TRANSPARENCIES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7961, 18 November 1911, Page 4

TRANSPARENCIES

“Tho Government should go out because it has been too long in office” is a statement we have heard often lately from the gentleman to whom the Opposition speech was handed at the beginning of the campaign. Made without supporting reasons it is merely another way of saying that the party in a minority thinks it should be given a majority. But if wo may judge by tho course of platform oratory there is no need for reasons. Duration is considered enough reason for condemnation. Why ? Because of—tendencies! Truly human nature is very fond of rescuing people from themselves for the benefit of other people. But does the theory stand any test of comparison? In the case of railwaymen, managers of banks, heads of departments of great establishments—do their directors ask for resignation on the ground that tho employee may become careless in the near future ? ■ Is the lawyer who has advised a family in the conduct of its affairs to be dismissed after a w'hile because ho has been an adviser too long ? In the case of a doctor, a gardener, or an engine-driver—must all these bo punished for the possibility of a tendency?' The theory is absurd. In some savage countries it used to be tho custom to put to death all individuals arriving at a certain age-limit. The practice was undoubtedly barbarous, but it was at all events honestly defended on the plea that room must bo made for other people. In the absence of any proof of wrongdoing, this candid confession would be very much better than tho pretence that a principle must be enforced in public affairs which is never enforced in any other walk of life. The pretence is an insult to the men to whom it is offered, for it presupposes them void of intelli geuce. A greater insult to intelligence than an unconcealed selfish raid on office for the control of public affairs for the benefit of private, ambitions can hardly be imagined. Against this spavined principle Liberalism has a record of service which speaks for itself. Tho Government of Sir Joseph Ward has handled the land question with a determination shown by the establishment of the renewable lease among tho tenures on which land is held in the Dominion, by reserving nine million acres as an endowment for education and old age, by the passing and the amendment of the Land Finance Act, and the two turns jfivdn to tho screw of graduation, to. getner with a plain announcement of further important measures. These are definite measures for tho settlement of people on tho land and for helping them in various ways when they get there. In this department of Ministerial duty there is no falling-off of activity, and the settlement effected has been maintained at the rate established by energetic predecessors. It is the first Government that has really gripped the native land question by dividing tho lands required by the natives from those not required and preparing for their settlement at as rapid fi rate as can be managed. And there is work outlined for the future

on progressive lines which in this department also proves the continuance of the energetic initiative. The electors know this. The Opposition knows it. Yet instead of combatting tho proposals of tho Government, instead of justifying Conservative policy and predictions, there is iteration and reiteration of the theory that, there should be change merely on the ground of time. . It is much too thin. Tho question at issue is not whether the Government should remain in office but whether the Liberal party should be superseded by Conservatives and national affairs controlled by the coterie whose main business in life has been to stand in tho way of progress and reform. Governments cannot be destroyed without first destroying a party and placing another party in tho dominant position. Is it to he said that because tho people have been strongly Liberal and Radical for twenty years they should now change their habit of thought and elect nominees of the party they spurned for a generation at tho polls? This proposition w r ould perhaps have somo relation to coherence if we saw an inversion of faith on the other side—if we heard of the great landowners in Hawke’s Bay and the Wairarapa joining the Federation of Labour, of Mr Buchanan standing as a Radical for Wellington East, of Dr Newman signing pledges at the Trades Hall. Butwo do not hear of these things. There is no suggestion of Time imperatively calling for change of policy in those quarters. It is Liberal electors who must repent, to tho Opposition is still left the privilege of clinging to ancient prejudices. This is too one. sided altogether.