THE END IN SIGHT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19033, 10 June 1924, Page 4

THE END IN SIGHT

When Mr. Wilford and his friends of the Liberal-Labour Party met in Wellington shortly after his return from the Far East, they made the astonishing discovery that the Reform Party was ‘ ‘ a spent force ” in the country and that a wave of reaction was setting in which promised to submerge Mr. Massey and his followers under the advancing wave of Liberalism. That discovery, which appears to have been made as the result of what a Dunedin paper termed “important and exclusive information,” prompted the member for Wanganui to hail Mr. Wilford as the coming Premier of New Zealand. Whether the member for Hutt will ever attain that position remains to be seen. Labour will most certainly dispute his claim to the Premiership, and it is generally coming to be recognised that it will here, as it was in the last British Parliament, become the official Opposition, with the Liberals as the third minority party. It must be more than a little disconcerting to the “die-hards” of the old Liberal school to find that, wherever he has travelled since his return to the Dominion, the Big Chief of the Reform Party has been received with open arms and accorded civic and other receptions by enthusiastic crowds eager to show their appreciation of the forceful character, tireless labours, and clean-handed statesmanship of the strong man who has, for nearly twelve years now, been at the head of our national affairs, and who has piloted the good Ship of State so ably and well through the perilous days of the Great War and the scarcely less troubled days of reconstruction and financial crisis. Just when Mr. Wilford and his associates invented their fiction of the “spent force,” the Mercantile Gazette was saying: “Liberalism has ceased in England, as here, to be a vital political force—its total extinguishment cannot be long delayed, and the sooner the time comes that this is recognised in the Motherland, and with us, the better.” Of what avail, then, these barren pre-scssional utterances when, as has been well said, “ all the flamboyant talk about the great revival of Liberalism in this country is mere camouflage designed to impress the growing section of Libferal supporters who are turning their faces Labour-wards. Whatever happened at the next general election, whether that comes early or late, the disgruntled politicians who follow Mr. Wilford’s lead are almost certain to rank least in "favour with the electors. I That is admitted by the more reason-ably-minded Liberals who are not as-

pirants for office, nor looking forward to receive preferment at the hands of the« Liberal leaders. ” The fusion of the two moderate parties may be nearer than most people think; but, if so, then there is nothing surer than that its coming will be marked by the exclusion of the little coterie of disgruntled “die hards” whose eyes are now hopelessly turned towards the Treasury benches. For them the promised land must ever be afar off. As politicians their end is in sight.