The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1913. AFTER SEVEN YEARS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8331, 17 January 1913, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1913. AFTER SEVEN YEARS

The British Liberal Government has commenced its eighth year of office. That may seem a moderate thing to people in New Zealand, where the Liberals enjoyed an uninterrupted run of twenty-one years, but the record at Home is nevertheless a noteworthy one, from many points of view. In the first place, as the “Westminster Gazette” pointa out, it is actually forty-six years since a Liberal Government held office tor so long a period without a break. The Ministry of Lord Palmerston was formed in June, 1869, and after Palmerston’s death in the autumn of 1860 was carried on by Lord Bussell»and Mr Gladstone until June, 1866, lasting just a few days more than seven years. The only other instance in recent years of one party remaining in power for a longer period than this is supplied by .the last Conservative Government, which, first under Lord Salisbury and then under Mr Balfour, held office from the middle of 1895 to near the end of 1905, or just under ten and a half years. There were, however, some exceptional circumstances operating. The general election of 1900 was taken when the public mind was excited by war, a situation manifestly favourable to the side in office at the moment, since the patriotism of the people as a whole is, happily, superior to party political feeling. Then the reconstruction following the launching of Mr Chamberlain’s fiscal policy in 1903 made the Government almost a new one, though, of course, still antiLiberal. The Liberal Ministry of today, on the other hand, is, in the essential points of policy and agreement, practically the Ministry of 1905. There have been very many changes in the personnel, it is true, hut the continuity of aims and ambitions has been preserved with a splendid, steadfast adherence to principle.

And how great are the achievements of seven short years I How completely have tho predictions of the Conservatives been falsified I "When the late Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman formed his team in 1905 Mr Joseph Chamberlain said they would last “just long enough to bo hissed off the stage.” Tho Liberals decided to immediately “put it to the touch.” They went to the country as soon as they were sworn in, and asked for an expression of public confidence. Full of hope as the Liberals no doubt were, they could hardly have anticipated the complete dramatic victory that awaited them at the polls. On the first day of the elections Mr Balfour himself was unseated by a light-weight novice, and the ensuing days were very dark ones

from the Tory viewpoint. The Liberals obtained a huge majority over all other parties combined. The election was, indeed, a Tory debacle. _ Then commenced a period of legislative activity unparalleled in the history ol the Mother of Parliaments. Great questions of social reform long over-ripe ripe for discussion, soon assumed practical shape under the stimulus of a strong party entrusted by the constituencies with high responsibilities and definite instructions. One of the first important acts of the Liberals was to undo the work of their predecessors in allowing the Transvaal mines to be filled with cheap Chinese labour. The mam feature of 1907 was the passing of a comprehensive Education Bill by the House of Commons and its destruction by the House of Lords. This event renewed the agitation for curbing the power of the peers, and when in 1909 the House of Lords took tho course of rejecting tho Budget the feelings of all but crusted Tories were outraged beyond endurance. The principal pretext given for the unusual interference by tho peers in the domain of finance was that the Budget policy had not been approved by tho country. Tho Liberals accepted the challange. They asked the electors to endorse the Budget. The, people responded, giving the Government party, including Nationalists and Labourites, over a hundred more seats than the Conservatives. Tho death of King Edward in May, 1910, caused a cessation of active hostilities between the two branches of the Legislature, and an attempt was made to assist King George on the threshold of his reign by referring the constitutional difficulties to a conference. As everybody knows, and as most people expected, tho elements in the conference proved too conflicting and unyielding. The scheme proved abortive, public announcement of that fact being made in November. Then the battlo entered on the final stage. Mr Asquith (who had succeeded to the Premiership on tho death of Sir H. C. Bannerman) obtained a dissolution, and: invited- the constituencies to declare that tho peers must bo shorn of their newer of veto That election (in December, 1910) sent the Liberals back with their position unshaken. Notwithstanding the gravity of the situation, the enormous change in the constitution which the verdict of tho electors involved, the solemn warnings of the Tories against the “single chamber system,” the desperate fighting and scandalous misrepresentation the Liberals were called upon to meet, Mr' Asquith emerged with precisely the same preponderance of power that had been bestowed upon him and his colleagues in respect of the Budget. Their teeth drawn and their last argument shattered, the peers at last allowed tho hated Budget of the equally hated Mr Lloyd George to pass without a division 1 Thus was the democracy saved.

To carry out the provisions of the Budget a great inventory of landed wealth is now being officially taken. When the valuations are complete there will most certainly be proposed land legislation of a drastic character, designed to unlock the land to the people of the nation, who are its real owners, and arrest that flow of population from country to city !wMci» makes, in England and in many other countries, the chief problem of the time. In the meantime, while the data essential to a statesmanlike land policy are in coarse of preparation, the Liberal Government and party have been active in the very wide field of social reform. Old ago pensions, the dream of a generation, have been established. A colossal scheme of social providence has been put into operation. Self-government for Ireland is almost within sight, since the hitherto insuperable barrier of the Lords’ veto is no longer.* Tho long-promised measure to disestablish the Welsh Church may be expected to pass the House of Commons within a brief time. In the wider sphere of external affairs, tho constitution granted to South Africa uniting the territorial and racial divisions under the British flag in that important part of our Empire—geographically and otherwise—will always stand to the credit of the present Liberal Ministry as one of tho most wonderful evidences of constructive statesmanship that the history ol the world affords. Pensions, insurance, Home Rule, Budget, defeat of the peers, and all the rest —there is here a truly amazing total of accomplishment in so short a _ time and against such a mass of privilege and prejudice as has been faced. Need giants do more? Yes. There arc many, many wrongs yet to be righted, social evils of all descriptions to be grappled with. The real era of good democratic government in the United Kingdom is only just beginning. With the Liberals opening their eighth year of office, the Conservatives seem to be becoming almost daily more disunited. All their opposition has prevailed nothing against the strong phalanx of progressive thought backing the Government. To-day the Tory leaders are desperately trying to fake up some sort of agreement as to a policy of tariff reform. They have been trying to do so for almost the last ten years. Perhaps that is well. Perhaps n serves to keep them out of mischief in other directions.