PATRIOTIC PRIDE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 7601, 21 February 1896, Page 2

PATRIOTIC PRIDE.

Mr Ward is cultivating a proper pride. When he addressed the electors of Chriatchurch recently, in the vain attempt to induce them to accept the Government candidate as their representative, ]ie \7aa ao!:ed why h n , was not oftener at performing the duties he was paid by the State to carry. One of Ids retorts was that lie could attend to his department from Invercargill by wire, but as he is in receipt oTa large sum per annum —over two "tiioaoantl perando, counting all forms of expenses and allowances---to watch over the affairs of the country, it would be in better form if he attended to that business first, in Wellington, and try what conducting his .owJQ bu_3[iiosii at l'nvercarpili by wire woijld tn#i?3< 'Bat that :g only by the way. It if? liis patriotic pndp tliat 'h to be specially ii: UcGd ' One it appears, had conceived the idea that ivir Wttfd vtss not personally intending to the matters oi by department, and the friend of the people £e~ pl;ecl. Ha sjijcl ihf?,t. a,s nr, administrator, " he was not going fco make himselE into a store clerk, put a pen behind his ear, and pore over the Gov.ernment ledgers weak after week, and month after iponth, to please anybody !" Of course ii would be very wrong to suggest that the great M r Wftrd. win) has (ljnct)—at this colony'g

cost—at a London establishment j where (as ho in truly patriotic taste | boasted) tho cook was paid two j thousand a year, should lower himself j by placing a pen behind his car. That! would indeed be dreadful, seeing that ho is such a patriot. And as to him sinking to tho level of a common store clerk, who is not above poring over ledgers if ho is paid to do that work, why, of course, the thing is outrageous. Liberalism would have come to a pretty pass if that were expected from its shining lights. Yet as he is paid a largo sum in connection with that very work of poring over ledgers, and apparently is not willing to do it for fear of degrading himself, it might not be a j bad idea for him to leave politics and the emoluments which follow from them. Ho is evidently of too fine a grain for this work-a-day world, and should resign the office and the salary for which ho is indebted to the people, and confine himself to transcendental reflections upon the Colonial Bank. Patriotic pride is scarce in these days, and it is therefore refreshing to find Mr Ward so contemptuous in his references to store clerks.