THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1913. THE SAD CASE OF THE OPPOSITION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15858, 2 September 1913, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1913. THE SAD CASE OF THE OPPOSITION.

It has been reserved for Sir John Findlay, in a series of articles that is being contributed by him to the New Zealand Times, to describe in the plainest terms the condition of confusion and chaos into which the party, eelf-fityled the Liberal party, has sunk in New Zealand. The value of the testimony he offers on the subject is indisputable. He is one of the ornaments of the party; he has been closely associated with its fortunes and its misfortunes for several years past; he is intimately acquainted with its inner his-, tory. It cannot bo fairly alleged against tho picture he paints of its position that it is over-coloured or exaggerated. He knows whereof ho writes. The public may, therefore, accept it as a. faithful statement of the facts when it is told by Sir John Findlay that, "the party presents to-day to every one of its friends a spectacle painfully diagnostic of its present plight, and fate fully prophetic of its future existence." And his declaration that, in his judgment, the party " has indeed reached a crisis in which it must either soon totter down to extinction or i emerge revitalised by a closer view, a

more courageous grasp, and a reawakened love of the great principles upon which true Liberalism is based'' may be received by the community as a sober, deliberate expression of his convictions upon the point. This is sufficiently doleful,' but worse Temains behind. Sir John, Findlay confesses that to him "it is pitifully clear that the principles of true liberty upon "which Liberalism has slowly been built, up a.re in danger of becoming obscured or forgotten, and as a driving force are in daalger of losing much of their former power and influence. And this decline," he goes on to say with perfect franknes, "is due not meTely to a lack of clearness of vision and of energy on the part of Liberals, but also to a. certain want of sincere and iervent faith in those principles themselves." This being so, he proceeds to address to the party solemn words of admonition: "If the Liberal party is to survive"—the "if" may perhaps ho regarded as, in, Sir John Findlay's own words; "fatefully prophetic of its future existence "—"it mu6t no longer dwell in the valley of indecision, timidity, and opportunism. It must display that measure of audacity and zeal, by which alone it can travel far and willingly along the difficult—it may be the hazardouspath of j democratic progress." In particular "it must abandon stale shibboleths anil soporific platitudes., arouse itself from the self-complacent reveiie over past achievements, take the field, 6word in hand, and become again a living gospel sincerely held and fervently promoted" This is, it must be acknowledged, somewhat involved and not a little vague, but Sir John Findlay becomes more definite when, after warning his friends that they must not let their zeal be chilled or frozen by doubts, misgivings, and difficulties, he writes: " They must approach the taxation of land values not with a delicate glove of velvet, but with 6pear and buckler, and with determination in their hearts. They must be in deadly earnest, not in halting hesitation in forcing the subdivision of the great estates which now leave so maay willing settlers landless. They must handle monopolies with a gra6p of iron; and in dealing with these' and many other problems of equally urgentimportance pay no heed "to idle shouts of sanctity of contract, confiscation, or the bogey of stampeding capital." Incidentally, it may be remarked that the latest suggestion of " stampeding capital" came from Sir Joseph Weird himself, the statesman to whom the leadership of the party about' the condition of which Sir John Findlay is so gravely concerned, is at the present time under offer. It was, in fact, only last week that Sir Joseph Ward declared that in certain circumstances—if the policy of a local navy were adopted by -Jew Zealand—he was himself one of many men of large interests in the dominion who would at once realise their estates and' leave the country. That is, however, by the way. Sir John Findlay regards the 'cry of "stampeding capital" as a bogey. He may be right or he may be wrong. What is material is that he invites the party to which he belongs to disregard, in this period of tragedy amd crisis, any pteafe that may be hased upon the sanctity of contracts and not to be deterred from adopting a policy that may be condemned ag confiscatory. He lias- not completely developed, in the articles that have reached us, the programme which ht presses upon the party for its consideration and acceptance! Possibly, however, there is no need for him to proceed further. There is already a party 'rn existence in the dominion that is prepared to advocate the policy he favours. Mr Edward Tregear, president of the Social Democratic party, the political wing of the 'Red" Federation, has hastened to hail Sir John Findlay as a friend and brother. "The points he speaks of," Mr Tregear assures him in a letter in the New Zealand Times, "as being absolute necessities for the future of Liberalism are already contained in the programme and principles of the Social Democratic party." Mr Tregear adds: "When the Liberals adopt Sir John's bold policy there will he no division or demarcation between them and the Social Democrats, so they might as well join us straight away and get to "useful w6rk in a strong organisation," It seems likely enough that it is to absorption by the extreme Socialists that the remnant of the once powerful party of which Sir John Findlay was a leading spirit is drifting.