Liberal-Labor Rally

NZ Truth, 15 March 1924, Page 6

Liberal-Labor Rally

» " — Wilford m Auckland. (From VTruth's" Auckland Rep.) Tom Wilford got a warm and enthusiastic reception when he ran up to Auckland last week-end to attend a Liberal -Labor rally, and his welcome was m marked contrast to the lukewarm manner m which the Massey contingent received their chief on his return from settling Baldwin. There has been a spontaneous revival among the old-time Seddonians m the northern city, and many wanderers and luke-warm followers are now infected with the cheer germs and, are flocking round the old standard with new recruits. For m spite of the outward appearance of progress ,and prosperity, business is quiet m the Queen City, money is scarce (especially Governinept advances), bank managers are brutally blunt to clamorous clients, tho Civil Servants are talking stoush, taxation has reached a crushing limit, hundreds rush every job advertised, houses are unprocurable, families are crowding into slums and alleged flats, the H.C.L. Is heightening dally, and it looks like a hard winter m the winterless north. Workejs and business men alike realise that a change Is called fdJr— and P.D.Q. It is all very well for Old Bill to sing "Wait Till the Clouds Roll By," and advise people meantime to live within their means. That's mean advice to a man looking for work or a business man wondering whether he Will end the moratorium m the crematorium. Reform has reneged on all its promises and the Reds are too promising altogether, so Tom Wilford was doubly welcome with his breezy and blunt commonsense talk to the common people. Arrangements are being made for a big rally of the Liberal-La-bor forces after Easter m the Town Hall, and then the local organisations going to carry the war into the country to tell the farmers an other country workers the truth. It is hoped to cover every district and get men like Veitch, Forbes, Ngata, and others with a punch, to thump home spme plain fact* and prove that m relying on Reform for their political salvation, and Massey as the only Safe Man for Stable Government, they have trusted to a broken reed and a Cabinet with the foresight of a Pukekohe 'ostrich and the backbone of a Waikato whitebait. Tho Reds have been stumping the country districts clad m rosy pink cloaks, kidding to the cockies with crude and half-baked Karl Marx mush, and a lot' of noisy nostrums which mean nothing whon put through the mental digester. The Labor, M.P.'s have concentrated their gift of vituperation upon the Liberal and . Independent Labor members, and Fat has been left to stew m his own Reform juice. The Deform Ministers have nlso been joy-riding the country and desperately hitting the old drum with deputations ahd banquets, but the fiery eloquence of Dick Bollard, Anderson, and Parr have left the multitude unmoved. Both Deform and the. Reds have taken up the attitude of Superior Persons who will give the people what the S.P.s consider good for them, but the Liberal-Labor campaigners will give the people what they want — and that is the true Democratic principle. Deform sees the writing on the wall and Its unmistakable notice to quit*, and In despair is anxious to dump Old Bill overboard and shove Gordon Coates at the helm, In the hopes that another Liberal rat or two may be stampeded Into* a new Deformed administration and save the sinking ship. But Old Bill has no intention of walking the plank and doing the Jonah stynt, although even Jonah, proved to the whale that you can't keep a good man down. Bill has become no obsessed with a blown-out idea of his essential Importance, and so bloated with unbridled power, that he imagines his political end would be the finish of N.Z. In that matter poor old Bill ls m for a rude, awakening, even before Parliament meets — and he ia side-stepping that till the latest possible moment, trusting Mlcawberlike that something will turn up to save his show down. L „ ." ' ,'■„■'. . ,1 , '