The Dominion. MONDAY, MARCH 13, 1911. THE GOVERNMENT'S ELECTION POLICY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1074, 13 March 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, MARCH 13, 1911. THE GOVERNMENT'S ELECTION POLICY.

We are glad that Mr. Hornsby, who formerly sat in tho House of Representatives, has made a very early beginning with his endeavour to scramble back into ' Parliament. His candidature is not of much present interest, nor is his opening speech of the slightest consequence excepting for one thing: he has shown, as a straw will show which way the wind, is blowing, the tactics which the Government hopes will win the battle at the polls. We are therefore as glad as, we have little doubt, the more astute supporters are annoyed, that the friends of decency and honesty in politics and government have had this early warning of what they have to expect. The trump card of'the Ministerialists is to bo the pamphlet concerning Sir Joseph Ward. The Ministry's own-newspaper headed Mr. Hornsby's speech "The First Shot." The Ministerialist candidates, then, aro to concentrate their energies upon an appeal to tho people to show in a practical manner their sympathy with Sir Joseph Ward and their abhorrence of the Opposition. There avc to be issued desperate appeals to vote against the party which will be charged with having produced, financed, circulated and encouraged the revival of an ancient scandal. _ The Ministerialist candidates will bs careful to acquit "Mr. Massey personally," as Mr. Hornsby did, of any connection with tho pamphlet. But they will insinuate that at any rate the Opposition had a great deal to do with tho thing. They will tell horrifying stories of the shiploads of pamphlets sent all over the world, which, of course, is profoundly interested in the private affairs of New Zealand politicians. The thing is,'.they believe, a perfect godsend to them. There is really nothing else.that they can present to the public as an argument in favour of keeping in-office the Government that has raised taxation to., a level never before approached, and that has increased the public debt per head at a rate beside which even the next best record, the late Mr. Beddon's, appears almost painfully slow. They realise that the trade returns, and the other statistics of national growth—none of which can compare for imprcssiveness, great as they are, with the story of the Public Debt—have ceased -to have any greater, political value than the rainfall charts. They feel that the public profoundly distrusts the Socialism that masquerades under tho name of Liberalism; that the public distrusts a party and a policy that bear such \ flower as a Cabinet of incompetents and Jacobins'; that the growth, side by side, of a huge national debt and a huge burden of taxation is every day making fresh converts to the Opposition; that the Government has now, beyond all dispute, ceased to hold any convictions on any subject upon which men may be seriously divided; that the only policy of the Government is the policy of keeping in office. They hope, of course, that the borrowing of £6,850,000 during 1910 will do much, but they fear that it will not be enough to stop the mouth of discontent Dy stuffing it with borrowed gold. Therefore they will appeal to the people, not on the merits of Liberalism, even of their sort of "Liberalism," but on the ground that their leader has been shamefully attacked in his private life by his political opponents. To such a depth has the party of Ballance sunk in twenty years: into such men and such methods has the, original Liberal party decomposed. Of course everyone will recognise that it is poignantly absurd that some foolish placehunter should rise up from his obscurity and say: "Show your sympathy with Sir Joseph Ward by giving me a billet at £300 a year. Sir Joseph has been shamefully treated by Mr. Massey and his friends and the best way to show your sympathy is by sending me to Parliament." If the man who used such an idiotic argument honestly believed what he was saying, we could all laugh at _ him. But is there one prospective Ministerial candidate who does not know perfectly well that Sir Joseph Ward has' received a measure of kindly sympathy and generosity, from his opponents everywhere as well as from his friends, that has been nothing less than remarkable? There is not a person familiar with tho facts who does not know that had the Opposition chosen they could quite reasonably have taken up the position that the attack made on Sir Joseph Ward was purely a personal matter between Sir Joseph AVard and the author of the pamphlet and that the Courts were open to him to obtain redress if the statements made were not true and not published in the public interest.' But because they behaved generously—with' foolish generosity, perhaps, when the tactics of their opponents are considered—a despicable attempt has been made by means of a pamphlet circulated in thousands "by members of the Liberal party" to associate the Opposition with the pamphlet attacking Sir Joseph AVard. Could anything be more contemptible 1 AVc doubt if there is a single person in tho country conversant with political matters who does not realise today that Sir Joseph AVard's action in dragging his private affairs on to the floor of Parliament, instead of taking them to the law courts of the country, was a well-considered piece of political strategy. No one in Parliament wished to diacuns his priyato affairsT-no qm felt calkd on

lo dispute any statement ho chose to make concerning his private conduct. And because of this ho has endeavoured to pose as a martyr and his supporters have endeavoured to make political capital out, of it. It is a desperate device of a hardpressed Government—an endeavour to obscure the political issues upon which the electors should cast their votes by dragging in a private and personal issue which is of concern only to the head of the Government, and which can only be dealt with on its merits by the courts of justice. We have no fear that the public will be led very far astray by such tactics and Sir Joseph Ward may even find that the constant harping on this unpleasant theme may produce results far from satisfactory to himself,