The Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELOS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. "MEASURES NOT MEN." LAWRENCE: WEDNESDAY, 2ND OCT., 1901. THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4896, 2 October 1901, Page 2

The Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELOS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. "MEASURES NOT MEN." LAWRENCE : WEDNESDAY, 2ND OCT., 1901. THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK.

The present session of Parliament, like its predecessors of the last few years past, is entirely uneventful from a party standpoint. It has done -little more than afford the country a further illustration of the utter and hopeless effacement of the Opposition. The noisy criticism of fcbos© few malcontents who have come out from the ranks of the Government do little more than emphasise this fact. Their voices almost alone are heard in the political wastes into which they have taken themselves and,araall in number though they be, they have succeeded in completely dominating the demoralised wreck of the Opposition, in entirely shutting them out from the popular view and arrogating to themselves whatever small admixture of glory and revenge there is in the unauthorised programme with which they have supplied themselves. But for all political purposes of a practical or useful character all this amounts to nothing and means nothing either now or in the future. The country sets no value on the services of the Piranis and the Hutchesons. The implacable hatreds which see everything in the dark and sinister light of the pervert and the renei gade are distasteful even to the ordinary partisan mind) and criticism from such sources, even in the rare case in which it is justided, is powerless to move either Parliamentary or public opinion. Assaults from that quarter therefore are even less effective than those feebly intermittent attacks that are now and_then attempted by one or two members of the fragmentary Opposition. The fact is there is no Opposition in Parliament and it is very questionable whether even in the

country there is the material for one. For the last few years hope has been kept alive in the breasts of not a few people by the thought that the malcontents among tbe Government following itself would famish just the Opposition, to suit the advanced opinion of the colony, but even that pious hope shows no sign of fulfilment; though probably, as in a few instances .lately, when, the Government is for the moment subjected to unsparing criticism at the hands of some of its own most staunch supporters, there is a revival of hope and the consolatory reflection again, comes to the rescue of the despairing and the doubting that after all the destruction of the Seddonian rule is at hand and will be accomplished from within rather than by its enemies from outside. But calm observers whose vision is not obscured by prejudice must see by this time that there is not the remotest possibility of such a consummation. They realise moreover that ail the talk about, metuberß being in Seddonian bondage and their independence of thought and opinion being sequestrated by the head of the Government is largely an effort of the political imagination. What is, however, true in this respect, is that many members of tbe House owing to the conditions existing at their election — conditions, be it remembered, largely the creation of the Premier — cannot without exposing themselves to tbe charge of being disloyal and recreant to principle take up an attitude of opposition or antagonism to the Government. It does not He with them to do so. They have not received any authorisation from their constituents to take up such a position. On the other hand the mandate which the Government received from the country at the general election is still in force, and as long as It is so the Premier has an undoubted right to demand from his followers an unswerving support on all questions of importance. Otherwise hnw is he to give practical or operative expression to the voice of the constituencies and of what use would the mandate of the country j be ? Members recognise all this ; it is not only their duty but their interest to do so, and it is their binding force and not any arbitrary individual or personal authority exercised by the Premier that engenders loyalty and en. joins, if not compels, discipline and points the path from which there must be no serious deviation. In the maintenance of this unwritten compact the personality of Mr Seddon is si factor of considerable force ; but however dominant a force the personality of the Premier may be he could not, unless he had the country at Mb back, hold together with such a singularly tight hand a party composed for the most part of men who had never previously experienced the restraints of discipline in any form and to whom steadfastness and continuity of purpose in any one direction must be a task bejond the power of mere voluntary effort.

Nor is it possible to dissern any revulsion of feeling in the country inimical to the present Administration. It may appear that the freedom with which the Labor laws are being exercised would have aroused such a spirit of revolt ia the country as might lead to an organised campaign against the Government at the next general election. But this is altogether improbable. In the first place it must be observed that the discontent which is said to exiafc i 8 very much exaggerated j in the second place it ia very limited in character, and thirdly ifc is almost exclusively confined to a class of people in the country whose hostility the Government might count on in any case. In addition to this it must be understood that as the operation of the Labor laws extend the strength of the Government in the country must inevitably grow. Every trade, every calling, every occupation and class that eaters the Arbitration Court and gains any advantage in wages or in hours of labor constitutes an accession of new strength to the Government. No doubt in many quarters hopes are being secretly cherished that the New Zealand Farmers' T7nion will ultimately provide the political force destined to destroy the Government. "We do not think, in the first place, that the Union in its present form will ever be able to take up an undisguisedly aggressive attitude without at once imperilling its existence and losing the support of the many hundreds of farmers who have joined ifc solely for the good it may accomplish for the industry to which they belong. Should the attempt be seriously made to convert the organisation into a political machine and its disintegration follow, as it certainly will, an effort may b 9 made to build up the wreckage and attempt a reconstruction on political lines. But that is an event of the future and ia too remote and uncertain a contingency to affect a clear outlook of the political probabilities of the near future with which alone we are concerned.