A "LIBERAL" ERUPTION.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14760, 2 September 1913, Page 6

A "LIBERAL" ERUPTION.

Not long ago a "Liberal" M.P. iold tho House that tho resources of invective were inadequate to express his opinion of something—it does not in tbe least matter what—which h« imagined tho Government had tione. He will have no further need to boil in silence if he studies yesterday's issue of the local organ of the "Liberals." He will finto there as fine an assortment of "language" as he can ever require, Reasoned argument has never been a

strong pomE with oar ••Liberal" friends. Usually they content themselves with mis-stating facts or falsifying figures, but occasions arise when their anger overpowers them, and on these occasions they fall T>ack upon their quaint old trick of "calling names." Yesterday was one of these occasions—a'kind of "Liberal" field day, calling for a discharge- of terrible language at ourselves, at the Reform newspapers generally, 'and at the Government. "Vile glanders," "scandalous attacks," "baseless calumny," want of "manliness," "venomous insinuations" —these are a few of many equally comely phrases submitted by the- "Liberal" journal as proof positive that the Government, and "The Press" are really too outrageous to be tolerated. For our own special benefit there is reserved tho final and convincing rejoinder, to our mild observations, that we are "scandalously untruthful" and "shamelessly indecent," and ever so many other unpleasant things. To those antagonists to whom the proof that one has a good case is expertness in the uso of the singular language we have quoted, we are, of course, unablo to reply in a manner that will convince them. They will liavo to go on thinking that as they are, in a literal sense, unanswerable in their own tongue, they are unanswer-' able at all. The immediate cause of this queer outbreak is not quite clear, although it appears to be our neglect to "refute" the "charges" of "facing both ways," '■'shuffling," "dodging," "slimness," and "double dealing" which are preferred, of course, without any sort of evidence, against Mr Massey. Our poor friends really appear to imagine tha£ every time they use- an abusive epithet they have got somebody in tho dock! When they make definite charges, specifically set forth, they need not wait long for a reply. Tho truth of the matter is that the eruption, of "Liberal"opithets is duo to our reminder, which we still consider.pertinent, that the Opposition organ has- not managed yet either tb obscure or to repent of its systematic falsification of facts and figures in its misdirected zeal against tho Government. Its adjectives are its way, wo suppose, of living down, or living up to, whichever it may be, its wilful perversions of fact, which have become much more numerous since we last enumerated them. Or is it that the j coyness of tho member for Awarua concerning tho Opposition leadership is ' responsible for $he re-adoption of the "new style," and that tho adjectives are the overture to a new cycle of maro's-nests?