Liberal Dichards.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18406, 12 June 1925, Page 8

Liberal Dichards.

It has not been easy to know—in spite of Mr Wilford's assurances that he is the "accredited representative of the Liberals—who most correctly expresses the real temper and sentiment of the Party. One is obliged, therefore, to ignore no speech which may appear to help/to ari> understanding of the.Liberals' frame of mind, and accordingly we cannot ignore the remarks made by Mr B. McKenzie, who was a member of\tho Ward Cabinet, at the little ceremony in Wellington on the anniversary of the death of Mr K. J. Seddon.Mr McKenzie said that "Liberalism in "New Zealand would never be abol♦fished by any Party whatever," and nobody is likely to dispute this, which ia no more .than a statement that for-ward-seeking minds will always exist. But what Mr McKenzie moans. by "Liberalism" is evidently not what other 1 people capable of clear and unprejudiced thinking mean by it, for he went on to say that,"he felt confident "that a man would arise, as surely as "Mr Seddon arose in 1893, to revive "Liberalism, and restore the party'to "its former strength." "He had no "doubt," he added, "that ttie majority of those present that day would "do their utmost to bring that about." This is an attitude as simple and comprehensible as it is useless: Mr McKenzie and the. diehards of the old Party are hoping that some day, somehow, the wheels of Time will move backwards and the government of the country will onee more come into the hands of men holding the old title-deeds of the Party and hopeful of finding the country in tho same state of political development and at the same stage of political progress as it was in thirty years ago. It is idle to expect those who entertain this romantic hope to understand that its realisation is as impossible as the restoration of the financial,'commercial, and social conditions of ,1895, and we should certainly not attempt to free them from their illusion. But one would like to know whether it is 'with any expectation of restoring the old dynasty that the Liberals are

embracing the prospect of a fusion with the Keform Party. The old Liberal Party is as dead as anything can be, and it cannot be revived by any appeal to a past which has no interest for people whose minds are moving in the year 1925. No Heforaer is ia the least likely to care very greatly what vain fancies may lie at the back of the Liberals' minds at this time, but everyone who desires a good practical settlement of the political position will be a little dubious concerning the value of the Liberals in a fusion if they corns into it with any notion that Liberalism and the Liberal Party are one. Thsy are now so'far from being one that for a good many years the prime difficulty of the Liberal's has been their inability to present, to anyono looking for the essentials of Liberalism at its best and highest, a single distinguishing feature.

It may be thought that Mr McKenzie's speech was an anachronism hardly requiring serious notice, but it gains some significance from the fact that Mr Wilford referred to Mr McKenzio as "one of the stalwarts "who stood shoulder to shoulder with "Mr Sedd,on in the fight against Con "servatism now represented in the pres"ent Eeform Party for the betterment "of the conditions of the people and "fcr the uplifting of those who required assistance." If Mr Wilford has been correctly reported, and has really made this surprising use of the freedom which he may suppose has been given to him by his failure to obtain admission to the conference of the Parties, he must mean either that the Eeform Party is undemocratic and anti-social, or that it contains elements of which it must be purged by an. infusion of Liberal members. Both of these suggestions are absurd, and; the second is impertinent as well. Reformers do not feel that they are in need of Liberal missionaries to enlighten their' heathen darkness, and they do not want them. They wish all the rational men on the Liberal side to unite with them, forgetting imaginary differences and abandoning purely personal prejudices, in order to form a 3ingle representative Party. Tho Eeform Party can dp without fusion, but it desires the amalgamation of all the moderate men of progressive outlook, in Parliament and in the country, on a fair and rational; basis. We cannot hope for a satisfactory amalgamation, however, unless the diehardß and stalwarts of the Liberal Party arc persuaded by their fellow Liberals to stand aside.