The Dominion. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1912. THE COMING SESSION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1358, 8 February 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1912. THE COMING SESSION.

The only difference between the political situation to-day and the situation on the morning of December 15 is that we arc 55 days nearer to the disappearance of AVardism. The only material alteration in the state of parties has been the extinction of one of the "Liberal" minority's votes, namely, the vote of Mi;. m"'Cali-u_, of Wairau, who is the subject of a formally lodged petition against his election, and who is therefore morally debarred from voting as a member of the House. On the "Liberal" side there has been a succession of intrigues, hopes, despairs, hopes afresh, and again despairs. This was to be expected. No other British colony has ever before experienced a twenty-years' continuous dominance by one political faction under full democratic conditions, and it is pardonably hard for stupid people to realise, in such circumstances, that a change of Government can come about. We should not ba at all surprised if some of Sir Joseph Ward's colleagues are amongst these stupid people in their unwillingness to believe that the Warm Government is under notjee of dismissal. As we have said, however, thc fact that emerged into plain sight on December 15 still remains, and that fact is that a clear majority of the House was elected express!)/ to destroy the "Liberal" Government, while there are some members, nominally on the Government side, who wore elected simply to assist progressive legislation, and can therefore conscientiously assist the Reform party, and a little group of Independent members who are unpledged to support any Government. The verdict of the nation was thus perfectly plain, and its sentence of death on the "Liberal" Administration will be duly carried out. There is no necessity to argue with those who still have' an idea that by sonic kind of miracle the beaten and discredited "Liberals" will hold office. Perhaps it will be enough to assure '.cm that, even if their hopes could be fulfilled, nothing could prevent '.he ficform party, on any appeal to the country, from rcgistsrinß a sweeping victory. Mr. Payne, M.P., as we noted yesterday, has been reported—in a most unreliable quarter, it is fair to say—as having mentioned the possibility that those Labour members who owe their position to thc Beform voters in their districts, and who had to fight against the- most desperate hostility of the "Liberals," may regard the tramway strike as a justification for breaking their pledges to vote against the Government. But this is possible only in the same way as it is possible that Mr. Massey may go over to Sir Joseph Ward, accompanied by the chief members of the Beform party. Mr. Payne was, of course, not serious The public may make up its mind—most people have made tip their minds, anyway —that tho "Liberal' , Government is at an end, with its policy of fraud and nepotism, and its unscrupulous use of power for the benefit of the little clique that has hoodwinked tho country for so long. All that has to be considered now is the effect of the political change upon the nation. In whatever direction one chooses to look, one finds a genuinely Liberal and democratic principle mangled and crushed by thc legislation or the administration of the Ward Government. Freedom of speech 1 Look at the original Second Ballot Fiill and the actual new Libel Law. Fairness? Look at the Mokau land deal. Economy? Look at the huge and costly borrowing that the Government has had to resort to in order to cover up its lack of administrative capacity and integrity. But the full list of the offences of' "Liberalism" need not be catalogued. The public knows them, and has passed judgment upon thorn. The public knows also that thn Beform party's policy is a policy of real progress and of purification. Every one of the reforms to which it is pledged, and which the public has approved, is as soundly 'based upon some principle of authentic Liberalism as the policy of the Ward Government has been based upon the denial of Liberalism's main tenets. The major work of a Reform Government will be tho lvmoval of tho cancers of administration, and if it did nothing but carry out the administrative and financial reforms it has promised it would doservi: well of the nation that has been so seriously damaged by the "Liberal' , policy of corruption and waste. Tt is very desirable, of course, that the work of reform should begin without any delay, and, therefore, that another election should be avoided: but should another election be forced upon the nation somehow out of spite by the "Liberal" partv, the friends of Beform will eagerly seize the opportunity to destroy the last vestiges of Wardism. Mr. Massev, we may be quite sure, has, as we said last week, considered all the forces lit work or likely to be at work, and we may with confidence look forward to the ctinniienceinent oE a Beform Government at an early date, and the beginning of the process of cleansing the nation of the corruption in which "Liberalism" burrowed and grew fat, never dreaming that thc nation's heel would at last . stamp out its lifo.