The Oamaru Mail. FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1909.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10041, 8 January 1909, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1909.

Mb Massby's opportunity is arriving. It is being hastened by the THE SCbotfiD new Ministerial arrangotubnip ments, which are entirely BEDlvivcS; different from what he would have made. Such incongruities he has never seen in any Ministry. He is not shocked, for if he were ever so susceptible he has got beyond the stage since he was politically educated in the Opposition school; but he is surprised. Liberal Administrations are going from bad to worse —the last was not what Mr Massey would have liked it to be, but this is something over which to grow solemn with black despair. The Opposition fugleman sees in Mr M'Gowan's retirement the ex-Minister's dissatisfaction, at the new order of things. This is crediting Liberals with virtues not common amongst those who get into power. Ordinarily the trouble is that a tornado could not blow members of a, Cabinet out of their seats. Mr Massey will remember the tenacity for office of his friends the Continuous Ministry. However, that is another story. It shocks Mr Massey that men of political principles so various should be combined to carry out Liberal principles. Poor Mr Hogg is a "Revolutionary Socialist," says the Tory discontent, and- we all know by this time that this is the sort of person the Leader of ■ the Opposition has been waiting for round the corner with a stick. . Evidently Mr Massey forgets the mysteries of compounding "cocktails." A dash of this and of that and of the otheT —some things 6weet, some bitter, some sour —and there you have it. The judicious admixture in proper proportions produces the magic effect on the palate, whatever may result to the brain. It is a wise man who knows how to compound a Ministry. Mr Massey is not wise in this respect because he has not had the experience. We can quite believe that if he had the forming of a Ministry, not only would Mr Hogg not be in it, but neither would Sir J. G. Ward. If, however, he was asked to join an already formed Ministry, ho would not object to either Mr Hogg or the Premier. Tie "Treasury Benches are what is important—not the human associates. He was nearly included in the Ward Administration a few months ago. The Socialistic 6care—that scooped and' illuminated turnip on a stick—had been, worked up 60 industriously that it drove some people under the bed, and nearly sent Mr Massey into the shelter of the Cabinet. People got a 6 far as talking about it and that was something. But, alas, Tantalus is still looking- ravenously at the meats spTead beyond his reach. The election failed to give the Opposition the necessary majority, hence these tears. If it had not been for the horribly common idea which New Zealanders have of politics—their vulgar democratic notions—things might have been different. There would have been no Hogg and no Fowlds in office, for are they not anathema as demons for popular land settlement? Now, if Mr Massey were in office he would not associate himself with elements so detrimental to the commonweal. If there is anything that is abhorrent to him it is the interference with private enterprise which has been 6et up by volumes of Liberal legislation. He would not alter, any of that, if he got into office, because the people want it; but they had no right to want it, and he would compound an [ administrative cocktail to his taste by a dash or two of something Tory. Mr Massey is not a shrinking violet. Time after time he gives forecasts of disaster to the Liberal Administration, and is not one whit- abashed because they are mere gabblcinent with no more significance than the prattle of an infant. Mr Massey now, with all the assurance of a successful and trusted political generalissimo, tells, a gaping northern Tory newspaper's reporter that he.would not be "at all surprised, to see an appeal to the country long before the term of the present Parliament has expired." The country would be surprised though if anything uttered by the Leader of the Opposition proved to be accurate.