THE OPPOSITION

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13907, 5 December 1910, Page 6

THE OPPOSITION

Every supporter of the Opposition throughout New Zealand will agree that admirable work has been done during the past session by the party in the House. Mr James Allen makes no unworthy claim when he says that Mr Massey and his followers have- left their impress on much of the legislation of the session. Their numerical strength being what it is, they could not hope to <lo all that they wished, but where they could not amend an obnoxious Bill they, have taken care that it did not get through before the country knew what its defecte wore, and why they opposed its passage. Mr Massey has once' more earned the admiration and the gratitude of his supporters, by his unwearying tention to his duties. Few people in-v New Zealand, beyond members themselves and those keen critics of Parliament and politicians, the men in the Press gallery, have any idea of the amount of work that Mr Massey undertakes, and the incessant care he bestows on every question that come* before the House. As Mr Allen remarked, the Premier has a 'very hard and .trying time, but he has his colleaguses to assist him ; Mr Massey, on the other hand, takes up the whole burden and carries dt through to the end. The longest sitting sees him at his post to the last, incarnate vigilance; the earliest meeting of a .committee finds him in his place. Reference has frequently been made to the undue strain imposed upon Ministers by political life, but we venture to think that the tax that Mr Massey's self-imposed duties place upon his physical endurance is even greater. For, that reason we should like to see him delegate more of his work to some of the able men in liis party. He himself would, of course, reply to the Prime Minister on all important occasions, but he would not feel com-1 pelled to be in his place in the House j from its down-sitting to it« uprising. | His lieutenants would gladly share his. I labours to a greater extent than his extreme conscientiousness permits them to do now.