The Timaru Herald. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1890.

Timaru Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4959, 4 October 1890, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1890.

We have read the full report of Mr Ballance's recent speech at Wanganui, and are no better pleased with it than with the lneafire abstract which first camo to hand. "We notice also that a very large proportion of the newspaper criticisin throughout the colony is not favourable to the speech, and that amongst the dissentients are journals that are supposed to support the party of which Mr Ballance is the Parliamentary leader. His position, however, is a pecnliar one. The Opposition found that they could make no headway without a leader, but an examination of the claims of the rank and file revealed the fact that the party had literally no one fitted to be leader of the Opposition. "We do not mean that that side of the House was devoid of talent. There was in fact a fair amount of ability of one sort and another, but little or none of the stuff, of which leaders are formed, and especially Parliamentary leaders. But a choice had to be made, and in selecting Mr Ballance his party perhaps did the best that they conld under the circumstances. But he waa regarded as a leader only in a very restricted sonse — a convenient kind of servant rather than a chief who was to direct the movements of the campaign and show how a possible victory might be utilised. But Mr Ballance proved an egregious failure even in the minor part which was assigned to him, and though his party did not formally depose him they rendered him throughout the session a very queer sort of allegiance. iHe had no control whatever of the Opposition. The individual members did whatever Beemed right in their own eyes. The Fishes, Seddons, Fishers, and all tho rest of the motley crew talked on and obstructed just 119 it suited their own sweet will, and tho nuisance was almost ns bad after the compact between Mr Bryce, on behalf of. the Government, and Mr Ballance, on behalf of the Opposition, as it had been before. But Mr Ballance failed to realise bis true position. He believed himself to be in very truth a leader, and his "Wanganni speech furnished evidence that the delusion stuck to him after the session. He assumed to speak as the leader of the Opposition, and told his andienoe that the party had bb firm n faith in him then as they ever had had. It would have been a somewhat peculiar assertion for a man in his position to mnke under almost any circumstances. The country would not accept his statement on such a point as that. His standing wonld be judged by a hundred facts apart altogether from an assertion by him that he retained the confidence of his party. However, he told the Wanganui people in effect that he was still the leader of tho Opposition in the fullest sense of the term, and we believe that for once he thought be was telling the trntb. As he expects the Government to bo turned out as the result of the general election and that he himself will step into the Premier's shoes, he thought it advisable to put forward a programme— a Bort of manifesto on behalf of his party. He was,, however, on some •points desperately vague and foggy, and where he could be understood his promised action in the futnre was in many respects not at all circulated to meet with the approval of the country. The newspaper oritics hastened to tell him so, and then he explained himself in bis own journal, the Wanganui Herald. That paper said that Mr Ballance's policy embraced the following pointß : (1) Tho arrest of the exodus of population by greatly increased facilities for occupying the Grown landß. (2) The compulsory acquisition of agricultural land out of the big estates for small farm settlement. (3) The nationalisation' bf the remaining Crown lands. (I) The taxation of land, minus improvements. (5) A graduated tax on the big estates. (6) The abolition of taxation on the necesßariea of life which cannot bo produced in the oolony. (7) The settlement of labour disputes by means of national tribunals. (8) The restoration of the pre-emptive right in respect of native lands. If that is what Mr Ballance meant, there is a great doal amongst it which the country does not desire, and which some of the most influential men of hiß own party do not endorse. But how is it all to be carried ontP Admitting tbo principles to be Bound, is Mr Ballanco the man to create the machinery for giving effeot to his prograxamo ? On that point we. shall qriote' the following little bit of apt criticism from the Evening Post : — " Accepting this interpretation as expressing the real meaning of the loader of the Opposition, and a definition of tho principles on which he appeals to the country, wo quite admit that it amounts to a good deal more than nothing. Some of the points will no doubt commend themselves to publio approval as a matter of general priuciplc, while others, oven on their face iuro opon to. serious objection, but it is iuiposaiblo Ui diocues theni fully und

fairly until farther information and details are famished. Mr Ballanco has enshrined his meaning in a cloud of wordß which to the ordinary reader or listener imply none of the deep things they are intended to convey. An interpreter is necessary to make out what is intended to be conveyed, and even the interpreter is unable to do I more than promise that on a future occasion Mr Ballance will ' explain and amplify' what he means. "We mnst await that time with patience, and in the interim confine onrselves to the simple commentary that bb Mr Ballance, in a very lengthy and carefully prepared speech, entirely failed to convey to ordinary minds any idea of what he really meant, the prospect ia not a hopeful one, that he would, if given the opportunity, be able to formulate his scheme in a practical and operative form, such as could receive legislative sanction."