POLITICAL PERVERTS.

Evening Star, Issue 8767, 7 March 1892, Page 4

POLITICAL PERVERTS.

£0 THE ED1703. Sir,— The only difference between actual und political warfare ia in the enemy (Opposition, aay) of one being killed by •windy orations, and the other by the wind oi a heavy shot. It ia the duty of each to destroy the other. To know the right moment of changing front for tactical pur* poses in this moat enervating amusement ,-hould be the aim of all aspiring politicians. When the Oxford University threw Mr Gladstone overboard that wily politician at once threw himself into the Liberal ranks, and, aa perverts always do, fought desperately on the other side. His advent fco power in the next British Parliament oL course means war and the attempted dir memberment of the Empire. Weighty problems in these colonies we happily have none, the most being to pay oar debts, and those holding power to secure their seats in

Parliament and on the Treasury benches at all hazards. Watching the game is both instructive and with a touch of the divine to boot, as It has the power of endowing life with beauty and truth —a Freetrado Premier, for instance, changing front and passing through a highly protective tariff, thus securing and maintaining the patronage with emoluments of office; a clever but recalcitrant rail-sitter keenly watching on which side he should drop to secure a portfolio ; a would-be parHamcntary aspirant trying to_ grasp that ever-changing will •o’ • the wisp public opinion—to see upon which side ho should place his orating fulcrum to secure his desire—say, in an instant, from Freetradeto Protection. That tactics such as these have to be adopted is certain; yet, in spite of all, good men and true aro evolved— Sir Maurice O’Rorke, for instance, when he left the Treasury benches sooner than forsake the provincial cause; Mr Bryce’s resignation, although in the latter one feels it was Mr Bryce first, my party second (being leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition they should have acquiesced). Whatever we may think, after our lot is cast in a grand colony, which is gloriously developing ; and our education system is a good one. If, politically speaking, we are in the same kind of ecstasy as is experienced by “ Happy Eliza and converted Jane,” who have been two hot ’uns, but “ will never go wrong again,” we are on the constitutional road to success.— l am, etc., Lumper. Dunedin, March 5,