The Oamaru Mail. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1911.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10959, 27 December 1911, Page 4

The Oamaru Mail. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1911.

Mr Payne, M.P. —who, on his arrival at Napier the other "Labor ... Physics day, was conPain." gratulated by the ' representatives of Labor on his victory over the Hon. Geo. Fowlds; because, we suppose, the exMinister has been such a shocking industrial tyrant —with meteoric suddenness, though not brilliance, bursts into the public view as a political dictator. He told his Napier Labor friends how he "in response' to an invitation, attended a meeting of representatives oi' - Labor, at which two were present—Mr Veitcli, M.P. for Wangaimi, and himself. He • addressed that meeting, and told them that "Labor held the balance of power, at which the audience waxed uproarious with rapture. He urged that "they should be careful as to how that power was used;" and proceeded, with the utmost discretion, to declare that the most careful way of compassing the situation was to either throw tlie whole weight of the four Labor Members into the balance 011 the Massey party's side, on a no-confidence motion, or "to "insist on Sir Joseph Ward forming- a new party with Mr Payne and his three .parliamentary associates on top." He repudiated any connection with organised Labor,, but urged that "the Labor members must act as one body" arid must seize the reins in a, purely Labor Administration. In short, Mr Payne does not object to Mr Massey or' to Sir Joseph Ward, or anybody or anything else, so long as he gets a portfolio -out of the four which he assigns to the Labor Members—the Premiership, for preference. This is what lie conveyed, amidst intense excitement, to the Wellington Labor meeting of two, at which the proceedings closed with the grand chorus "For they are jolly good fellows,- and so say all of us." Mr Payne wants "to get hold of the finance of the country .... in the workers' interests." And he wants the, workers to believe that "tliis is the only way of securing their salvation from Excessive taxation." With Mi" Massey protecting the propertied class, and Mr Payne the workers, from taxation, we shall all-be tax free; and Tis'we.are neither to tax nor to borrow, Mr Payne: will, perhaps, instruct us in the lioble art of stealing to carry on the administration and construct rail-ways^-roads, and bridges. In the meantime -New Zealand has been thrown-into a chaotic political condition bjr an-un-holy compacts between two factions who want" to gain power to effect objects antagonistic to each other, because they cannot, unless injustice is to be done to the- majority, get all they demand. Mr Payne", who hungers and thirsts after notoriety _ requires that four Labor, representatives shall control an assemblage numbering 80, and shall have 50 per cent, representation in a. new Ministry—that is to say, 76 members "are to be subservient to four, and to submit to the domination of a. person who chooses to think himself the supreme champion of the worker. This surpasses the assumption of the "Reform party,." on behalf of whom it is professed that it is entitled to snatch tlie control from the Government though those who voted for its candidates are 50 per cent, fewer in number than those who voted against them. The Prime Minister, with two sets of schemers opposed to him, will not find ifc 'easy to avoid the distressing and humiliating parliamentary conditions ■which exist in "the New South Wales popular Chamber. But there will be no surrender of tne party which lias a 50 iper cpnt. majority of "the people at its back.?-; New Zealand will not be idly abandoned to those ever-contending enemies. Capital and Labor, so tKat'M they -may struggle for the mastery.