WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1920, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE LIBERAL PARTY. ITS NEW LEADER. (Special Correspondent.} Wellington, Sept. 22. Even among his personal friends there is a dispostiion to .take Mr, T. M. ;Wilford, the new leader of the Liberal Opposition, not quite seriously as a politician. They recognise his ability, his virility and his readiness, but they doubt his tenacity and his devotion to public affairs. Their scepticism is not altogether unnatural. Mr. Wilford, though 6till a young man as politicians go, having turned fifty only just the other day, has been in Parliament for twenty-four years, and during that time he has had to fight his way in 'an arduous and exacting profession which reserves its big prizes for the men who give it their undivided attention. The member for Hutt has not conformed to this condition, having served a large suburban constituency assiduously and occupied a seat for a term in the National Cabinet, but until now lie lias not pretended to make his service to the State the iirst call upon his time and energy. CONGENIAL WOBK. Now, however, circumstances, which are his own private concern, are enabling Mr. Wilford to devote himself to politics more closely than he ever has done before He is in daily attendance at the room allotted to the Leader of the Oppositiop in Parliament Buildings, busying himself with visitors and correspondence and attending to the hundred and one details that require the attention of a party leader, Here he is in his element. An indefatigable worker, quick and methodical, he covers an enormous amount of ground with little apparent effort, his professional training as well as his personal bent contributing this end, Since the days of Mr. Ballance there lias been no leader on either side of politics quite so business like in his methods. Mr. Wilford believes in letting each day bear its own burdens, neither worrying about the troubles of yesterday nor the difficulties of ito-morrow, and in practice this philosophy appears to work out uncommonly well. IN THE HOUSE. In the House Mr. Wilford already lias earned some kudos as a tactician. The surprises he sprang upon the Government last week when the railway estimates were under discussion were cleverly conceived and very admirably executed. To tie ou a division with a party that came back from the constituencies only eight or nine months ago boasting of an unassailable majority was a very palpable hit indeed and has done more to draw the scattered elements of the Opposition together than lias anything else that has happened since the general election. The Prime Minister attempted to make light of the incident, being himself a good fighter and a very excellent tactician, but the over zealous party newspapers have betrayed what they thought and felt about it bv belittling the Leader of the Opposition to the length of whittling his political following down to half a dozen, and his personal influence to the vanishing point. HIS POLICY. His long Parliamentary experience, while giving him knowledge and confidence, has purged Mr. Wilford of the vices of political youth. He still dreams dreams and sees visions, but he does not expect to realise them by the means that may have appealed to him a quarter of a century ago. He is above all things intensely practical. He does not talk of the equality of opportunity nor the equality of sacrifice, though he stands firmly to the principles expressed by these phrases; but he epitomises the whole range of practical reform in a broad application of the demand for a reduction in the cost of living. He is looking beyond the prices of sugar and butter and the scarcity of coal. He wants the elimination of waste from the public service, the insistence upon efficiency, the placing of the big burdens upon the broad shoulders, and the relief of the ''bottom dog," not only by lessening the cost of living, but also by making living itself more hopeful, mole inspiring and more of a service to humanity at large,