PUBLIC OPINION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10196, 4 July 1911, Page 3

PUBLIC OPINION.

FROM YESTERDAY'S NEWSPAPERS. HOMITRIXLE. Even if the Veto Bill passes in its present form (find that is not a foregone conclusion) we liave no doubt that by one means or another the final settlement of the Home Rule controversy will be postponed until after the next general election. There is a pathetic element, perhaps a politic element too, in the optimism professed by the visiting delegates. The pity is that the matter cannot be submitted to the people by actual referendum, but the Asquith Government have turned their backs on that Liberal principle— Dunedin " Star." THE "MINISTERIAL VISIT. Sir James Carroll apparently derides the suggestion that a Government which has been " tolerated," a happy expression of his that exactly fits the case, for so long should now be turned out of office. He says it is not statesmanlike. It is, however, an intensely human suggestion, and one which Sir James Carroll will meet all over New Zealand.—"Otago Daily Times." WHAT POLICY? Giving rein to our fancy for a moment, and supposing Mr Massey to be Premier, what would happen F Would the Advances to Settlers Office, which the Opposition leader called a State pawnshop, be closed? Would the Arbitration Act, which Mr Herdman considers a colossal mistake, be repealed? Would the land tax, which, small as >t is, fractures the feelings of our friends more than anything else, be abolished? AVould the Judiciary and the Magistracy, which Mr Allen says are corrupt, be purified? If not, why not? And if so, how? In short, what would the Opposition do if placed in power?—" New Zealand Times." THE OPPOSITION S CHANCE. In his speech at Invorcargill, the Acting-Premier mentioned that the last argument of all that was brought forward by the Opposition was, " Oh, they have been in power long enough. Give us a turn." Was that, he asked, a statesmanlike attitude to take up J Sir James Carroll's scorn was justified to this extent, that the argument is frankly irrespective of any merit on the part of those who bring it forward. Nevertheless, it is a solid and substantial argument, and one which we believe is so regarded by a large number ol' independent electors. If the parties were anything like evenly balanced, it would suffice to turn the scale against the Government, and properly so, in our opinion, for a twenty years' monopoly of power is wholesome neither for the party which exercises it nor for the country. THE ROLE OF TO HUNG A. While the Acting Prime Minister, with probably mock indignation, resents the character of the criticism to which the Government is subjected, he himself, it is to be noted, is an adept at the same game. Mr Herdman, we are told, is a slanderer., Mr Massey a violent and ignorant reactionary, and Mr Allen a croaking raven. Tho Opposition is the same old Tory Party, knowing nothing and caring nothing for progress and popular rights, and consumed only bv ail undying thirst for office. To his other roles Sir James now adds that of a tohunga. He professes to read the future, and, with all the confidence of a seer of old holding in thraldom a credulous and superstitious group of listeners, predicts that the Opposition will never get on the Treasury benches. We have, however, yet to learn that tho voice of Sir James Carroll is the voijc of the people.—" New Zealand Herald. '