POLITICAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 62, 27 October 1911, Page 3

POLITICAL.

THE KG MONT SEAT. The “New Zealand Dairyman,” the editor oi' which papofr has always been a hitter opponent of the present Government, thus deals with the Hon. Thomas Mackenzie as a candidate for the Egmont scat;—The political policy of tins journal may ho summed up as being the success of the dairying industry. Wo are not therefore much concerned with the many vicissitudes of the contending political parties, hut we arc dccplv concorned. with the progress )f 'Taranaki, for the progress of Taranaki means the further development of the dairying industry and .conjointly witn it of our own .material interests. It lias boon our duty on many ucviMors to criticise in no unmeasured terms the administration of the Agricultural Department. Whether our eiforts have been beneficial or not wo leave it to our readers to decide. From the institution of the Department until ,tho present time many Ministers have presided over the destinies of this important branch of the Public Service, but we are forced to admit there lias never been a Minister for Agriculture who so fully recognised the responsibilities of his office as the present Minister has done. When Mr. Mackenzie first assumed the office wo had, we_ must confess, misgivings as to his lino of action. We realised from his past career that lie would not he content to he a mere figurehead; naturally a man of strong character, ho would soon make his influence felt and put Ids stamp on tire administration of the Department, and our anticipations have bean fully borne out. It is our pleasing duty to be] able to say that wo have secured,at last as ministerial head of tills .Department the very man the,.position] requires. What \vo ' are now anxiously endeavouring fa obtain is a continuity of the sensible policy which has been inaugurated under* Mr Mackenzie’s regime. With all due respect to the opinions of the partisan politicians, we are firmly convinced .that Mr Isitt, in his speech in the financial debates *xp rcssed tlie .well considered political opinion of the Dominion. In our judgment the result of the coming election will not affect seriously the present state of political parties. This being so, the electors of Egmont now have in their hands the opportunity to confer a lasting and substantial boon on the dairying industry and at the same time to Imlp on in' other respects the commercial progress of Taranaki. It is absurd to try to resurrect the old dead bogey of parochialism. True, Mr Mackenzie is not a local man, nor is he in any sense a parish politician. Tut whatever may ho said of the people of Taranaki, it cannot ho truly said that they are afflicted with the narrow parochial feelings which have been attributed to them in some quarters. There was nothing parochial about the Mo; Sir Harry Atkinson, and he, we, maintain, was the, representative of the true political spirit and temperament of Taranaki. Similarly it may lie said there is nothing parochial about the Eon. Thos. Mackenzie. On the contrary, he is a man of the Dominion ana a man of world-wide experience. He has made a grant success of his own and will quickly gnr.’p, the great possibilities'of, the* Taranaki distict. He will realise' that the people of Taranaki, will, look to him to aid in the development' of these possibilities, and ho will know full, well that in helping on the .progress of Taranaki he is helping. ito! advance the -general welfare of the Dominion. Carefully analysed and freed from all attempt’s to cloud the real issue, the coming political conflict when thoroughly examined merely resolves itself into a struggle between the “ins” and the “outs,” and we are much mistaken if the people of Egmout do not, we do, decide to place the dairying industry first and allow the question of general politics to take what place it may. Wo feel assured that the electors of Egmont have enough commercial instinct to grasp the opportunity which the exigencies of the Representation' Act has made possible and secure for their member the Minister for Agriculture.