The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, JUNE 13, 1910. OPPOSITION RETICENCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14222, 13 June 1910, Page 4

The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, JUNE 13, 1910. OPPOSITION RETICENCE.

Mr James Allen's political address to the people of Hokitika last Friday evening was about as Oppositionist a deliverance as he could make it. and Mr Allen has had a good deal of practice in making addresses of that kind. According to his statement of the case, except in regard to defence the Government has done nothing worthy of commendation, not even the stealing of Opposition ideas, because the theft vitiated the virtue of the sense displayed. According to a special and fuller report of hia speech than appeared in the "Timaru Herald," Mr Allen stated that he was visiting and speaking at Hokitika. because he had been invited, and because ho had been told by his chief to go, and because the Opposition desired to put their own case before the people. If this was his purpose in going, Mr Allen forgot it when lie reached the hall, or the two hours that his speech lasted was not long enough, for he only got through his prefatory condemnation of the present Government when it was time to stop, and all that he could squeeze in about the Opposition's own case was that he " ventured to say that if the Opposition got a chance they could govern the country on better principles than those adopted by the present Government." We venture to say that the Opposition speakers are making a great mistake if they suppose that they can convert constituencies by such platform tactics as these. It is useless to reiterate that the Government is spineless, has no policy, is simply sticking to office like a limpet to a ship. Somebody must bo in office, and the party that puts its policy before the electors, however poor a policy it may be, will, be preferred to one which says it has a policy, but Mill not display it for fear of having it stolen. The whole of Mr Allen's tirade might have been condensed into a few sentences, stating the principles of good government that had been disregarded, purposely or ignorantly, by the present Government, and then there would have been timo enough for an attempt to convince the electors that the Opposition were determined, if they were in power, to apply those principles and not to disregard them, in the .several branches of the administration. It should be easy enough to show that the difference between the Opposition and Government policies is a. great deal more than the difference between Outs and Ins; that it is the difi'orenee between seeking the benefit of the country through wise measures, and seeking it through foolish ones, or at the worst, merely sticking to office and not caring about the country. Hut not the most careless Opposition speaker would say this of the Government. It is a question of measures, legislative and administrative. Whether these are good or bad depends upon principles or guiding ideas of what ought to be done, and upon the knowledge of how it can be done. Tlie | guiding idea affecting every branch of ! the administration of the present Government, Air Allen might have said, and saying it would have covered nearly I all the matters he complained of at such , length is showiness, big things for the centres, thuigs that will be individually admired or striking, while the innumerable small things, immeasurably more important in the mass, are left to take care of themselves, or are, even hampered in the doing through the ruling craze for showiness. It is a showy thing to have through railway and steamer communication from Bluff to Auckland without a halt, for instance; but it means inconvenience to a larger number of people along the line. Palatial railway stations™ .'ad post offices in a few centres make a fine show; but they mean inadequate accommodation and appliances at country stations, and cramped post offices at country towns, whose users get no quid pro quo for their share of the taxes that goes to pay for the architectural extravagances in the cities. " I will make the railways pay 3 per cent." has a showy sound ; hut it ignores other national profits from the railways, and the purpose of their construction. The Opposition condemns such things, but its representatives do not tell the constituencies plainly and convincingly that they would, if in power, reverse ibis ardoc. and that New. Zealand is

still in the making, requiring to supplj itself with many public necessaries, railways, roads and bridges, etc., before it should think of public luxuries, either material or departmental; and above all to provide means of livelihood for a la rye rural population by opening up the land for occupal;<t wherever it can be found. The winning story for the Opposition is not what the Government have done wrong, hut, plainly and comprehensively, what, it would do right.