TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2616, 25 September 1909, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

A writer in “Chambers’ Journal,” Air. Alichael Alacdonagh, in The Leading want of some better subArticle. ject, has been discussing “The Leading Article.” He commences by quoting the ponderous- Carlyle, who in one of his splenetic -moods growls thus of the unfortunate newspaper -man: —

“Consider his leading articles, what they treat of, how passably they are done. Straw that has been thrashed a hundred times without wheat, ephemeral pound of a sound, such portent of the hour as all men have seen a hundred times turn out inane; how a man with -merely human faculty buckles himself nightly with new vigor and interest to this thrashed straw, nightly thrashes it anew, nightly gets up new thunder about it, and so goes on thrashing and thundering for a considerable series of years—this is a fact remaining still to bo accounted for in human physiology. The vitality of man is great.”

However, Mr. Macdonagh -consoles us by statng that “So far as I know. Carlyle is the only master-mind that is scornful of the' leading article; and there are few institutions in thi s world that he has not condemned and anathematised.” He then quotes counter authorities which tend to take away the sting of tho vicious attack administered by the seer of Chelsea. Mr. Macdonagh comes to these conclusions: “An ‘all-round leader-writer’ —that is, a man who is -expected to write well or passably on a variety of subjects, and to write often against timer—finds the work, if he aims at doing it conscientiously, very trying and very arduous, .unless he is possessed of a wellinformed and cultivated mind, and has at command a skilful and ready pen. He must be widely read, especially in literature, history, and politics, and must carry in bis memory a mass of varied, accurate, and well-assorted knowledge on these subjects, ready for use at .a moment’s notice. He must' be a careful observer of the drift of public opinion. “A leader-writer must be ( above all' things, a .ready writer. Charm and beauty of form, the qualities of literature, are not required in a leading article. Lord Money, a- brilliant lead-er-writer as well as a great litterateur* lays down what he calls a highlyimportant maxim for those who pursue literature, which applies, I think, with even greater force to the writing- or leading .articles. /It is a great mistake/ he says, ‘to expend more time and labor on a piece of composition than is enough to make it serve the purpose in hand/ --The purpose of a leading article is to express an opinion upon one of the public topics of the hour—political, religious, or social. As a rule, it has but the briefest of existences. Published to-day, to-morrow forgotten. Frequently it has to he composed with tho utmost haste. ”

The big guns in the political world managed to x-estrain themRangitikei selves in a most commendContest. able manner up to tbe time of the first polling, but once that was over they threw restraint to the winds and hurled themselves into the fight in such numbers and with such wholeheartedness that Messsr (Smith and Hoekly became lnere pawns in the party game. Marvellous how quickly these Cabinet Ministers, whoso onerous duties are so exacting at any other time, that on the wox-d of Government journals they work twenty hours out of the twenty-four, manage to congregate at a given spot at the slightest inkling of trouble to the party, y -week ago they were scattered m all parts of the Dominion, presumably attending to duties that demand their

personal. attention. Then coifscs word that Massey, the Opposition fiend, is* on the spot, at Ramgitikei, and in a trice no less than three Ministers have dropped their departmental work and :itre embroiled in the stress of an election campaign. Even “Tired Timi” oontes tailing up behind',.- and gets off Ins usual string of sweet-sounding platitudes in the closing stages of tlhe contest. The Leader of the'Opposition and Mr. George Hutchison, who retired from the contest in Mr. Hockly’s favor, were working for the Opposition candidate. But Mr. Hockly’s opponent had three Ministers of the Crown, as well as the Acting-Premier, taking the platform for him, and he was also helped by the three Government candidates whom he defeated on the first baTot, likewise by an M.P. and an ex-M.P. from adjoining constituencies. In these circumstances. Mr. Smith’s 'professions that if returned he will he independent of the Liberal Party are little better than a farce. The one satisfactory point about the election is the fact that the successful candidate, though supported by the Government, is an out-and-out freeholder, so that on the inir portent issue of land tenure the Opposition has really scored a notable gain.