The New Zealand Times. MONDAY, JULY 20, 1925. ANOTHER; POLITICAL STEAL

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12194, 20 July 1925, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. MONDAY, JULY 20, 1925. ANOTHER; POLITICAL STEAL

Not so long since a soured cynic described New Zealand politics as being dull,, uninteresting, and tasteless as an overlooked plate ot porridge. The critic may have been right when he penned those words; but the description does not fit to-day. For example, there is that war veteran, the member for Lyttelton, who dares to speak of 1914-1918. There is that Socialist member from the North, a financial wizard of sorts, who thinks mortgages can be shuffled like a pack of cards or “written down” like boxes of out-of-date lingerie. But the “star” ijests of the legislative season of 1925 are undoubtedly those of Mr Holland and Mr Wilford. Mr Holland set the fashion in political pilfering by presuming to lay hands on the Seddonian mantle. Mr Wilford has gone one better by appropriating the thunder of the Prime Minister without permission and without warning. Who said our politics were dull? On the contrary, they are beginning to be one delightful surprise after another. There are signs that Mr Holland already is sorry for his rather egregious faux pas. Taxed with the absurdity, he replies: “I never did it.” We wonder what Mr Wilford will say a few months hence. It would be a mistake to regard the Lib.-Labs/* usurpation of the Government’s national ideals as even faintly resembling a political crisis. You may more appropriately call it eithfer a joke or a stupid error in tactics, as you please. As we remarked in our news columns on Saturday, all that the Lib.-Labs, have done is to change their name, to replace the sign-plate for another which pulled all too little business. The political traders behind the shingle are the same old 1 crowd who were dickering up till last week with their rivals for a share of the loaves and fishes of office. Apparently the Lib.-Labs, have convinced themselves there is magic in a mere title, otherwise they could not seriously have perpetrated this thing. They will find it difficult to draw recruits from the other side with such a palpable “stunt.” No intelligent person will be deceived by this papier-mache bomb. The nationalistminded folk will remember that the present Liberal Party qua party has no past, except one which does not bear recalling, and no discernible future. They will remember this, too: that Mr Wilford has not a distinguished record as a leader,, whereas Mr Coates can show a really useful one. It is further in his favour that he is half as strong again in the House as the Lib.-Labs. It would be only emphasising the obvious and investing, an incident with an importance beyond its deserts to discuss at length the flimsiness of the Liberal pretensions to form the Spearhead of a nationalist movement. Yesterday, as it were, Mr Wilford professed to be all for the community as against party. To-day, the group of which he is formally in charge proposes to drive the wedge of division deeper and deeper; unless, of course, the Reformers are content to fall in behind him. But what tail is allowed to wag the body in these enlightened times? As we have said, the whole affair is a joke, if perhaps a wintry one. When his audience has finished smiling with Mr Wilford, it will laugh at him. He is destined to go down in our history as a man who was always too clever ever to be a big politician.