IS MR. MASSEY A TORY?

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15978, 21 November 1919, Page 4

IS MR. MASSEY A TORY?

It requires a very heroic effort of the imagination indeed to believe that Mr Massey is other than a Tory at heart, though Eeform journals are endeavouring to persuade the electors that he is a true democrat with strong sympathies for the worker. "Where is the evidence on the Statute Book of his democratic leanings? He has had eight years to prove that he has repented of his past Tory attitude, but it does not require a telescope to discover that the taint of the old leaven remains. Cabinet Ministers and members must be judged %y their past performances, and not by more or less unreliable promises for the future. And what is the history of Mr Massey, and his colleagues, and their attitude towards legislation passed by the Liberal Party? The Liberals wiped out the property qualification for a vote: the Reform or Tory Party fought tooth and

nail to retain it. The Liberals gave tho country one-man-one-vote, and did so only by the most strenuous fighting against the Reform Party. The Liborals, still lighting as they have always had to light, against the Party now in office, gave New Zealand triennial Parliaments. The Liberals gave the country old age pensions, and Mr Massev and his colleagues fought all they kneiL to prevent this being done. The Li* erals gave the country the Advances to .Settlers Act and the Advances to Workers Act. The Reform Party opposed it tooth and nail, and among others of its bright lights, Mr Massey derided it and 'ought it as an attempt to create a State pawnshop/' In fact, all the measures designed for the uplift of tho masses were opposed by Mr Massev and lus friends, because they were regarded by these Tories as experimental legislation of the worst kind? If. then" Mr Massey has changed his views. j( would be interesting to know what solid proof there is of such? What industrial measures, for instance, has he passed during •tho past eight years that could possibly compare with the record of Ju'« J iberai predecessors in office? We await" a it* piy-