THE PRIME MINISTER ON THE POSITION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1389, 15 March 1912, Page 4

THE PRIME MINISTER ON THE POSITION.

« Although most people will probably bo glad to put politics aside, so far as possible, until the "Liberal" caucus has met on Thursday next, yet the speech delivered by the Prime Minister in Auckland must not be passed over without notice. Wc need not very much concern ourselves with his defence of his .administration of the country, since the country has already passed judgment upon it. Tho time has really gone by when there was any political value, from the "Liberal" point of view, in the pre-election polemics of "Liberalism." The chief interest of Sir Joseph Ward's speech was his reference to his own position. Ho declared that "before tho meeting of Parliament ho had made up his mind that in the event of the Liberal party succeeding lie would inform Parliament before the adjournment that it was his intention to retire from the position of Prime Minister." In the actual event he found it necessary to throw his resignation into the scale before the '.'Liberal" party "succeeded." That his pledge to resign was essential to his temporary continuance in office and in power is, indeed, admitted by- himself, for he said in a later passage of his Auckland speech (wc quote the Press Association report): "When the Liberal party met on March 21 ho would tell them they must find a new leader. He could not shut his eyes to the fact that a section of tho party as at present constituted was pledged to oppose him, and unless ho took the courso ho had decided on he would be held responsible for any disaster which might befall it. Ho recognised the difficulty of finding a lender, and he proposed to give the narty his fullest helo when it met." Everybody who follows politics closely will find the phrasing here rather curious. It will be observed that the Prime Minister said that the opposition to him covered, not tho party, but "the party as at present constituted." And why did he stress so curiously "the difficulty of finding a leader" 1 What the "Liberals" may do in the way of reconstruction is of courso their own affair, and wc may leave them to their difficulties. But it is impossible to leave uncriticiscd tho Prime Minister's statement, as part of his explanation of his defeat and his precarious recovery, that "two men were now on the Liberal side of tho House entirely owing to the explanation given of the borrowing operations since he had been at the head of the Government." It is surprising_ that the Prime Minister should imagine that such a statement will be convincing to anybody. When men are anxious to break their pledges any "explanation" of anything—even an explanation of the rings of Saturn—will be a good enough pretext. The Government's tactics during the session have not at any rate led any section of tho Reform voters in the country to change opinions; and our' "Liberal" friends know this well enough. A southern Ministerialist organ prints a longish message irrm Auckland explaining "whv the North Island voted Reform," and the explanation given is that tho "Reform" victory came of a wicked use of the cry of "North against South" ! Really, we cannot venture to count all the "explanations" of their defeat that have been offered by our opponents, or to guess at the other "explanations" still to come. This one is the most ludicrous of all, and that is all that need be said of it. The southern journal referred to improved upon its correspondent's message by referring to "persistent misrepresentations," "unscrupulous appeals to the most sordid instincts," "impudent untruths," and so on; but —and this is significant—it went on to appeal to what it calls "the leaders of the progressive parties" to begin an active platform campaign. It is amusing to hear that_ during the election campaign the "Liberals" were silent while "Mr. Massey and his friends were, left with tho field to themselves." If our opponents really believe that that truly describes the election campaign we have reason to feel pleased. For the Ministerialists did their utmost on the platform and through the press; while the Reform party, although it conducted a good platform campaign, _ could easily have fought more vigorously, and can now, in its strengthened position —it is no longer fighting against the odds of two to one—entirely destroy "Liberalism" by thoroughly arousing tho whole nation.