THE FIGHT FOR REFORM.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1168, 1 July 1911, Page 4

THE FIGHT FOR REFORM.

The announcement which we publish this morning of the intention of the Reform party to hold a mass meeting at Wellington at which Me. Massey will place the programme of the party before the public here is a welcome piece of news. If, as we hope will be the case, Mr. Massey intends to seize the occasion to sweep aside the misrepresentation which is so persistently indulged in by those opposed, to the party, by making a clear and definite pronouncement as to the exact course to be pursued should .- the party prove successful at the coming elections, then the speech will be doubly welcome. The supporters of the Wakd Ministry arc fully alive to their own plight. They recognise that the public has at last awakened to the fact that the Ward Government has not only passed beyond the stage of usefulness, that it is not only barren of principles and barren of ideas, but that its reckless endeavours to maintain office at all costs are a very real menace to the welfare of every section of the community. Wo one knows what their next rash step will be—everyone fears some fresh indiscretion prer judicial, perhaps, only to a class, but equally liable to affect all. And just at this critical time, when the tide of public feeling is setting so strongly against them, the leaders of the party alford a more striking evidence than ever of their selfish ambitions and the hollowncss of their professions of democratic principles by grasping after titles and honours which they profess to despise, and which arc more justly the due of others. Small wonder is it that their followers should show alarm at the mutterings of tho public and seek to stem the flow by the only means remaining to them—the misrepresenting of their opponents. They cannot show any good reason for keeping tho Government in office, so they attempt to convey the impression that if the Reform party gets into power, all sorts of dreadful things will happen. It is the business of Mr. Massey in his speech next Thursday evening to show exactly what will happen in such circumstances. Tho general policy of the Reform party is well enough known to afford a guarantee that there is a much better chance of sound and steady progress under it than under the. shifty and ill-con-sidered methods of the Ward Government. But the time is opportune for the Reform party to specify definitely the immediate steps thatwill be taken, both in respect of administration and legislation, should the reins of office fall into its hands. It is generally assumed that one of the first matters to be dealt with would be the placing of the Civil Service of the country on a more satisfactory footing. If: this is so, let Mr. Massey state so. and indicate the means that would be adopted. The expenditure of the Public Works Fund to the best advantage—that is to say. in the interests of the country and not merely as a means of bribing electorates to secure political support—is another of the planks in the platform of the Reform party. Mr. Massey should give the pledge of his party to carry out this reform and state how he will go about it. And so through the whole list of items in the party's programme. The other side may steal some of its planks; they have done so before, but the present is no time, for half-measures. What is required is that the public should know exactly what to expect if the Reform party is successful at the polls, and a clear pronouncement on the subject is necessary because the opponents of the party rely for success at the elections on their ability to mislead the public into the be-" lief that the party _ led by Mr. Massey is retrogressive. When one k-oks at the personnel of the two parties as at present constituted the absurdity of this contention of the Ministerialists is apparent. There is more really live new blood in the ranks of the Reform party than in tho ranks of the Government, and tho class of candidate that is coming

forward to light the cause of Reform., •and who, if successful, will constitute the bulk of the party in tlui new Parliament, is of that vigorous and progressive type that affords a safe guarantee of an active and solid organisation. This is perhaps the best answer to the misrepresentations of the supporters of what is properly described as the Continuous Ministry. It should be the effort of every supporter of the cause of Reform who wishes'to help forward the movement to attend the mass meeting at the Town Hall next Thursday evening. It is expected that there will bo a large muster of members of Parliament and Reform candidates on that occasion, and the pcopje of Wellington, we have every confidence, will be glad to seize the opportunity to testify by. their presence at the meeting their appreciation of the fight that is being fought in the interests of clean and honest government.