THE SUPERIOR AIR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15511, 11 January 1911, Page 8

THE SUPERIOR AIR.

Pep.ii.ats tho Opposition organ in Wellington is most entertaining when it assumes a lofty air of superiority. In its twenty-third or twenty-fourth dissertation on tho "failure” of the five million loan—which it " had hoped,” by tho way, "would not bo necessary ” —it takes us to task, more in sorrow than in anger, for having quoted a sentence or two from tho "British Financier” commending Sir Joseph Ward for having gone “ boldly to tho London monoy market ” and for the “ singularly open and straightforward” character of his appeal without printing the whole of the article in which thoy appeared. " The incident,” our contemporary says, “ is thoroughly characteristic of tho methods that the friends of the Government, delight inusing—methods which fortunately the public knows so well that it is long since any reliance was placed by thoughtful people in tho ministerialist newspapers’ defence of the Government’s financial activities.” What was the incident which was so characteristic of such dreadful methods? Simply that instead of printing half a column of matter that had no bearing on tho question wo were discussing, we took the few lines that provided a complete answer to the assertion of the opponents of the Government that the loan had been badly managed. Looking at the article again wo are inclined to think that we should have made our case even stronger if we had quoted tho whole paragraph In which the allusions to Sir Joseph Ward occurred. We will do so now in order that the public may judge for themselves: — There was no secrecy whatsoever about the issue of tho loan. It- was authorised months ago by the dominion Parliament, and though the policy of borrowing so heavily for publio works of doubtful utility was severely criticised, the Ward Ministry were universally commended for going boldly on the London money market instead of adhering to the vicious system established under the Seddon regime of small local loans at heavy discounts, with veiled commissions and all sorts of wrongdoings. Then the prospectus itself, when it appeared in the principal london papers last week, must have struck everyone who can read between the lines of such documents ar a singularly open and straightforward announcement.

•We may have grown deplorably callous in tho pursuit of those methods in which the friends of the Government delight, but we must confess that we can see nothing very shocking in withholding an extremely ungenerous reference to the Seddon regime which was grossly inaccurate and quite unnecessary to the eulogy of Sir Joseph Ward. The most remarkable feature of tho incident, to our mind, is the brazen effrontery of a journal that has deliberately misquoted tho prices of stocks for the purpose of discrediting tho Government setting up as a teacher of newspaper morality. Only last week tho Opposition organ in Wellington added no less than 37s 6d to the price of Victorian 34 per cent stock, 30s to the price of Tasmanian stock and 22s 6d to the price of Queensland stock, with the object of making New Zealand stock appear at. a greater disadvantage in comparison with these securities, and now it has the impudence to denounce the “ministerial newspapers” that have exposed its dishonesty as “ utterly reckless and unscrupulous.” Satan reproving sin would be quite a mild performance compared with this extraordinary exhibition.