MR. O’DEA AND POLITICS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 13 October 1925, Page 4

MR. O’DEA AND POLITICS.

Sir, —A good many years ago a wellknown character went up to the to pray. His prayer, though remarkable, is somewhat short, but vastly human, and it has come dowp to us through the ages for an edification and instruction. Mj. G’Dea informs us that we are behind the times, backward indeed “intellectually, industrially and politically”; but Mr. O ’Dea is “not as other men are” and is no doubt thankful; but who is thanked is another story. For improvement and a more progressive state of affairs, Mr. O ’Dea’s cure for our stagnation is for us to become Labourites and Bolsheviks through his tuition. Then a new earth would appear, whether the neiv Heaven will or not. Listen then, O! Ye slothful Taranaki people, to Mr. O’Dea’s teachings and ye Avill haye a land whose grandeur will surpass the Elysium of the ancients. lam afraid, however, we are a backward and untoward generation and slow to accept of the glorious gospel according to O’Dea. He is a groat teacher of tlie glories of Bolshevism, Ayliich comes from the modern Jerusalem marked on the maps as Moscow. Mr. O’Dea urges us to remember the Labour Party is not wealthy, yet it is able to put 60 candidates on the hustings. Do these 60 pay their oAvn expenses, or are they refunded from Moscoav ? Are they chosen by the districts, or by the party and carpetbagged to, the various districts? From Mr. O’Dea’s speeches I understand he is a strong supporter of the Moscow, Labour Camp. He is a genius in Ms AA’ay. His thoughts rise to the sublime, but often descend to the ridiculous. He is mantled by the mad genius' of poetry without the inspiration, and suffers from the gloomy symptoms of a disturbed imagination. Some of his sayings are wise; many are otherwise. He considers it is a reflection on the'districts that there are no Labour candidates. This is one of his otherwise-thoughts. Why did the party not send candidates? It was stupid of the voters not to select them. It matters not Avlicthcr the voters .are Reformers, Nationalists or Liberals they all will do their utmost to keep the plague' of Bolshevism from getting a hold amongst, them. Mr. O ’Dea may raise his reasoning to a pitch never reached by the vivid mind of Aristotle, but he cannot pro\ r e that Bolshevism, as preached by the New Zealand Labour Party, or even by, Lenin and others, has been a blessing to any community, or that the people of this district are altogether, such numskulls as to adopt any theoretical government as proposed by orders from Moscow. Macaulay tells us that philosophers in all ages delighted to convey instruction through the covering of a fable. Though not a philosopher, I make no apology for reminding Mr. O’Dca of that, of the fox and the vizor mask: “Personam tragicam forte vulpes Auderat. O quanta species inquit. cerebrum non habet. ” He will find it in Aesop.—l ,am, etc., K. McHAGGIS. Near Mt. Egmont, Oct. 10.