The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Tuesday, May 12, 1891. LIBERAL ASSOCIATIONS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 606, 12 May 1891, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Tuesday, May 12, 1891. LIBERAL ASSOCIATIONS.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aira’st an bo thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

The proposed union of all Libera] Associations in the colony is beginning to take definite shape, and an institution under the title of the National Liberal Association is being formed in Dunedin. This, we suppose, to be identical with the Association originally proposed. The planks of the Association are to secure voting power to every adult, and the abolition of all property qualification —that the Government undertake as a State function the employment of all needing work, the State ownership of land, mines, railways, and coastal marine service; the statutory limitation of legal rent and interest; and that the State place the best education within the reach of all. The platform is further explained by twenty-four items enumerating the objects :— i. Residential qualification only for election. 2. Female franchise. 3. State aid for co-operative industrial settlements. 4. Government labor bureaux. 5. The appointment of a minister of labor. 6. Extension of municipal functions and an increase generally of local government. 7. Absolute stoppage of the sale of Crown lands. 8. Progressive land and income tax and abolition of property tax. 9. Land succession dues to be paid in land. 10. Land companies to be taxed periodically to an' amount equal to the average proceeds of succession dues. 11. Sole tenure | of lands to be a lease from the State. 12. Nationalisation of • land. 13. Nationalisation of mines. 14. Nationalisation of all railways. 15. Nationalisation of coastal marine services. 16. [ A legal periodic adjustment of rents. 17. Statutory limitation of the maximum amount of recoverable interest. 18. A State Bank of 1 issue. 19. The State to supply educa--1 tional requisites at cost price. 20. That equal facilities be given for acquiring primary and secondary educa- , tion. 21. An Elective Revising committee with limited powers in- • stead of a Legislative Council. 22. An Elective Governor. 23. Simplification of the machinery of Government. 24. Simplification of judicial proceedings.

Every member joining pledges himself or herself to assist the Association in the propagation of its views, and bind themselves to aim at achieving the unity of the party ; to achieve that end the decision of the majority must be abided by in every case. The entrance fee is sixpence, and the subscription a penny a week. The platform proposed leaves much room for debate, but it will serve to bring things to a focus. The decision of the majority is to be final t—that is at once the safeguard and ne strength of the Association.