The Evening Star SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1909.

Evening Star, Issue 14001, 6 March 1909, Page 6

The Evening Star SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1909.

Mr T. K. Sidey’s association with the Cavorsham electorate

Mr Sidey has been marked by an and his unusual degree of harConstituents. mouy and general pleasantness. True, ho has had to fight for his seat on four occasions, but his majority has always been substantial, and on more than one occasion it has been overwhelming; while, the battle over, his opponents have appeared to agree with his supporters that the interests of the constituency were in eminently safe hands. That fine old term, “ a scholar and a gentleman,” is fairly applicable to Mr Sidey; and study and culture have not had the effect in his case—whicli perhaps they have in some instances—of inducing a fastidious aloofness from the workaday details of political life. In his own words:

The term gentleman had been used as a disqualification to represent the district, but ho was certain that the possession of gentlemanly qualities was not likely to stand in the way of a man having a warm appreciation for, and a warm sympathy with, the masses of the people. Ho claimed to he actuated by that feeling of sympathy for the masses and by a desire to work for an amelioration of thencondition.

Industrious, broad-minded, alert, and reasonably accessible—displaying practical ability and well-informed thoughtfulness in his public utterances—it is no wonder that Mr Sidey is a persona grata with the people of Caversham and South Dunedin, and the complimentary social at winch he was entertained last night furnished an opportunity for the expression of appreciative sentiments which are not confined to ono political party. Indeed, nothing was said about politics in the more restricted sense, and the proceedings were none the leas enjoyable on that account. One of the speakers hinted at the possibility or likelihood of the guest of the evening attaining Cabinet rank at no very distant date. Unlikelier things have happened, but (to qualify praise with a word of criticism) we could wish that Mr Sidey, in alluding to this suggestion, bad not remarked that “ the 1 ‘ past work he had done was a sufficient guarantee as to the possession “of a certain amount of administrative “ capacity, oven though he said it him“sclf.” The actual validity of the claim is unquestionable, but the use of the half-apologetic phrase “ though he said it himself ” does not alter the fact that a man docs well to allow his friends a monopoly of making such claims on his behalf. For the rest, Mr Sidoy’s speech was in excellent taste, and he and his constituents are alike to be congratulated on a notable manifestation of mutual attachment and good feeling.