"THE ENGLISH LIBERAL PARTY AND ITS LEADERS."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10970, 26 January 1899, Page 3

"THE ENGLISH LIBERAL PARTY AND ITS LEADERS."

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—The interesting lotter of December 17 from your London correspondent which appeared in the Herald this morning, must have puzzled those of your readers who are unacquainted with the circumstances leading up to the resignation of Sir William Harcourt. As throwing a side light on the preeont position will you permit us to quote from a lettor we received by last 'Frisco mail from Mr. Arthur Withy Under date December 15 lis writes:—"Things have beet moving since last mail, as you will see by tho mass of cuttings, etc., I send you. I liavo been nearly an hour digging them out. The resolutions passed at the meeting of the conference convened by tho Laud Law Reform Association at the Westminster P«lace Hotel on the Bth inst. are a significant sign of the times. Half-a-dozen M.l'.'s were present, and a large number of representatives from town councils and other public bodies from all parts of England. Letters were read from many public men, including sir Wm. V. Harcourl, who wrote: '1 have long felt the importance of dealing with the question of the taxation of ground Valuer, and should, if I had remained in office, have tried my hand at it.' Mr. Asquith and Sir Edward Grey wrote to the same effect. MrPhilip Stanhope, M.P., moved, ' I hat a separate quinquennial valuation be made ot sites, as distinct from buildings, and a ralo made and levied so as to fall on the owners of land thus n-ssossed.' Carried unanimously. Equally encouraging is the result of Hie Chroniole's plebiscite, viz., Reform of House of Lords, first; Taxation of Land A alues, a very good second. You will see that Deccniher 8." -Mr. Withy then narrates lie steps taken by the Daily Mail, and proceeds: Wo must get rid of 'old gang before «e can do much good, and are anxiously waiting to see what Asquith (the principal speaker at the meeting of the National Liberal led* ration) will say at Birmingham to-morrow. Something must be done. The capitalists aro fast leaving the Literal party, and the sooner all of them who are not sincoro Radicals 00 so, the better. The workers themselves should start at once to form a general election fund, so as to bo absolutely independent of the capitalists. The London Echo of Will, fays: 'It is becoming pretty clear what the programme, chosen for the Liberal party >y the country is, viz., first the abolition of the legislative veto of the House of Lords, alHl secondly, we believe it will lie Jotllid that what the country most desires is the taxation of land values.' " T , Mr. Withy's ' reference to the Liberal "press gag" is fully justified by the ready response evoked by the very remarkable " referendum" of the Daily Mail. Tho storm »' post-cards which at once deluged the editors desk, showed that the country demands reforms or a more radical character than tho official LilxT.il press, under capitalistic control, ha* hitherto been allowed to advocate. It is this gagging of the Liberal press which has caused the extraordinary phenomenon o a Tory paper posing as the neutral exponent of Radical views! Tin; replies received to the first ami third questions iiK.ie.ato nearly that as Leader, Lord Kosobery is greatly before Sir William llaremiri in public opinion, and that there is no general desire to revive the lloine Rule question, but rather the reverse. Opinions diverge considerably on the "five points" of the second question, but taken a* a whole they plainly show that tho country has now to choose between land reform and measures of a distinctly socialistic e.haraetei. As .Sir William Hareonrt's resignation followed within a week of this unexpected exposure, it seems not unreasonable to assume that there was some connection Ix'tween the two events. Hoping this may assist some of your readers to understand tho resent peculiar position of Knglish politics, nd In deduct* from it tho obvious lesson that we need " measures" as well as " men —that the coming struggle will be one of "principle" versus " privilege," and that the attack on privilege mils l - iak»» the form of taxation of ground values.—We are, etc., for the National Single Tax League (»80. Fowuis, President. K. ,1. y\. K IXC, lion. Sec. Mor von, Nelson-street, •January 23, 1899.