The Hastings Standard Published Daily. FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1896. POLITICAL GROUPS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 11, 8 May 1896, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily.

FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1896. POLITICAL GROUPS.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrongs that need resistance, For the fut«re in the distance, And the good that we can do.

There was a time when the field of politics knew but two contending parties : Whigs or Tories, Liberals or Conservatives, and a man was either one or the other yielding submission to the recognised leader. But politics have undergone a violent change, whether for good or evil time alone can reveal; and we see the two great parties broken into groups pledged to particular aims and causes which are more or less beside the objects of the greater party with which they usually ally themselves and embarassing to the party. These political groups are not peculiar to any one country, but may be found in all places enjoying any form of parliamentary government. Nor can these groups be regarded as evanescent; on the contrary, as now ideas are focussed the groups multiply. In New Zealand, outside the two parties hitherto recognised as parties, there has been formed the Labour party, the Prohibition party, the Bible-in-Schools party, Land Nationlists, Socialists, and other minor groups. To the leaders in politics the multiplication of these groups is very embarrassing, as it is impossible to comply with the number and variety of their demands. The disruption of the two great political parties is due probably to the spread of education wdrich has diminished that impassiveness, that submission to restraint, and that disposition to keep on in the old grooves and to rely on the old standards which gave to the parties their cohesiveness and unity. The assertiveness of the groups and their utter disregard for old ties makes political leadership a difficult and hazardous matter. The Prohibitionists will throw in their lot with either of the great parties that will help them to secure their ends ;

they will coalesce with any of the groups with the same object. The same may be said of any one of the groups. They are subject to no discipline, and will kick over the traces immediately they fancy that their particular fad will be advanced a step bv an act of insubordination. The political life of the present day is permeated with enthusiasm—is rich in intelligent activity, which make for the multiplication of groups and groups within groups, which tend to diminish the cohesion of parties. The administration of the State which can be safely entrusted only to the larger parties is made subservient to the fads, fancies, and follies of political cliques or sets. The workings of these groups will shorten the lives of Governments, for unstable Governments arc the natural consequence of unstable Parliamentary combinations. France affords us an object lesson in this, for the average life of a French Ministry is about eight months. The Governments of the future will be rich in promises, poor in performances, and necessarily so, for whichever party is dominant will depend for its existence upon the goodwill of the greater number of groups, whose allegiance must be temporary or accidental.