QUESTIONS.

Southland Times, Issue 17679, 17 June 1914, Page 5

QUESTIONS.

The attempt that was made by Mr fsitt and some of his newspaper friends to score against tho Prime Minister because he indicated to the Mayor just before his Invercargill meeting that he did not wish to be troubled with questions was no a great success, for it is quite well known to the public that it is not a practice with the heads of Governments to accept questions at the conclusion of their addresses. In this matter, if we arc not mistaken, Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward were at one, and .Mr Seddon and those who preceded him in the Premiership also declined to answer questions except under very special circumstances. And there is quite a reasonable explanation for the practice. It is not that Ministers of the Crown are afraid of questions or that they are not prepared to give the electors the fullest information that is available. Experience has shown that the answering of questions at political meetings is rarely satisfactory either to the questioner or to the audience. This was demonstrated at Mr Isitt’s own meeting. Although Mr Isitt professed to be simply yearning for hundreds of questions from his audience he did not give a straightforward and direct answer to any of the questions that were put to him. Furthermore, if Ministers of the Crown once begin to answer questions the end of the meeting Is indefinitely postponed. One question suggests another, and to stop the questioning process, or to answer some questions and leave others unanswered, is w'orse than refusing all questions. Mr Isitt’s attempt to make capital out of the explanation which the Mayor gave the audience was not that of a candid and fair-minded Independent. It was the cheap sally of the party man whose first object it is to put his opponent at a disadvantage. Had Mr Isitt been the impartial Independent he professes to be he would have explained that Mr Massey was merely following precedent, and there the matter would have ended. And it is not as if Mr Isitt and his friends were always willing to answer questions themselves. Mr Isitt makes a great show of willingness, hut when question time arrives the show ends in evasion. At Lawrence a few nights ago Mr G. W. Russell, the heavy tragedian of the “flying squadron’’ en tour, found himself face to face with an audience that was none too friendly, and with praiseworthy discretion he declined to answer questions even when pressed to do so, explaining that as he was not a candidate for the Bruce seat he did not feel himself called upon to deal with questions. Of this paltry matter a great deal has been made, but the facts are sufficiently plain to make it certain that the public has not been in any way deceived.