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Otago Daily Times, Issue 19616, 21 October 1925, Page 6

Thb reception accorded to Sir Joseph Ward at Invercargill on the occasion of the opening spech of his election campaign was no doubt a tribute both to his political record and his personality. With a great deal of what he said in. his address it is possible for us to express entire agreement. Sir Joseph has evidently no deep-seated disposition to criticise the Reform Government closely, and on Monday night he took a rather wider ground, surveying the position of the Dominion as a whole with a view to indicating by what considerations the policy of the administration should, in bin opinion, be particularly guided in the interests of the whole community. As was to be expected, a large portion of his speech was devoted to matters of finance. In his examination of the causes of heavy taxation Sir Joseph Ward was distinctly interesting. Reductions in taxation notwithstanding, New Zealand is undoubtedly, as he pointed out, a heavily taxed country. And among the causes of this he fairly enough included the growth of departmental expenditure. A continual growth in the cost of administration must obviously operate against reductions in taxation. In order that it may be possible to effect that reduction of taxation, which is generally desired, it is very necessary that there should be a strict control over the national expenditure. If the cost of administration of the country be relatively high the effect is to necessitate demands oh the people, who have to provide the money. There are some increases in departmental expenditure which, being virtually automatic, cannot be avoided. These include, for example, the increasing cost of the education system. But the steady growth of departmental expenditure is disquieting, especially when the reasons for it are not really apparent and the value obtained for it is not perceptible. The existence of some need for economy in the general administration is undeniable. It is interesting and gratifying to notice that Sir Joseph Ward has added the weight of his judgment to the argument that it is time that the artificial barrier between the Reform and National parties should be broken down. So long and prominently identified as he was with the fortunes of the Liberal Party, Sir Joseph, naturally enough, has a sigh of regret for the old party appellation that has now b?en discarded. But party labels signify little when most of the old party differences have disappeared. Of the parties as they exist to-day the former Liberal leader finds no difficulty in saying: "There are no great vital questions dividing them such as existed between the liberals and the Conservatives in the old days. . . . My assistance and advice will therefore go in the direction of a fusion which I regard as sooner or later inevitable, whether the leader be a Nationalist or a Reformer." This makes it clear 'that in the event of the return of Sir Joseph once more to Parliament he will not be a stumbling block to party fusion, but will seek to promote it. Upon a question of this kind the opinion of a statesman with the experience which Sir Joseph has had is entitled to a large measure of respect, and it is satisfactory to find it coinciding with what we have always regarded as the common-sense view of the party situation. The importance of the desideratum to which Sir Joseph has pointed, "the strongest Government that can be obtained," must be recognised. Sir Joseph Ward disclaims, it is of interest to note, any personal ambitions for leadership. He is not inspired, he says, by any desire to displace either Mr Coates or Mr Forbes, but he is concerned about the country and the progress and prosperity of its people.

It is to be trusted that we should not be doing more than justice to Mr J. J. M'Grath, a candidate for the Wellington North seat, in assuming that he must have felt ratfier ashamed of himself when he read the Hon. W. H. Triggs's rejoinder to his violent and unmannerly attack upon the personnel of the Legislative Council. Seldom, in connection with New Zealand politics, hits a vigorous trouncing been more richly deserved; seldom has it been more effectively administered. If Mr M'Grath had confined himself to sober criticism o* the constitution of the Council and of the function it performs in the legislative plan there would have been no ground of complaint; for the position of the Upper Chamber furnishes legitimate scope for discussion and controversy. He preferred to indulge m a tirade of bitter personal allusion which, to speak plainly, outraged the traditional decencies of public life. Mr Triggs’s cogent vindication of the usefulness of the branch of the Legislature to which he belongs will have been welcomed by dispassionate observers, while his loyal but unprejudiced references to his colleagues m the Council appeal to the spirit of generous recognition of worth which seems to be outside M ? M'Qrath’s ken. Mr Triggs’s enumeration of the special qualifications that are possessed by present members of the Council should afford enlightenment to those people who share Mr M‘G rath’s loose view that the revis- , ing chamber is “a sort of Chelsea Hospital for political pensioners.” There have occasionally been injudicious appointments, and it is a moot question whether former members of the House of Representatives should, after rejection by their constituents, be immediately raised to the Upper House. There is also the longstanding question as to whether the Council should he nominative or elective. But the salient point for the moment is that Mr Triggs has established a thoroughly conclusive case in support of the prestige of an assembly which has been wantonly assailed.

Mb MacMaitds seems to have been in one of his most reckless moods on Monday night. Against the press in general, and the Otago Daily Times in particular, he launched an attack so utterly devoid of foundation as to be palpably absurd. He says that we lose no opportunity of denouncing the Labour Party. This is obviously a misrepresentation of our attitude. It is true that we have thought right to avail ourselves of numerous opportunities of exposing the dangerous fallacies of Labour extremism, but we have always proceeded on argumentative lines, and there is not the faintest warrant for the suggestion that we have "denounced" Labour in a spirit of unreasonable partisanship. Using Mr MacManus's own strain, it might be said that he misses no opportunity of denouncing the party or parties to which ha is opposed. Still more flimsy, if possible, is the charge that Labour candidates have been unfairly treated by ua as regards the reporting of election speeches. Apart from special arrangements, which are a matter of legitimate business, every candidate in the district, Reform or National or Labour, receives impartial treatment at our hands. Mr MacManus is perfectly well aware of this fact, and his insinuation against the fairness and disinterestedness of the Otago Daily Times are alike disingenuous and impertinent. It may be true that Mr MacManus's vagaries should not be regarded too seriously, but even a chartered libertine of politics, so to say, cannot wholly divest himself of responsibility. And yet some people may think that the Labour candidate for Dunedin South is at his best when he is unrestrainedly extravagant,—as in the delicious remark that "Mr Sidey had helped to drive Santa Claus from many a- home because he had voted against a Labour motion that the taxation to toys should be lightened."