ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 1914. MR MASSEY AND THE COAST.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVIII, Issue 70, 24 March 1914, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 1914. MR MASSEY AND THE COAST.

The Prime Minister has had, and is j having, what he himself would no ! doubt term a "rattling good tame" on the West Coast. Every where Mr Massey has gone he has had an enthusiastic recjepjbion, The Prime Minister's | naturally bluff and genial good riatur.e \ has made, him a' pefsona grata with ! people who spieoially appreciate such.; qualities; everywhere tiie note of; j good fellowship has been. • struck. Quite naturally, there is an inclination on the part of many journals, in commenting upon the success of the ' Ministerial tour-y to* assume that at t&e next election the "Reform" party will capture the West Coast seats. Our own opinion is that the Greymouth seat; at leastf,will be won by Mr Massey's candidate, and this, we may say at once, we should regard' as ] an erent most sincerely to bo hoped ' for, not only in the interest of the I Grey electorate, but in the interest of i tne Dominion. Mr Webb, tlie sitting j Member, is an avowed "Red Fedisti," ] and as such we would willingly see ] him replaced by a "Reform" candidate. But M r Massjey, we feel con- ! vinoed, is quite shrewd enough to re-( cognise that much of the enthusiasm with which he lias been greeted on the Coast is due far more to a lively sense of possible favors (Public Works Fund favors) to come than any deepseated, honest opinion that the present Government is one whit better than tho Mackenzie, the Ward, or the Seddon Administrations. The West Coaster wants roads and bridges, and public works spoon-feeding generally. 'He has been used to Itf in the past, and now that "King Dick" is np longer the dispenser of publio benevolence and that Sir Joseph I Ward lies under a-cloud, the much -favored W&st Coafet has arrived at ! tihe conclusion that the wisest course to pursue is to make-friends with the I party in power. The ihope of good j things to come, good things for which. j the Dominion taxpayers will eventual[|y have to pay, is really at the bottom1 of all the triumphal arches, the blaring of brass bands, the passing of I congratulatory resolutions by so-called Chambers of Commerce, consisting (on j the Coast) of three men and an office i -boy-^in short, all the spurious political enthusiasm which, on the surface, counts as an, expression of general public opinion. Mr Mas^ey, however, is by this time a sufficiently experienced politician to estimate at its ixjal value all this excitement. -It is *asy to be popular" on the Coast if you can promise a sufficiently lara 6 expenditure of nublio money. But Mr Maspov would do well to remember what Mr bortdon was too often wont to for?get—although Mr Massey, when in Op-' , position, was always ready to remind j him of the fact—namely, that there j are other districts besides the West • Loast which stand in real need of "their rich natural resour©& being developed ; nr.the.aid. of,pisJio money. The Prime Minister may yet find that those who have noisily acclaimed his political virtues at Hokitika,' Kumara, and elsewhere on the Coast, will expect, in du.e course^ a very substantial quid i>ro quo out 'of the Treasury; that Treasury to which the contributions, of the West'XJoast are in such iamentabte disproportion +0 the insatiable greed' of its contributors for the expenditure of public money. Just now- the, West Coast seems vnelinM to make as .great a hero of "King Bill" ?.<* it wa^ in bygoße- days. to make of "King Dick."' But "Kin<* Bill" when lie cam*s *n foot, the bill—with the-aid of the Minister for Public Works and the 'Minister for Finance yot find that political popularity oii the Coast can be bought too dearly.