THE POLITICAL POSITION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10218, 12 December 1893, Page 5

THE POLITICAL POSITION.

AUSTRALIAN COMMENT, (Age, Dec. 2,1893.) The battle which baa just been fought and won in New Zealand has an interest far beyond the bounds of that Colony. It was watched in every part of the Australasian group of Colonies almost with anxiety. Party leaders here in Melbourne, for example, betrayed a personal interest in the struggle. The Liberal Party, led by the Seddon Government, was written down as an organisation of zealots; the “ petticoat vote” was snuffed out with a sneer; and Mr Eollestou and his “freetrade " propaganda were sketched as the rising hope of the true statesmanship of the Mt.on Colony. . Nor is it at all wonderful that this vigilant apprehension should have been exercised. Instinctively all parties recognise that the world moves; and that, though New Zealand ia as far ahead or the ocher Colonics in progressive, legislation as she ia in material prosperity, she is bub treading the way which all will eventually follow. Time and the ■ gods fight with Liberalism everywhere for dn enlarged function to the Democracy, and, as Sir Robert Stout expresses it, “to benefit man sad woman, aud to put civilisation on a higher platform.” The problems which New Zealand settled yesterday, and is settling to-day, we shall have to decide to-morrow. This ia just as certain as “the process of the suns.” It whs quite to be' expected, therefore, that tha Conservative would tremble at the note of political war, and in his feeble way strive to put back the hands of the clock of State. But now that the smoke and dust of the conflict bav.e cleared away, and the) results are plainly discernible, what ia it that we see ? Liberalism is triumphant to an extent unlocked for, and Conservatism has sustained more than a defeat—it ia totally routed. ■ ### • * *

There is no longer any concealment as to the agencies with which this has been brought about. The woman’s suffrage was condemned by the Conservative leader, and it has reciprocated the conI demnation. People who predicted ' that women would be lukewarm politicians have awakened to the fact that they are keener in the use of the franchise than men are. * * « « * Nor can it be said that the political woman was foe a moment in doubt as to what she wanted. Even her enemies admit that her aspirations have all gone for q raising of the individual character of the members and for a strengthening of the Temperance movement. But she saw very much further then this. She demanded with no uncertain voice a plentiful supply of that very “ paternalism” which Mr Eollestoa so vigorously .condemned. She recognises that Governments ought, as Sir Bryan O’Loghlen says, to bo “ house fathers” to the people; and that the end of politics, in the words of Sir Eobert Stout, “is to produce social reform.” Many people, speculating j.t different times concerning the proba&ls effect of the woman’s vote, have thought that it would tend distinctly to Conservatism, and have accounted for Lord Salisbury’s advocacy of it on that ground. But the New | Zealand contest, so far as & single trial can indicate any general principle, has negaI tived that view. i

I The ‘‘paternalism” of the Seddon I Government is one of its most marked | features, extending, as we know, even to | pledging the credit of the State for the I supply of cheap money to the farmers; and i though the anti-Liberal papers are indusi triously endeavouring to blow up a feud I between the friends of Mr Seddon and Sir Robert Stout, there ia nothing more certain than that Sir Eobert goes even further than the Premier in his fondness i for what Mr Bolleatoa called “ the degrading influences of paternalism.” He has given a forecast of a measure for the provision of “old-age pensions” that reads like half a page out of Bellamy’s “Looking Backward.” Ho holds that no man in the world should work after ha is sixty years of age, and the pension ia to be arranged for with a view to bis withdrawal from the competition of the labour market after that age, and his maintenance from the etored-up provisions of his youth and middle age. This is improving on Prince Bismarck’s piece of Socialism, and it shows how the thoughts of capable ineu on both sides of the world are turning towards politics as the very science of “ paternalism.” ifc dC I For theao reasons the reporis circulated that Sir Robert Stout is likely to try and defeat Mr Seddon ly ft junction with the fourteen forlorn Conservative members of the Opposition have not much chance of verification. Thera is as much divergence between the views of the Opposition and Sir Eobert Stout's na between those of the Premier and Mr Eollsston; and the expectation that St Robert will link hitn-ti-Jf with rliQ defected tail of a reactionary section of the community to stop the reforms he has aefcEisheats on ia 'bf all-thingflho

pjoat unlikely. Little notice has been' taken of Sit George Grey, because the veteran is now os old a? Mr Gladstone; Without) ihe English Premier's official position or physical stamina. Rat Sir George retains all his old love of Liberalism, and hie honourable position at the bead of the Auckland poll by a majority of 1W8) votes ehows that ho carries under his grey hairs the deep regard of the people. He is delighted at having lived to' witness the triumph of women's suffrage, and declares, with a touch of statesmanlike insight, that "womanly tenderness and devotion will charge legislation with new forces." In all us aspects the New Zealand election was a deeply interesting study j and in so far as it was a leap in the dark in the female franchise it has eventuated with a crowning triumph for Liberalism and Protection and a crashing defeat for Conservatism and Freetrade,