LIBERAL POLITICS. And the Gisborne Variety Thereof.

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 36, 9 March 1901, Page 8

LIBERAL POLITICS. And the Gisborne Variety Thereof.

THEY seem to grow a rather hungry type of alleged Liberal down at Poverty Bay. At least we judge so from some of the recent actions of the Liberal Association in that region and certain expressions of opinion which have found vent at its meetings. A few weeks ago it attracted some attention to itself by raising the old party war-cry of " spoils to the victors " and passing resolutions urging the Liberal Associations throughout the country to support only party candidates for seats on local bodies. Indeed, one member went so far as to advocate that if they succeeded in capturing the seats they should make Liberalism a sine <jua non of appointment to office. ♦ • • This is the "spoils to the victor" principle in all its native ugliness. It is the American system pure and simple. And it has been reserved for Gisborne to produce the particular brand of "Liberal " patriot who has the effrontery to proclaim a policy so entirely opposed to the British sense of fair play, and so utterly repugnant to all our traditions as a people. Reduced to practice it would mean that our cities would be thronged with office-seekers and wirepullers. There would be a continual struggle between the ins and the outs for the spoils of office. All positions of emolument in the public service, whether colonial or local, would be regarded as fair game for the victors and their creatures, a.nd directly a party triumph was secured at the polls the next step would be to turn out neck and crop the incumbents of office, and replace them with others of " the right colour " for the time being. It needs no prophet to foresee the consequences of such a state of things. * * * This Gisborne Liberal Association has made another bid for notoriety. While Mr. and Mrs. Seddon, Miss Seddon, and Mr. Ward were there the other day, on their way down the coast with the Indian Contingent, the Association sent along a deputation to the Postmaster- General to urge that the Government should supply a new clock to the post office tower "by way of commemorating the visit of Mrs. and Miss Seddon" to the township. This is about the richest and most original joke we have heard of for a considerable time, and the Gisborne Liberal Association deserves the entire credit for it. One could understand a request being preferred to the Government for a new clock for a post office tower, but to beg it as a means of commemorating a visit from a Premier's wife, daughter, sister, cousin, or aunt is a perfectly new feature in colonial politics of the Liberal or any other pattern. • • • Mr. Ward, we are glad to see, gave a prompt and dignified answer. He said that, if to commemorate their visit, they had to provide a clock for every town they passed through, it would become a rather expensive order. He was prepared to treat Gisborne the same as other places : if the townspeople would raise half the cost the Government would provide the other half. After all, one cannot help feeling astonished at the moderation of the Gisborne Liberal Association. It might just as easily have asked for a Town Hall or a Free Library or an

Art Gallery or a new breakwater to commemorate the visit of Mrs. and Miss Seddon. But it merely hankered after a new clock.