A VIEW OF THE SITUATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 4, 14 December 1911, Page 4

A VIEW OF THE SITUATION.

In a very interesting letter to the Sydney “Daily Telegraph,” that journal’s Now Zealand correspondent, writing at the end of November, takes rather a curious view of the political situation in t lie Dominion. After referring to the Government’s long reign and to the causes which may bring about its downfall, the writer goes on to say that the best thing that could happen to the Government would ho a restoration of the status quo, as an Opposition, either smaller or larger, would not he in the Government’s interests. Reviewing the past, he says:—“ln the 1905 election Mi- Scdclon’s attack reduced the Opposition to very thin proportions, and the old man became genuinely alarmed, fearing that ho had overdone it. Ho felt- that the cohesiveness of his own following would vary in ratio to the pressure from' without, and in this respect he did not fail to recognise the very real position which his Majesty’s Opposition occupied in the government of the country. To wipe it out was by no means his object, for it was infinitely to he preferred to the devil he did not now; and it is more than suspected that in his later years Air Seddou viewed the Opposition with a. tender regard, which only exceptional diplomacy could partially dissemble. It was serious-minded enough to impress the public with a sense of its honesty of purpose, and it was never sufficiently intelligent or dashing in attack to give the public an adequate reason for putting it in power. Consequently it kept out any more dangerous Opj/isition, and at the same time gave Mr Seddon no sleepless nights. In fact, it is hardly too much to say that the Opposition was the greatest asset the Seddon Government ever had—the Opposition, plus prolonged prosperity. Mr Seddon died in harness, and too suddenly to acknowledge his debt to the gentlemen on the opposing benches, and his biographers seem to have curiously overlooked the fact. Now Air Massey has certainly convinced himself, ' and believes that ho has persuaded the country, that the present-day Opposition is more than a stop-gap, and has a legitimate claim to the Government benches. But if the Opposition does not carry the country, it must certainly do something to checkmate the continuity of the Ssddon-Ward dynastry, and the readiest method of .attack would appear to be to join it; This may sound paradoxical, yet there are many who maintain that the Opposition’s best chance of upsetting the Ministry would' come by ceasing to oppose. The swollen heterogeneous and unopposed Government would then automatically proceed to generate its own disruptive frictional heat, for which there is abundant material. It would no longer, be able to claim the credit of the good seasons, and it would'be unable to debit the Opposition with the bad ones, should they come. The mimic warfare would he at an end, and the country would begin to look around for a dog that could really fight. Thus, there would lie a disintegrating and a constructive process going on simultaneously, the one within the Government, the other without. It is harsh to ask a political party to commit suicide, but it is argued that if the New Zealand Opposition (presuming it fails at the poll) is patriotic enough to do so, it will at once let in the devil that Mr Seddon did not know—and feared.” As to whether or not the advice given above may be advantageous to follow will be better seen when the results of the second ballots for the thirty undecided seats, which arc being taken to-day, are made known.