WANTED-A CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1152, 13 June 1911, Page 6

WANTED-A CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT.

[By F. M. B. Fisher.]

LABOUR AND ITS LEADERS. PUPPETS OF THE MINISTRY.

I have just read in a Southland paper that Mr. Hanan, M.l'., says, on his return from Melbourne, that "there was tho warmest admiration in Australia for New Zealand's achievements in democratic and social progress." Here is one item of our progress. The last Year Book shows tho arrivals and departures from and to Australia as follow:— . From Australia .25, MS "To Australia" 28,995 New Zealand loss 3,147 To December 31 last the arrivals and departures from all'parts of the world were:— Arrivals 35,769 Departures 32,361 New Zealand gain 3,108 Of this gain 1000 were children. But there :Wore" 3990 assisted immigrants _in 1909. If the same number were assisted last ve.ir, then more than the whole of our increase is duo to. State-aided arrivals. The excess' of arrivals over departures since the Ward Government came into office is as follow: — To Dee.. 31. '. 1906 .12,848 1907 ' 5,730 1908 M.2GI 1909 I.™ ' 19 iO 3,408 'I'his is one sample of what Mr. Hanan, M.P., calls our "achievements in .democratic and social progress." The value of wool and meat exported, this year has beaten all records. Ministers ot the Crown assure us that, "everything in the garden is lovely." Yet the. people who are in it are clearing out, and the people who don't know New Zealand are coming in, manv of them only to move on when thev find out what they didn t know. And to make matters worse, poor people are coming in to replace men with money who are clearing out to Australia, where thev can get cheaper land, and freedom from the harassment of a Government which is everlastingly retting its; sails to catch votes. Not largo capitalists, but men with £10,000 and thereabouts are clearing out. Hard to prove, no doubt, but true, nevertheless. Will Mr. Hanan. or anybody else, answer this one simple question: Why is it that' the more' prosperous wo become, the more we borrow and the more we tax? Another: If A«ptralia admires our 'progress so much whv are more people leaving New /j-a .land for Australia than come the other wav' Every candidate throughout. New Zealand ought to be asked those questions. Mr. Hanan says that the Laboui leaders in Australia expressed a hopo that thev might be able to accomplish there what has bsen done in New Zealand. My interviews with Labour leaders drew forth entirely different views. I hey were astonished that New Zealand had no Labour party iu politics save those Tepresentatives who were professedly in sympathy with Labour and yet supported hir Joseph Ward, because they had not the courage to risk defeat in the interests of the party to which they , truly .belonged. Their view is a correct one. Mr. Millar and Mr. E, M'Kenzie are not and never were in agreement, with Sir Joseph Ward in politics, but' they are all in the same boat now, and, since-"office" is the centre pivot of Ministerial policy, why should either of them get out into the wet to oblige a party that has nothing to offer fhem but hard work, scope for courage and self-sacrifice, and the risk of defeat? Had Mr. Hanan sounded the right men, or bavins sounded them, correctly imparted to the public their summary of the position, ho would have had a very different story to tell.

At least twelve of the Ministerial M.F.'s here are, in .my judgment, straight-out Labour men, who are afraid to come from under the Government because of tho power which Ministers possess as against the party to which they truly belong. Mr. Hogg, Mr. Taylor, and Mr. M'Lareii make "no bones" about where they stand, but the others stand open-mouthed under the .plum tree. They are not altogether to'blame.- They-have become enmeshed in the' toils of a rotten system. Compare Mr. Hanan and Mr. A. 1!. Barclay. Tho latter, pluekily, but foolishly from a Machiavellian standpoint, jumped out into the wet, where Mr. Millar and Mr. H. M'Kenzie and Mr. Hanan ought to.be. He had courage, but lacked discretion. Blind obedience, passive support—these are the passwords to success. Mr. Buddo knows. Ask him. Mr. Barclay despises the Government. ' The Government attempts, to crush Mr. Barclay." Meantime ■ tho-other Labour J nJembers' say: nothing, and hang 0n.,; A plutocrat, tho-Pre-mier, in harness with: a'.demagogue* like jMr. Millar, ,6iight to be able to pull .any. cart. So .the Labour mernbers sit on tho cart hoping?,sincerely that a wheel might any' day fall '-off, and so provide, them witli' employinent in a Government .with •which th-ey can.'liave no real . sympathv. The Labour; party in New' Zealand will never ■" make -headway, so long as. it has to'encounter a Government"that buys its natural (or unnatural, perhaps I should say) leaders,- finds billets for its organisers, and pacifies what is left by occasionally throwing clown some vestige of Labour policy which is necessary to keep them from howling. These are the methods of "social advancement" which Mr. Hanan declares the Australian Labourites hops to equal. Imagine our Ministry sitting on top of a box which contains the Lnbour party. Every time there is too..much noise or Ministers feel the pressure a. bit dangerous, they remove one or two of the more energetic "nuisances" (as ..they regard them), and put them into the Civil Ser.vicc, drop _in a little food to pacify', the remainder,' and remain sitting on (he box. That is why the Labour party is "bottled up" in New Zealand. You couldn't bottle uo any Andrew Fishers or "Billy Hughes'," or King O'MnHey's in that wav. The.v aro built nf different stuff. I wonder if Mr. Hanan met them. Tliev have principles, and fight for them. Even though one may entirely disagree -with their views, one must admit their courage and determination. They are not "afraid to .declare" where they,stand. They know !ww to distinguish humbug, from policy.. They are reaping the reward of courage. What Labour man in politics to-day . in New Zealand can make, such a claim ? I would rather see a genuine Labour party, with a platform . based on principles, in power to-dav than the nresent Administration. And so would Mr. Hanan. M.P.. if he would but speak nut. Now Zealand wants a new Administration, and wants it quickly. Any party thafc will break- the back of the party in power will render a national service, if it "nly remains in power for six months. The present party is exhausted and effete. It wants to be placed in noposition for its own good. as. well as the country's. The sooner this is recognised the better.