THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1911. SIR JOHN FINDLAY AT PARNELL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14807, 10 October 1911, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1911. SIR JOHN FINDLAY AT PARNELL.

"Wjsre Sir John Findlay a more seasoned Commoner, he would feel exceedingly satisfied with the somewhat .temptestuous but altogether goodtempered reception which greeted .him last night in Parnell. ' For it showed, at any rate, that Auckland has heard of him, and not to be heard of is the worst trouble of a democratic politician. * Sir. John's speech must have somewhat surprised many of his audience, particularly those who expected a defence of the Government attitude in respect to certain matters in which 'Auckland and Parnell are deeply interested. But they might have remembered that Sir John is at the present moment much more set upon winning Parnell than upon defending the Administration of which he is an ambitious member. Moreover, if he has never yet been a member of the representative Chamber, he has; long been 'a deservedly prominent member of the Bar, and in judicial chambers has studied and acquired the gentle art of saying the things that are advisable, and of leaving unsaid the things that are inadvisable. For example, in that really interesting section of his address, wherein he dwelt at' length upon a scheme for a permanent board which would investigate every ill to which the industrial body is heir, and would diagnose so effectually that industrial ailments would soon cease in the land, he did not refer to the Mokau case when explaining how investigations might show why prices are so high and the rewards of both

capital and labour so small. Naturally, therefore, he did not tell us why the East Coast Railway •is still a myth as far as Auckland is concerned, nor "unravel for us the mysterious reason why a Maori aristocracy, rooted upon inalienable land, and growing fat* and rich upon the toil of irredeemable European serfs, should be established in New Zealand by a so-called "Liberal" Administration, Incidentally, we may , again remark that a few carpet knights and an occasional baronet— • creations which are wholly/ phantasmic, and have no material existence apart from the sentiment attaching to themappear to seriously excite those good friends ;of ... the Government who can gee no evil in an hereditary Maori aristocracy. Sir John ignored his difficulties in a manner which speaks volumes for his legal qualifications. He advocated the cause of the East Coast as one to Jhe manner born, and he argued that the time had come to treat Maori Land as European Land, as though he had never had voice or influence in a Government which in both cases had persistently followed the opposite policy. Whatever we may think of his consistency, we must all admire his versatility, and his evident freedom from all prejudice. Evidently, if Sir John Findlay next stands for Dunedin, he will be at no loss in designing another attractive change of policy. »

But it is exceedingly difficult in j considering Sir John Findlay's address to realise that it was intended; to be taken seriously by a body of practical Auckland electors who have been selected by the AttorneyGeneral, '~ in telepajthetic sympathy with the retiring member, because of their assumed unshaken fidelity to the party to -which he belongs. The whole thing is paradoxical. A politician who has never been elected to Parliament, but has taken part in the government- for years, comes to a constituency with which he has not the remotest personal connection, and claims its support because he proposes to set right a series of bad policies for which the Government he belongs to is mainly responsible. We do not miss even the sacred number " seven" in the polemic incantation by which Sir John endeavoured last night to charm the voters of Parnell. The Government has made land so inaccessible to the common settler that the country generally views with approval the action of wealthy syndicates who are battering down the barriers deliberately erected against land occupation; the Government has - not only made ; land • inaccessible, but is penalising the man without capital by denying him opportunity.to obtain the freehold upon long-time-payments and by subjecting him and his children to rackrent for ever the Government has prevented electricity from. being generated, and is still only " promising" to generate electricity ; the Government has so discouraged industry and employment that ,we have become an emigrating country. In twenty years, no Government could fail to do good, but while the present Government in the past has done much good and will doubtless do some good as long as it continues, it is hardly, to be questioned that it has so outlived its strength that it is becoming what an evangelist would call weary in well doing. And in the days of the Government's decline, while secession is rife within the party ranks, and while the mustering-cry of a third party is heard in the land, comes Sir John Findlay from Dunedin to Auckland, with academic lectures upon politics .arid as many promises as any elector-..

ate could wishfor. If this does not win for him such a long-faithful electorate, we do not doubt ' that Parnell has only to call his attention to any omission, and it will be very cheerfully considered— election, day. , -; ••- . :