Lake Wakatip Mail. QUEENSTOWN, TUESDAY, MAY 12, 1908 MR MASSEY ON TOUR.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2659, 12 May 1908, Page 4

Lake Wakatip Mail. QUEENSTOWN, TUESDAY, MAY 12, 1908 MR MASSEY ON TOUR.

Mr Massey, the hard-working and strenurous leader of the Opposition, has recently been touring the Dominion spying out the land. As far as the South Island was concerned and all the way up the North Island until Gisborne was reached, Mr Massey neither addressed a public meeting nor granted a press interview. He had only come, he said, to have a quiet chat, aud to gee a few people and then, in a burst of confidence, he would add " and I am delighted with our prospects." With the beat will in the world we fail to see what Mr MaS3EY has to be pleased over. We are aware that the Ward Governmentis not an ideal Government. Sir Joseph is far too sanguine; ministers are too obviously afraid of the workers' vote and thare have been several blunders—such as that of the Oteknike leases—in administration, but' we are none the less convinced that the country is not going to throw over Sir J. G. Ward in order to make Mr Massey king. Whatever changes the the wisdom of the electors may decide on next November the return to power of Mr Massey is not among them. It is Strang* that either Mr Massey or Mr Fraser should think otherwise. The Opposition have not the least, chance of coming out victorious. There may be a smaller Government following but the falling away will not add to the numerical strength of the Opposition. The deserters will be in the direction of an independent, socialist, or labor party. We do not profess to admire this probable outcome as we are not supporters of the three party system in democratic politics. There is not room for more than two parties and under one or the other there is ample scope for such political differences as exist in New Zealand- We have no wish to see the Government at the mercy of a party that demands its price under threat of turning them out of office. Australia affords more than one shocking example of what this sort of thing leads to, though as long as men are dead to reasou and blind with prejudice and selfishness for so long there is always a chance of the three party farce coming into being. What, however, we desire to make clear is that a party whose politics are as non progressive as those of the Opposition led bv .Mr Massey has no hope of winning a majority in New Zealand. We admire their devotion to duty, the strength of their criticisms, the conmon sense of many of their objections and proposals but it cannot be affirmed that thsy have inspired their fellow colonists with a belief in their fitness for office. A j fanatic clinging to the blessiog of freehold tenure, an indiscriminate denunciation of everything as " Socialistic," the iteration of the wonderful things the Opposition has caused the Government to do and puerile remarks about " compromise " (the essence of all democratic legislation is compromise and the sooner Mr Massey has learned this simple elementary principle of political science the better) are not enough—as Mr Massey will find. It is no use for him to shelter himself behind the very old and very foolish (whatever it was when first coined) saying " When we are called into prescribe we will tell you our prescription, not before " because now-vdays electors want to know exactly what those who ask for their support propose to do for them. And it is equally futile to assert " We have stated our policy; examine our speeches." They must put their policy on half s sheet of note-paper," or into a dozen " planks" that can be remembered.