Political Banquets.

Southland Times, Issue 19265, 1 February 1904, Page 4

Political Banquets.

To tho Editor. Sir,— l was mightily pleased on reading your leader "Mr Seddon on the West Coast/ and especially so with tho way you - wrot© about the coining banquet to Mr Seddon . at Inkorcargill. As you say, Sir, Mr Seddon has not received the semblance of an invitation" from the town, and the Liberal and Labour Association Is not a .representative body. The mem- j bers have been holding monthly meetings for some time, and the number that attends does not exceed 20, and these are Seddon'B faithful henchmen. They tried to get women to. attend, but the women of Invercargill are enrolled in the other camp— the no-license camp—and will never support Seddonism again after hie bold attempt to rivet the liquor traffic upqn the colony. Your description of these political banquets as exhibitions of hollow, sham, nauseating servile flattery, and contemptible human frailties and weaknesses will be endorsed by all, except shammers and flatterers. These bavquetings at Invereargill during the present. reign have all been, more or less, characterised by these pitiable weaknesses, and only a sense of the desperateness of the position into which Seddbnism has got Mr Seddon himself could have commenced this new series of banquetings. It is an attempt to recover lost ground by al mendacious effort to gull constituencies into, beliving that Mr Seddon is still popular, and no selfrespecting" man or woman will countenance by their presence or in any way aid such detestable attempts at imposture. Only the poor, jaded hacks, -who have been, sitting at the gate, like Lazarus, waiting for crumbs, will take any part in the coming farce. There was banqueting ad nauseum at tho beginning of Mr Seddon's reign, andj the party has resolved upon a new issue of banqueting scrip, for you may be sure that where success is achieved the promoters will ,bo rewarded for their services. There was shrewdness in making a beginning on the West Coast, where so much .public money was spent, and. yet, even there, failure has to be written- when tho affair is honestly reported.,,. The .business people would not Taitteridi; civil servants were there in force. According! to; reports from the . West Coast, Mr Seddon, or the G overnjiient, is punishing Greymouth for the insubordination, of its representative, Mr ' Ouinness, Speaker of the . House. Mr Guinness brought Mr Seddon up with a short turn on several occasions last session, and it has always been Mr Seddon'a custom to visit the sins of representatiyea upon tieir constituents, so Greymouth cannot get its promised Post and Telegraph Office built. The only bond that has ever been accepted bet-ween the present Government and their following is B, gplden bond,. and. when that gets broken the Kilkienay cats como out. At the Wairorapa the Liberal and Labour Federation, or what the local paper calls the- wonderful Tammany Institution, has been organismg _ a . monster picnic. The plan -.was for a Mr Ronall to Invite tho -Wealeyanß, Anglicans,- and Catholics to hold their, picnics at his property, on the •amp >! •lat9; ;^;^lta^'"tho/ : V'.X'iberai; and Labour Federation were to hold their picnic, at which the Premier- was to attend to pre- ; sent charters to these Tammanyites, -and that: ie .the way monster Liberal 'and Labour gatherings axe worked up in tho What, the import of these charters Is I know not, except that they pledge tho recipients to fight to the „d eath for Mr. Seddon and Liberalism tho some as presenting colours to a regiment pledges the regiment to fight for King and. country, till death. Every device is .;. seized; ;'upon to, : give importance to tho profession' of Liberalism, but it is all in vain. Sentence* has been pronounced against Seddon's Liberalism, and oxecu- - tl6n.--I uam,'.et6., • ' ' - > • SORUTATOB. Jan, 29th.. ' ■']'{"/:■■■