THE PREMIER IN A TEMPER.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 233, 25 June 1908, Page 6

THE PREMIER IN A TEMPER.

1 Bisnop Julius will be • extremely disappointed to learn the dreadful effect which his excellent sermons of Sunday and Monday have produced upon Sih Joseph Waed. It is plain that sermons are worse than wasted on a 1 Prime Minister who has lost his' sense of humour, and who, as he sits quietly in his seat, is more than likely to-be revolving in his mind the problem-of how best to ;retort I .upon ffchc: preacher; At : Greytown yesterday Sin Joseph dealt at great length, and in the heated language that, invariably.,follows .tyie. politician's, "pre; paraiory explanation; that he'is ; gbing;to' talk " calmly, dispassionately, and without feeling," with our, comments upon the sermons.referred to. \Ve quite recogniso that The Dominion.;,was merely selected as the readiest object of an attack that was really directed lit the rash Bishop who had turned the tap of common-senso upon the heated head of bombast. Our fault was applause of Bishop . Julius's assault upon the megalomania from whichNew Zealand is recovering, but,which the Prime Minister, has been, doing his best to aggravate in his anxiety to paint the country's financial condition in the rosiestcolours.' Excepting in an incidental way, as a politician who, with tho rest of us. might profit from a sane and wise utterance, we did not refer to Sir Joseph. Ward. Wo assuredly did not Bugged that "the deliverance in some re&pects was, directed at himself," although now the.public will almost siiSpectj from the promptness of the Prime Minister's calm and dispassionate abuso of ■ this paper} that the, Bishop did have Siii Jqseph in mind. ■

: Bishop Julius 1 is well able to protect .himself, and it is only necessary for - us to correct' the grosser misstatements and misrepresentations of the Prime Minister. in/ his references to .The Dominion. As it is a fixed idea of Sib Joseph's ' that a critic is a traitor, it is hopoless to convince him that a journal which is so " prejudiced " as to deplore his injurious incitements to 'extravaganco is anything but an " Opposition ■ mouthpiece." It is hopeless to convince him that a journal that preaches prudence is preaching anything less than what, in his fcalm and dispassionate moments, he elegantly refers to as " blue funk." But on questions of fact we encounter no such difficulty. So far from " utilising our correspondents in different portions of tho country to endeavour to confirm our view by-obtaining ,interviews with various people," or disloyalists, as he might say, we gave far less prominonce to the, matter than some of the recognised organs of the Government. Tho "abominable and outrageous .line, of policy'.' that we have preached is the policy of prudence— the policy of remembering that though the country is wonderfully prosperous our debt approaches £70,000,000 and is about to bo increased by three or four millions more. That the Prime Minister holds admirable views upon the naval subsidy we have been glad tp admit many times, but what the naval subsidy has to do with our commendation to his notice of tho Bishop's denunciation of boasting is not very clear. What is clear is that the Prime Minister was so angry with.the Bishop that he had to abuse somebody. Ho could not wholly refrain from attacking the Bishop, however. Ho " deprecated " the statoment that England would go into eight days' mourning if New Zealand were wiped off the map, and " he hoped it was only a figure of speech." You cannot call a Bishop " abominable and outragoous," even if you are a Prime Minister, but you can doprecato him. A f deprecated " Bishop is the episcopal equivalent of an " abominable and outrageous " newspaper. Yet we fancy that Bishop Julius, "deprecated" and disorganised as ho should consider himself,' will not withdraw his general teaching, as we cannot withdraw our general approval of that teaching, simply bccauso it annoys r. Piiime Minister intent on borrowing a few millions sterling.-