THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1923. THOUGHTS FROM TAURANGA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18356, 23 March 1923, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1923. THOUGHTS FROM TAURANGA.

The fever which developed in the Tauranga contest last week seems now to be abating. Therefore since the hectic stories of hero-worship and personal triumphs are dying away, or are offered at a discount on a failing market, it is possible to apply to the position something of the process of analysis. It is instructive to consider just, what Sir Joseph Ward has offered toward a settlement of the present uncertain political situation, and how his friends have received his suggestions. Sir Joseph Ward insists that his return would not make an appeal to the country any more probable than at present. His friends accept his statement, but none of them cares to discuss what alternative is contemplated. They insist also that there is no danger of the Labour Party being permitted to rule the situation. Finally, when all other arguments fail —as they do very early in the process of analysis— last resort is in mysterious allusions to the constitutional position. The issue here seems to be that even if appealed to the Governor-General is not bound to grant a dissolution until satisfied that all other alternatives have been exhausted. That need not be seriously disputed. What the country wants, what Tauranga is entitled to demand, is some evidence of the actual alternatives in the minds of those who denounce coalition, repudiate fusion, scout the idea of an alliance with Labour, and yet insist that there is a possible arrangement just below the horizon. Sir Joseph himself is falling hack upon a strange line of defence. When asked questions he does not, want to answer, he says they are not fair, and should not be asked. It begins to appear that he might preface all his meetings with "No awkward questions answered." It would be in line with his present invitation to the electorate to receive him entirely on trust, give him a "walkover," and hand in hand with him, take a leap in the dark. Sir Joseph Ward, the great financier, seems to be the catch-cry with which Tauranga ears are to be tickled to the end whenever anybody expresses a doubt about any phase of his campaign. So industriously has it been used that it is | instructive to learn how his adI mirers have treated the financial proposals with which he has astonished the wondering electors. First comes his analysis of taxation and the national debt. Many of the figures he quoted have been proved wrong. They have not merely been questioned or disputed. They have been proved out of date or grotesquely inaccurate, by reference to official authorities there is no gainsaying. Has there been any hastening to his defence? Not a move has been made. His Tauranga speech was broadcasted through the Dominion; his other utterances have had ample publicity. In none of the published eulogies of his financial genius is there an answer to the analysis and the demonstration that his criticism of taxation and finance was based on premises so inaccurate as to be unworthy of a tyro in the realm of politics. Do his admirers think he needs no defence Do they find it impossible to breathe the rarificd atmosphere of the high financial plane upon which he lives and moves and has his being 1 Either suggestion is improbable. In . fact they know he is wrong, and rather than risk an impossible defence, they say "Sir Joseph Warcl is the greatest man in the world." Had he really to live up to all that has been said in his praise in the last week or so, he would have no time to attend to

either the needs of Tauranga or the affairs of the Dominion. He would be too fully occupied being a great man. If the friends of Sir Joseph Ward have been reticent about his figures, their silence with regard to his scheme for bond issues to finance public works can be described only as stony. When a man propose;? to draw a cheque to meet his overdraft, his friends do not quote the proposition in illustration of his financial genius. Similarly the chief supporters of Sir Joseph's campaign do not cite his bond issue in restraint of borrowing when they in-

j sist that he, and he alone, can ; accomplish the financial salvation of i the Dominion. When he refuses to | say whether he will go with Mr. j Wilford or not on a no-confidence

motion, even when he claims the privilege of silence in answer to an inquiry whether he intends to vote against Mr. Massey, they applaud him. When he defends himself for having accepted a hereditary honour by saying that many other people have accepted —none of which is hereditary— perform a passable imitation of eating their own earlier words. But when Sir Joseph persists in enlarging upon and embroidering his fantastic scheme for letting loose upon this country an unbounded flood of negotiable paper—they discuss European affairs or the size of the national debt with admirable detachment. The conspiracy of silence on the part of his friends on this topic, right through the Dominion, is really quite distressing. They will not admit their idol to have feet off clay, one foot of clay, even one toe which is of doubtful composition. Instead they leave it to be inferred that it would not be quite nice to refer to such a subject, and in the next breath, with a mighty shout, insist that' their idol is purest marble from crown to sole. Meanwhile Sir Josephno idol, but a very human man, with human qualities and failingshas to conduct single-handed his fight for his cherished bonds scheme. It is very sad. It gives Tauranga the cue, however, to conclude that he has no magic formula, either constitutional or financial, and that he should submit himself to the tests commonly applied to all Parliamentary candidates, even to the .test of going to the poll without being given a "walk-over."