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North Otago Times, 5 December 1910, Page 2

IS IT PAIR FIGHTING ?. The ecstatical : rapture with which Messrs Lloyd-George and Winston puirchiU- go into an election encounter and the manner in which they malign and lampoon their political opponents has no counterpart in the Dominion of New Zealand, • if •w.e except- perhaps Mr T. B. ,Taylor, who i' 3 on the highest plane ot his political aspirations when he; has the head of somebody in chancery and is dealing with it so vigorously that there is always a doubt • in the minds of those who do not know Mr Taylor whether.- the head will be recognisable after he has 'finished with it. Messrs LloydGeorge and Winston Churchill are ciever men r and can make speeches with an abundance of excellent material in them, but they cannot resist the temptation to "sling it ofl ! ' at the ['''Dukes'.', and other members of the aristocracy, wh 0 are fn no way responsible' for the' fact that they hold a position in the political life of the country that most people believe should carry with it no privileges whatever, The sincerity of Mr Winston Churchill, too, is open to 'question, for- he is a close relative of the Duke of Marlborough who is one of those the pair have gone out to lampoon, It is in decidedly bad taste that two, British Cabinet Ministers should rake the gutter for the offensive material that they 'have been so freely distributing over the persons of their political opponents, for it is not only the "'Dukes" who are the subjects, oi the shots fired by the two !gentlemen. Their recent attacks have bear Bo peculiarly personal and sometimes malignspt that the Continental press has taken upon itself the duty of'remonstrating with the two Ministers; and when tne Continental newspapers believe they are justified in referring to the deplorable exhibition two British Cabinet Ministers are making of themselves; the conduct with which they find fault must be outrageously bad.' We are not concerned with the result of the Home elections, for Whig and Tory are to the colonial mind almost one and indivisable; they are six of one and half & dozen of. the" other. The reform of the House of Lords is a' necessity,, but isut not undignified on the part of a Cabinet Minister to overlook the great national . ojiiestion involved ;in its reform to throw mud.;at.individuals? The national. ph'ase;cof; ? is obviously order • that the: usually more keenly tickles,the./ears' of the groundlings-may be: indulged in. Mr Aso|Uith'a: style of oratory may not be capable, of. ''rounding; up" an Bast End audience.so effectively -as that, of Messrs Llolyd-' George and Churchill, biut it at least carries with.it.all the attributes of the'natural gentleman. It is - needless to say. that, the . two gentlemen to whom we .have, referred have, not yet attained to .that, distinguishing mark,