PERFORMANCES AGAINST PROMISES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16568, 4 June 1914, Page 6

PERFORMANCES AGAINST PROMISES.

After tho frank admission of tho Minister of Railways that he and his j colleagues have repented of their oppo- j &ition to the progressive measures of j tho Liberal Government and aro pre- j pared to mako what amends they can j tor tho injustice they did their oppo- j nents, it may seem a little ungracious j to revive recollections of tho "bad old days'' which Mr Massey is so anxious , to have forgotten. But while tho Prime Minister persists in posing as tho farmers' particular friend with a | burning desire to relievo them from the burdens which he says were placed j or their shoulders by tho " Seven Devils of Socialism" and their successors, he cannot be surprised if tho leader of tho Opposition occasionally delves into the political history of the nineties. Tin's is what Sir Joseph Ward | did at Devonport last night. He j wanted to show his audience that the fajmcrs for whom the- members of the Conservativc-Reforni Party aro so desperately concerned are not the small ! men occupying two or three hundred acres of agricultural land, but the givat land-holders who are hoping to reap a rich harvest from tho Government's '''vigorous administration" of the. Land for Settlements Act. Tho small farmer certainly has no grievance agrdnst tho Liberal Government. Mr Eallance prepared tho way for his getting on tho land, Sir Joseph Ward provided tho cheap money that enabled him to stay there, and Mr Seddon administered tho legislation of his colleagues in tho same sympathetic spirit as it was framed. The Liberal Government gave the small farmer cheap railway rates, freed his improvements and his stock from taxation, sought out fresh markets for his produce, furnished him with expert advice and did a hundred other things to mako his life tolerable and his business profitable. Tho best Mr Massey and his friends can say for themselves now is that they have-wot repealed tho legislation they bitterly opposed—that'they havo renounced all their former professions of faith and, to uso Mr Hcrries's pictnresquo simile, are crowding around the penitent form. Of course tho Prime Minister likes no allusion to the "bad old days." when he and his friends wore loudly denouncing tho Liberal measures they are now claiming as their own; but when ho demands that the parties shall be judged by their works the Liberals are entitled to put their achievements in tho balance. It is all .very well to urge Sir Joseph Ward to produce a policy, and no doubt in due course he will do so; but in the meantime tho electors are more likely to be impressed by what he has done in tho past than by what Mr Massey promises to do in tho future. Their memories, after all, are not so short as the Prime Minister would, wish them to -be.