LIBERALISM'S APPEAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 269, 13 November 1928, Page 6

LIBERALISM'S APPEAL.

A stranger might imagine from what the Reform Party has been saying about the United Party's programme that there is nothing in it bnt the borrowing proposals. There is a great deal besides this in the United policy, bnt of course it suits Reform to ignore it. There is, for example, a definite land policy, including the prevention of aggregation and promotion of group settlement. There is the promise of immediate revision of taxation, a task which Reform should have taken up. There is a definite promise to stop encroachment by the State on the field of legitimate private enterprise and to restrict Government by Order-in-Council: The party is pledged to oppose the Reform policy of Departmental centralisation. It promises also to put an end to a highly unsatisfactory electoral system. This is a definite constructive policy which makes absurd the Reform argument that there is no> difference between the parties. The United Party is an alternative to Reform. Reform's greatest strength lies not in its own virtues, but in the divisions among its opponents. Labour's manifesto, which must not be confused with the properly , adopted platform of the party, appeals to the memory of Ballance and Seddon. Labour may be asked how long Reform would have remained in office—if, indeed, it had ever reached office —if Labour had not deserted Liberalism and resolved to play a lone hand? Again, on the eve of another appeal to the people, we point this out to the mass of Liberal-minded voters and urge them to support the party that is the real trustee for Liberalism, a party that can be developed into a very powerful and beneficial factor in the national affairs of this Dominion.