TRYING TO BE CHEERFUL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16358, 30 September 1913, Page 6

TRYING TO BE CHEERFUL.

Ir the Press Association has not done a grave injustice to the Prime Minister J and his friends, it was a very sad and J sober " Reform rally" which took place at Palmerston North last night. The hall was only "well filled," and the speeches evoked only " a fair amount of enthusiasm." When the party last travelled north, a little more than a year ago, to show its respect for the member for the district, as it did last night, the eama hall, according to the same authority, was crowded to suffocation, and the speeches evoked the wildest enthusiasm. But if the speeches delivered by Mr Fisher and Mr Massey on this occasion are at all fairly reported, some diminution in the intensity of the enthusiasm well may be pardoned. The Minister of Customs appears to have started off with the laudable intention of reciting the notable achievements of the Reformers during their first year of office, but to have stopped short after mentioning tho fact that " military pensions had been extended." Simply that, and nothing more. From this he proceeded to hint, most unkindly, at the possibility of tho Reformers being defeated at the polls next year, and to urge the necessity of a vigorous electioneering campaign during the coming recess. Mr Massey himself, if we may trust the soulless reporter, did scarcely better. Ho told the fairly enthusiastic audience that every pledge the Reformers had made "would be given effect to"; that in a "month or two"—it used to be "probably next week"—ho would be able to speak about the Government's naval policy; that he had proved his sympathy with the poor by helping settlers who had been burnt out of their homes, and that the Reform Party was the most loyal and united party—including Mr Millar and Mr Clark, of course—that ever had been known. Othor members of the party spoke, and then the meeting resolved itself into " a social"— to tho report of this gathering of mighty men on tho Government Bide of the House concludes. But something more than this, surely, must have happened. We refuse to believe that in a stronghold of Reform such a sad and sober rally of the I oarty is already possible.