Evening Post. MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1904. THE PREMIER ON TOUR.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 135, 5 December 1904, Page 4

Evening Post. MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1904. THE PREMIER ON TOUR.

The pace at which the Premier has been travelling ever since the close of an unusually exhausting session is so far from that of an invalid that it would suggest to anybody unacquainted with his iron frame and restless energy that he must be in the pink of condition. He would have been wise to make the last month one of perfect rest, which his bitterest opponent could not have grudged him, but instead of that he has filled it to overflowing with a continuous whirl of meetings, deputations, interviews, banquets, speeches, and letters. Any heart but his own would have quailed before such a programme in the first month of the recess, but it is all child's play to him, nnd if the weakness of his health has any say in the matter at all, it only appears to heighten the tonic value of a round of diversions which most strong and healthy men would nnd. more exhausting than the treadmill. He has fought with wild shopkeepers at Newtown, and after coming off second best has covered his retreat with the strains of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," sung by some half-dozen of his trusty henchmen who stood by him to the last. He has addressed a more peaceful audience at Taihape, and explained that the music <was a paean of victory chanted in his honour by the foe wno had mustered to curse- the Shops ond Offices Act and its author, but remained under the spell of his eloquence to bless them both. In the good old days' he thought nothing of turning six or seven thousand infuriated diggers round his little finger — terrible fellows they were too, all armed to the

teeth, all crack shots, and all cased cap-a-pie in impenetrable buckram ; and no wonder th.it even now Ms little finger is thicker than the loins of a whole battalion of less bloodthirsty antagonists. He has brought that "friendly test case" ■with results that are so far profoundly satisfactory to all parties, and are likely to remain so ; and from another case in which w the colony has to face a claim of £400,000 he has withdrawn both the counsel to whom the work was entrusted in order that they may take part in a private litigation in which he has a. personal interest. We really have not space to complete the list of his agenda for the month, but may add that it also included the opening of new sections of the North Island Main Trunk and of the Otago Central Railways ; the publication of a»vaSt manifesto in reply to the cruel suspicions of the Presbyterian General Assembly that lie has been fooling them on the subject of Bible-m-schools ; the subsequent declaration that after more than eight years of earnest hesitation he has decided to range himself with the people against the church upon that question ; speeches and banquets beyond number in Dunedin, Ophir, and elsewhere ; and, last but not lease, the presentation of a charter to the Chatto Creek branch of the Liberal and Labour Federation. The ceremony at Chatto Creek, of course, found him at his best. Fatherly, expansive, patriotic, pious — these are always his notes on such an occasion, and they make one feel, even more than his manifesto to the Presbyterians, that Gladstone is not the only successful Premier whose adhesion to politics has involved a cruel loss to the pulpit and the episcopal bench. At Chatto Creek the Premier was appropriately introduced by Mr. H. Seddon, who said that "the Premier had been a great friend of the workers, and his sympathy -was shown by his condescending to visit the co-operative workers at Chatto Creek.' The condescension of the great man in remembering the humble toilers who owe their billets to him and may or may not reciprocate his kindness with their votes is beyond all praise ; and such philanthropy is particularly touching when the near approach of the general election must give him so many more important things to think about. "The necessity for combination with a view of holding on to the progressive laws the present Government had put on the Statute-book" was duly pointed out to the workers by the Premier ; he not only supported what had already been done to prevent the aggregation of large estates, but suggested that it would be properly made "illegal for any persons holding large tracts of country now to be able lawfully to increase their holdings." The co-operative workers of Chatto Creek were adjured to submit to this self-denying ordinauce for the good lof the country, and it is to the credit of all concerned that they heard the gospel gladly. A btii'iiuouß defence of the co-operative system for public works was also very appropriately urged by Mr. Seddon. If he had not flinched from a rigid enforcement of the Shops and Offices Act in spite of hostile clamour, why should he shiink from defending the co-operative system before those whose living depended on it? But the President of the Liberal and Labour Federation was as usual most impressive when dealing with general principles. He regards "his position as President of the Federation as one of the proudest positions within the grasp of a man in the colony," and well he may, for these are its objects — we quote from the Evening Star's report : "It w;is a Federaj tion in which men joined for mutual support and improvement, pledging themselves, and the Federation constitution pledging themselves, to that grand old flag that had ever been the emblem 6f Liberty and Justice, banding themselves to support t the Liberal Government, and endeavouring to pass Liberal laws, and to give the people their just rights. These were proper objects to band together for." Eminently proper objects all of them, but especially the grand old flag." At the same time, we are quite unable to see that the grand old flag has anything more to do with it than King Charles's head. Does the President of the Liberal and Labour Federation mean to suggest that everybody who remains outside his organisation is a pro-Boer'/ He would be wiser to go a little- easy on this line for a while. People have not forgotten that his dis- , graceful dallying was the meaus of hanging up the Transvaal labour resolution last session till it was too late to be of any value, and that if his hand had not been forced he would have allowed the House of Representatives to pass for proChinamen. The Liberal and Labour Federation has as much right to have the grand old Yellow Dragon emblazoned on its flag as to claim a monopoly of that noblei emblem which it is treason to attempt to identify with anything less than the whole nation. The Premier's hopes and fears, his timid doubts and coy desires with regard to the High Conimiseionership, were also duly confided to the co-operative Liberals of Chatto Creek ; and ' they were so well-balanced that he rejoices to find that his words have been interpreted in opposite senses even by friendly critics. Our own opinion on the subject is quite unsnaken. He has said from the first that he would not take the position, and we have said from the first that he would. Time will show which is right, and it will take eight years less to decide than the attitude of the Premier to I the Bible-in-Schools agitation.