[Feom Otago Daily Times ] THE PREMIER'S ADDRESS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2231, 3 December 1896, Page 3

[Feom Otago Daily Times ] THE PREMIER'S ADDRESS.

At tEe commeriqemeAt of.3iis speech on Friday night the Premier expressed a hope that the firm of Weight, S'iephenBON, and Co. would not be " punished " for their courtesy in affording him an opportunity of addressing the electors of Dunedin. The innuendo was exceedingly characteristic, and it was'a fitting prelude to what came after. As a jnatter of fact the locale was specially Ittited for a Seddonian esliii-ition,

, The saleyards form a fitting scene for the playing of Autoi,ycus's part. Come to the pedlar 1 Ootne, buy of me, coma ; come buy, come buy, What maids lack from head to heel — Oooae bay ! Our political Atjtolyous had Avares of all sorts for maids and men last; night, and enthusiastic " Liberals " were full of admiration for the contents of his pack. "He hath songs, for man or woman, of all sizes ; no milliner can so ' fit his customers with gloves ; he has the prettiest love songs for maids ; he hath j ribands of all the colours i' the rain- j bow." The admiring Ministerialists were quite taken in while the show ! lasted ; the spell worked ; it seemed good to be credulous. What do they think of their treasures in the clear light of Saturday morning, now that the lights are fled, the garlands dead, and the saleyards deserted? Do tHe trinkets and the ribands and the love songs seem poor tawdry things? or 'do they still appear desirable, arid will „the' spell , last over .'next Friday ? This is the important question for Autolyctts, and doubtless he will not be wholly disappointed. For he has the rhetorical power of deluding those people who prefer speciousness to soundness, and who dearly love to feed -their partisanship with large pieces of comfortable cant. Anyhow, it would be idle to doubt that he was successful i for the time being. " I have sold all imy trumpery ; not a riband, glass, brooch, ballad, knife, glove, shoe-tie, bracelet to keep my pack from fasting ; they throng who should buy first, as though my trinkets had been hallowed, and brought a benediction to the buyer." It was at least a temporary triumph for the political pedlar. < And yet, when the false glamour is cleared away, what sorry stuff the wares are ! — so sorry that we can hardly excuse people for allowing themselves to be even momentarily beguiled. Mr Seddon repeated his old discredited defence and the old counter-charges that have been de«molished again and again. He talked the old sickening rubbish about " Liberalism " and " the few " and " the many.'* He shirked grave charges with the easy astuteness that has become second nature, or met them with irrelevant tv quoqiies of which fourth - form schoolboys would be ashamed. As an attempt at sustained argument the speech was almost beneath contempt. It did not 1 contain one helpful or brightly suggestive saying, — not one remark quotable on any other score than that of unreasonableness. It was an audacious, not to say a desperate ' speech, — but the very audacity was dull, and (though there were many jokelets) true wit was as lacking as sound argument. And yet the spell was there unquestionably, — the spell of bold claptrap, of unstinted appeal to class feeling and party prejudice, — the spell (for spell it is) of downright canting. Mr Seddon's defence of his Government reminds us of the tactics of Carltiib's Strand Hatter. " Consider that great hat, seven feet high, which now .perambulates London streets — the topmost point to which English puffery has been observed to reach. The Hatter in the Strand of London, instead of making better felt hats than another, mounts a huge lath-and-plaster Hat, seven feet high, upon wheels : sends a man to drive it through the streets, — hoping to be saved thereby." In similar fashion, Mr Seddon lauds and magnifies himself, and vilifies his j opeoaeniij (" deceivers o£ the first;

water ") — hoping to be saved thereby, j Never surely did a politician glorify I himself so unblushingly. " Ladies and gentlemen, I wear the white flower of a blameless political life," he exclaimed, suiting the action to the words, with bodily strut and vocal bluster. It was j the apotheosis of bombastic balderdash. The Premier told his hearers that the public man who would not own the truth was not fit to .appear on a platforan, — and he proceeded to deny that he had departed from Mr Ballanob's policy ! As regards any new light on disputed questions he might just as well have been silent. He said what the Ministerial candidates for Dunedin i had already said, — though we must do Messrs Pinkebton, Hutchison, and MiM/AE the justice of admitting that the three of them together could not produce such a formidable mass olelaptrap and misrepresentation as their leader gave to - the electors on Friday night. Of course; the " repeal " cry was raised, — but we noticed that the audience did not take it up with any enthusiasm ; and, as a matter of fact, Mr Sbbdon overdid ' the business, even j from his own party point of view. He laid on the colours a little too thickly , lin picturing the iniquities of " Con- { servatism," —so we should be in- | elined to think, if we were of the ' 1 new Liberal faith. " Forewarn him, that He use no scurrilous words in his tunes," was Pbrdita's direction before j Atjtoltous was admitted, and Mr j Seddon would be none the worse for a similar admonition as a preface to his speeches. True, he has a rhetorical trick of seeming' to deprecate unfair language. He tells his hearers that a soft answer turneth away wrath, but he puts no bridle on his tongue for all that. Anti-Ministerial writers are insincere hirelings, and working men who oppose the Government are traitors to their fellows. This is the"" Liberal " notion of freedom of j political utterance and action. It is the Toryism of Eldon and OASTLBBBAaH, and the Premier himself is the most reactionary politician in New Zealand. But a certain portion of his talk blinds thousands of people to the illiberalism of his principles, — even though the illiberalism be manifest in the other portion. • He may deny the working man the right of free judgment, but then he has such a taking way of sentimentalising over " the people of New Zealand," the fathers and mothers, and " the little children ■ paddling on the beach." What i " Liberal " can resist the reference ' to Captain Russelli and "la crime de la crime'"! — for the electors were again favoured with this choice bit on Friday night, with all the accessories of histrionic exaggeration. If Ministers should be defeated or lose ground next Friday, Mr Seddon will have the consolation of knowing that the calamity was not owing to any lack of ad captandum artfulness on his part.