THE LIBERAL PARTY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 102, 31 March 1925, Page 4

THE LIBERAL PARTY.

It is evident from the special messages which have been appearing in the New Zealand Times from its own correspondent in Invercargill, that very considerable pressure is being brought to boar upon the Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Ward to re-enter the political arena. Tile intended retirement of tho Hon. J. A. Hanan from the representation of Invercargill affords Sir Joseph Ward the opportunity of securing the place in Parliament which has been twice denied to him since he quitted the National Cabinet in August, 1919, and left Mr Massev and his colleagues to grapple with the very serious post-war problems, which they have so largely solved to the satisfaction of the community generally. We are not of those who would disparage the ex-Liberal Leader’s sendees to tho Dominion. As a Minister of tho Crown, and as Prune Minister of the Dominion for the six years immediately following the death of his great chief, the late Mr Seddon, Sir Joseph undoubtedly served the country well, it is now a matter ol history that, following the general election of 1911, at which the Liberal Party met with a decided reverse, the Government of which Sir Joseph wa,J the head was only saved by the casting vote of the Speaker, and by the promise of his own retirement iiom the Premiership. Tho hundred days Ministry which came as a stop-gap between the continuous Liberal ad ministration and the first Reform Government, met with the “happy dispatch in July 1912, and the Government of the country then passed into the hands of Mr Massey and his colleagues. It cannot truthfully be said that the-State has suffered by the change of Government; in manv respects it has gained materially. The Reform Government has, by its legislation, liberalised and out-liberalised, the Liberal measures m every direction that has been open to them, and, while there has been some talk about “reactionaries being wedded to the Reform Party in unholy alliance,” the fact is, as Sir John I'mdlay put it on tho evo of the election, after reading Mr Massey s manifesto to the electors, that the Reform policy embodies nearly everything which is included in the sanest and most enlightened conception of modern Liberalism.” The Government policy Sir John Findlay described as being “Liberalism in the best sense. Whatever view may be taken of the position to-day, it is coming to be pretty generally recognised that the differences which may exist between the senior parties in the State—Reform and Liberal—are largely of a personal character, arising out of the predilections for and ambitions of, individuals. If Sir’ Joseph Ward should decide to reenter political life we sincerely trust he will be found working in conjunction with Mr Massey and the Reform Party, for the union of all the sane elements in the community, to the end that the extremists who are out to capture the Government of the country may bo kept in check.