A MAGNIFICENT DEMONSTRATION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1303, 5 December 1911, Page 6

A MAGNIFICENT DEMONSTRATION.

<> Although everyone expected that the political meeting arranged for last night by tho women of the local branch of the Political llcform League would attract a very large attendance, nobody cxpectcd that it would develop into by far the largest and most impressive political demonstration ever recorded* in the history of this country. It is really unnecessary for us to tell the public, and warn the Government, what the demonstration means. This city has for long, as wc have said in another article, been predominantly antagonistic to the Ward Administration, but the brilliant, and in some respects quite sensational, demonstration of last night cannot be explained by the normal dislike of Wellington for the Government. It will be impossible for our "Liberal" friends to doubt, any longer that since the great meeting addressed by Mr. Massey prior to the opening of the session the tide of reform feeling has ri:-en to llood. 'l'hat is the real significance of the unexampled enthusiasm of_ the meeting—the strength ■with which the idea of political reform appeals to a public grown weary of a Government which, as Mll. Morison well observed in opening the proceedings, came into office with promises of social and national salvation and has for its main achievement after twenty years an intensification of the cost of living. Tho fact that the demonstration was arranged by the.women of the Reform party is evidence of the too-nmch-overlooked fact that it is amongst the women that is found the. deepest and keenest desire to rid the. nation of tho burden of misgovcrnment. But the most satisfactory feature of all, perhaps, was the large proportion of young men—men between the years of 25 and 35—in the enormous audience. It is true that in 110 other city could such a remarkable demonstration take place, but just in proportion as the feeling manifested is beyond what has been the normal political feeling in Wellington, so have the forces for reform in other parts of the country been incrcased'and strengthened. The. almost perfect unanimity of the audience, which made the putting of the resolution almost unnecessary, is a magnificent augury for the success of the Reform party, not only in Wellington, but in other parts of New Zealand. Tho women who organised the demonstration are entitled to warm congratulations and to the thanks of the great army of reform for their provision of this opportunity for this city to say plainly that it desires the Government to quit office.