PARTIES IN NEW ZEALAND POLITICS. (By a Liberal.)

Evening Post, Volume LVII, Issue 34, 10 February 1899, Page 2

PARTIES IN NEW ZEALAND POLITICS. (By a Liberal.)

(Concluded.) I Now, it is no doubt true that on two most important subjects the Opposition do claim to have a definite policy — namely, the necessity for purity, honesty, and justice in administration, and the maintenance in their purity and integrity of the principles and practices of Parliamentary Government. There can be no question as to the importance of those two points, nor as to the sincerity of the Opposition with regard to them. But this wll not serve their purpose, and that for several reasons. In the first place there is nothing distinctive about such a policy, for the simple reason that it does not propose anything to which the Government are admittedly opposed. On the contrary, the Government contend that their administration is purity itself, and that their methods are the perfection of Parliamentary Gdvernment. But there, is another reason why such a policy cannot serve the purpose of the Opposition — and the 1 sooner they recognise this the better — and that is simply the fact that the majority of the people of New Zealand at the present time are so debauched by class legislation and by a policy of wholesale bribery — bribery of classes, bribery of constituencies, and bribery of individuals — that only a comparatively small remnant, the faithful few, desire purity of administration. As for the principles of Parliamentary Government, after all Parliamentary Government is not a final cause but merely a means to an end. The more democratic our Parliament becomes the more ready it is to delegate its powers to a Ministry which professes to be par excellence the People's Government, and so the present state of things suits the people. They do not want either purity of administration or truo Parliamentary Government so long as they are under the delusion that the country can be "run" in their special interest. It is not in average human nature that they should. Communities never learn by the experience of other communities, and there is every reason to fear that nothing short of financial disaster can bring to its senses a community so hopelessly given over to delusion as this is. However that may be it seems quite certain that the present Opposition as a party can never succeed in obtaining control of the Government of the country. The position of parties in this country presents a most interesting subject for reflection to any man who tries to look below the surface rerum cognoscere causas (to know the causes of things), and not the least interesting aspect of the subject is the manner in which the Opposition are deluded by their superstitious faith in Party Government into the hope that the wheel of fortune must take a turn in their favour some day. The "swing of the pendulum" theory no doubt holds good in a country possessing true Party Government ; but where do we find such a country nowadays? Not in England nor in. her colonies, nor on the Continent of Europe, nor in America. And the same reason is found everywhere — that government by party cannot exist without real parties, and their day has gone by. If the Opposition would only open their eyes to facts they must realise that they have nothing to gain by maintaining this pernicious superstition of Party Government, that on the contrary theysare simply playing into the hands cf the opportunist who has degraded party and government by party into the vile instruments of his will. It suits him to maintain this baleful superstition for ho has all to gain by keeping up the delusion that the mob he controls is the Liberal Party, forasmuch, as to the unthinking those who are opposed to him must be Conservatives. YVith the Premier and his followers party comes first and patriotism a long way after, but the Opposition profess to be patriots first and party men afterwards, and we are therefore justified in appealing to them as patriots to cast out that evil thing Party Government. They surely cannot fail to see that Party Government is a failure everywhere, whilst in New Zealand it is, like Trinculo's bottle, not only a scandal and disgrace but "an infinite loss." So long as the Premier can delude the country with the idea that there are two distinct parties, and that his party is the Liberal Party, just so long will the Opposition remain in their present hopeless and helpless plight — a handful of politicians calling themselves ihe Opposition, but unable to effectively fulfil the functions of a real Opposition. In point of fact, the only real purpose they serve is to maintain the Government in office. The Left Wing would have as much right to call themselves the Opposition as the "party" that calls Captain Russell its leader. It is generally admitted that the Left VYing are much moro ettective in their criticisms and attacks upon the Government than the somewhat more numerous body calling themselves by the pretentious name of Her Majesty's Opposition, the only real difference being that it suits the Premier to recognise Captain Russell and his followers as the Opposition. But neither the criticism of the francs tireurs of the Left Wing nor the attacks of the Opposition produce any real or lasting effects, whilst their mere ex-, istence tends to maintain the Government in office. The reasons are obvious. On the one hand the true Liberals in the colony, even those who recognise and allow' the evils of Seddonism, prefer to support the Seddon Government rather than restore to power men whose only right to the name of party lies in the fact that they are the remnant of the party to which the Liberal Party was opposed in the past. On the other hand, the Left Wing, by their affinity for fads, by their Socialistic proclivities, and especially by reason of their being identified with Prohibition, frighten moderate, people into supporting a Government which, with all its opportunism and insincerity, does not wish to go any further in the direction of Socialism than it finds absolutely necessary to secure the support of the Labour Party. In this way the Opposition and the Left Wing render the position of the Governments absolutely secure, whilst they delay the rise of a Patriotic Progressive Party, differing from the Party misnamed " Liberal " in being inspired by truly patriotic, and not merely sectional or class, ideals, and differing from the Opposition in being untrammolled by traditions — traditions which, in the case of the present Opposi- 1 tion, tend to identify it with the Party which is to tho unthinking the counterpart in New Zealand of the Conservative Party in England ; and differing both from tho " Liberal " Party and from the Opposition in having shaken itself free from the superstition of Party Government. Indeed, the greatest service the Opposition could render to the country would be to commit political suicide as a Party — an act of patriotic self-abnegation and selfrenunciation of which they are probably as incapable as they are of turning out the Government. Nothing is to be expected of an Opposition so blinded by superstitious faith in Party Government, so fatuous, as to have missed their' opportunity of rallying round Sir Robert Stout when he was available to lead th<* opposition to the Government, and so wiw in their own conceit as not to see that the Loft Wing are more effective in their cr.'t' cisms of the Government than Her Majes ■ ty's Opposition. The Opposition are unquestionably patriotic, biit the great [ majority of the electors believe that thoy '■»:>.vo no definite policy, and that they are n')u " progressive," and thero in l'ttle (•banco of thei r ever getting an opportum»y 'if proving tho contrary so lonp ns i'-'jy \en) in repeating the same ptupH • »x->.2«i- sbout not prescribing until they ao caJlod iv.. 7'he Leit Wing are " proprei.fim,' 1 a 5a 5 well ao patriotic and sincere, bn'*, iiieiv *' vii'w'mess " in the region of social reiorrn, their Socialistic proclivities, and especially chair identification with Pro*

hibition, render them impossible. There thus seems to be no hope of bringing tho dissatisfaction with the Government to a head until the present Opposition is obliterated as a' Party, and the ground cleared for a new Patriotic Progressive Party^ to spring up and take the place both of the Opposition and the Left Wing, which are as incompatible with each othfcr as they aro with tho Government — indeed, more so, and for the simple reason that tho Left Wing comprises some of the most advanced or extreme members of tho Liberal Party. In all probability a majority of the people of the colony are at the present moment dissatisfied with the Government, and many are scandalised by the low tone of public life produced by the Government, by the insincerity which prevails amongst those who call themselves Liberals, and by the cynicism with which such evils are regarded ; this dissatisfaction is to a large extent dormant and inarticulate, and neither the Opposition nor the Left Wing can give it utterance so long as the one is identified in the public mind (whether rightly or wrongly) with Conservatism and the other with Prohibition.