AT DAGGERS DRAWN

Evening Star, Issue 19848, 23 April 1928, Page 2

AT DAGGERS DRAWN

REFORM LEAGUE AND P.P.A. SECRET MANIFESTOES [fliOM A CoKRKSrOXnrNT.] WELLINGTON, April 21. A quarrel of the bitterest type, calculated to affect the Reform Party materially, has taken place between tho .Reform League and the Political Protestant Association. Secret manifestoes issued by both sides reveal that they are at daggers drawn. “During the past ten years the P.P.A has in measurable degree, assisted to return members of your party to Parliament at a heavy cost .of money, time, and effort,” states a circular issued by the P.P..A. to Reform members of Parliament in explanation of its right to address them. “There arc members of tho party who wore first brought into political life by this association. You are aware that there is general dissatisfaction with the party and its leadership. Wc arc in a position to gauge tho strength and depth of the feeling by tho reports of organisers and by personal contact throughout the dominion. The fact that at least two other political parties are in process of formation with influential backing is significant. Wo have been impressed by the number of individuals who have been supporter's of the association and also of tho Reform Party for years who have firmly declined to contribute to the funds'of tho association, as they have done, unless an express guarantee is given' that the association will nob support the lleform Party under its present leader. This is as true in Dunedin as in Auckland, in the towns and cities as in the country. “ Tho Dominion Executive is faced with tho difficult task of framing a policy for this association and a campaign to meet tho situation in view of the next elections. . . . The individual members of the Reform Party share the responsibility for. and must be affected by, the dissatisfaction and distrust, not to say open antagonism, which exists. Thev will experience the consequences, and it is therefore in your interest that the position be fully considered.

“ It would be no difficult task to set out at length the reasons for our dissatisfaction. The Reform Party was elected as an anti-Socialist party. Our association carries on a constant propaganda against Socialism, hut the Reform Party has onactexl legislation—o.g., bus legislation—which the_ Socialists could not have excelled. This legislation has prejudicially affected and antagonised the groat middle class, and has had a serious effect throughout our membership. You will know how the farming industry view this and other legislation which affects thorn. “ The second reason is the increasing expenditure, and consequently _ increasing taxation. The financial difficulties through which the people have been passing have nor actuated the Government to lessen tho high public expenditure. Rather it. has been increased. Fresh taxation has been added in the form of income tax and Customs duties, both of which chiefly affect the middle classes; tho expenditure on the I üblie Service now approaches one-half of tho total revenue; wo arc, next to the Socialist State of Queensland, tho most over-governed people in the Lmpire, there is one Civil servant _ tor every tweiitv-four prsojis; there is a growing tendency to increase tho departmental expenditure; the system of commissioner control which deprives tho Government and Parliament of any real or effective control of the Civil Service, is in a measure responsible lor the present condition. . • • rne local rates and taxes added constitute a burden which is rapidly approaching the intolerable. New Zealand taxation is in excess of the combined Australian taxation. “ Our organisation has no connection with organisations such as the New Zealand Alliance or tho Bible-in-Schools League. We do not, therefore, refer to the association, but to the general opinion, when we stated that tho present lender is believed to have no sympathy with moral and social reform, and that because of this a largo section of the community has lost faith m him and in his Government. As an association wo are convinced that tho leader of tho Reform Party, unlike his honoured predecessor, if not openly antagonistic, is passively hostile. There is no opportunity under his leadership of securing tho reforms for which wo stand, because the members of his party (although in the main pledged to onr platform) refuse to take the initiative nr to assert themselves in the caucus. Rather during tho last session a_further concession to tho anti-national Roman .secondary schools was enacted, granting free passes to and from school in holiday lime. Tho members of tho party voted for that concession. Further, tho present Cabinet includes members who make no secret of their hostility to tho association, its objects, and leaders. As a political organisation we view with increasing concern the number of Romanists who are being appointed to important positions under the Reform Government, a.s well as the fact that the entrants into tho Public Service are, wo believe, in an undue proportion Romanists. Wo raised this charge against the Scddon-Ward Government, and apparently we shall ho forced to raise it. against the Reform Party. We desire assurance from yon as a'member of tho Reform Party that •tho grievances as to policy and administration will bo remedied. It will, however, bo apparent to yon that, failing some definite proposal or assurance, tho association will bo forced to frame a policy calculated to better serve tho interests which its aim is to maintain. A copy of this letter is being addressed to almost every member of your party.” In answer to this threat, Mr E. A. James, dominion secretary of tho Reform League, has issued a statement to the members of his League. “ A pronounced set has been made against Mr Contes by onr political opponents and by tho organiser of the so-called United Party, who, after deserting the Reform Party, with whom he had no legitimate cause for grievance, openly avowed his intention of forcing tho heads of the Reform organisation out of political life. ,f I am not ware how far these Prohibitionists who are working against the Reform Party are responsible for the campaign of slander that has been covertly initiated against Mr Coates,” proceeds Mr James, “or whether they are in sympathy with the movement which has been initiated by Mr Davy or not. From information gained, however, I am convinced that if they and the United Party are successful in their attempt to make Mr Coates’s continuance in, office impossible, they will administer the severest blow to tho Reform cause that it is possible for any political party to inflict upon another, and they will succeed in handing over tho government of the country to the Reel Fed. element which they are so anxious to keep out of office. “Bearing that in mind I can only characterise the circular letter signed by Mr Ira J. Bridger, as president, and and Mr Howard Elliott, as secretary of tho P.P.A., as a most mischievous document, intended _ to breed suspicion and bring about disruption in the ranks of the Reform Party. When these gentlemen claim that ‘in a measurable degree the P.P.A. assisted to return members of the Reform Party to Parliament at a heavy cost of money, time, and effort,’ that claim, if jt has any foundation in fact, is seriously discounted by the past acfciop. of the as-

sociutiou, which', under Mr Elliott’s leadership, has helped to discredit, and defeat candidates for Parliament standing in the Reform interest. In proof of that statement I need only refer to the 1922 elections, when it foolishly and against the earlier protests made hy the late Mr W. Massey and myself iii j 9.19, published the names ol candidates for whom it asked citizens to vote. That was on the very eve of the General Election, and seriously discounted the chances of many of our candidates, and actually led to defeat. Again in 192 J, when Sir James Allen vacated the Bruce seat on the eve of hi.s departure to take up the High Commissioncrship in London, the gentleman chosen in the Reform interest lo contest the scat was defeated as a, result of the Reform action in supporting Air Edie. “ [ may further point to the attempt made hy Mr Elliott to discredit the Government, in connection with the appointment of Mr Dallard as Con-troller-general of Prisons, and the alleged maladministration of the department. Air Elliott worked and agitated amongst the. people who were the supporters of the Reform pause long before his association canto into existence.’'

Deriving that. Mr Massey was returned in 1912 on an anti-Socinlist policy, “ as the Socialist movement in Now" Zealand at that time was negligible,” Afr James states that sectarian issues wore not in evidence at the last General Election, and that it was the “Coates’s wave” which brought the Reform Party hack to power. He also denies that New Zealand is in excess of the combined taxation levied bv tiro Australian State Governments and by the Commonwealth Government. On the subject of the allegation that “ last session a further concession to the auti-National Roman Catholic schools was enacted, giving free railway passes to and from the schools in holiday time,’ and that members of the Reform Party voted for the concession, Air James points out that the grant was merely one to allow school boarders to travel to and from school at holiday seasons at threefourths of the ordinary fare, and that no vote on the question was taken.