limits. This last item is utterly unnecessary, and is merely a waste of money for purposes of political puffery. The announcement also that all the firemen are to assemble in Wellington to do honour to the Premier borders dangerously/on burlesque. Is it that in tho absence of the " armed forces of the State'on a distant expedition," we are'to fall back on firemen as the riext best substitute in uniform 9 Or is it rather as a mark of respect to the Premier's brother-in-law, the gallant Captain who inspects the hose ? We do not credit the Acting Premier with much humour, or we should, suspect the firemen's demonstration was a pieoe of waggery— a sly'reminder to his oolleague not to talk too long for fear of reprisals, that if he do not keep his oratorical fireworks under control ho may have them put out, or that if his colleagues find him lording it over them much, they are prepared to extinguish him.