"HOPE OF GAIN."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1231, 13 September 1911, Page 5

"HOPE OF GAIN."

THE DEBASEMENT OF LIBERALISM STRIKING STATEMENT BY MB. FOWLDS. (Br Telegraph.—Special Correspondent.) Auckland, September 12. A remarkable statement was made by Mr. Fowlds la a "Star" rc)K>rter to-day. Ho said ho did not think that his withdrawal from tho Government will mean tho emergence of a new party, and added: "I hope that will not be necessary. What I should like to tec would be the reorganisation of the Liberal party on a moro democratic basis. The Government, or members of Parliament for the timo being, do not constitute the Liberal parly. The Liberal party is composed of . tho people holding Liberal principles both in and out of Parliament. You cannot brush aside the traditions and achievements of the Liberal party in New Zealand without a great and lasting loss to tho people of this country; but a party cannot live on traditions and uamo labels alone. "There is always a danger of a parly after long years of prosperity and dominance losing sight of its fundamental principles. It naturally attracts to its banner all sorts of people who hopo to gain something from the. party m power. Tho adhesion of people who aro attracted by a nope of gain instead of by tho love of its principles has always a paralysing effect on a party. Parties may even adhere to names, while they entirely reverse their principles." In connection with Mr. Fowlds's state, ment about the Liberal party "attracting to its banner all sorts of people who hopo to gain something from the party in power," it. may be of interest to recall n striking passage in a striking speech delivered bv Mr. Fowlds on February 2i last in Clii'istchurch at the "citizenship meeting" held in connection with the Methodist Church Conference: "Perhaps," ho said, "some of you might suggest that if looking to the State or to tho national Government to do every, thing for you is an evidence of the national spirit then we have been too successful in its cultivation. In Hint conclusion 1 would entirely agree with you. . . . Peoplo in this country have acquired a marvellous hallucination that everything tlicv can wring from tho coffers of tho State is paid for by somebody other than themselves. . . . Some peoples idea of local government reform seems to bo limited to what they call 'an assured linnnce,' and when yon inquire what they mean by 'assured finance, you find that-they mean.a steady stream of revenue drawn from tho coffers of the general Government."