OPPOSITION MODESTY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10956, 22 December 1911, Page 1

OPPOSITION MODESTY.

(By Sam Ray.) . Extract from Otago' Daily Times' Auckland correspondent's letter . describing the congratulations received by Mr Massey: ."Awake Awake! Put oil strength, O arm of the Lord," ran one message. "Awake as in the ancient days in the generations of old. Art thou not he that hath cut Rahab and wounded the dragon? Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord hath comforted his people; He has redeemed Jerusalem." "Well done thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou- into 'the joy of the Lord." The sense of fitness of things sacred was not strong in the senders of such messages. x Evidently like the Israelites of old they claim a. monopoly of the Lord, but I think the unseemliness of such messages will strike the mind of every elector of Otago who has any reverence for sacred things. The writer does not profess to be squeamish, but he certainly does feel that to wind up a campaign of calumny and abuse with a blustering parade of misapplied sacred' literature is reducing the tone of politics to a level never before reached in pur Dominion. The tone of braggadacio is unbecoming if Mr Massey were indeed a victorious commander who had come out with flying colors, and it is all the worse when used by a man who will only hold office if he is supported by Labor men, Revolutionary Socialists, and "Rats." Mr Massey would do well to adopt a more modest demeanor. We have been told for many years that his party monopolises the purity of the Parliament, yet already Mr Allen has held the bunch of official carrot up to the Maori nose. We had the spectacle of Mr Dickson's whitewashing for election purposes, and now we have a. wild scramble to collar any weak-kneed Liberal who can be coaxed to "rat," and with such tactics, such followers, and such majorities if obtained Mr Massey would dare to pose as a saviour of his country and publish fulsome misapplied adaptations from the Sacred Book.