The Press Tuesday, June 24, 1924. Political Developments.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18107, 24 June 1924, Page 6

The Press Tuesday, June 24, 1924. Political Developments.

The many signs of political restlessness which have been recorded in the news for some time past will, of course, be variously interpreted. We have had a revival, in Auckland, of the proposal that there should be formed a Country Party charging itself with the care of tho farmers' interests. The movement amongst a small section of the farmers to make cornsacks the dominant issue has stirred up the Manufacturers' Corporation to seo whether it cannot secure that the nation's affairs shall be under the control of men who shall first and foremost raise tho tariff on imported goods. A Southland Liberal newspaper has revealed so serious a state of disillusion and discontent in the Liberal Party that Mr Wilford has'been obliged to stuff his pockets full of notes and visiting cards with which to convince troublesome interviewers that he is a very capable leader. A "Young New "Zealand Party" has appeared in Wellington with a manifesto proposing such a reorganisation of the land laws as can be compounded of "Progress 'Sand Poverty" and "Alice in Wonder"land." And to-day we'print a statement from Auckland concerning a movement to bring the Reform and Liberal Parties together under some leader acceptable to both. All these various movements aro products of the growing understanding of the public that the present alignment of parties must very soon come to an end; although, as we have said, various interpretations of their secondary significance will be heard. It is almost universally admitted, Mr Wilford Vpocketannoury notwithstanding, that the Liberal Party must go, but every large political re-adjustment finds plenty of ambitious and self-seeking people looking for chairs, and especially those supposedly comfortable chairs which surround tho long table in Mr Massey's

room. "The Press" has for long enough been urging that moderate men of progressive outlook Bhould unite to meet the challenge of revolutionary Labour, and we are glad to see the plentiful signs that our advice has been heeded. But there is not the smallest reason why Eeformers should imagine that it ia either necessary or desirable to make concessions to, or to buy off, the derelict Liberal organisation which has been struggling along in the hope of obtaining something. We do not need the Diehards or their leaders or their organisation. We do not require the cooperation of the moderate Liberals who have hitherto given a dwindling and reluctant support to Mr Wilford. Most of these have supported the Liberal Party only out of a feeling that they have owed it to past Liberal leaders that they should do so, but they have ample means now of seeing the practical unwisdom of what they must feel is in any case a very odd and irrational way of paying a tribute to any memory whatsoever. Mr Massey is the head of a party which has grown in strength with the passage of time as remarkably as the Liberal Party has withered, and if they attend to their organisation the Eeformers can face the future with perfect confidence in the wisdom of the electorate. The movement in Auckland for the formation of a National Party is inspired by a conviction of the necessity 'that the fundamental political cleavage in the country shall be reflected in the re-establishment of the two-party system. All that is required is a modus vivendi. The simplest and most obvious modus vivendi is, not the arrangement of some deal with Mr Wilford and his allies, but the direct transference to Eeform of the support of moderate Liberals.