Liberal Federation of New Zealand.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3100, 19 September 1899, Page 3

Liberal Federation of New Zealand.

■? — r~: — ~, O' j PUBLIC" MEETING^tN MILTON. ' i *■ ~Mi "Ed wards," representative of the Libera Federation of New Zealand, gave an address '• -alfHbe'Couttty/ Couiicit^MmD^rsV Milfon,' : 'on Saiurda ; y' I fcYe'ning. i - dwing^to^ ifte^frfoilr : iiiolice:givenjofi the- meetings thetf&fifeeiidaßoe i ,re4a«Qtrl9'i 1 ge j; ui-M I r;Joha,To»gh w»s vatudtp , £he, chair.,;; j-.;,j. I;; j e ; ..., ; . ; -.,. ,{=.,; 1:V , j . „ ! + Mr ''E^wards^Baid.^hab.jbhei'meebiDg^.haa i'Tjeen 'called* for 1 the purpose of forming a Spoiling' district bWrich^irT ifiilK&Y^'iAd, {- with f the ; view.- of 'explaining :the' objects atad jiworkiog.iof ihe Liberal Federation ; and>sp j -that; tliej, might ..have sojpe pr,«.linjitiary. talk I as. tp|hpw;. a candidate wa^s. to^he, seltctedl Lp to the end of last year nothing in the shape "of" systematic .organisation of thp • Liberal' party ;J lia'd ' been i attempted in; New Zealand. -From -all ; parts 6i , the country tkti Eremier and t otherd had i'eceived-com> m uuication3 urging upoji the Liberal party to do tbe same. thing in New Zealand as was done in other parts of the world— l | establish a systematic organisation. Ihe fact of the ' itiatter was ; that those Liberals r who took an interest in 'politics' found that the- . CLnservatvves by organisation had .Bucc.eßdediiu getting, a . large fin the New, Zealand Parliament— hv a great many seats or consvituencea the Conservative^ rnfnqriiies were represented, on apcpunt of 'th'eir"~' organisation';' ani the Liberal 'majorities' weird not J i eprSsenteci . ' He did not know'if his 1 hearers J wereaware of ths extent lofn the Cutiservative <»rgani3afcioii j but he could assure tjiem ..that they mighfi do what they choose in the way ; of organising ; but the- Conservatives could' not do any more thau they b.a 1 docfe in the pastj tbat party" had f 7 epresentatn'es iri every district:; spent large sums of money ; almost every- official in the country was on their side ; and-thab party at election times succeeded iv polling every vote they had, aud also succeeded in getting a large number of Liberals to support Conservative candidates Now, the Liberals wore simply helpless, like putty in their hauds, in a great many constituencies, in consequence of the systematic organisation which had been set up. In addition to this, the newspapers of the Colony, with a very few exceptions, were against the Liberals ; and so even was the organisation which supplied news to the newspapers - the Press Agencj\ The Liberals must do something to fighb this consensus of "organisation strength ; and the only way to do so was by com bination; the Liberals ot Milton, Kaitangata } Waitahuna, Waihola, and the rest of the districts should therefore combine together. In order that the organ sal ion should be satisfactory the Home organisations of the |„reeeu'u time were examined and the best features merged together iv the constitution of ihe New Zealand Liberal Federation. A main feature wa3 the se'ection of oue candidate, so that there shcul'l be no splitting of vote^. In the Home constituencies there ;'was only one candidate representing each party ; so that there was a straight-out contest In iS'ew Zealand it wa^ not so. Now what was wanted was to find the beat man in. the district, nominate him and do all the party could do to pub him in. Before the election day the Liberals in each constituency ought to be able to decide who was the best man to represent them. The week before last at Taranaki three candidates were nominated in connection with the organisation there, and a bailot taken made clear a majority in favor of one of them. At Wanganui a similar ins'ance occurred ; and ab Tuapeka <i ballot would be taken next month which wo: li decide the choice of the Liber 1 candidate. A'l the branches of the Federation in Tuapeka had received notice that a ba'lot would ba taken on the 2lst Oc ober, and ihe branches could send in nominations up to the 2ud of that month ; and whoever succeeded in obtaining a clea> majority would be the accepted Liberal caudidate for Tuapeka. There was plenty of time for the Liberals of this district to combine together and select a candidate. Of course Milton should be able to produce a candidate; and if he were asked which was the best place 'n Bruce to chooae a candidate from, he would say "Milton" — because Milton wa3 the weakest place from the Liberal party's point ot view. But the liaitangata people would vote fqr the Government candidate, and so would: Woitahuiu. He then detailed the other; objects of the Liberal Federation : — To enrol as many persoDS as possible as, members of the Liberal Federation ot New Zealand ; to see that every person eligible as. a number is on the register of electors \ io promote social intercourse between members aud their political friends by means of entertainments &c. ; to promote the interest of and to support the recognised candidate ; to equip the polling place on the day of election wiih the staff necessary to conserve the interest of the candidate ; to support the nearest recognised Liberal newspaper. iSpeaking of papers he pointed out that the Press As soc '*^ on charged an exhorbitanb fee for entrance. The other day the Liberal party tried to start a newspaper in Dunediu ; bub the association in addition to the annual subscription wished to charge £900 as an ent-ance fee alone. The people of New Zealand through the Government paid the Association £25,000 a year a 9 subsidy ; and yet the whole thing was a n>onopoly in the hands of a few newspaper proprietors. The branches of the Federation should be able to meet so that the different parts of the district could give their opinion as to what legislation the Miuistry ought to bring forward. On the 2§th of nest month a meeting of the council of the Federation would be held at Wellington and then the party would ba asked to, take HP a programme suitable for the agricultural and mining districts and also for the towns whoro factories exist. If they formed a ! bririfih ' i'<i M-ilton ,.they would be federated wi' jt all the other branches in Bruce ; and asMU'on w »s the principal pjlling^ place }n tl^e electorate, the Milton Branch would be lasted to take the oversight of the whole ' constituency.— (Applause.) i , Ja&coAversfttion which followed,- Mr W.

was a branch of .the Federation at Waihola, with- "a- eood'- ; number of inenib rs. Mr - - Maaou Bubsequßntfy^aTyenarT address saying b^^|tJß«s\{t-e3fci:aj|jifc'iu .^peakangUds'^to the 'conduct of Mr Allanjjji of fche series of deliberate mistatfiments dished up to the iP^ifiorfkjS i^ft^aigeutlemaniJiv: He=i' thento a-^atemeht-made by Mr A4eh b wftTl^d^Jasi^ '\VlilWn y as 7 -t6.^a^<prbrniße"*- > 'oi' 'money to ta Ga^gQfgept candidate, tha insinuatioji -beiag— thafe-4he— money uaiua uutv of~t}\o Mason) assumed the i*ole of tho innocent and asked, seeing~XHafc Mr Alien had menjtioned Ajid^r^^euerals's, namjSj the functious limitations, and powers of viLtt^A'ttditotaGene'ral^ (Mi^^All^'n explained fcbat,there wer,e practically np^limijbations at all ! xtj was uufair when addressing an aucliAllen to cay that che ; Frerhieror any other minis' er coujd ta' r e humlreds of poTiTidffofputilib money for 'the purpose of runuing. i GovQrnm.e;jt. c*n iidalej^a id-.- .-the Auditu'-General not know anything nbuui; \b,'j Mi£Alieri'-gW*ou : t- :i 'bfc''it : by :i s»ying*that h9,did not peau fchat. Bub he thought that was the only inference which couL: be drawn from what Mr .'Allen -i said- -'in- his After the —meeting- -he— rrrf:t Mr rAilspj and a9,l^ed;t)irn- 'jLbe.iffl hbt: Qiiik 2ib was playins; low down to his audience ; and what did Mr TDlen reply? — " That; all was fair in.joye and; politics. "^(Lmghtei 1 . ) Speaking of Mr Seddon, he did not think when a 'couh t ry- like' New Zealaucl %'brt rusted a.mau_. with the hig host.. posi Lion ib had tlie tendency of corrupting him ; he thought •iha.b .the mini would far rather- be f-ifcely- to respect his position and try .to do honor to the "people who liaa elected him to tnat position.; Mr ; Mason . then proceeded to quote extensively from Hansard to show that charges whicli ~in' f^va'rioits^ ! fbfms Mr, , AAlle y had brought ; against the Governmont had broken down. When representing Dunedin East, Mi* Allen said, in reference to the electoral boundaries readjustment — that, seeing the brains of Nevv Zeaknd came from che towns, the to.vns should have more representation than thj country. But after he canv3 do>vu to represent Bruce, when the trade unions cr Dunedin had thrown him out, he said that the country districts had a right to more representation beciuss the brains of the House came from the country — (Laughter.) So the sequence of these statements amonnted to this : that if you had not go Mr Allen, you had no brains — (laughter.) Mr Maeon then went on to show that Mr Allen's interests were diametrically opposed to the interests of the great majority of the electors of Bruce — to those of the farmers and working raon — if their receipts increased his income must decrease. Surely no farmer on the plo,iu would elect a grain merchant to repiesent him at a conference on the question of "sacks in or out ;" and how the farmers could send a man who lived on interest pure and simple to debate for them on the question of whethet farmers should obtain loans at a low rat c of interest was beyond his (Mr Mason's) comprehension. — (AppL-uise. ) Steps were then taken to form a branch of the Liberal Federation League in Milton.