THE HON. W. P. REEVES ON INTERVIEWERS.

West Coast Times, Issue 9916, 31 August 1894, Page 4

THE HON. W. P. REEVES ON INTERVIEWERS.

[Otago Daily Times Correspondent.] Wellington, Aug. 20. From the latest Hansard I transcribe what the Minister for Education was good enough to say of your special in the course of his speech on the Budget as to the much-read interviews that so fluttered the Ministry: — "The hon. gentleman (the Treasurer) has thus been able to reply to criticism on the Budget from hon. gentlemen opposite which have appeared in the public press of the colony. In days gone by our older members were far too shrewd to give themselves away to the wily interviewer within a few hours of the delivery of the Budget. They took time to read, study, and digest it. They did not rush into print before they had read it through ; they tried, at least, to understand it. lam sorry for my hon. friends opposite, because the punishment has been very severe, and it was not altogether their fault. They fell victims to a very shrewd and experienced journalist — a gentleman new to New Zealand, but who occupies an eminent position in journalism, and who, like Ulysses, has seen many cities and manners, and was | therefore able to bring continental experience to bear upon insular innocence. It was he who led these hon. genblemen astray ; and I can well imagine, for I am a journalist myself, how he did it. He did not rush up to thorn with a huge notebook and a metallic pencil in his hand. Far from it. They were led quietly away into a conversation about the weather, and they found themselves in a private-room. The eminent journalist occupied one chair, and the politican the other. Probably there were cigars and whisky and soda. Ido not say the eminent journalist assured his victim that the country wa thirsting for information which lead.ng journals in the south were prepared to publish, or that what was wanted were the opinions of men fitted to lead public men — men who thoroughly understood finance, and who really knew all Li .iat the figures meant. Ido not say that he said

ill that. He is far too artistic for that. But I Lave no doubt that the hon. membors thus operated upon in a few minutes "elt tb n ir bosoms swell with a comfortable feeling. They felt that in the opinion of that discerning interviewer they wer» l esdmg politicans ; that they were tLose who formed public opinion, and th^.t they were in that charmed circle cou.pjised of the chosen few who do know something of finance. Therefore, buoyed up with that comfortable conviction, they gave themselves away into the hands of this experienced journalist. What is an interviewer ? He is a man whose profession it is to make public men commit themselves, and the smarter he is the : more thoroughly do they commit themselves, and it is a tribute to the genius of this experienced journalist that a whole party gave themselves away over a Budget which they had not even read. That is why my hon. friend replied to them, and that is why his speach was so brilliant and successful."