The Press Wednesday, September 22, 1920. The Liberal Party.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16946, 22 September 1920, Page 6

The Press Wednesday, September 22, 1920. The Liberal Party.

Tho Hon. T. M. "Wilford was in a situation of no little difficulty when speaking at Petone as Leader of the Liberal Party on Monday night. He has plentiful common-sense, and ho has a sense of hunurar; and his duty was to talk sober nonsense. His common-sense must (have been retelling against almost every "word his position obliged him to utter, and his sens© of humour must lhavo had him on the rack as he uttered them. Those who realise this will agree with us that his speech was quite a good little bravura piece. Mr Wilford has by no means lost the gifts made him in his early manhood one of the cleverest" amateur actors this country has produced. As an effort in sedato farce his speoch was delightful, and one would liko to bo under no obligation to tfliink of it as anything but a very spirited turn. But Mr "Wilford does not retire from tho stage after this display; he romains before the public as Loader of the Liberal Party, which is a very serious position indeed. And what did ho tell his audience? That "tho Liberal " watchword would bo 'Forward,' " that "what tho Liberal P<arty had to do " in future was to build," and that " tho greatest plank -in tho platform of " the party was a reduction in tho high"cost of living." How the party will go "forward," what it will "build," and how it will reduce the cost of living— these things Mr Wilford loft his hearers to find out through further prayer and fasting. At all events ho did not tell them. So far he was purely rhetorical, but even the most spiritual of Liberals cannot subsist on Rhetoric alcne, and he therefore added some moro practical advice. "'The Liberal Party holds out " its hand to moderate Labour," he said, "and says, 'Will you 'grasp it " ".firmly?' It says, 'Wo have stood to "'you; will you stand to us?' To- " night, as leader of the party, I hold " out ray hand to moderate Labour, and " say, 'Come into partnership with t'iio '• 'Liberal Party, which you have proved " ' worth trusting in years .gone by, and '4 'see if we cannot, out of tho chncv\ " 'that is- existing in this country to- " 'day, lead towards better things.' " It is a decade sinco the Liberal Party began to pester ''moderate Labour" with proposals of marriage, and it is difficult to believe that the Liberal Party, faded and elderly and without prospects or present means, will bring off tho matXh now, particularly when it is -remembered that moderate Labour has gone and left no address. Moderate Labour may or may not have found tho Liboral Party "worth, trusting'' in days gono by, but tho Liberal- Party of day 3 gone by is not tho Liboral Party of today. What Mr "Wilford's party really is, and what it stands for, nobody ap-

pears to know. Ho says it stands for | moderate men, "as a strong wall or j " buttress against extreme Toryism and J " extreme Labour." Liberalism, | wherever it is nlive and active, certain- J Iv does occupy that middle position, but ■ in New Zealand that position is already j occupied by the Reform Party. That) the Liberals arc in such a precarious J position that their leader must appeal j to moderate Labour is duo, not to any j weakening of Centre feeling in the i country, but to the fact that the Reform , Party is the party of tfre Centre. The moderate man already ha.s his party and his representation. This, and nothing else, is the explanation of the disintegration of the Liberal Party that our "Wellington correspondent described yesterday. And Mr AVilford cannot arrest the process by stretching forth an j imploring hand into t'!ic IllimitableInane.