A MIDDLE PARTY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 7326, 29 January 1891, Page 2

A MIDDLE PARTY.

]NN t ey_t to your " Independent " member, who sits on a rail aud always votes on tho winning side, the noxtmost untrustworthy and mischievous Parliamentary nuisance is n. "Middle Party." Kino times out of leu. the " Independent " member is the most dependent of men; he wants tho highest price all the time for his vote, and contrives frequently to got it. "\Yhcn party &lrito runs high, aud division lists closo, tho " Independent, " member is in clovor, and can make his own torms. The joke of the wholo thing is, that these '"Independent" gentlemen pose as tho moit patriotic, high-minded legislators. They arc not going to immolate their honor on the iiltiir of any party ; not a bit of it. They have higher aims, and arc not to bo bought— except ul their own piice! When there arc .several of those Parliamentary freebooters about, they band themselves together as a '"Middle Party," and prove a terrible nuisance. They will not join cither side, and nothing will satisfy them. They got all they can from both sides, and prove loyal to neither. If tho affairs of the country arc to be successfully carried on by means of party Government, there must only be two parties. A " Middle Party " is a mere band of mischievous malcontents, whobe presence in the House is n sure index that the business of the country is being vexatiously interfered with and made unduly costly. Of course the raison cV c.re of a Middle Party, if we are to believe the members of it, is that outside of that pure-minded body there is no reliance to be placed on either side of the House, and that the country must put its trust in the self-constituted guardians of its safety, and distrust both the Government and the Opposition. Half a dozen men can constitute themselves a Middle Party, and make the lot of any Cabinet a most trying one, but we do not think the electors oi the constituencies these vacillating members represent would stand very much of their nonsense, aud would call them to account sharply if they caught them playing fast and loose with tho party they weie elected to support. The people need to Icocp a sharp eye on such political' hypocrites and humbugs, and to tell them plainly when there is occasion, that they are not acting honorably and straightforwardly, and must give place to better men. One or two sharp reminders of this kind would prove a salutary and efficient lesson to those so-called " Independent " members and loach them that they could not do as they lilted, to the injury of the country's business.