THE REFORM LEAGUE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12790, 15 June 1912, Page 7

THE REFORM LEAGUE.

(Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. The 'first' annual general meeting of ..tke provincial council constituted under the scheme of organisation recently adopted by th© Auckland Political Reform League was held yesterday. Over 50 delegates were present, among them being the leader of the party j (Mr W. F. Massey), who, as president of the : League, preside 1. Mr Massey, speaking of the activities of the League, said that premises had been temporarily secured, for the reform' club which tho executive had decided to establish m. Auckland.' • A report upon the work of the past year was presented by the provincial executive. It contained a protest against statements that the reform party ,has losfi confidence m, its leader, and that if the party is to succeed politically it must find a new leader. -Statements, of this character, it was stated, were obviously inspired with the i:lea of belittling the reform movement, and the man who has fought so long and so courageously and at such tremendous odds for the great principles of. the party, but the executive desired to^ plac& on record its deliberate Opinion, which was also held by the sister leagues and branches throughout the Dominion, that there was, never a .period, m the history of the. reform party/.in Neiw Zealand . when its members were standing to- j g'e'ther with greater 'solidarity, and with greater confidence m their leader, than was ] tlie case at the present iay. (Applause.) Satisfaction was expressed at the amalgamation of those political organisations m Canterbury which had 'been working separately andapart from the New Zealand Political Reform League, but which have now united with the lieague. The report was unnnimously adopted. A series of remits from branches bf the League were considered. Upoq. the first of these the . conference unanimously affirmed its opinion, "That the time has arrived when, m view of the influences working m the opposite direction, all citizens of the Dominion having its . interest at heart, should co-opeirate to secure clean constitutional government of the Dominion's affairs." The references m the executive's report to Mr Massey were heirtily . endorsed by the conference. Several speakers, including members ,of Parliament, expressed the confidence an-i admiration with which the party and its supporters regarded Mr Massey, and the conference unanimously recorded its deep sense of obligation and its appreciation of tho valuable" services rendered to the community by the members of the -j reform party under the leadership of Mr Massy. Mr Massey said that the opponents of the reform party had attacked its policy, and had been beaten. Then at the general elections its attack upon the reform candidates had failed, and. later they realised that they had made a mistake m making a personal attack on himself. At present the friends of the Government were trying to engineer coali- ' tion, but the reform party . would not coalesce. (Applause.) The matter was discussed at a recent important and highly satisfactory meeting of the party m; "Wellington, and it was decided that no overtures towards coalition would be entertained. The Government party Was broken into fragments, a house divided against itself. The Ministry would find that it had only a minority of members vupporting it. (Applause.) The policy of the party m regard to land settlement wis endorsed by' the conference. It was resolved to urge the party to exhaust every constitutional method to secure the immediate opening of all idle Crown and native . lands for: settlement on the optional tenure ' Mr Massey said the aim of the party wns to .secure the settlement of ' every acre of Crown lands, and to provide the settlers with good road access. He explained that endowment lands were not included m that, category. I ; It was announced that a 'Dominion conference of the party, would be held m Wellington on July 27, and delegates were appointed to represent the council.