The Hastings Standard Published Daily. MONDAY, NOV. 16, 1896. THE CAPTAIN OF THE SHIP.

Hastings Standard, Issue 172, 16 November 1896, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily.

MONDAY, NOV. 16, 1896. THE CAPTAIN OF THE SHIP.

For the cause that lacks assistance, F>: r the wrongs that need resistance, Fcr the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

We all know that the captain of a vessel has supreme command. On him falls the responsibility, and therefore he is vested with great powers. Though supreme on the quarter-deck the captain's power has its limitations; and there have been occasions when the skipper has been brought to book by his junior officers. The circumstances that force the mates to strong action against the captain must be a very powerful nature. The safety of the

vessel is the chief consideration of the captain and his officers, and the skipper must be negligent to an extreme degree before his officers will turn upon him. xYpart from such circumstances, the captain's will is law. He is the responsible party. So in the political sea there must be a captain to steor the party ship. Mr Seddon is for the time being the chief of the Liberal Party; on him rests the responsibility, and so long as he steers the ship with due regard to safety the passengers and crew are not likely to quarrel with him. To say that he is autocratic because he exercises his judgment in steering the ship is to beg the question. He may appear autocratic, but the appearance is not reality. How has the Premier steered the ship of State'? Has he run the country into any danger of collapse ? Has not there been actual and real progress during the past six years'? Has not the condition of the people improved under the regime of the present Government'? Mr Seddon, as Premier, is no more perfect than the other Prime Ministers that have preceded him in the government of New Zealand. While there can be no claim to perfection, there is ample reason for saying that Mr Seddon is by far the most powerful, vigorous, industrious, and far-seeing of all the Premiers that have held sway in New Zealand. The charge of autocracy levelled at Mr Seddon is one of those foolish fancies with which his opponents have deluded themselves into believing and hope to hoax the electors also into accepting as a fact. The charge establishes this fact, that the Conservatives are without any weapon that could be used against the Government. The electors are not so blind or foolish as to be led away by such stuiY and nonsense. To say that Mr Seddon is an autocrat because in Ins capacity as the leader of a great party and Prime Minister of the day he uses his judgment and exercises his authority as ho deems best is so much Tory flapdoodle. What the electors want to know is, in what respect the present Government have abandoned their duty to the country. The electors want to know the errors of omission and commission, and not whether Mr Seddon is an autocrat or a Pooh Bah. The electors will judge the Government by the amount of progress, the amount of freedom they, the electors, have secured under the legislation promoted by the Liberal party. To convince the electors that a change of Government is desirable, it is necessary to prove that their land policy is bad and worthless, that their financial policy is detrimental to the country, that their labor legislation is ruinous, and that they have been extravagant and profligate in their administration. When the Opposition is able to convince the electors on these points, then we have not the least doubt that there will be a change of Government.

The task is beyond the power of the Conservatives to accomplish. The legislation of the present Government, studded though it may be with faults, is a monument to their ability, their altruism, and proves that the interests of the colony have not been neglected. The work accomplished by the Seddon Government is good, and the electors had better stick to the devil they know than take up with one they don't know. We shall see when the numbers are up whether the electors of New Zealand consider Mr Seddon a political autocrat or the country's benefactor.