THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

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

THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

MR WILFORD AND FUSION.

LIBERAL PARTY'S APPROVAL.

(PBESS ASSOCIATION TELZGBAIO WELLINGTON, Juno 11. Asked by a reporter to-day as to whether his action in agreeing to a conference with the Reform Party had tho approval of his party, Mr T. M. Wilford replied:—"After Mr Massey's funeral parliamentary members of our party discussed the question of fusion, and unanimously authorised the executive of the party to agree to enter into preliminary negotiations if the question arose. The executive met and authorised me to negotiate terms for a conference, any decision arrived at by the conference having, of course, to be approved of by the party. In the arrangement I have made for a conference I am carrying out my party's wish." AN UNFORTUNATE STATEMENT. (special to "the press.") WELLINGTON, June tl. There was a good deal of comment and some resentment in tho city today in regard to the statement of Mr T M. Wilford in his reference at the Seddon statue yesterday morning to the Hon. Roderick McKenzie as "one of tho stalwarts who stood shouldor to shoulder with Mr Seddon in the fight against Conservatism, now represented in the present Reform Party, for the betterment of conditions of tho people, and for the uplifting of those who required assistance." The general opinion expressed in Reform circles is, that if Mr Wilford is in earnest and at all sincere in his desire to bring about a fusion of the principal parties in the House, that remark—if he is reported correctly—is by no means helpful. Reformers plainly state that they read into Mr Wilford's statement that in his mind, at least, the supposed Conservatism of 30 year 3 ago, which he gives Liberalism and the late Mr Seddon credit for rising up against, exists to-day as tho ideal of tho Refo?m Party.

LABOUR CAMPAIGN. MR HOLLAND AT OTAHUHU. (fbess association tbleorak.) AUCKLAND, June 11. The Leader of the Labour Party (Mr Holland) opened a Series of addresses in the Franklin electorate! at Otahuhu to-night. He said Labour was functioning in this campaign as the active Opposition to the Government of the day. As tho controversy had so far ranged round Labour's land policy, he Baid ho would dovote his time to that. Ho quoted figures to show that three principal evils menaced the occupation of the land at 1 present. They were: aggregation, the so-called freehold system,' which he described as a mortgage hold, and, thirdly, the constant changes in the ownership of land involving speculation. He then outlined Labour's remedies. ,

_Tlie Franklin by-election was only a preliminary skirmish.. to "the ' great battle between the forces, of progress and reaction. At the close of the year, the coming General Election would be the-most important in the annals of Now Zealand, not excepting that of 1890 when Ballance and Seddon triumphed over the forces of ; Conservatism. In the last ten years the Dominion had been going back as far as Democratic legislation was concerned. The Labour Party of 1925 was in the same position as the Liberal Parjjj of 1890. It was opposed by the same Conservative forces and the same progressive forces were behind it. The Labour Party was merely the vanguard reflecting the opinion of those people who held the progressive ideals of the early Liberals. It represented the organised workers of New Zealand. Labour was not begging for votes in this contest, but made a clarion call to every democratic thinker in the community. It demanded the support of all Democrats. Labour pledged itself that when it came into office it would write anew the laws of New Zealand, not in the narrow class interests of the last ten years, but in the interests of ©very man who rendered social service. It would build an industrial domocracy on the foundations laid by Ballance and Seddon in the days of New Zealand's greater past.