THE PREMIER JUGGLER.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12593, 5 September 1905, Page 7

THE PREMIER JUGGLER.

A MODERN CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

THE BALANCING ATTITUDE

SUMMED UP

Perhaps the most interesting speech delivered during^ the debate on the Premier's resolutions with reference to the land tenure was that of Mr. T. McKenzie last night—his principal theme being the Premier's balancing tactics in connection with this important ouestion.

"When the Premier introduced his resolutions last year for setting up this Royal Commission," said Mr. McKenssie, "he said that they must not hurry in the dark—that they must have time. This year one cannot but think of the lines of that beautiful hymn and apply them to tho Government:— ■ . 'Lead, Kindly Light, amid the ericifclling gloom, ' '•■':■'" , Lead thou me on. ,;

The^night is dark, and I am far from home; .

Lead thou mo on.' (Laughter). , . ' • "As to the attitude of the Premier: Ho says to himself, 'I will take a plebiscite of the House, a referendum of Parliament, and I will., see what the iParliatnent wants, and;if I find there is ,a in Parliament in favour of <tlio i> tenures; that those 'who '-know best how to operate, want, we will hope to se«-ttio^ad^r^:|he Opposition's foP loAvers fall in, and:*by the total of their votes- over-ride those Radicals in our ranks whose opinions are immature and unsuitable to the country.' If I were tht; Leader of the Opposition I would say to the Government, 'I take you on straight constitutional lines; The Premier, when he announced his resolutions last year, said the Government were responsible for the administration and legislation of the country. Let them bo responsible for the administration and legislation of the country, and crystallise their abstract thought into concrete principles and express those principles in the shape of a Bill.' " After deprecating the Premier's motion as the traduction of party government into "a debating society system of deciding resolutions," Mr. Macken zie developed the Premier's "back-to-the-wall" attitude of firmness. The Premier might.be pictured as saying: "I am going to stand for a district in which there are leading questions exercising the minds of the electors—prohibition, Bible reading in schools, freehold, and tho Elective Executive, and I go round and say, 'I would just like, merely by way or by-play, that you should assemble and oomo to conclusions as to whether you are more in favour of Bible reading in schools than against it; that you are more in favour of Prihibition than against it;

. . . . and when we have got you tj decide all t,hese matters by your vote, wo will then frame a speech and wo will tell you that our backs will be then to the wall. If three-fourths of you aro in favour of Bible reading in schools, no inducement under heaven will cause us to depart from that policy. If nine-tenths of you are in favour of the freehold we will see all the leaseholders to kingdom come before wo ever so much as dream of the leasehold. If freetrade is in the ascendant no threat of annihilation would make us v, protectionist—our back would be to tho wall.' "

A particularly effective passage in Mr. Mackenzie's speech—and it was greeted with warm approval—vas his modern perversion of Carlyle's oescription of a public man who said he was going on a voyage Whitherward in a vessel called Friendship, and that he was going to the tune >of all the winds, and that ho would inevitably arrive at tho port of Nowhere, and that he was a modern Christopher Columbus on a voyage of discovery. "What have we now in this Parliament?" asked Mr. Mackenzie. "Modern Christopher Columbuses starting on voyages of discovery, going, shall we say, on the vessels Resolutions and Royal Commissions. They aro going to waltz to the tune of the tenures, and inevitably they Avill get into the port of Nowhere, and hope beforo the sth of next December to get. rid of some of their troublesome crews, slip their anchors, and sail away with tho most favourable breeze on another successful voyage of three years." — "Post."