The Northern Advocate THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 1912. THE WORSHIPPERS.

Northern Advocate, 6 June 1912, Page 4

The Northern Advocate THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 1912. THE WORSHIPPERS.

EVERYBODY has known for a long time past that New Zealand has stepped into front rank among the nations upon earth, thanks to the past Ward administration, but until telegraphed news came from Invercargill yesterday anent the banqueting and junketing Of the ex-Premier, we had not been aware thai this country was regarded as ,the actual hub of the universe by foreign Powers; all due, of course, to the omnipotence of Sir J. G. Ward, whose name is "famous throughout the Empire." For a supposedly hard-headed, practical Scotchman, Mr Mackenzie went to surprising extremes of sickly sycophancy in his adulation of the deposed head of the "liberal" party, whom he plastered from head to foot with flattery, sufficiently thick to satisfy even the conceit of the one and only baronet. If this flummery and. fulsome praise describes the sentiment of the "Liberals" as a whole, it is significant of that party being in such a bad way that it has no one among the present heads in whom it has confidence, and that nothing remains to it but the dimmed! tinsel-glory of its ex-chieftain. Thej attitude of the party resembles that of a very ancient people whose despairing cry "Oh, Baal, hear us" was vainly made to an impotent idol; or, to quote another Biblical parallel, when the children of Israel corrupted themselves by the worship of a graven image in the shape of a golden calf. "There were some puny intellects," said the Premier, "who tried to frustrate the efforts of their distinguished guest, but difficulties to some men were converted by him into steppingstones." The Premier is not over courteous, and it would be a fair retort tc point out that those "puny intellects" put the Ward administration out of power despite the superior intellects (such as Mr Mackenzie) ranged on the other &ide, who were unable to supplement the "efforts of the distinguished guest" to rise on the step-ping-stones of millions of borrowed money and experimental legislation. We know now, in the light of the Premier's declaration, that' it was the mighty Sir Joseph who averted Armageddon at the time of the Anglo-Ger-man crisis by the gift of a Dread- j nought, "which made Europe pause." With one wave of the Ward wand the belligerent Continent subside'! into abject submission, the Kaiser shrank terrified into his shoes, the Emperor of Austria completely collapsed, and the King of Italy had to summon his medical adviser in great haste, while the Czar of Russia cried "peccavi" and cabled to Sir, Joseph to be merciful. Surely the "Liberal" party betrays by this pitiful balderdash and waste of words that it has no stability, or other-

wise we should have had some evidence before now that it was capable of something better and more to the point than vain promises and empty twaddle.