AN INTERESTING DISCLOSURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17336, 6 December 1919, Page 13

AN INTERESTING DISCLOSURE.

- (Published =by Arrangement.)

HOW CONSERVATISM RUNS " REFORM/' SIR WALTER BUCHANAN EMERGES ! The following interesting article, which appeared in a recent issue of the Auckland Star, throws an instructive light upon the very intimate relations always suspected, bub., persistently repudiated or denied, that exists between the "Reform" Party and our Conservative landed aristocracy, of whom Sir Walter Buchanan is a leading member:— The Power Behind the Throne. It is to be hoped that the electors everywhere, not only in this constituency, but throughout, the Dominion, will pay careful attention to the facts which Mr. Matheson (Independent Reform candidate for the Masterton seat) made public last Friday night. Addressing a political meeting at Masterton, Mr. Matheson explained at length how his attempt to stand for Parliament there had brought him into conmct with the Masseyite " Power behind the Throne," and he proceeded to disclose the precise position in which the " Reform" Party stands in regard to Sir Waller Buchanan. This gentleman evidently exercises practically sovereign authority over the party, so .far. as the selection of its candidates is concerned, and when for any given reason a politician wishing to stand for' Parliament in the "Reform'' interests fails to come up to Sir Walter Buchanan's test of fitness or cannot " pass muster" under his eagle ey ■■>, that candidate must either withdraw or go to the poll with the full knowledge that the party vote and the party organisation will be used to support some more acceptable mouthpiece of ecoservati=m. In this case, Mr. Matheson had announced hii candidature some considerable time bofore the sitting member, Mr. Sykes, came into the field and he refused to. accept Sir Walter Buchanan's requestperhaps wo should say " command'"—to stand aside, because, as he told his audience, he objects to dictation of that sort and also because he considers that there is far 'too much of the caucus and the "machine" about " Reform" politics, and on his own confession he wants something " cleaner and more democratic". If Mr. Matheson is out for clean and democratic methods of government, we fail to see why he-does not support Liberalism which can 1 supply him with both these requisites. But that, after all, is between Mr. Matheson and his own conscience, and what we are chiefly interested in just now' is the part that Sir Walter Buchanan is "evidently filling, not on the political stage, but. be-' hind the scenes, for the benefit of the Masseyites. '...'.'■ Perhaps we had better remark" and now, that nothing we have to say is intended to reflect invidiously on the'character or conduct of Sir Walter Buchanan. He is no doubt quite a estimable, person, but his public record hardly suggests" that he would be adopted by the people of New Zealand, with their full knowledge and consent as the controller of their..destinies. Sir Walter Buchanan, is known by repute to most people in this country, as a man of wealth, a big land-holder,, and one of the. strongest financial supporters of that Wellington " Reform" organ, which has rendered itself notorious for ' years past by its frantic abuse of "the Liber?! 1 Party and its leader, and to those who take any interest in our political, history he is familiar as one of the most resolute and obstinate opponents of Liberalism and all its works, one of the .survivors of that clique of bigoted and reactionary Conservatives who so strenuously resisted the democratic policy of Ballance and Seddon and Ward a quarter of, a centurv ago. To Sir . Walter Buchanan . and the men who shared" his political creed in those days, Old' Age Pensions, Land, for Settlements, Democratic Suffrage,. Democratic Administration, anything, and everything that Liberalism imported "into our national and political life were alike revolutionary, outrageous, and detestable. What Sir Walter himself- thought and said about these matters is: recorded'' at length in "Hansard"; and all that' .we need say about this side of the ; question now is. that a- man of : -Sir»» Walters age and temperament and- L political antecedents is tolerably certain -to-be", not less but more Conservative %Jdoreaction-, ary to-day -than be showed himself-. a: generation ago. > =i*?v j.-~» Now, this is the man to -whom'-Mr. Massey and his friends have, -delegated the task of selecting their candidates;-and what we wish particularly to* stress: for the benefit of our readers* is • this, that* if Mr. Massey and his party win the victory in this present contest, it is to' Sir Walter Buchanan and the small but influential group of Conservative landowners who' look up to him as their guide and leader that the fate and future of New Zealand are to be entrusted. For it' is-manifest - that if Sir Walter Buchanan fallowed to decide what candidate shall ofs shall not.stand for "Reform" in a given constituency, he is literally dictating and prescribing the policy which* the Massevites are prepared to support. For we should not imagine that Sir Walter would.select a " Reform" • candidate .who did- not profess the "Reform" creed, and we would not accuse Mr. Massey of keeping : one type of " Reform" for the Wairarapa and . another for the rest of the Dominion. Thus the triumph of Masseyism will mean ' the subordination of all our political and economic and industrial and - social- and' national requirements .and aspirations to the prejudices of a highly Conservative old gentleman, whom the electors have refused to send to Pajliament, and whose only claim to be accepted as the supreme arbiter of our destinies is that he is Regarded by' his own friends as " the political Godfather of Reform in the Wairarapa." We do not think that these facts require much elaboration, in fact they seem to us almost to defy comment. Bat we must draw one obvious moral, by pointing to the marvellous discrepancy between the picture of " Reform" policy thus revealed to our gaze and the claims and assertions of the "Reformers." Nothing, seems to exasperate Mr. Massey or the average Masseyite more effectual than the suggestion that he and his partyare dominated . and controlled by the '* Squatocracy," the great land-holding interests that Mr. Massey has so long and loyally protected. Yet here is proof positive on the authority of a wefT-known member of the "Reform" party that "Reform" policy is. as we hare said, dictated by the " Uncrowned King" ' of our Conservative landed aristocracy. And this is the " democracy" that " Reform" in a recent picturesque but pathetic advertisement implores the e'ectors to love and cherish .' The people of New Zealand will give then' answer at the polls.