POLITICAL REFORM

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1453, 30 May 1912, Page 6

POLITICAL REFORM

LEAGUE GATHERING, f" BAD PRINCIPLES ATTACKED. FOUR ADDRESSES. ;,.Tlie inaugural meeting of the Political Reform Leaguo was held in the Masonic Hall, Boulcott Street, last night. Mr. C. B; Morison presided. Tho gathering was addressed by Messrs. C. B. Morison, A. R: Atkinson, E. 1\ Hadfield, and A. Leigh HuntMr. C. B. Morison leferred to tho demoralising influences which had in the past 20 years existed in New Zealand politics. Ho proceeded to deal with what ho deemed to be wasteful expenditure of public money. •Wo all know, ho said, wJiat the Hutt Railway cost and what it ought to have cost. A railway in tho Jiouth Island had cost .£IO,OOO per mile, though it was not a, difficult line to build, imd should have been done for under -£10,000 per mile. The Manawatu lino had, ho thought, cost an averago of .faaOO per mlile. Tlie public of New Zealand were at present paying interest on huge sums of money which had been absolutely thrown away. The point was that some system of co-oiierativo labour had been introduced whereby the men did not get the valuo of tho product of their labour (which was what they nsked), but four end five times that value. ?,' Objects of the League.

..-The first object of the League was to secure the administration of tho public aftairs of 'the Dominion according to BO.tind economic principles, by preventing wasteful expenditure of public money, and by preventing tho misapplication of public funds to party or political purposes, lor many years, Mr. Morison said, public money had teen spent in ways irom which the public could not. expect to get any benefit. The second object'of the League was to strive for freedom of poli-' tical conscience and opinion. It could hardly be realised how much pcoplo had been afraid to express their political opintons; but it had been recognised for Borne years that it was dangerpus *to openly hold political opinions against the party lately in power. I,he'next plank in the league's platform was to support measures giving equal opportunity, as, for example, in matters of education and State employment. Following this was a plank to oppose measures giving undue/poiver, of patronage to Ministers, so as to-guard strictly the constitutional prerogatives of Parliament. He did not .think;, that there could .be ft greater instance of tho point of this, plank than the way in which the Native Land Act had beeu administered. The speaker touched on tho "Governor-in-Council" clause, which lie said meant that the subject,.who-was entitled to the benefit of the law, could'not get it unless he got on the right side of the Minister. If there was to bo any discretion exercised under an Act,, it ought to be exercised by a Court of Law. Hethen came to the plank of the league which was to organise political support for the Reform party in its efforts to carryout these principles. Referring to tho leader of the Reform party,' Mr. Morison said that Mr. Mnssey had exhibited the qualities of sticking to principle, bulldog courage, tenacity, and light in a manner which might well be imitated by many people in this country. (Loud applause.) He -was proud to be a follower of Mr. Massey, who was head and shoulders above tho men who criticised him. The league's last plank read:—"To co-operate with and assist in establishing leagues with similar objeots-in every centre of the Dominion."

; - Mob Rule Possible, To-day, continued Mr. Morison, we were ' face to face with a choice, between constitutional government and mob rule, lie Wanted to disclaim any attempt to 'decry the legitimate efforts of the labourling classes to better their and their : children's positions. What ho had referred to as'mob rule was a very bad form of Constitutional government stood- for liberty and. freedom (not license), enterprise, and progress. Referring to the-Hon. Gi-Fowlds/s recent address in the Town Hall,' Mr. Morison i-aid • that Mr. Fowlds had claimed that tho community of New Zealand had by its efforts added to land values in a given number of years £116,000,000. Mr.. Fowlds had promised them, practically, that, if returned to power, he would get that-'from tho landlord, and give it to .them".'! This said, Mr. Morison, was a producing country, and wo were all dependent on the farmer. 'What had added to the value of rural lands was not what tho community in New Zealand had done, •'but what the London consumer of our produce had done. If the Londoner's high prices disappeared to-morrow not only', would rural land values go down flop, but town lands values also. Touching bnVdefence, he thought that tho Hon. Mr. Myers had shown the most commendable backbone in his attitude towards tho Act...'He remarked that a man who would not defend bis country was like a man who '. would build a beautiful garden and neglect to provide a fence to keep the cow v 6ut. A Transition Stage,

. ;Mr. A. Leigh Hunt said that political parties were now in tho transition stage. Soon there would be only two political parties—the Labour party and the party opposed to Labour. It was no use discussing the party which bad just "passed in its checks," .(he hoped.for ever), nor the present party in power, which he hoped would soon follow its predecessor. (Applause.) Attention should be turned towards the party of Socialism. He could not lelp thinking that the ono man one vote principle had come to this country a little too early: he could not help noticing the flippant and apathetic way in which New Zealanders used the franchise. Socialism held out what seemed to some to be fine glittering things, but he agreed that the time bad come for people to sink their political differences to fight it. Speaking of land tenure, he said that he believed that tho freehold tenure with limitation of •area was tho best tenure for to-day. Returning to. tho possibility of a Labour Government, he said that our liberties wero being taken away day by day, and if a Labour Government did come into power Ihe country would nrnbably not be worth living in. The sensible public must be roused to face this possibility. If the .people could be awakened to the danger, -matters would be all right; but it "was this wretched apathy" that had to he fought.

_ Mr. E. F. Hadfield spoke with the object of exposing some of tho fallacies of Socialism. Ho 'particularly condemned Syndicalism. What was wanted of tho leagito was that if should organise, and continuously organic, not leave organising to election times only. Principle, not Expediency. The last sneaker was Mr. A. R. Atkinson. Mr. Atkinson said that what he liked particularly about the league's objects was tho piank referring to the misuse of public money. The two great evils were the farming of billets ami the farmling of roads, and bridges, which kind of thing was the very essence of Tammanyism. Under the system of political control of. the public service and tho ■expenditure of public, money even saints would make a bad job of things. He was pleased wiith the attitude of the recent conference to the Local Government Bill, and he was pleased that the Minister in ehargo of the Bill (who had conducted the conference very ably) had not shown himself altogether averse to the principle approved by the conference. Sir Joseph Ward had said in America that the practice of the Sew Zealand Government was to find out what the people wanted and givo it to them. Air. Atkinson thought that' the idea of the present political party in power was: "If you are not quite pure what the people want, npnoint a Poyal Commission to find out; and, if you are not sure of your life exceeding four weeks, direct the commission to report in three weeks." The speaker thought: "The primary duty of a statesman was to find out what the people ought to want and lo try to educate them up to wanting it." As to defence, the primary attitude of citizenship wa« not privilege, but obligation. There could be no true liberty without order. He was sorry lo see both here nnd in England a growing laxity in the observance of that principle, and ho thought that that fact constituted a far greater danger to the community than did any foreign power, ne would give hearty support to the League, because ho wished to see a general political cleaning up, and because he wished to see a stop put to the wretched system of logroiling'and favouritism which had in the past, obtained. Mr. Morison made an appeal for strong membership in the league. People, he said, must band together lo keep the country a land of tolerable social conditions.