THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2813, 12 February 1908, Page 51

THE WEEK.

"Good ntturo »ud rood lease must •rerjom."— Por«.

In his speech delivered at Auckland on

Friday night last, Sir The Premier's Joseph Ward made a bold Auckland bid for the continuance of Deltrerance. fiis Ministry. Up to the

piesent the Prime Minister has perforce had to be content with carrying on the Government of the country as a legacy left him by his old leader, the late Mr Scddon. But the time is swiftly approaching when Sir Joseph will have to go to the country in advocacy oT his own claims to the Prime Ministersßip. And to this end it is necessary that he should define his own political fnith and outline his programme of legislation for the future. This Auckland speech may therefore be taken as the first of a series of deliverances in which Sir Joseph will attempt to justify his tenure of office and appeal to the constituencies for a renewal of their confidence and support. Generally speaking, this speech clearly reveals the outstanding differences in character between the late and the present Prime Ministers. Mr Seddon, when speaking, usually relied for effect upon a series of carefully-prepared dramatic surprises, with which he attempted to dazzle the imagination of the people and confuse their soberer judgment. But such a course was only possible to a man possessed of extraordinary personal magnetism, which stamped Mr' Seddon as essentially a leader of his fellows. Sir Joseph Ward can boast of many delightful characteristics. He is apt and suave and eminently persuasive, and with a far better head for business than Mr Sedon could ever hope to have : ! but, first and foremost. Sir Joseph is ! essentially a diplomat, skilled in the many wiles upon which diplomacy thrives and by the exercise of which it hopes to see success. Among the Tecognised rules of diplomacy, first and foremost stands the maxim which says: "For the solution of every difficulty seek to establish a compromise, and until every hope of compromise is finally exhausted do not allow anything approaching a crisis to be precipitated." And it is exactly this diplomatic maxim which can be read between almost every line of Sir Joseph Waid's speech at Auckland. The most significant sentences in this extremely significant speech Tlie Latent are to be found under the Bi-ft«d of striking headline, " RevoluSocialism. tionary Socialism." Here Sir Joseph Ward makes a double-barrelled appeal. On the one hand he 6eeks to gain the confidence of the extreme wing of the Labour party, who have not been slow in expressing their opinion — to use the Prime Minister's own words — " that the Government is not so liberal as it should be in its instincts, its aims, its actions, or its legislation." And on the other hand, he endeavours to soothe the agitation of that conservative element in society which finds in the name of Socialism the letting loose upon the community of all .sortß of dangerous and destructive influences. Sir Joseph refuges in a diplomatic via mcdia — the Government will cive no support to the revolutionary Socialist, neither wilj it be swayed to the castiron prejudices of the hide-bound individualist; but it will seek to act In the beat interests of all sections of the people, along the lines of progressive modernism. "The Government," 6ays Sir Joseph Ward, " does not profess to be able to ; K£at the couditioiu of the extremes upon

either side, and from tie extremes upoi^ either side we do not expect Bupport ot assistance. They did not support my pre« decessor." Whether this declaration of policy will appeal to the multitude with sufficient force to enable Sir Joseph Ward to maintain his position at the head of the Government time alone will prove. After: all, the Prime Minister" is only adhering to the philosophy enunciated by Cecil when he said, " All extremes a*e error. The reverse of error is not truth, but error still.Truth lies between these extremes." Bufc just as there are times when measures o£ compromise commend themselves to public opinion, so there are times when nothing will pass muster but the advocacy of tho extremist. The student cannot fail to observe that in the history of every natioti! periods 6f prosperity are invariably marked by legislation of compromise — ■ evervthinff is going so well that the diplo^ mat hesitates to interiect anything calculated to interfere with that tide which, taken at the flood, seems to be leading on to fortune. But once let the unwelcome! head of adversity appear, and the day of the demagogue is near, the man who derjoi3nr«3 existing evils and rjropo^es drastic remedies, marked by the extreme o£ severity. Contrast, for instance, at the nresent time New Zealand and America.^ New Zealand is prosoerous in every way. hence romnToniisps fird favour ; -Amerif.ii U passing throucrh the throes of a jri<»antio finanoial convulsion, hence the c.irdidat^* for Presidential office — as with Mr William Brvan — sock to owt-Roosevelt Boosevelt in their denunciation of trusts and combines and commercial and industrial tyranny of every kind. Tliore is one pa^age in the Prinie Minister's pneech. however. Th» Crnsmi* which calls for severe reproA?nltißtt!ie bation— viz., that which Chinaman, refers to the Chinaman and his well-known propensities for market -gardening. Sir Joseph Ward Pno-e^ts the employment of prison labour for the purpose of raising vegetables to sr.pplv the four chief " cities in th« Dominion, and with the avowed oWct o f ousting -the- Chinaman from his means' of. livelihood. This is open to grave and ( serious objection — indeed, we are surprised that Sir Joseph should have fallen into so grave an error as to suggest suck a sc-homf. Tt would almost seem as thoneh the Prime Minister had enlisted under Lionel Torvv's banner for the exterlrurtation of the Chinaman in thp interest" of the purity of the race. While jtis Quite laudable to preserve the Dominion fvom being overrun by people of an alie.n PVstern race, yet. havin<r once been allowed to take un their residence in New Zealand, and forced to pay the heavy T>en*Hies to which they are subierted upon landing on th.^e shores, every Chinaman is sure.lv entitled to the same protection as is the European. For if once a differ- . croc be suerepstpd in this respect it constitutes a direct encoumorempnt to the 6nerioufi plea under which Lionel Terry murdered an ipofT^n=ive old Chinaman. Ard. moreover, i^ it be « criminal offencw to do as Lionel Tern* did, and. revolver in hand." parade the strpets of the capital city and shoot down a Chinaman as a r>rotest against the incursion of the yellow man. then th» same stigma must attach to any att-f>irmt ot the part of the Government t« deprive the Chinaman of a mean* of liveli'mrxl by th« unfair competition of i^icrni labour. 'A^-fl. if th<» fish°n"ppn in rai^e a protest acrain^t the Salvation \rmv for their proposed employment of inebriates to snpplv lhe i-«iv market with Gib. then the Chinamen have in p'lval right of protest airainst Si"* Josenh W-ircVs nroposal to emnlov ■n^on laV'Oi" 1 to smvni*- the Htv markets •w ith veo^taKlFs. Corsiderpd from any and c-verv point of view thp proie?*- is «n y»Tnmnnt to m-iUnpvv "'id Brit"b fail "Inv that it should spe°dilv be rele-o-atpd to that limbo from which it neve? shentid have emerged. The disastrous fire in Christchurch, following so closely upon a Tlip big blaze in Timaru. has Destrnotiveiiess excited all manner of apofFire. prehension in various quarters. The fire insurance companies are naturally concerned, in the interests of their shareholders, at the prospect of yet another unproductive year's working. New Zealand has for a number of years past been reoosniaed as an unprofitable field for fire insurance operations, and the competition of the State. Fire Insurance Department has rendered business still more unattractive. Municipal authorities are nov. alive to the necessity of a proper pressure of water, for it is a remarkable fact, in a country so well watered as New Zealand, that the supply ! available for fire extinction purposes is so j lamentably behind the times. To the ordinary observer it is apparent that much remains to be done in the construction of business premises in the cities so as to make them more impervious to the ravages of the fire fiend. The Christ-chuix-h fire, moreover, gives point to the remarks of a popular essayist upon a somewhat similar conflagration, when he wrote, " One thing I never realised before, and that was the terrific beauty and love- • liness of fire. Dealing with it in ordinary life it is, I suppose, too much of a 6lave to us to command our admiration. It ia only when it starts up and assumes the mastership that we recognise its majestic, if destructive, power. It is as if a company of galley slaves broke their bonds and carried ruin and terror all alon& before them, then fell down lifeless undei the ruin they had made. But it is a mighty element : the more to b«i dreaded — nay, it is the great central energy which everywhere works through space, fbat blue jet of flame in my gra-to is kindled by the sun ; and it is diluted! ■ by> real sun force that lights this papeit, "which I am just now sundering.. The same mysterious power has bleached tH«i - linen in my sleeve and browned the cuticle of my iand. It has cooWd fhatr meat before me and enamelled the plate on which if lies. It built ttie temples of the gods in Persia, for itself was the deity'

yroTshipped! ; and in the Irish valleys it taised these dolmens and cromlechs that have -withstood the storms of 3000 years."