The Evening Star FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1925. THE LIBERAL MANIFESTO.

Evening Star, Issue 19061, 2 October 1925, Page 6

The Evening Star FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1925. THE LIBERAL MANIFESTO.

When at the British elections of 1922 the Liberals •were badly routed at the polls, supporters of the party were at great pains to analyse the changed conditions and see if there was any future for Liberalism. One writer, in ‘Politics and Progress,' declared that the first requisite was to ascertain whether Liberalism represented a quite distinctive attitude, differing equally from that of Conservatism and from that of the Labor Party, or whether it was merely a sort of compromise or halfway house, a middle party of moderate men, with no characteristic or definable standpoint of its own. The conclusion reached was that in the latter event Liberalism must become more and more a negligible force and ultimately disappear, since the pressure of all British political traditions and methods of government would be against its continued existence. His summary of the position was that the ideal of Conservatism was Stability, the ideal of Labor was Equality, and the ideal of Liberalism was Liberty; that these ideals were quite distinct from one another; and that their relation was rather that of the three angles of a triangle, each definitely opposed to the other two, yet each linked with the other two, and having some points of sympathy with both. Thus Labor and Conservatism are both instinctively authoritarian, their extreme wings being prone to resort to force instead of persuasion. Liberalism and Labor are linked by an instinctive dislike of entrenched privilege and sympathy for the under-dog. Liberalism and Conservatism are united in tbeir distrust of mechanical reconstruction, and in their belief that private enterprise must provide the main driving force in the economic sphere. “ In the nature of things,” continues Mr Ramsay Muir, the author quoted above, “ Liberalism cannot give a very cocksure or cnt-and-dried description of its ideal society.” Nevertheless, an attempt has been made to do so in the manifesto just issued by the National Party in New Zealand. The results are not specially inspiring. Ono looks among a long string of unexceptionable generalities for some originality of constructive thought, and finds nothing pore startling than that special powers shall be given to the Arbitration Court to deal with trusts and combines, or that moderate-sized farms shall be provided in various districts under local control, special powers being given to local bodies to co-operate with the State in their management. There are a few points only to which members of the Reform Party might not subscribe, such as advocacy of a State bank and agricultural banks, a State monopoly of accident insurance, and universal superannuation. For the rest the manifesto cannot be taken as distinctive of any one party, and it may bo accepted as evidence of the feasibility of fusion at the coming elections, if only the personal element could bo eliminated. Perhaps in this policy of perfection the only challenge thrown out to tho Government is in respect of its land policy, or rather in Its administrative lethargy as regards land settlement. The manifesto calls for tho application of tho compulsory clauses of the Land for Settlements Act, a stiffening of the graduated land tax to discourage tho holding of large areas suitable for closer settlement. drastic legislation against land aggregation, and a vigorous revival of homestead and village settlement on Crown lands. If the Liberal Party seriously desires to embarrass the Government during the election ‘campaign, these seem the most promising grounds on which to base criticism. Thoro has been a slackening in the promotion of settlement, hut it is difficult to sheet home the charge that it has been altogether voluntary on tho part of the Government. It would be futile to subdivide large areas if thereby the productivity of them would be decreased rather than increased, and failure on the part of the new settlers had to be recorded. Not all the estates which have been resumed and cut up by the Government have proved successful, as is attested by the frequency with which such remarks as “ poor,” “ indifferent,” “only fair,” “uncertain yet,” appear in the official summary of the settlements established upon estates acquired and dealt with under tho provisions of the Land for Settlements Act up to the present. A good, deal of revenue has had to be forgone that some settlers may be enabled to continue on their holdings, and in respect of Crown lands, chiefly in the North Island, there has had to he or will have to be a good deal of revaluation in consequence of a change in circumstances since many of tho lands were selected, because of tho difficulty of maintaining fertility and controlling what is known as second growth on cleared land. In many ways finance constitutes an obstacle to the pursuit of a vigorous land settlement policy, and if the Liberal Party can evolve a workable scheme to permit of its resumption they will have at least one popular plank in their election platform.