Local Oppositionists.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17612, 15 November 1922, Page 8

Local Oppositionists.

Them was a time when Canterbury was regarded as "the Btronghold of "Liberalism," and when the Oppositionists in this city and province used to rejoice in the emphasis with which Canterbury rejected the impudent people who v flpnght to break up the solid Liberftl'phalanx. That time has 1 gone by. Clwt&tyffy, showed m 1919 that it does"ndt" l desire the Liberal Party, and since „ 1919 *■ nothing has happened to make the province renret that it had waked op, to, the uaeieasneas of the Party and .the feebleness of most of those-Liberals, wfibj escaped disaster; three years ago.- ,On; ; tae contrary; the'] performance of the; Liberal Party has strengfiwned l 'Canterbury's opinion that

| it moved in the right direction in 1919, | and any doubts on this poizt that may linger in the public mind are being rapidly dispelled by the Liberals themselves. Several of the regular Liberals—the out-and-out anti-Reformers — have appeared, before the public, and we should say that many of their former supportera must be wondering how they could have voted for such empty heads. They have nothing to offer the public except long dull speeches denouncing the Government for everything in general and nothing in particular. They have no distinctive policy of their own to advocate —what Mr Wiiford did not borrow from Mr Massey he borrowed from the Labour Party. Their plea, amounts to nothing more than this: that the present Government is no good, and that the country ought to give a trial to a Ministry of Buddos and Russells and Wittys and Thackera directed by Mr H. E. Holland. If the Liberals were worthy to be entrusted with the management of the country's affairs they would be able to give the public some better evidence of it than the dull scolding which makes up their speeches and writings. If their scolding were only skilful, if they could scold with freshness and variety, there might be some hope for them- But what can an intelligent people think of a political party whose capacity reveals itself in such speeches as those with which Dr. Thacker, Mr Buddo, Mr Forbes, and Mr Russell have bored their patient hearers—speeches which' almost beggar description, and which force the Liberal papers to content themselves with obviously hollow professions of confidence that the electors •will, return these dull men to Parliament P Perhaps the Liberals will become a little brighter before pollingday, but in the meantime, neither here nor elsewhere in the Dominion, lias the Government been faced with any serious challenge or any substantial criticism. And the Canterbury public will require some very substantial criticism indeed if it is to be prevented from completing the task of clearing out the Liberal diehards altogether.