MAKING HISTORY.

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 10, 13 January 1926, Page 9

MAKING HISTORY.

RISE OF LIBERALISM

GREAT MEN OF THE TfMES

AN EDITOR'S NARRATIVE.

As editor of the "Lyttelton Times" from 1891 to 1914, Mr. S. Saunders was able to watch closely the work of Liberalism in its period of greatness. He was intimately associated with the leaders of politics in that period, and in an article contributed to. the jubilee issue of the "Lyttelton Times" he gives an interesting account of the men and their work. An abridgment of the article is given below.

The dawn of 1891 witnessed the onfolding of a new era in the growth and development of the "Lyttelton Times." During the previous year New Zealand had been involved in the maritime strike which dislocated trade and commerce throughout Australia from August to November, and the paper had found a readier ear than ever before to the iteration and reiteration of its belief that such wasteful conflicts could be averted by the substitution and arbitration for the clumsy and illogical methods of brute force. It expounded the gospel of industrial peace with impressive fervour and insistent eloquence, and though its critics chose to cast aspersions upon its motives and its methods it laid truly and well the foundations on ■which the beneficent Labour legislation of this country was subsequently based. The maritime strike failed, both here and in Australia, as was inevitable from the first, but out of its failure arose the nucleus of a New Zealand Labour Party, atfirst a comparatively small organisation not hostile to the existing LibeTal Opposition in the House of Representatives, led by Mr. John Ballance, but bent upon securing for ita members a fair share of the good things that had been promised. Under the leadership of Mr. Ballance the Liberal Opposition needed no such spur, and it is wide of the mark to say, as many writers and even historians have said, that the triumph of the Liberals at the General Election of 1890 was the direct result of the unpopularity incurred by™ the Conservative Government in its efforts to overthrow the Labour forces. There had been a strong Radical element abroad in the country since the election of 1887, inspired largely by the progressive policy of the "Time 3," then directed by the Hon. William Beeves, and very ably edited by his eldest son, now the Hon. W. Pember Beeves, and a number of constituencies which for years had accepted the old order as a matter of course now turned hopefully towards the new. Later appeals to the constituencies clearly demonstrated the fact that the election of 1890 but registered the birth of wider ideals and more altruistic impulses, which then found articulate expression for the first time. FATHER AND SON. Mr. W. Pember Beeves had been elected to the House of Representatives in 1887 as member for St. Albans, and in 1890 he was re-elected as senior member for Christehnrch, the four large cities meanwhile having been converted into triple electorates. His second success, in its magnitude and significance, was a great achievement, having regard to all the personal and political forces that were banded against him; but his triumph, j which ensured his inclusion in the i Ministry formed by Mr. Ballance, was to be darkened by a grievous blow on the very threshold of his enlarged opportunities. The Hon. William Reeves, on the consummation of an ambition he had fondly cherished, submitted to a long-delayed operation, and unhappily did not survive to see the full fruition of his high hopes; Never had a man stricken in health, broken in fortune, and ostracised by many of his peers on account of his political faith, borne himself more cheerfully and more heroically than did William Beeves as he bid farewell to his staff and confided to those who stood near and dear to him his expectation never to return. His death, as had been his life, was an inspiration to his fel-low-workers, as he liked to call those who laboured under his leadership, and his precept and his example remained as living ' stimulants all through ths strenuous days that came to his successors as their' appropriate inheritance. Mr. W. Pember Reeves would have abandoned the career that now lay at his hand and continued the struggle his father had maintained so gallantly; but circumstances, which had nothing to do with the protests of his political colleagues, willed it otherwise, and the editorship of the "Times" was entrusted—-temporarily it was assumed at the time—to a member of tho staff who had been closely associated with the father and Bon during the preceding three or four years, and who already bore responsibilities in connection, with the evening and weekly papers issued' from the office. Fortunately Mr. W. Peniber Reeves was induced* to prolong his connection with the paper as a contributor, and for two or three years its editorial columns owed much to his versatile,, incisive pen, as they had done for nearly a decade before he was drawn into the vortex of active politics. When increasing Ministerial work and growing responsibilities eventually compelled him to break his association with the office the paper was much the poorer for tho loss of his assistance. . . . IN THE BEGINNING. Mr. Eeeves's successor in the editorship, in addition to having the advantage of' his old chief's loyal and active assistance, had also the personal friendship and ready confidence of Mr. John Balla.nco, the new Prune Minister, and, more remarkable than either of those. two pieces of good fortune, the hearty goodwill, nnaffected by political differences, of the Hon. William -Rolleston, Sir John Hall, Sir William Russell, and other members of tho new Opposition, whose conservatism was the harbinger of much of the progressive legislation of later days, and the essence of many of its onduring features. In these circumstances his own lack of experience j counted for less than it might have done in other circumstances. Tho i House elected in 1890—the first, by Hie Tray, returned on the one-man-one-vote principle—had not run its full course before Mr. Ballance passed away, but during its first two sessions the Liberal Leader, with a. majority, it: must be remembered, which his opponents took long to reeognjse, niagaged to initiate a largo amount of lagialAtioa tev4rdi which thr

"Times" had led an overwhelming majority of the electors of Canterbury and an increasing number of voters in the other provinces. The substitution of the land and income tax for the property tax, bitterly opposed by the. old regime, was the Liberals' crowning triumph in this first session, and it stands to this day as a tribute to the vision and sagacity of a man ■who gave his life to the service of the country as truly as did Sir Harry. Atkinson, Mr. Seddon, and Mr. Massey. In the same session, Mr. Beeves, who held the portfolios of Education and Justice, and later that of Labour, placed on the Statute Book, as an earnest of the legislation for the betterment of the conditions of the workers to which he was pledged, the Trnck Act, prohibiting payment of wages otherwise than in money, and the Factories Act, providing for the supervision and regulation of facotries and workrooms. AN XMPESIAXi PROBLEM. It was at this juncture that Mr. | Ballaee was exercised over the attitude of the Governor, Lord Onslow, towards the appointments to the Legislative Council. On the eve of his I retirement from. office, nearly two months after the General Election had shown his party to be in a minority in the House, Sir Harry Atkinson had asked for the appointment of seven new members to the Council, - and the Governor had acceded to the request. In turn, Mr. Ballance, shortly after assuming office, asked for 12 appointments to the Council, a number which searecly would have given him a majority in the revising Chamber. His Bxeellency suggested that six appointments would be sufficient to satisfy the needs of the situation, but Mr. Ballance declined to accept this compromise, and on the matter being referred to the Imperial authorities the Premier ulti- • mately got his way. The incident, which, by tho way, seems to have been overlooked when a somewhat similar situation in Australia was being discussed the other day, figured prominently in the columns of "The Times," Mr. Ballance's views being warmly supported by the paper, and it was characteristic of Lord Onslow and of his unvarying tact and courtesy that when he determined a few weeks later to return to England ho made the first announcement of his impending retirement to the editor of tho paper. As it happened the editor had been fortunate enough to make His Lordship's personal acquaintance at a wire-jumping exhibition, and His Excellency was too much of a spoTt3man to allow even a sharp difference of opinion upon a great Imperial problem to interfere with big friendship. In his second session, with tho increased voting strength he had socured in the Legislative Council, Mr. Ballanco was able to give effect ti other features of the policy ''Tho Times" had expounded. A Land Act provided the lease-in-pepetuity without revaluation, tho right of of occupation as a preliminary to purchase and the machinery for the formation of small farm associations, while a Land for Settlement Act pioneered the way towards the measure passod two years later authorising the compulsory acquisition of private lands for subdivision. But the deep shadow even was gathering around tho makef and the leader of the party, who had spared himself neither ih public nor- in privato service, and early in the following autumn he laid down his burden, leaving others to reap where he wisely and conscientiously had sown: THE NEW LEADER. It was with some misgivings that the less daring members of the Liberal Party accepted Mr. B. J. Seddon as their new leader. They did not know John Ballance's first lieutenant as they had known John Ballance himself, and temperamentally the two men were as far apart as the Poles. But the only alternative to the dominating West Coaster, who certainly had "taken off his coat" and "done things," appeared to be a former leader of the party, who had J been out of Parliament for seven or eight years, and who was unassociated with the new and more militant Liberalism that had grown up since his withdrawal from active politics. The party was not so strong that it could afford to risk dissensions within its I own ranks at that critical stage in its career, and Mr. Seddon having made his position and his intentions clear, with more diffidence and diplomacy than Jc might have exercised in similar circumstances a year or two before, there was unanimity in his selection, with, perhaps, a mental reservation here and there. But tho bighearted, strong-limbed man of action [ quickly displayed qualities of leadership—a tact, discretion, tolerance, sauvity, and a sense of proportion as well as a sense of humour—with which his casual acquaintances never before had credited him. Proof of his loyalty to the behests of his dead chief was afforded by the assiduity with which he piloted through Parliament an Electoral Bill, conferring the Parliamentary franchise upon women, and a Licensing Bill, committing the liquor trade to the tendsr mercies of a popular vote, measures, originated by Mr. Ballance, which on their own account can have made no appeal to his successor. During the session of 1893, which opened two months after Mr. Ballance's death > the new Premier firmly established himself on the Treasury benches, and the election at the close of the year gave him a larger and much more reliable majority than the one he had inherited only seven months before, including a solid phalanx of thirteen Canterbury members, the whole representation of the province. Thus the newly-enfranchis-ed women took tho earliest opportunity and the most effective means of expressing their contempt for a suggestion put about during the election campaign to the effect that Mr. Seddon had sought to betray the cause entrusted to him by his dead chief on their behalf. EDITOEIAI. CONTBOL. Meanwhile, the general affairs of the "Times" were being directed by Mr. F. de C. Malet. Mr. Malet had beeft called in as "a friend of the family," and by his consummate tact and rare ability went far towards relieving the paper of the most pressing of its difficulties. But, though courteous and considerate always -towards the staff, he set little store upon the traditions of the paper or upon its aspirations, and less still upon its commitment to a definite policy. The inevitable clash between this experienced and very capable business man and the young editor came later than might have been expected. The fact that his letter of resignation was returned to the editor with a magnanimous concession of the point, for which he had contended niay explain why for twciitgr odd £C%ri b$ nsUiiiwi Ju*.

temporary appointment and maintained his charter unimpaired. A year or two later, to the great advantage of the paper and its staff, Sir Henry Wigram, whose recent honour long ago was well earned, acquired a large interest in the paper and year by year became more and more helpful to both tho literary and the commercial side* of the office. With high ideals, wide knowledge of affairs, great breadth of vision, and a keen sense of fairplay and justice, he made the comfort and well-being of the members of the staff his very special concern and allowed no "disposition of his own to interfere with the traditions of the paper or of its policy so long as the tenets of decent journalism were punctiliously observed. Mr. Wigram must take a foremost place among the strong men who have helped in moulding the fortunes of "The Times," and looking back to-day over its seventyfive years of progress one is forced to the conclusion that to him more than to anyone else the paper is indebted for its abiding stability and its potent claim upon the respect and confidence of the public.