LIBERAL-LABOUR PARTY

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 11, 12 July 1930, Page 8

LIBERAL-LABOUR PARTY

STORY OE ITS DECLINE

SIR JOSEPH WARD'S POLI-

TICAL HERITAGE

(Written for "The Post" by Ohas. E,

Wheeler.)

In the wealth of biographical information published during the last few days about the great party leader now being laid to rest, reference has always been made to his romantic return to power after sixteen years in the political wilderness. How did the late Sir Josph Ward, inheriting from Seddon a well organised party, with a record Parliamentary majority of 48, drop steadily back until he stood, in the last Parliament, the sole remaining member who called himself "Liberal?"

To provide the answer involves discussion of the most interesting features of New Zealand's polities of modern times. One must endeavour to recreate the atmosphere of the bitter old days, when the party axe was stiarp and heavy, frequently swung with little regard for the damage it might do. Present-day polemics are milk ' and water compared with those old times when the leasehold principle was advocated with the fervour and vehemence of a religious belief. No modern question has so divided the House and the country. No recent party has produced so tremendous a fighting point as the old Reform Party under the late Mr. Massey. Seddonian Liberals had vigorously carried out the principles of closer settlement, involving compulsory purchase, and their cardinal principle was that the "small man," possessing little or no capital, should share the great opportunities of a career on the land. To this class, the chance of taking up areas by the payment of 4} per cent, rental on the unimproved value, opened up a new vista, and thousands took advantage of it. Cheap State Advances money was a hitherto unknown advantage. Settlement proceeded apace, but the very success of this policy created the nucleus of a political force which some day was to prove the urfdoing of the great Seddonian Liberal-Labour Party. In time, those who had flourished under the leasehold system began to demand a more secure tenure. Mr. Seddon, concerned over the coming political storm, set np the famous Land Commission, which collected throughout the colony a vast quantity of opinions on the freehold and leasehold tenures, with the balance of evidence, as the lawyers say, on the side of freehold. But still the great majority of the Government party failed to see the writing on the wall, and when Sir Joseph succeeded his old' chief as the Liberal-Labour Premier, he had within his Cabinet the most able and vigorous of the leasehold theorists. The party on one occasion staged a leasehold motion which, if carried, would have involved removing the capital from Wellington into a large area of Marlborough Crown lands, where it was confidently assumed a new city would grow up, and the State would pay all the expenses of removal, with much to spare, out of the unearned increment which it would retain. Fortunately for Wellington, the motion, though very seriously debated, was lost. Sir Joseph and his party were fighting against human nature, and defeat was some day inevitable. It camo when six members of his party, concerned over the dangerous leasehold tendencies of members of his Cabinet, decided to change sides in Parliament, and the Liberal Party lost a future Beform Prime Minister, Mr. Coates. THE CONTINUOUS MINISTRY. Sir Joseph inherited a party which had been in power for 16 years, and had become known as the Continuous Ministry. By raising the cry of looking into the pigeon-holes, the Opposition found another effective weapon in the curiosity of the electorates. Expectation, it may be at once explained, was more interesting than realisation. But in its long life the party had gathered around it, holding most of the places of power and,influence, old men who had grown up in Liberalism. Younger and ambitious men were welcome; but their prospects of promotion were not particularly bright, and the temptation was to find a more promising opening for their activities. They could take the freehold side, or join the Labour Party, which was now beginning to emerge r/ a distinct and earnest political group. LIBERAL AND LABOUB DIVORCED. Eeferenee has so far been made to Sir Joseph's followers as the LiberalLabour Party. Under this title Mr. Seddon scored his record majority, but the disintegration was becoming evident in 1906, and Sir Joseph inherited with the apparent strength of numbers the seeds of decay. Many of the younger idealists were attracted to the Labour side. Wonderful progress had been made by trade unionists organised industrially, and co-operating closely with the Liberal-Labour Prime Minister, but when there came a time for slowing down in the pace, and the "humanities' 1 programme had nearly run its course, Labour resolved on an indopendent political existence. "Is There a Split?" was the heading of a lobby article in July, 1908, showing that three advanced Radicals in tho Government party—Messrs. H. G. Ell, George Laurenson, and J. jP. Arnold—had scouted the suggestion that the party would lose the support of organised Labour over the Arbitration Act, then under amendment. "No doubt," admitted Mr. Arnold, "there has been a very strained feeling in tho Labour Party throughout the Colony, and if the Government is determined to force the Arbitration Bill through in its present form, indignation will show itself to such an extent at the forthcoming election that a number of independent Labour candidates will be returned to the House." But Mr. Arnold felt confident that the existence of a now party would not be forced. The prediction was not quite correct, for there emerged into the next Parliament the first Labour member, Mr. David M'Laren, elected for Wellington East. He told his fellow-legislators that some people might wonder what good one working man could do in the House, but he could do a good deal of stirring up. Auckland trade unionists produced a political objective and platform in July, 1910, and the national constitution of the Labour Party, as a definite political organisation, was approved in April, 1912. "Labour" disappeared from the title of Sir Joseph Ward's party. THE LIBERAL MAJORITIES. Having indicated three of the major reasons for the decline of the LiberalLabour Party—a decline inevitable in £ ( he process of political developmont, and ] v aot attributable to its final leader— )ne mnst recall its triumphs in a brief statistical summary. The Liberal maiorities fluctuated thus: IS9O 8 1893 3S IS9Q 36 1899 32 f v 1902 21 TJ 1905 48 tii 1908 22 1911 0 . THE RETURN TO POWER. ca JSTew Zealand entered ou another ki leriod of political steadiness under the fo egimo of the late Mr. Massey, who m: luly carried out his freeholding pro- cli jitsoß, and it is to be inspected that Ai

when the party had no more to offer in that respect, a large portion of the electorate began to get more critical of the Government. One need not discuss other reasons for the fina! defeat of the Reform Administration, which was in a minority fc the last days of Mr. Massey but recovered splendidly when the electors gave a new Reform Prime Minister, Mr. Coates, a tremendous majority. Opposition elements outside the Labour Party made many efforts to organise effectively, but it was a stroke of genius which prompted the United candidates, prior to the 1929 General Election, to call on Sir Joseph Ward to lead then-. Though his health had been precarious, he accepted the responsibility, and forthwith injected into the party programme some of hi 3 old enterprise and optimism, which struek>an answering chord in the electorates. But a fortnight before the great battle it wa,s touch and go whe« ther the loader would remain in the fight. Sir Joseph opened his campaign in the North' Island, and was forced to delay his journey to Invercargili through a severe attack of illness. He made so slow a recovery that his friends despaired of his chances of further effective electioneering, and medical and personal advice was unanimous that he should give up politics, for the sake of his very life. During one fateful week-end the aged statesman was on the eve of a decision to resign from further active rolitical. work, but he remembered that over fifty candidates were campaigning, fortified by his leadership, and he determinde to go ahead. He s preferred to die in harness, and he nearly achieved that ideal.