The Evening Star TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1908.

Evening Star, Issue 13092, 27 October 1908, Page 4

The Evening Star TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1908.

Sir JosEra Ward addressed his constituents at Winton last night, Th«Tn» while atFeilding the Leader Ltaderi. of the Opposition essayed the difficult task of answering the speech delivered by the Prime Minister in that place last week. Several corresponding passages from the two addresses might be arranged in parallel columns with enrioßS effect, and we shall adopt this method in one typical instance —the treatment of the question of expenditure an new Parliamentary Buildings. It ahouad bo promised that Mr Massey kaev jorfwfcb/ weU wiwst the Goreromeat

proposed to do in this matter, the proposals having been fully explained in Parliament as well as at Palmereton North. Mr Massey: Sir Joseph Ward : Under the Go- All that the Go- > vernment scheme vemment proposed : £400,000 would be was that the new , spent on Parlia- Parliamen'cacyßuiklment and Govern- inge should" cost ment Buildings, and £1'25,000. the deat least £50,000 i-artmeiital buildon tho Governor* ings £20,000, and the : residence. Another Governor's residence ', £50.000 would bo £25.000, or a total i spent on furnish- of 0V.25,000. Having injK-—one of the made a sensible wildest schemes ever proposal on a busisubmitted to Par- ness which nearly hanwnt, especially the whole House in the present cir- confirmed, and havcumstances of the ing worked satisfacj Colony. torily in the direcItion of dealing with the unfortunate posi- , tion brought about by the destruction of tho buildings, why should the Government be deliberately misrepre • sented in tho matter?

Sir Joseph Ward was justified in suggesting thai since the Government were deliberately misrepresented in this particular matter "to the extent of more than twice the proposed expenditure," it was nature to assume that the misrepresentation extended to other subjects. When one—or a dozen—of Mr Massey's charges against the Government are conclusively refuted, the Conservative Leader's simple plan is to repeat his original statement with some addition of emphasis. To note all the fallacies and fancies set forth at Feilding last night would be a work of supererogation. Mr Massey's estimate of the intelligence of North Island electors must be cynically low. If they believed m "single tax," and wished to "drift towairds the worst form of Socialism," and approved of waste a;id extravagance, they were to support Government candidates ; if they desired "clean" administration, etc., let them place tho Opposition in power. All the okl claptrap and familiar catchwordsmost of which did duly three years ago and have been in more or lees active service ever since—were in evidence, and Mr Maesey is not likely to leave them behind when he visits South Canterbury. In justice to his powers of originality, however, it should be stated that he has added a /ew fresh misstatements to his repertory. For instance, the Advances to Settlers Department was declared to have "temporarily broken down," though in the same hour Sir Joseph Ward was explaining at Winton that the payments made by the department during October and November would be little less than £600,000. The so-called policy of the Opposition is for the most, as Sir Joseph says, "a bundle of negatives." while such positive features as it possesses are either undesirable or largely borrowed from the Literal party. Native Land Keform, Education Reform, Conciliation and Arbitration, the encourage'ment of Immigration on cautkws lines, "purity of politics a.nd honesty of administration "—these all belong to the Government policy, past and present, and Mr Massey's claims are quite invalid. But, in matters of this kind, bi6 sense of political "meurn" and "taum"' was always defective. Sir Joseph Ward's speech at Winton was rather too heavily weighted with statistics, but this excess of statistical evidence is at least preferable to the almost entire absence of supporting fact which is so noticeable in the diatribes of the Opposition. The Prime Minister always gives chapter and verse for his statements, and it would be unfair to blame him because the figures and other details are apt to become rather wearisome. We ventured to predict that Mi- James Allen would have a, bad quarter of an hour when his newspaper came to hand this morning, and we were not wrong. The fatuous recklessness of the reference to a possible financial "default" on the paxt of the Dominion was exposed at Winton in its true colors, and Sir Joseph Ward went so far as to say that "ho did not know that he had "ever seen a statement coming from a " public man that he regretted more than "that statement coming from Mr Allen." It remains to be seen whether the exposure and the rebuke will have a steadying effect upon the tactics of the Opposition.