THE RUMOURED DISCORD IN THE CABINET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12736, 13 December 1904, Page 5

THE RUMOURED DISCORD IN THE CABINET.

LITTLE IDIOSYNCBACIES.

[BY TELEGRAPH. OWN CORRESPONDENT.] DtrNEDis, Monday. Tirr, Southland Times reverts to the alleged discord in the Cabinet, and, while accepting the statement of the Premier and Sir Joseph Ward, submits that it drew a reasonable inference from +he facts that strained relations existed between them. "The Premier's action at Omakau," says the Invercargill journal, "looked like discourtesy, but in accepting the Premier's disclaimer of any intended slit-lit upon Sir Joseph Ward, we must conclude that his ideas of politeness are as peculiar as his conception of veracity. We had other grounds than those mentioned in Tuesday's article for the opinion expressed that the Premier and his next in command did not pull together, hut we dismiss them all from our mind. It is pleasant to know that our friends in political circles in Wellington, have been entirely wide of the mark in their conclusions, and inaccurate in their observations. As between ordinary men, the little things they have noticed would bear only one construction, but as between the Premier and Sir. Joseph Ward they have no significance. They are merely the expression of little idiosyncrasies, say, of Sir. iSeddoti's " rugged bluffaess' of speech and demeanour. The fact that Mr. Seddon appears in company with Sir Joseph Ward just as seldom as possible is not to be attributed to a desire to avoid comparisons which might he odious, but simply to exigencies of public business. In this case, in, short, the only construction which facts would bear in normal conditions is entirely wrong. There are a hundred and one points of evidence in support of our expressed opinion that all is not well' between Mr. Seddon and Sir Joseph Ward. On the other hand, there is the Ministerial statement that they have the .warmest regard and admiration for each other. Well, we did not expect either the Premier or Minister for Railways to say anything else. What else could they say?''