THE ELECTIONS

NZ Truth, Issue 179, 21 November 1908, Page 1

THE ELECTIONS

/Wita the exception of 21 comtituencies, trhere that political labor-slaying abortion, the Second Ballot, has yet to decide the political fate of as many aspirants for fame, or place, and /its accompanying pay, New Zealand on Tuesday evening emerged from -the task 'of electing to Parliament a. number of patriots who lktely have been fervently declaring that the only interests they wished to conserve were those /of the people of the Dominion, all the While endeavoring; m a great many instances, to hide .the altogether too apparent fact that they sought to ensconce themselvesfor at least three years m a steady job worth £6' per TEeekj perks and pickings, a free railway pass, and what is last, but by iko; 'means least, the opportunity of, from PaJitttaicat. ever' keeping an eye on the mam .'nance, That the so-called Liberal Party. ' led by Joseph -Ward, ; would 7 toe returned, with a brutal majority VTxmtß:," m fact, everybody, anticip*patcd, tkpugh it ouinot but be denied; that were it n£t fcu the existence of the Seoond Ballot the Liberals would have, m a great ibaay constituencies, ..been relegated to political oblivion. Nor, can it m any wise l*e_. said that the ewe lambs following the belle wether Ward, have secured a triumphant victory. The -rejection of Minuter McNab, the defeat of -Mcssr* li*nt, 13ornsby, Symes, Gray and Major k, at teast, a vote of confidence m Joseph Ward, who must admit, or have i% t&mtoei tor him, that he is not a Dicdt S«44«n, and that sooner or later Jocepb Ward will find that the party ttrat Richard Seddon so successfully handled, will net be so docile under the leadership ,ef auch a tricky, smoothtongued politician of the Ward :.\<ai;ietyv . Maay ftxcwei hay« been -\ sought , . -, and , ofiered, n»t only for the rank and file tbat J^t th* dust, but for Minister for Lftudi MclUb's defeat. It has. been as- ■ oriboa to the land policy,. *to the, additional burdens on the farmers and the Alleged antsigpnism of the Ward .administration to dairy' farmers, etc. These are, fdr political reason, well timed and excellent excuses,' but the fact does seem to 60 lost Sight of ! that the Ward Government, so sure did it seem of its political footing^ ';. systematically, directly and indirectly, aimed at, and m many instances,,, succeeded m crippling "Labor. The Goye'rhment's attitude when the Mlaekbal l miners' strike took place, its attitude of inactivity and silence, for the time being, to enforce what was held to tie law against the miners* "showed that straight-put the Government; because of anJh>P r ° c hing election, feared \in open Sreach with Labor. "Truth" at the,- time, as it still does, applauded and upheld the strikers. The Government feared to put into operation what was held to be ia capitalistic quarters a' - just ' and equitable law between employer : arid employee, for the reason that it. knew at %kc time the Law was harsh' >and unconscionable, unjust and vexatiousi True, -Hie Union arid the strikers were fined. But the Ward 'Wvernment sought by an • amended Arbitration Act. t"6 so icripplc the worker who dared to assert his man- , hood, not by fair .meahs, but bythetfoul. ■uetbod of ' bittiiig the worker through his family. Trul^'ai Liberal irie'aMfe ttiis • The reason, therefore, is found- why^.i-'in -a ftjimber of electorates so far,: and proteibly there will be more next Tuesday, tho democracy' of the; people asserted it-, wif, and tbe only method 'bpeii Was to piinish th-j Government by the defeat of' rti followers and a Cabinet Minister. That The followers of the Government were riot defeated' by -'Luijor representatives is* to be deplored, hut "Labor-, i; we' my uiibssUtatirigl^ '■ is thorpuehly ■ disorganised • and illififcteri to take its place m the 'Parliainentiir v y chamber. Theretore, m a mimber^of constituencies, the electors have preferred > & straight-out Oppositionist, lsccoiise Labor was noti yet icady to assert itself:' Labor is at-' lorded numerous • lessons from the election*. ■■•>;: Far be it from "Truth" to decry t Lafedr c'r *o appjadd Mwssey and- his I follovers. In the absf-nce. the ' enforced ! absenc'? llirotji lack of' organisation; j of an IndeFcadant Labor Party -tliis p»i>;.'r is Attil has olways - been prepared to «ui»port a .Liberal,.-., adpiiniskation to Vbe wtent of forcing v from it such lc«ri*i*Hon ih« effect of; which ts to uplift liuinaiiit)', '' to ameliorate -„»nd .fctrcnit^n i-he cause of the worker ; and true draiocrati. Rather would this paper

And the Lessons They Afford.

pose as a candid friend than to give its undivided support to a so-called laiberal administration the head of Which has never and will , never be m true sympathy with jfche masses as' against the corrupt capitalistic cliques and class. Lithe last Parliament there were too many attempts to tinker with the liberty of the subject, the right of speech, the freedom of the Press, the inherent right of the individual to be judged by his own .countrymen, an altpgei&er too; fond a show of placating the unreasoning fanatic to suit a radical journal r of this sort, or a democracy, as we find it m the Dominion. How m the face of such ' shiftiness, such' paltry play at polities,, can, or could, the Ward ' Government help, tacing the country and coming . : thTough the ordeal with flying colors, and We must not and cannot forget tfcai Ihe ; object' of the Second Ballot Bill, so'i brutally rushed into active operation, was to. crucify Labor, as Labor everywhere Jias" been crucified. The Ward Government has been returned to power} but npt as strong as of y«re. Many supporters of the Government will riot consider themselves bound, as it were, - to give Joseph Ward the support that m the last Parliament was his to command. That there will inevitably be a split m the Liberal ranks seems certain. An augmented, though still weak r Conservative Opposition, a Liberal party divided against itself, and with strong Labor sympathies ,is certain to have the etoinently desirable effect of keeping Joseph Ward m check. Such checking effect, one can safely anticipate, will keep Joseph' Ward straight and. honest with the-work-er by whose votes he is entitled to retain , office, _ but whose yotefc, when properly,, organised and utilised for the fos-' tcring of an Independent Labor Party, ' riieans a good-bye from suave Joseph ana .his Ministry to the Treasury Benches. .? . • '. • „,_■; ,•, . ' •' - Altogether we find that the defeated! followers of the Ward Government are Messrs Izard, Hornsby, .A'. L.D.f. Eraser' Kidd, Byrnes, Chappie, Gray, Mc^Jaband 1 Major. In four cases the Opposition has* ousted the Government, . i& three in--, stances those returned ..- are Government supporters, while m the case of ,_ one, &', second, ballot , is to be: taken between .a Governmerit*»Supporter and a Masseyite. But what, is more startling, as far as is; .-.- concerned, m Wellington ■East the Government was decisively defeated, and the . issue to be dtecided at the second , ballot is between an a Vowed Oppositionist and an Independent Labor candidate. And it is here that "Truth." pauses, and though it has yet to ibid ;Mr McLaren worthy of his Labor steel, it congratulates the democracy of that : i constituenpy for the discriminating fight it Jmade m Javor of Labor as against the •Government. The temporary success, and 1 it is to be hoped, the ultimate success of Labor . m. East Wellington will be , the dawn /of' a new and great democratic i power>. m this Dominion- - What was accomplished m Wellington East can cer-: tainly be achieved .m a vast majority of electorates m New Zealand. The elections show and- point: conclusively that Labor is a power to be reckoned with, and to become the power that it can. it requires organisation; and that organisation sho~uld -, start now and- be incessantly maintained for. the next three years to come. Then will Labor assume the right that .be- 1 longs to .at. Then can Labor, if necessary, sell itself' to- the /highest .bidder and dictate to any Government, what its policy, so far as the worker is concerned, must be. There is no reason why m New Zealand Labor \ cannot bpcbme the power the Labor Party is . to-day m the; Australian Parliament. If .David McLaren is to become the pioneer of an Independent Labor Party we trust that his support will not be bought by a Government that practically Hves by the falsest of false pretences. Its claim to administrate for . New Zealand is based entirely on the vote of, a democracy that is essentially composed of the working class. The Liberal Government of New Zealand owes its political being to the j masses, whose interests have always been i betrayed The time must come— m fact, i is comingr-when the people's, representa-r tives m Parliament will be those whose lives have been spent among the workers, whose deeds will speak louder than words. The result of the election has manifested that a '-'dry rot" has set m against Joseph Ward and Cp : ,and the fact that none of the straight-out Oppositionists were defeated is an ominous sign, show-

ing, at . anyrate, that Ward, and Co. have not the unanimous, confidence of the country. It cannot be denied by Joseph Ward . that his Second Ballot Bill sought to strangle Labor, and the result -has been that the weapon of slaughter has recoiled on Ward. Next Tuesday's results, we anticipate, will certainly strengthen the party m power, but at the same tune no ( .doubt can exist that on the figures re•corded, the Opposition, too, will add to ,their present strength. • '■■••,. , • It is, of course, impossible to review the result of the elections without mak* ing some reference to the licensing poll. So far as can .be ascertained, UonUiniuance is carried m 21 electorates, while no i>ro.posal was made ■m 26 constituencies. Reduction was carried m 6 and Prohibition was- affirmed, m 8 constituencies and- reaffirmed m 6. That throughout New Zealand there has been ' a sentimental wave L none can deny, and the result of the poll> satisfactory as it may perhaps seem to the Prohibition brigands, is only, after all, a temporary success, because Reason will appea^ to the community when ; it perceives that Prohibition does not prohibit ; that It does not lessen drunkenness , but on the contrary, connives at) ,what everybody deplores, viz., the vice of secret drinking and drunkenness m the hom<jf The fight put up by the frenzied fanatics" was crowned with success m Wellington South and Suburbs, The Hufct, Masterton, Eden, Manulcau, Ohinemuri and Bruce, while Reduction was carried at Waitemata, Auckland City, Parnell, Chalfmers, Dunedin City and Taieri. In the former respectable and honest publicans, : have been ruined, and ip the latter category a mbnopoly has been created.^ The ;fight m N Nelson and Gisoorne was fruitless, and the part played by this paper 'm stemming the tide of sentimentalism is to us very satisfactory. We have vet to learn what' everlasting good has been accomplished ; we have also to learn whether social disorder, sly-grog sellling and hideous vice will not be the outcome of this silly sentimental wave. It is also to be foorne m mina that the even temporary success of the wowsers is but an m- 1 cerrtive to them to attempj to curtail the pleasures^ of the people. They will attempt to enforce m New Zealand the bluest of Blue Laws. They will attempt "to mate smoking a felony ; the theatres will tie closet! ; the Sabbath day will comntence from 12 noon" Saturday. They will aim at making non-atteu.daaice at the .Bethel a crime punishable by imprisonment and enforced attendance to their shekel-snaring concerns. To whistle will .earn a whipping. The thumb-screw, the rack, the stocks and the whipping-post, those relies oE a semHrarbarpus age will ►be enforced m a so-called age~-of Reason. What England . was m the tame, of the Commonwealth- what America or .New England was m its early days, what (Janada is fast hecoming, will Ite' : the fate of New Zealand to-day if the religious fana- . tie is not suppressed, and with a political opportunist like Joseph Ward at the helm, he can -be depended upon to placiate the blood-thirsty; frenzied fanatics, who, with a rancour and a bigotry unprecedented, wiil not hesitate to inaugurate a-Holy Crusade against Roman Catholics, -arid, incidentally, a Roman. Catholic Premier, wfro, as he has done before, will sink principle and men to retain a political prominence which he has held all along, free from savage sectarian cry, because he perceived that the best game to play was to give the fanatics whatsoj ever they desired, trusting, hoping', and praying the while for the arrival of that ! moment when popular feeling abhorrent /of, and' revulsive at, the presumption oi :the fanatics, would check them and relegate'them back to that sphere from '< which they have during the past twenty : years or more boldly emerged. x>or can it be forgotten that if these fanatics have their way without let or hindrance, a diabolical attempt will be made to suppress "Truth," bmt if there is to be a fight Eor the freedom of the Press, let the hosts advance. - A fight for the Liberty of the Press ' will 'tend to bring the people to their senses. . Summed up, the results of the Eleo' -tions and the Licensing Polls afford to Labor a number of lessons that it can with profit seriousHy heed. The need for active organisation, the strengthening of Trades Unionism, an ever watchfuleye on the Ward. Administration, must, when the next General Election takes place, find Labor strong and dauntless. Then can there be talk of and the realisation of an Independent Labor Party. Too often have the interests of Labor beea sacrificed to admit of further delay, and "Truth" here ' appeals to the electors of Wellington East to vote solidly for the Labor candidate as against a ranting canter of the K. A. Atkinson type. The success of an Independent Labor candidate will" be but the dawn of a new democratic era m Mew Zealand. It is inevitable that there shall spring up and be fostered a Labor Party free and untrammelled that will fittingly represent the democracy m Parliament. That Labor was so disorganised at tht . recent election is a crime, as we have before pointed out and the lesson taught should bear its fruit. As for the result of the Licensing poll, "Truth predicts i that ere .three years have sped by, public opinion will be more healthy, that Reason will ultimately prevail, and that the temporary success achieved will end m ghastly failure