The Evening Star TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1908.

Evening Star, Issue 13104, 10 November 1908, Page 4

The Evening Star TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1908.

" Wiikrk '.vould they be without the Mas-sey-Allen combination in Unit*. '• politicsasked Mr Donald Iteid, the well-known local lawyer, and a former representative of the electorate in Parliament, at. the Opposition banquet in Milton last night. The playful allusion to “the Masscy-Harris in agriculture “ may turn out to have been more appropriate than the speaker supposed, for it is quite possible that in the new Parliament the “Ma^ey-Allen combination’’ will indeed have become (in a Dickensian sense) a Massey-Harris combination. Our readers remember Mrs Gamp’s familiar friend, “Mrs Harris,” con'■~"ning whom the audacious Mrs Prig ' ’lv declared that she “didn’t believe ’ re was no sich a person.” It would he „ad state of matters if there wore to ho ‘ n o sich a person ” as Mr James Allen in iho seventeenth New Zealand Parliament —especially as it seema that the late member for Brace has been retained as Minister of Defence as well as Minister of Finance in that Massey Administration which is the fond if rather forlorn “dream” of Conservative idealists. While Mr Allen was being banqueted at Milton, Mr Mosley, the Liberal candidate, was

opening his campaign at Stirling. While the fancied glories of New Zealand Conservatism, past, present, and future, were being toasted amid genial postprandial influences at the one place, some home-truths were being told about the real history and tendencies of that same Conservatism at the other. At Milton high honor was paid to the public spirit and patriotism of the Minister of Defence in posse—the latterday George Washington, who never told anything but “the barbarously naked truth ’; at Stirling, on the other hand, this was Mr Mosley’s story : they had heard it said in that hall by one of his opponents that about £900,000 had to be found, while the Government had not a penny to meet it with, and if suddenly called upon for the amount they would have to make default. He had heard the same statement made fourteen years ago by the same individual. Not one of the gloomy predictions of the past had come true. The country was prosperous, and had been prosperous all along the line. Any public man who made such statements decrying unjustifiably the financial position of the country was no true patriot. There are patriots and patriots. As Mr Malcolm says, “the barbarously naked truth is a little brutal sometimes ” ; but on the whole it may bo said that Mr .Mosley let his opponent down lightly. Few words to bo found in the dictionary would fce too strong to characterise the tactics which are being employed against the Government in relation to financial matters. It is true that Mr Allen roared very gently at the banquet last night, but he does not practise a similar restraint on other occasions, and the Liberal electors of Bruce are not likely to forget that the Government and party of progress have no bitterer or more determined enemy in the whole Dominion. Unfortunately Mr Mosley is obviously handicapped by the belatcdness of his appearance in the arena. V e cannot hold him altogether blameless in this respect. He should not have waited till the eleventh hour; his candidature ought to have been declared on the day after 51 r Loudon's withdrawal (the finality of which, by the way, should never have been questioned). Still, he and his many political friends must make the best of the few remaining days, and there is not the slightest ground for despair. The Bruce M inistcralists, who have shown the strength of their forces on more than one previous occasion, may be expected to rally round the new candidate ; for Mr Tyndall’s politics are, to speak plainly, of the “impossible” order. Mr .Mosley gave good reasons for his political faith last night, and he should be kept busy during the next week in exposing the fallacies and misrepresentations of his admittedly formidable opponent. No doubt many of the electors have been misled by the ridiculous plea that the Government are hostile to the farming interest, but it is not too late to bring them to a realisation of the truth—“ the barbarously naked truth,” “ which is a little brutal sometimes.” We are disposed to thank Mr Malcolm for teaching us that word. In reference to this same stern truthfulness, we may note in conclusion that Mr Mosley's remarks on the Advances to Workers Act furnish an interesting commentary on Mr Donald Reid’s amazing statement (as reported) that the Act in question was “introduced by Mr Massey. ” This flight of fancy seems to have been rather too much for Mr Reid’s own conscience, for he expressed a hope that “ he was not straying outside the record.” Outside the record, indeed! He had flown incontinently to “the land east of the sun and west of the moon.”