Evening Post. MONDAY, APRIL 1, 1912. POLITICAL POTS AND KETTLES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 78, 1 April 1912, Page 6

Evening Post. MONDAY, APRIL 1, 1912. POLITICAL POTS AND KETTLES.

Self-interest helped to hold together the Parliamentary Liberal Party, which is an indifferent representation of.thr Liberal Party in New Zealand, and selfinterest may help to break it up. Before the Ministry was picked the party purported to be a very happy family. The members were nourishing one- another with dishes of unselfishness and gladdening on© another with flowing bowls of hope. Each was willing to lay down hie political ambitions for his friend, and each was secretly praying that the friend, far from accepting such a sacrifice, would nobly forestall any such offer by a spartan example of selfdenial. It was, indeed, a political dovecote, and a soft chorus of brotherliness came to the " incredulous public ear. How they then loved the .party, how they loved one another, and how they loved Now Zealand! Yet it is proving to be a "cupboard love," suggestive of a Lowell liner- j -"And Uncle Sam I reverence, partikerly his pockets." A general operation of the instinct of selfpreservation supplied a cohesive force till Mt. Massey was given a course of hope deferred, buW now that optimistic supporters of the Government believe that tho party is "safe," various units are taking the role of candid friend. While a marshal's baton lay on a shelf close to his hand, Mr. Sidey, for example, was a loyal soldier in the army of the allies, but the baton has gone out of his grasp, and he now hints at being an "insurrecto." Mr. Payne, who is constituting himself the "mysterious Mr. Jansen" of party politics, threatens another transformation of himself. It is reported that Mr. Payne's present intention is to vote against the new Administration, but as Mr." Payne is something of a lightning-change artist in politics, his latest declaration may not worry the Liberals. "Thie," says the delightful Mi\ Payne, "will prove to those people who have been howling against me in Grey Lynn that I was not married to the Ward Party, and that I took th© step I did, considering it to bo tha best in the interest of the workers, whom I really represent." Mr. Payne is displaying himself as a flickering moving picture, which may sorely strain the workers' ey«s, if they care to watch him closely — which we much doubt. Before the Opposition has finished pressing a suit against this young man for breach of promise, he is announcing that he is more or less off with the new love, and that his heart and hand may yet be for Mr. Maseey in this Leap Year of courtship. Supposing that in his final edition of himself — a giddy prospect with three monfcs of recess yet to run—Mr. Payne does vote against the Government, the Opposition' roll-call will be thirty -nine. If Mr. Massey capture* only one of the remaining malcontents, who are manifestly not scarce, ho will be able to send the Mackenzie Ministry packing off to the Governor, even if Mr. Wilford is back in time to vote for the Government. Perhaps Mr. Payne merely seeks to make- himself the man of the hour, as Mr. Atmore was on that night when Mr. Speaker threw a life-buoy to the sinking Government. Mr. Payne may have his hour, and then some other member can take a turn. It is a sore temptation to any disappointed member to "play up," to the consternation of the men on Ministerial calary, and we suspect that the eeductive stag© will not lack an actor till come drastic sceneshifting is done. Opportunity will make an actor readily. In the meantime some of the Ministers are as confident as if the Government were "whole as the marble, founded as the rock." They cheerfully overlook the shifting sands at the foundations, In the Hon. H. G. Ell's view/ for instance, the preeent margin ot two eeems to be magnified to twenty-two. He has colossal confidence in the future. He appears to no more think of going out of office than of going out of the world, to which h© i» held, alive, or dead, by eternal lawa. After praising Sir 'Joseph Ward as "one ot the leading Postmasters-General in> the world, and certainly the most able In Australasia," Mr. Ell, a& successor, disingenuously propose* some reforms. "I do not propose to attempt a revolutionary change," he remarks, "but I hope to see a. gradual extension." One cannot quarrel with such splendid optimism as this ; it compels a deep reverence. Mr. £11 and his friends are alleged, by their critics, to be riding the rapids in a crazy canoe, but Mr. Ell apparently believes himself on a liner, with water-tight compartments, in a rockless, shoalless sea. Watching this political play and by-play the people, in whose hands tho politicians ai't> as children's plaßtic«ne figures, nuy grimly