The Dominion. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1911. A FRANK CONFESSION.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1063, 28 February 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1911. A FRANK CONFESSION.

In another column we print some extracts from a speech delivered in Christchurch on Friday last at a "citizenship meeting" arranged in connection with the Methodist Church Conference. We reprint these extracts, not solely for tho wisdom of the sentiments expressed, but because they seem to us to contain somo very important lessons for tho New Zealand public. Tho first thing to bo said of them is that they must lead ajl reflective persons straight to a conclusion that amounts to a damning indictment of tho Government of which Mr. Fowlds is a member, namely, that with its eyes open, quite conscious of what it is doing, the . Government has for years bciyi bending its energies to the performance of certain actions, and to tho cultivation of a certain public opinion, which it knows to be illimit- ! ably injurious to tho truo welfare of the nation. The frankness of Mr. Fowlds was as refreshing as it was unexpected. ."Perhaps,"', he said, "soms of "you. might suggest that if looking to tho Stato or to tho national Government to do everything for you is an evidence of the national i spirit then wo have been too successful m its cultivation. In'that' conclusion I would entirely agree with yon. ... .People in this country have acquired a marvellous hallucin- ' ation that everything they can wring from the, coffers of the State is paid for by Eomcbody other than tnom-i selves; . . . Somo pcoplo's idea of local government reform seems to be limited to what they call 'an assured finance,' and when you inquire more fully what they mean , by 'assured finance, , you find that they mean, a steady stream of • revenue drawn from the.coffers of the general Government.',' This is the opinion, of course, of all thoughtful men in tho community; it is founded on a truth that has been insisted upon by the wisest men of all ages; but it is,an opinion that twenty years of opportunist government has done its best in this country to bring into disrepute. What is the policy constantly advocated in The Dominion and frequently endorsed by somo of our contemporaries but an insistence that it is an "hallucination that everything people can wring from tho coffars of the State is paid for by soraebody_ other than themselves" 1 Yet that criticism is constantly attacked by tho Prime Minister and his allies as tho ravings of unpatriotic dotardsi Does a week ever pass without a furious outburst from the.political friends of Mr. Fowlds against tho man or the newspaper who expresses contempt for the system of district, spoon-feeding that Mr. Fowlds has so well condemned ] Has there been a week during the past recess that has not-seen Sir Joseph Waiid oncouraging somo district or other to lean still more heavily, upon the State? Has thcro at any timo during tho past dozen years boon a relaxation of tho Government's policy, of training tho community to come hat-in-hand to»tho Ministerial dispensers of the charity that, Mr. Fowlds now, admits, has sapped tha vigour and the self:ro.li'inco of tho community? What gives a special point to.Mn. Fowlds's statement 'of tho evils of Stato paternalism is the speech delivered by Dr. Findlay at Whangarci on Saturday week. The real significance of tho sharp conflict between tho observations of the two Ministers is in the fact that Dn. Fijtdlay, professing to bo an educated man, and a high-minded statesman, flagrantly denied the simple facts that Mn. Fowlds was Imablo to conceal. The Whangarei speech was nothing but an elaborate incitement to tho public to depend on the btate for everything. Tho "charter of Liberalism,". Dr. Findlay said,' could bo summed up as follows:, Lot tho Stato as far as, practicable supply all willing hands in town and country ,at cost price with tho economic conditions requisite to thoir working out their best material and moral wcll-boing: place no brake or bar upon individual effort, but free it. by providing where necessary the tools, bo they land, capital, power, or transport, for their employment," This is exactly 'the policy, as Mr. Fowlds indicates, .that not only places brakes and bars upon individual effort, but Weakens and ultimately destroys it. Mr. '■■ Fowlds ■iys that already tho State has gone too far: Dr. Findlay says it must go still further. • AH tho .witnesses' of any weight are'on Mr. Fowlds's side, as Dr. Findlay would discover if he were to read a little.for himself. He lectured a little time ago on Liberty, and amongst tho disjecta membra of dead writers that bestrewed tho desert of his oratory were somo oddly misapplied bits from Mill. ;If ho reads Mill's Liberty to tho end ho will find that tho following aro " the "concluding sentences:

Tho worth' of a Slate, in tho long run, is tbo worth of tho individuals composing, it; and a State,which postpones tho interests of their mental expansion and .elevation to a littlo more of administrative skill, or of that semblance of it which prnctico gives/in tho details of, businessja Stuto which dwarfs its inen, in order thatthey may bo moro docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes— will'find that with small men no great thing can really bo accomplished.

This is a truth that no statesman or philosopher whoso opinion is valued by mankind has ever disputed. In his , heart, .of course, Dr. Findlay biows that it is the truth; he knows that what he said at Whangarei was rubbish, and rubbish of an evil tendency. For the fact so well stated by Mill, and; r'e-stated in his own way by Mr.. Fowlds, is one that no intelligent person could fail to perceive on a.littlo reflection.

In tho meantime, what a spcctaclo the Government presents! For years it has been-bending all its energies to the debasement of the people, and the extinguishment of the sclf-rc-lianco nnd independence that are tho bases of hoalthy national life, shamelessly wasting the public money in special tours of incitation to ' the people to lean more heavily ,upon tho State, multiplying the dependents upon tho State's bounty, openly inviting the various localities to state thoir wants. And why? That it may remain in office. Again, why? For the benefit of the friends and relatives of a little group of wirepullers. Ajthough wo feel sure that the public is better acquainted now, and becoming every day still better acquainted, with the real character of tho Government, there must be many thousands of innocent, ignorant pooplo to whom Mb, Fowldb .will appear at a renegade from tho

cause of "Liberalism." He need not bo surprised if he is even accused of coquetting with Mr. Massey. Nor, wo feel bound to sny, would ho bo too severely punished if lie were forced into private life through the displeasure of the very products of the system maintained by tho Government of which he is a member. For tho present, the public owes him a thbt of gratitude for having so promptly followed up Dr. Fixdlay's speech with a convincing proof that tho high professions of his colleagues are noxious humbug. How he can reconcile his real convictions with his membership of a Government vitally opposed to those convictions is a problem that he must solve for himself. • ■