WHAT’S IN A NICKNAME?

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8680, 13 March 1914, Page 4

WHAT’S IN A NICKNAME?

In politics a nickname is often a label indicating that the man on whom it is fired is to be shot at. But when that man makes out a case, the. expedient of shooting at his label does not constitute a reply. It may point any reply that may be given. But when there is no reply, there is nothing to point, except the fact that there is no case. You might as well toll a man who has proved you to be wrong at every point of a complicated proposition that he is an Isosceles Triangle. Therein we have the effectiveness of the Finance Minister’s reply to the'criticism of the member for Avon, as Mr, Atmore has pointed out. It is another instance of the “effectiveness”.which the “Reformers” of this country are always vaunting. As is the effectiveness of their graduated land tax, so is the effectiveness of every item .of their policy. In this sense their retrenchment, their railway management, their success in the money market, their tapering-off of borrowing, their substitute for the second ballot, their discarding of patronage, all these and other things that might be mentioned, are effective. But there is one thing really effective which the Finance Minister has done, throughout a long laborious and not cheerful political career. Ho has found dolours in everything, and he has effectively proclaimed them. The rottenness of finance, the impending ruin of all things, the turpitude of Tammanyism, the “uncleanness” of Ministerial policies, the hollowness of surpluses, the wickedness of extravagance, the awful burdens of taxation, the miseries of Rarotonga—all these have been the themes in turn of his heart-breaking lamentation. The effectiveness with which he has thus won the title of “Dismal Jimmy” is in its reality a fine, contrast to the want of effectiveness by which his Government is so strongly characterised. Air Atmore’s reference to this reality is a good illustration of the proverb about glass houses and throwing stones. It is also a timely reminder that personalities aro not good politics.