THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1909. MR. W. F. MASSEY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14144, 20 August 1909, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 1909. MR. W. F. MASSEY.

Citisens of every shade of political opinion will cordially agree that no active statesman of this Dominion has given more gratuitous or more devoted service to the country than has Mr. W. F. Massey. Such spoils as are to be gathered after political campaigns fall to the victors and not to the vanquished, while the emoluments which sweeten office and the extensive patronage which lightens Ministerial labour and provides a host of willing helpers have no existence to the Leader of Opposition. Our British Parliamentary system is still based upon tho. assumption that those who take an active interest in political life will do so in their leisure and at their own expense and although the colonies now universally pay their representatives in Parliament, as well as the Ministers of the Crown, only Canadawith its Gallic sense ' for weakness in British methods—has legislatively recognised that a Leader of the Opposi-

tion is as much a servant of the pub-

lic when Parliament has adjourned

as other members are while Parlia-

ment is sitting. Yet this is very evi-

dent. Unless a Leader of the Oppo-

sition allows politics to drift and party to become chaotic, he must in- ; cessantly keep " the other side" be- ( fore the public, and must strenu- ; ously keep the machinery of Opposi- j, tion in working order. The Govern- 1 • ment have a strong and practised cohort of Ministers, who, inevitably ■ mingling public duty with party . policy, lose no opportunity of placing , all Ministerial schemes and proposals in the best possible light, and of strengthening and multiplying the j, bonds of party allegiance. Only those who fail to perceive the absolute necessity of constant criticism, . if the national Government is to bo kept from degenerating into a bureaucracy of tho most tyrannical i kind, would desire to see a collapse | of the political machinery which ; makes intelligent criticism a part of our complex public life. The main- ; tenance of an Opposition which, representing a different view of the political course pursued by the Government, offers constantly to the public an alternative Cabinet, is as , essential to sound administration as it is to civic liberty. Yet no public provision is madeexcepting in Canada—for the maintenance of this desirable and necessary Opposition. While paid Ministers, with ample clerical assistance and the resources of every Department at their command, strengthen and defend the party in power and strain every energy to persuade the public that everything they do is* not only justifiable, but is the only thing that could be done, the leaders of an Opposition must toil unpaid and without State-paid assistance, and

with ,no statistical information excepting that to be exhumed from blue books and year books and Departmental reports and other Parliamentary papers. In New Zealand, the great burden of initiating Parliamentary criticism upon administrative - proposals and of keeping alive throughout the country the political organisation which gives weight to political criticism, has fallen mainly upon Mr. Massey. His opponents will acknowledge frankly, what his supporters declare admiringly, that in doing this he has performed a national service, and that this national service will be fittingly recognised though in no way recompensed by the national presentation to be made to him at the Choral Hall to-night. Loyal and patriotic citizens may have the same political ideals while differing strongly as to the best means of attaining those ideals. Political differences are.largely due to circumstances and to temperament, and it is the common experience that men may often respect a worthy political antagonist a great deal more .than they can some less worthy politically. . And of Mr. Massey it can unhesitatingly be said that he is respected from one end of New Zealand to the other, that there is no respected citizen in the Dominion who doubts the personal honour or the political integrity of the Leader of the Opposition. In the political arena many hasty words are said, many thoughtless? charges made, but even the hasty instinctively avoid that which merely makes them ridiculous to others and remorseful in themselves— would any allegation which reflected upon the honour and the integrity of Mr. Massey. This in itself is a testimonial. And if it can be said that others are as honourable honour being, like kindness, a virtue in which there is no rivalryit can hardly be said that Others have as much political courage. For patient political endurance and undaunted political pluck Mr. Massey is without a peer. Year after year, for session after session, for Parliament after Parliament, be has inspired criticism and rallied opposition. The long strain of an intermin- - able fight against odds has not broken his spirit nor weakened his principles. He has asked no quarter and has given none, has been beaten a hundred times and has come cheerfully to be beaten again—until the sheer desire for peace has given him influence in unexpected quarters and wo hear a grumbling assertion that the legislation of New Zealand is being moulded by Mr. Massey. This is not literally true. The legislation , of New Zealand would be very much sounder upon certain lines if MrMassey—with his hereditary agricul-

tural instinct and his ingrained ; cau-

[ tion— to the helm of State. But it is true enough that the Leader of the Opposition, whose watchfulness is proverbial and whose appetite for battle is insatiable, has [■ become a factor to be considered in any Ministerial calculation of the political outlook, and is becoming a stronger factor as the public acquires. a better I understanding of his political atti- ; tude. That Mr. Massey makes mistakes his friends will at once admit, for ho is fortunately, independent j enough in himself to appreciate inI dependence in others but his mistakes are remarkably few, and his political insight is rarely at fault as to what is best for the country at large and for the agricultural country in particular. He "is an honest man, a born leader, a gallant fighter, ' a shrewd politician, and a capable ■■ ! statesman. Public recognition has ! seldom been better deserved than is . the recognition to be accorded to- • night to the Leader of the Opposi- • 1 tion.