The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1896. THE OPPOSITION CAMPAIGN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCV, Issue 10918, 28 March 1896, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1896. THE OPPOSITION CAMPAIGN.

Ip Captain Russell's address at Wellington is a fair sample of the oratorical “ slings and arrows” to be employed during his platform crusade against the wicked Liberal Government, we do not think that the Ministerial armour will require much strengthening dn order to ward off the attack. The Opposition crusaders mean to carry the war into the enemy’s country with .a vengeance, for Captain Russell is reported to have said that the Conservative Party is confident of winning “every seat in Canterbury/’ which at last general election returned an unbroken array of Liberal members. Distant fields are proverbially green, and in. this case Captain Russell’s prevision of a Conservative Canterbury must be accepted as evidence of verdancy in the medium of observation. Certainly, no one here has yet been able to see any appearance of fickleness on the part of the electors that would, lead them to throw off the allegiance which they professed three years ago. But, of course, all that will be changed when Captain Russell comes, speaks and conquers, as we believe he contemplates doing. If, however, the Liberal representatives of Canterbury are to go down like so many rows of ninepins, the loader of the Opposition will have to. show greater skill and force than he has yet displayed. His Wellington address was made up largely of a repetition of the baseless charges against the Government, ; which have-been replied to ad nauseam, I but which he and his friends never • seem to tire of uttering and hearing “uttered. In two respects Captain Russell has modified these accusations. He has graciously conceded the fact that the gold-mining industry is in a flourishing condition, .and —mirabile dictu —he has actually given the Premier some credit for that happy condition of things ! He has explained his remarks concerning the effect of the Government policy on capital to be, not that money was being driven out of the country, or prevented from coming into it, but that capital in the country was merely being locked up instead of finding reproductive .employment. These are important admissions, and it argues a revival of patriotic spirit in the leader of the Opposition that he no longer allows his party, feeling to blind him to patent facts. We may hope in time

to convince. Captain Bussell and his friends that whatever locking up of capital there may be is due almost entirely to the alarmist language which they have, employed regarding the Government policy the wild prophecies of disaster which they have uttered regarding its tendency—and not to anything inherent in that policy itself. They may even be brought to recognise that the Government, instead of harassing every industry, and increasing the burdens of the poor, has been most assiduous in its efforts to foster production, trade and industry, to make employment plentiful, and to keep wages from falling. So far from Captain Bussell converting the Liberals of Canterbury to Conservatism, we incline to believe that if he would only devote sufficient time to the study and discussion of politics—keeping his mind open and refraining from mere .attempts to coi n smart phrases descriptive of Ministerial doings—he would ere long be a convert to Liberal tenets and a warm supporter of the Government policy. We have to compliment him, meanwhile, upon a distinct advance in his political development, as shown in the ■jnore gentlemanly tone of hia Wellington address and in the growing fairness of his attitude towards the Government on the two points we have mentioned. By progressing on these lines the leader of the • Opposition may not succeed in winning Canterbury for his party, but he will greatly raise himself in*the estimation of the public and vastly enhance his political reputation. ,