THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3040, 19 June 1912, Page 88

THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

By J. MacGregou.

" THE INDEPENDENT."

" . . . when occasions rise, Life-long convictions to extemporise'' After twenty years of office the Liberal Government has been broken up. • The successor of Ballance and Seddon in the leadership of the party has been relegated to the position 'of a private member, whilst his successor in the Premiership holds that office, not as leader of the Liberal party, nor by virtue of a vote of the Houoe, but sg the nominee of a caucus acting at the dictation of an insignificant group of three new Labour members pledged to vote against the Ward Government. •Of the new Ministers Mr Mackenzie, the Premier, is the only ono who has ever been a Minister before. The fact that a Ministry so constituted and foisted upon the country in such a manner should be placed in charge of its affairs, even for a day, is sorely a remarkable outcome of our irrational party system. Another of the surprises of the situation is the fact that that member of the Ward Government wno was commonly regarded as certain of the succession to the Premiership is, like his former chief, simply a private member, for whom there seems at present to be no future in political life except as a member either of a Massey-Millar or of a Millar-Massey Government. But the greatest surprise of an amazing situation is the fact that Mr Mackenzie is Prime Minister. The fact remains, however, that one who, on his being chosen by Sir Joseph Ward to fill a vacancy in the Cabinet, was generally regarded by members of the party as too conservative for membership of a Liberal Ministry, is now the head of the most " Socialistic " Government New Zealand has ever had.

A glance at the leading incidents in Mr Mackenzie's political career may serve to give the new generation of voters some insight into the course and trend of New Zealand politics. Mr Mackenzie first stood for Parliament in 1887; he was successful in his first candidature, and has never been defeated, although he has had the misfortune to have his electorates abolished three times. His first candidature was for the Clfftha, and he stood as an Independent. Whereever the system of party Government pre. vails. " Independents'' are regarded with distrust by party leaders, just because they cannot be depended upon, and they are looked upon with suspicion by the electors, who have not failed to observe that " Independents " as a rule show a weakness for the winning side, a fact which has led to " Independence '' being treated as a euphemism for what is vulgarly called rail-sitting; and it must be admitted that experience has justified the suspicion. As a rule, it is only tiros in politics that profess to play the part of Independents, and they are not long in discovering that, under our cursed system of party government, it is practically impossible to maintain such an attitude. At the election of 1887 the Liberal Government was defeated, and during his first Parliament Mr Mackenzie seems to have given a general support to the " Conservative" Atkinson Government. At the election- of 1890 he stood as an out-and-out supporter of Major Atkinson, who was, however, defeated by Mr Ballance, and Mr Mackenzie became very pronounced in his opposition to the Liberal Ballanoe Government. The new recruit to the " Conservative " ranks was evidently regarded as a promising subject, for in 1891, on the occasion of a banquet at Balclutha, Sir John Hall, Mr Rolleston, and Mr Scobie Mackenzie did him the honour of attending and spoke of him in highly flattering terms. In his speech on that occasion Mr Mackenzie denounced the Liberal party as " humbugs throughout,'' and declared that " the true Liberals of the House were to be found on the 6ide he was on," —just the sort of claim that Mr Massey is in the habit of making on behalf of the same party, but with much better reason. The greatest achievement of the Liberal party under Mr Ballance was the abolition ot the property tax and the introduction of the land arid income tax and of this important reform Mr Mackenzie was one of the most uncompromising opponents. After an absence of some years, during which his party dwelt in the cool shades of opposition, Mr Mackenzie returned to New Zealand, and again got elected to Parliament. Mr Seddon was then at the height of his power and prestige, and the party with which Mr Mackenzie had been associated was apparently doomed to be " for ever climbing up the climbing wave." It was sitill carrying on " the fight for the highest principle* of liberty,'' p,s ii had done, according to Mr Mackenzie under Major Atkinson. The gallant defenders of the citadel were in sore straits, and were much in need of help, but. instead of donning his armour and joining in the fray, the champion of Liberty was content to look on from the serene and lonely height of " Independent." We have hi« own word for it that he greatly admired the gallant little band, for in an address to his constituents some time later he said :—" I saw a band of splendid men called the Opposition, and styled by some people as the " Conservatives " of this country, earnestly devoting themselves to forwarding, according to their views, the best interests of the Dominion.'' The temptation to descend into the arena to the help of that " band of splendid men," fighting for the cause he had so much at heart, must have been very great; but he managed to withstand it, and down to the end of 1907 he held himself aloof, and then—took the other side, joined the paTty he had described as " humbugs throughout," and within a few months found himself a Minister of the Crown, His conversion was so sudden and unexpected that Mr Mackenzie deemed it necessary to give some explana-

ti-on, and in an " interview. '' published in the Otago Daily Times on 19th December. 190/. he said :—" In view of the change that has come over public affairs I intend to support Sir Joseph Ward, and to encourage him in doing good work for the people of this Dominion. I cannot refrain from expressing the opinion that, unless at this juncture other public men should see their • way to do likewise, it will, I fear, require no gift of second sight to foresee into whose hands the balance of power in this country will fall." In an addrees to his constituents dehvered a few weeks later Mr Mackenzie, referring to the last sentence quoted above from his interview, explained that his reference was to "the Socialistic movement now so active in New Zealand," and he added (quoting from the Christchurch Press) that "those, who are opposed to Socialism will make a -great mistake if they treat it too lightly, and only wake up to what it really means when the country i<3 folded in its deadly embrace,'' and (quoting another paper) that "we must admire Sir Joseph's attitude in fighting Socialism."

Here, then, we have Mr Mackenzie's justification of his action—he wanted to help Sir Joseph Ward in the good work of "fighting Socialism." Although Mr Massey and his " band of splendid men called the Opposition " had been fighting Socialism all the time, it does not seem to have occurred to Mr Mackenzie to go to the assistance of his old party. Why? Can it have been just because they were the Opposition? One would be apt to conclude on reading Mr Mackenzie's justification to his constituents that Sir Joseph must have been making a very bold and determined fight against Socialism. Let us hark back to 1908 and see the then position. By that time the Socialist wing of the Liberal party had cast off its allegiance to Sir Joseph as the leader of the Liberal party, and, making a virtue of necessity, Sir Joseph plucked up sufficient courage to make a pronouncement as to the attitude of the Government. " Before stating what we are," said the Prime Minister, "let me emphatically declare what we are not; We are not Revolutionary Socialists. We are not ~o( any school of Revolutionary Socialism." Lfc cannot be said that this "pronouncement" amounted to much, since it still left Sir Joseph and his Government free to indulge in as much (Socialism, of the non-revolutonary and essentially more insidious and dangerous kind, as they might at any time find necessary for their party purposes. It appears, then, that Sir Joseph's " attitude in fighting Socialism " was not very pronounced, but Mr Mackenzie was astute enough to see that Sir Joseph's attitude was sufficient to furnish him with a pretext for once more quitting his position of " Independence " and alighting for the second time on what he evidently regarded as the winning side. There is little doubt that both Sir Joseph and Mr Mackenzie were at that time favourable to the formation, by " coalescence," of an antisocialistic democratic party such as was then being advocated by the present writer. How very little Sir Joseph's "pronouncement" meant, how very " thin " was Mr Mackenzie's excuse for allying himself with him instead of with the Opposition in order to fight Socialism, and how very facile are the political "convictions" of both "statesmen" we shall be able to judge bv their conduct since last election. But the pretext served Mi - Mackenzie's purpose, for it proved sufficient to enable him as the friend of the farmers to gammon them into the belief that he was actuated solely by zeal for their interests. In another article it will be shown how the Labour-Socialists made Mr Mackenzie Prime Minister in order that he might act as their decoy to lead the farmers into the socialistic fold.