THE ALLIANCE SPLIT.

Evening Star, Issue 10391, 12 August 1897, Page 1

THE ALLIANCE SPLIT.

The following letter from the Rev. Edward Walker, the late secretary to the New Zealand Alliance, is published in the ' Evening Post':— fa

Sir Robert Stout, iu his letter of 28th July, said: "It was notorious that Mr'Seddon-hum-bugged lUr Walker." Sir Robert cannot know as much as I of my official interviews with Mr Seddon, and considering that we are not as yet the only party in the State to be reckoned with, I should heartily welcome more such treatment from him in the interest of the rights of the people respecting the calamitous liquor traffic. In any case, Mr Seddon is the last man likely to concede anything to a " stand and deliver" policy. Whatever may he- the professions of the new Alliance as to its politically non-party character, the fact remains that the net result of the extraordinary method by which the change in the personnel of the management has been brought about has been to give the ascendency in its counsels to those who have hitherto been conspicuous for their avowed determination to overthrow the premier, and in some instances for most unjustifiable charges and vituperative speech respecting him. If, now that they have got control of the new temperance organisation, they can avoid inoculating it with the virus of their own anti-Seddon-phobia, their skill will be conspicuous. If not, the organisation will soon have no room for any but anti-Seddonites, and the great Labor vote of the colony will be alienated from Prohibition, than which no result could be more disatrous. Strong political partisanship should be no disqualification for a Prohibition worker, but it certainly should disqualify for a controlling influence in an organisation which professes to welcome persons of all shades of political opinion. The new organisation may be expected to be both dominated and voiced principally by the Rev. F. W. Isitt, Mr T. E. Taylor. Mr A. R. Atkinson, and a few well-known others of kindred sympathy with them; and its reputation as a party organisation or otherwise-will necessarily be largely determined by the character of their future public deliverances, which it" will not be possible to dissociate from theirdominantinfluence over its policy. . ■ • -