The Press. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1905. MR TAYLOR AT THE COLOSSEUM.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12364, 1 December 1905, Page 6

The Press. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1905. MR TAYLOR AT THE COLOSSEUM.

Mr T. E. Taylor seems to have been In excellent debating form- last night, and the very large audience which filled the Coloseeum testified alike to his drawina

power as a platform speaker, and the keen interest or tlie public in a fight. Mv Taylor's description of the Premier as "raking about the politioal cemeteries "of fifteen and sixteen years ago," was a happy way of putting tho right honourable gentleman's unfortunate predilection for going into tho past, misrepresenting somothing that was dono then, and bringing it forward as a justification for wrong-doing on the part of tho Government at the present time. Ho effectively exposed Mr Seddon's acrobatic performances in regard to the land question. Mr Taylor's characteristic want of judgment, and want of propriety, however, cam© to tho front when h_ referred to the voucher. We havo had a full enquiry, not only fey the Auditor-General, but by three Judges of the Supreme Court, whesa competence, probity, and impartiality are beyond question. They all find that tnero was no such voucher, and no such payment as alleged—that Mr Fisher's imputations were without foundation. Any honourable man, having mado such charges in good faffli, would say frankly after this—"l made a mistake —I am "sorry for it—and I will do my best to "undo tht miscnie? of which I h«vo m"wittingly been tho cause." Any truo friend who desired to "stand by" "him would urge him to take this manly course, if ho seemed indisposed to do so of his own initiative. Mr Taylor, in emphasising tho character of Mr Fisher's witnesses, continually urging that ho was justified in bringing forward his charges, and apparently endeavouring to keep floating around tho affair an atmosphere of suspicion, is neither acting tho part of a true friend nor a truo man. Such conduct is all the more to bo condemned becauso ho not only failed to give Mr Fisher good advico in this matter when it Brsb arose, but he led him off round tho colony, exploiting tho voucher and a dead Ministers wreo.fli in a kind of political raree show. "We say distinctly that that was a discreditable episode in tho politioal history of New Zealand, degrading to the tone of our public life. Mr Taylor mado no reference to this tour last night, but the publio have not forgotten it, and he should have the decency no longer to defend what has been proved, to say tho least of it, to have been a deplorable error in judgment from first to last.

We agree to the full with Mr Taylor's condemnation of tho "Gagging Aot," and with his censure generally of the Premier's political methods and administration. But what is all this trenchant criticism to lead to? Will Mr Taylor assist Mr Massey, the recognised leader of the Opposition, to turn tho Government out? On tho contrary, ho tells us that ho considers himself quite as good as either Mr Seddon or Mr Massey, and ho declines to follow either of them. Ho hopes to get into Parliament with a party of his own—the "younger generation," of whom Mr Toogoocl, who appeared with him on tho platform, is, we presume, a sample—and then they will proceed to run the country after a fashion of their own. Mr Taylor last night indicated, somewhat vaguely, a few items in their policy. Not another acre of Growi lands is to be sold. Tlio nine million acres still remaining are to be kept as a reserve, and let on leasehold only. The younger generation are nob to have the privilege enjoyed by their fathers of going into the back country and carving out a freehold of their own. Then we are to have the tariff framed so ajs to " give employment to our own people," and to organise it "on a national ba&is.'' What this means we may pessibiy gather from a Bill which Mr Taylor introduced last session, which calmly proposed that under certain conditions each industry in tho colony thould be organised into a trust, that imported articles competing

with the local industry should bo absolutely excluded, while the Government, or Government officials, settled such trifling details as tho prices to be charged to the consumers, tho way in which the books shoujd be kept, and so forth. In conclusion, Mr Taylor moved a vote of want of confidence in the Government, but on what grounds? Not on the ground of their corrupt a*dministration, or of their personal unfitness to hold office, but on account of their "treachery" in "abandoning the " cardinal principles of the Liberal party "in regard to land settlement." 'We commend both the speech and this resolution to the careful attention of those confiding Oppositionists who tliink beoause Mr Taylor speaks in a loud tono and with rasping inflection against Mr Seddon, that therefore he is a man to ho trusted to displace tho present Government, in favour of a sounder ad-

ministration