WANTED A PARTY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4081, 20 June 1900, Page 4

WANTED A PARTY.

“Wanted, a policy,” .was wont to be the cry. of New Zealand politicians of the opportunist school. That is no longer the clamant need; since the'.' inspiring idea lias occurred to the Opposition wire-pullers of stealing the Government policy, and “going.one better.” But a party is wanted to carry' out this bril-' liant conception; and the journals that for six years past have tried to persuade themselves and their readers that the Left Wing would become a power in the State are now—since the “wing” has been plucked, almost bare by the Liberal’ electors —endeavouring, to fonri a New Liberal party to tajve the place of tie old, which is quite gratuitously as* sumed to lie moribund. In order to the formation of ; this new party, it. is necessary not only to declare the Seddon Government to be effete, but also to assume the actual demise of the party' led by Captain ; Russell. Hence, oh the eve. of the opening of Parliament, we., find certain Opposition organs calmly -proposing .the deposition of the member for Hawke’s Bay 1 from the leadership, ; and. even announcing the probability' of that gentleman’s acquiescence in the indignity. It is difficult to: why Captain Bussell Should J be subjected to treatment of this kind! He has been a gallant leader of a forlorn hope—never more forlorn, than, at the present juncture—and he has in all political warfare been only too loyal to 1 certairi obsolete tenets of His party, of , whose unsqundhess he has, personally,beep convinced. As .a freetrader, • and as an intelligent supporter, of >, reasonable -labour legislatibn, Cap l tain Russell has to a large extent freed himself from Conservative shackles; but be is neither progressive .enough nor aggressive enough to lead the New Liberals, and so he is subjected to what is coming to be recognised as the annual pre-sessional insult of being told by his own-people that he ought to step down, and give place to a better man. The hew leader .who is to replace the discarded one is Mr James Allen, the member for Bruce. We are told that as there are no more Tories left in New Zealand, Mr Allen must be a" Liberal of the Liberals. Well, a man may call himself anything lie pleases in this world. The real question is not whether Mr Allen is a Liberal oi- a Conservative, but whether he is a fit and proper person to replace Mr Seddon after he has attracted sufficient followers to enable him to seize the Premiership. It is a new thing to read that Mr Allen’s is a personality sufficiently attractive for so really wonderful a feat as that would be. Indeed, the popular idea of Mr Allen is that his attractiveness cannot be depended upon for much smaller results. But’ even were Mr Allen to stand at the head of a party made powerful by the magic of an, attractive personality, it is almost comically absurd to imagine such a party as a progressive one. Mr Allen’s opposition to every measure of the P present Government has been whole-souled, and.his criticism has been mostly of . the narrow,- destructive or-

cler. Where, then, is he to find the spirit to carry on a Liberal policy oven if lie possessed originality enough to conceive one? t : Something of tills fear seems to have seined tltWTtandid critic in mid-career. Fie therefore turned aside .In his headlong course, to conjure with the name of Pira’ni; Here_ is a Democrat, who. being; placed alongside of Mr James Allen.wili. enhance tlie attractive power of that. ; magnetje- gentleman. Mr Pi- . rani is credited with possessing all the virtues both of debate and of reticence. He was the recc.gniscd- leader of the Left Wing, but he is only deemed fit to be a. lieutenant in the Liberal party of the future. The rank and file of that party is stated to consist of Mr 'John Hutcheson and Air A. R. Atkinson. Here; their, we have the'full'strength of tlie new party for which our Conserva-tive-Democratic contemporary ‘barracks” so lustily. Mr Herries, the Conservative member Tor Bay of Plenty, was tentatively mentioned as a probable third 3 full private”; hut that erudite and. voluble"gentleman appears to have been ‘dropped out of the reckoning; and we are" left with' the AHeh-eiini-Pirani-cum-Hutcheson-cum-Atkinspu .. combination as- the party- of .the future—-consti-tuting A sort of magnetic: mountain Hint is to draw to it all the drifting SimlhacTs afloat, on the political ocean. To those who are able to take a sane review of "the situation, it would seem that Captain Russell, with his compact following of fifteen, would form a much better' and more powerful, nucleus for i that desideratum, an effective Parliamentary Opposition. But the Conser-vative-Democratic organ! like the child crying,for. a .certain brand, of soap, will pot be happy till he gets a. New Liberal party; and so the country is threatened with a renewal of the political chaos which has in recent years accompanied . the existence of a corner party in the House/of - ■ Representatives. ; It may safely be predicted,’however, that the new Adullamites will be only three in number;, for Mr,James Allen, with all his' limitations’,'.is .too ■ loyal and, sincere to desert his legitimate leader and ally liimself with’ men with ' whom he has no sort : of sympathy, personal..dr political. In vain is the share spread in the sight ,of the' bird; and not even the tempting oiler, of r the leadership of the New Liberals will bring the member for ’Bruce into the trap prepared by the organs of,; sham. Democracy.'