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New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9093, 12 July 1915, Page 5

tlcman being charged by the Premier with having done "a very contemptible tiling” by vising "the privileges of the House to slander a man who_ found_ it impossible to defend his position.” The Premier, however, choso to ignore the other important points which Mr Witty touched upon, for instance his suggestions that “The Government should have taken over the whole of the wheat, and then the mills and bakeries, if they would not mill or bake at a fair price.” The .Reformers will always be found to be on tho side of the wealthy and influential, and their ludicrous attempt to defend the squatters from the public odium, consequent upon their want of genuine patriotism, is most probably a subterfuge to shield themselves from a similar charge- Tho enormous cost of thin country's participation in the war ban materially affected tho public finances, and will continue so to do far more seriously in tho future. However, no suggestion has been made by Mr Massey and his party of a desire to put into operation one of the economical virtues which were so prominent in the electioneering campaign of the Reform party in 1912—by assisting to relieve this acute financial distress by reducing their own salaries and travelling expenses. So that it would seem from the foregoing that the patriotism which is peculiar to “Reform” is of the blatant hypocritical type which Dr Johnson referred to when he said that “Patriotism to tho last refuge of a scoundrel”; and in view of the indifference they shown te tho necessitous needs of the masses of the people of New Zealand a change of Administration is manifestly desirable—l am, etc., SI.J.D.