EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXX, Issue 8683, 7 January 1905, Page 1

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS

Wk liave a special interest in the address which Mr Herdman delivered on Wednesday evening last at Naseby, for he is one of the Parliamentary members of an electorate a portion of which belongs to the Waitaki district, Mr Herdman opened by avowing that the I'remier and he weie on terms of friendship. Referring to the last occasion on which he spoke in Central Otago, when he gave the impression that he and the Premier were at enmity, he said '-it was only right, he thought, that he speak his mind fearlessly and openly." Applause naturally enough rewarded the speaker for this sally, for the public dearly love a courageous pronouncement, and political friends have not either the faculty or the inclination to think whether or not there is anything worth hiving behind it. For ourselves, we see no objection to Mr Herdman < speaking out his mind —it is his mind itself (in the sense in which he uses the wore!) to which we take objection. As 10 the friendliness of the member for 'Mount Ida for the Premier, though it cannot lie said to be profound, he might be an excellent representative all the same. But he is not on our side, and, with that candour which elicited so much applause at- the Nase'by meeting, we do not hesitate to say so. As an intelligent and otherwise admirable sample of a New Zealander 'Mr 'Herdman is entitled to appreciation : but as a politician he is the deadly enemy of the people of New Zealand. That advanced legislation which has done so much for the country that it now ranks, socially, politically, and economically, the- highest of all the British, colonies', was not passed with, the help of the party to which Mr Herdman 'belongs, but- in spite, of it. Those who championed the- reforms which all now admire weTe the- butts of the re-lent-less fury of the political class to which Mr Herdman belongs, and such attentions were none the less intolerable because they were evidences of what Mr Herdman is pleased to view a 6 friendship. If anybody desires to know the political stuff of which the member for Mount Ida is made, let him sift- his political creed from his Naseby utterances. The Shops and Offices Bill was not- required, he said. The same was said by his friends of the Advances to Settlers, Land for Settlements, Pensions, and other measures of an essentially libera! and philanthropic chtiTaicter. There is nothing in the principle of the Shops Act to which anybody ought to take exception'. The tradesmen of Oamaru have for years voluntarily carried out its main provisions, and the memory of this will constitute an imperishable monument to the men who instigated such a rational and benefkent management of their businesses. If" Mr Herdman had said that the measure had 'been rendered clumsy and unpalatable through its faulty details and limitations, and that he would do his utmost to rectify these defects, he would have shewn himself to be the true Liberal he claims to be. As to the High Commissioner Act, it was one- of those heroic flights of the Premier's which it .is not passible- for ids enemies to either understand or appreciate. Judging from past experience, we have no rurht to expect- the approval of the New Zealand Tory of any great measure till its pronounced success has brought about his enlightenment, and he is dragged at the chariot wheels of overwhelming pub lie sentiment, In Mr Herdman's animadversions on this piece of legislation a .so we discern evidences of that gentleman s friendship for the Premier, for he implies the threadbare slander that the Premi?r created the office for himself. "It might be that there was something behind the Bill," said Mr Herdman. Then he asked : '■Was this o%e being created for any particular individual?" This is Mr Herdman's way. wo suppose, of speakin.i: out his mind fearlessly and openly, and of meriting that friendship which he claimed existed between the Premier and himself. Then: with that peculiar honesty on which the member for Mount Ida rests his reputation-, he— again—leaves his trusting hearers to conclude that the Government were solely responsible for the ■imperfections existing in the Licensing: Act, whereas the whole Parliament and a defective Parliamentary system- are responsible for them. We- hope to refer next week to other main foaturt-s of Mr Herdman's address. He is, of course, strongly opposed to Labor legislation, and denounces the Government's financial fivstom with all the assurance of a man who appears to forget that the public have access to irrefragible records.