THE COLONIST. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1911. THE POISONED BARB.

Colonist, Volume LIV, Issue 13263, 14 November 1911, Page 2

THE COLONIST. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1911. THE POISONED BARB.

"The writers who, unable themselves to give a single piece of constructive policy, are basely engaged in detracting from th© efforts of tho Government" can hardly be expected to relish the scathing utterances of Sir Joseph Ward concerning them in his recent speech at Winton, but it cannot be said for them that their tactics do not richly merit the severost condemnation. The indiscriminate hurling of charges and insinuations at the other side is the surest evidence of political bankruptcy, und by its continuous campaign of calumy the Opposition has succeeded only in making the country heartily tired of its methods. In the last few years many charges of Tammanyism and dishonest administration have been levelled against the Government by the Opposition, and they have been the subjects of searching investigations which so far from indicating reason to suspect the integrity of the Administration, have shown that New Zealand may congratulate itself upon the freedom it enjoys from corrupt influences in its Government and official ami public life generally. When Air Fowlds rotired from tho Ministry recently he took'occasion to anticipate the inevitable suggestion that his motives for doing so were n«t to the credit of tho Government. "I think it only fair to Sir Joseph Ward and my colleagues," he informed the Houee, "to state that the charges of corruption and Tammanyism wliich have been "so freely levellod against the Government hare been ontirely unwarranted. Members of the Government may have made mistakes, but I know of nothing that has occurred during my connection with them that'could be called corrupt." The late'Mr T. E. Taylor,,

M.P.> a critic whose tongue Could have been stilled by no party considerations, repeatedly put on record' his belief in the baselessness of such charges, and more recently there lias been forcible testimony to the same effect from his. successor in Parliament, Mr I*. M. Isitt, to whom it is equally impossible to impute any deslre to tontsenl tho truth, however unwelcome- it might be. Mr Isitt made a notable speech in the House during tho recent session, in which he deplored ''tile cdiistant stream of insinuation, of innuendo, of vague charges of bribery and corruption, of maladministration and political graft against the men now in power." Many people outside Parliament, he went on to say, put the most1 extreme interpretation on. these charges, and in consequence of them believed that members of His Majesty's Government in this country received huge monetary bribes, and were guilty of the most reprehensible and dishonest practices in order to retain their political positioiis. It was a deplorable state of things, because ho was convinced that there was not a shadow of truth or- ono iota of evidence in support of any suggestion of the kind. He was known to thoiiGands of men and women throughout New Zealand, and ho was happy in tho conviction that they believed in his love- for the right and his determination to speak out fearlessly what lie believed to be true. "I want tonight,' 1 Mr Isitt declared, "to tell those men and women throughout the length and breadth of this Dominion that there is no bribery, no corruption, no maladministration; there is no political graft; that Ministers of tho Crown are shamefully libelled; and men and women, New Zealand through, should turn a deaf ear to these cowardly untruths." That is advice fairniinded people have learned to adopt when the Opposition discovers fresh mares' nests, but it is much to be deplored that any party should i resort to such methods in its attempts to climb to place and power. It introduces into tho public life of the country an element which will bo responsible for irremediable mischief if it permitted to gain recognition as a legitimate political weapon.