"NO CONSERVATIVE PARTY"

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 121, 26 May 1925, Page 8

"NO CONSERVATIVE PARTY"

SAYS MR. WRIGHT

SOCIALISTS WHO WANT TO OVER-

TURN EVERYTHING.

■ '-' There is no Conservative Party in New Zealand," declared Mr. R. A. Wright, M.P., at a Reform Party meet-' ing at Lyall Bay last night. " The Conservative .Party is as dead as the dodo. There is no Conservative Party in New Zealand at all now. It is now a question of having a party holding liberal and democratic views as against another party the leaders of which—l say this with all due deference because I do not believe the rank and file hold, with the extreme views of their leaders—believe that our institutions • generally should be completely overturned, and that when-the overturning takes place they will be able to build up'something which will make everything pleasant for everybody." Unfortunately, wherever overturning had been attempted it had proved a .failure. Wherever these extreme experiments hatl been tried they had not lasted any length of lime, the people-who were most successful in trying this Communism and Socialism were a peoplo known as " Shakers," .but they had n form of religion behind their political belief, and the fact that they held together and carried on for a certain time was not because of Socialism or Communism, but because their religious doctrine taught them that llicy should ba equitable iii thpj.r dealings. 'Then there ■wss a Socialistic, experiment in ] 3araS u.a^'i which turned out s hugs failure,

and the leader ot which died in New Zealand after having been discouraged and disheartened at what had occurred. While there might be faults in tlie capitalistic system—the trouble was that there was.not enough capital—it was all right if carried out on the right lines. The main charge brought against the Reform Party was that it was a capitalistic party, but as far as he could see a capitalist was .a man or woman who did not spend all his or her income. Their opponents had not yet attempted to draw the line as to how much money a person could hold; therefore he presumed .that anybody who had anything was a capitalist. He might be a small capitalist, still he was a capitalist. Therefore the only thing to do seemed to be to encourage people never at any time to attempt to make headway. Of course the community that, adopted that line must sooner or later come to <rief