FRAUGHT WITH PERIL.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 893, 12 August 1910, Page 5

FRAUGHT WITH PERIL.

— * ■ PRESENT POSITION OF "LIBERALISM." "CANNOT 'LIVE ON ITS PAST ACHIEVEMENTS." (By Telegraph.—Special Oorrcepondcnti Auckland, August 11. • Some of the Government's own supporters are getting dissatisfied, and th« report presented by the executive of the Waitemata Liberal ;rnd Labour Federal tion at. tho annual meeting last evening is an illustration. The report roads aa follows:— 1 "The council regards the present position of the Liberal parly in this country as fraught with peril to its future. The truth must be realised that Liberalism as a political foroe cannotr continue to exist unless it is nourished and vitalised by. progressive legislation. Stagnation spoils dearth, ajid the Liberal party .caj>. not live on its past achievements. Marking time is sometimes a useful exercise' for a political army, but i 6 not the object for which the army- exists. The makebelieve battle of laud tenures is hopelessly discredited, the people of the conn-; try having .realised that land for settlement is what matters, ajid not the tenure uuder which it is held. The -gift to Crown tenants a' few years ago of 10 per cent, of their legal rent was an act of spoliV tion, and shows that a leasehold' system has tho demerit of encouraging a large and well-organised class to plunder the public treasury by moans of their votes. Some of the measures passed by Parliament have not had the support of the federation, and liave been opposed to fundamental ■ Liberal principles. The creation by lav of a landed aristocracy of Maoris, under whom the European settlers and -their descendants for all time will be rent-paying serfs, has shown how easily a slavish yoke may be imposed on the necks of the people here, which after centuries of agitation has not yet been Temoved in Great Britain. To; establish and buttress by statute in New Zealand a landed arietocracy is so utterlj at' variance with the principles of do mooracy that the counoil tmsts that, this blot on our Statute Book will ere long b« remoraL' V Other measures "opposed to fundamental Liberal principles" were mentioned, and the remedy suggcsted_ was that in the coming year the federation hold popular open meetings for the discussion of political problems.'