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Hastings Standard, Issue 153, 23 October 1896, Page 2

belittling anil slandering the occupants of the Treasury benches as a political programme. If we turn to the other side, we have to fall back upon the Governor's Speech of -Tune last for the policy. Old Age Pensions, State Fire Insurance, Usury Prevention, and a few other measures, mostly in the interests of labor, form the principal stock-in-trade. True an elaborate policy was submitted by some thickheaded Liberals in "Wellington, but that policy has not received the approval of the responsible leaders of the party. The Government, of course, will call to its aid its past history, will harp on the boneficient results of its banking legislation, which we doubt; will recast the policy admumeratcd in the Governor's Speech, and with a guttural noise will warn the electors of the danger* of submitting the country to the domination of the Conservatives. We do not hear from Mr Seddon his old war cry of the " Continuous Ministry.' It will never do to use that battle-song now, for Mr It. J. Seddon has already had six years of office, and is quite willing to continue in ollicc for another six years. Tn point of fact, the struggle of the next few weeks will be whether the present Government is to remain in oilice and so earn the distinction of being a '-Continuous Ministry," or whether those who have had a spell for six years shall have the opportunity of shaping the destinies of the colonv. \\ e see no statesmanlike policy from either side, but we see the same old hungry desire to remain in oilice, which when exhibited bv the other side was i\ crime, and an extreme anxiety to secure oilice, which is also a crime. The policy of NewZealand politicians knows no variation—it has always been and probably will always be '• Place, Power, and Pav."' It is a policy of self-seeking, of personal aggrandisement-, yet we cannot complain. Our politicians are what we make them.