SUPERFLUOUS EXULTATION

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6678, 28 November 1908, Page 8

SUPERFLUOUS EXULTATION

The senior Opposition newspaper in Wellington, which, during tho election campaign, consoled itself with the reflection that the land question was “definitely settled” by , the Act of 1906, and should not weigh with the electors in considering whom they should vote for, now bursts out with a huge note of interrogation and asks what the constitutional position will be nest Parliament, the result of the polling having it is alleged been to return a majority of members pledged to sell tho last remnants of the public estate under the hammer. Tho “Post” was for a season definitely on the side of oommonsense about the land, and professed to recognise that tho maintenance of a sane policy on that subject must be recognised as forming the very basis of any political creed that would be acceptable to the country or in the interests of the community. It was, however, unequal to maintaining tho strain of that position long, realising that the “onward rushing .reformers" whom it was supporting in opposition to the Government were hopelessly reactionary on the point, so it got out of the difficulty by covering up the question of tho tenure of Stateowned lands and saying as little as possible about it. So cocksure now is the “Post” about what 'is to take place when fifteen or sixteen Government members vote with its friend Mr Massey, “the reformer ” to turn tho Ministry out of office, that it is trying to discover what the Governor will do about it. We would suggest to our

■contemporary that tho dagger it has lhad up its sleeve these last few months 'might just as well remain hidden, from tho vulgar gaze at least, for a few ■months longer, for it is only a day or 'two ago, in intervals of saying ‘'Yes” and remarking “No” about everything under the sun, that it observed that lit did not want to see the party now dominant in our political life superseded by those whose faces wore 'turned “longingly hack to the undemocratic past.” Now it is amusingly giving Mr Massey the tip about the best way to harass the Government on ,the question of land tenure at the 'first moment of the assemblage of the new Parliament. But the Liberal Party is not going to commit harakiri just yet, so tho "Post” had better ■wait a little while and seo what will happen. In tho meantime it might consider tho advisableness of restraining its exultation at discovering ! that a majority of members of Parliaimont are opposed to the cardinal policy to which in tho past it has devoted so much lip service.