The Hokitika Guardian FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1st., 1922. THE REFORM LEADER.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 December 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian FRIDAY, DECEMBER Ist., 1922. THE REFORM LEADER.

Tup. people of Westland who always have iti their hearts a warnt place for a strenuous fighter iii any field of legitimate activity, will have unbounded admiration for the vigour with which Mr Massey is prosecuting his election campaign. At a time of lito when most workers would he taking their ease, the Prime Minister is labouring with as much vim add buoyancy and endurance as might be expected from a man of half his years. With It is colleagues tied up in their own constituencies by the presence of some doughty c pponent in the field, be is personally attempting to cover the whole battle-front himself and incidentally demonstrating afresh the limitations awl the possibilities of a one-man Government. The spectacle is a ] nthetie one so far as it shows Mr Massey hearing the whole of a burden his colleagues should share, but the segregation of the minor Ministers will not prejudice the cause of Reform, ft is difficult to think of any of them with, perhaps the exception of Mr Downie Stewart, or Air Coates giving the Prime Minister much assistance in swaying public opinion. Mr Massey broke no new ground in bis speech here on Wednesday night. He told the old, old story in the old. old way. placing particular emphasis upon the achievements of Reform, the insignificance of Liberalism and the malignant intentions of Labour. Really the achievements of Reform when one comes to cast bis mind back over the events of the last nine or ton years amount to very little after deducting its share of what was accomplished by the National Cabinet during the period of existence. In less than twelve months of war administration Mr Massey and his colleagues exhausted their initiative and their resources and appealed almost piteously to Sir Josepli Ward and the TJberal Party to come over and help them out of their predicament. With a magnanimity which has been neither adequately acknowledged by his political opponents nor sufficiently understood by bis political friends. Sir Joseph Ward put aside all personal consideration and political opportunities, and went to the assistance of the country and incidentally of Reform. The Liberal Leader’s chivalrous hearing in that great crisis would have been sufficient to give him !| n honoured place in the history of this country had l>e made no other sacrifices in the interests of his follows and tlie Empire. What Sir Joseph did dming the succeeding years of the war right up to the conclusion of peace, is on record for everyone to see. Those were the years when the great problems of the new finance had to be determined, and when every - other State Department depended upon the sound and capable management of the Treasury. What the Reformers loft to their own wits.

have done since then, needs no recital here. They have doubled the annual expenditure; they have enormously increased the public debt; any they have brought the country back after thirty years of surpluses, to a deficit in its annual balance sheet! These are notable performances of course but | they are not necessarily meritorious. That the Reform Government has settled under more or less satisfactory conditions a large number of soldiers on the land, have helped others in acquiring homos and has put still others in the wav of learning a trade—everyone knows; hilt these services as n matter of plain fact were rendered to the returned men in response to the mandate of a grateful country. What the Government has neither done nor shown any particular anxiety to do is to perform its ten years old promises ’in regard to civilian land settlement. Settlement more settlement, and still more settlement, was the alluring party cry with which Air Massy and his friends went to the polls in 1911. but beyond granting the freehold to every leaseholder who lias cared to ask for it, they have done nothing to give it the interpretation it implied. Settlement, less settlement and still less settlement, so far as civilians are concerned, is their record from the first day they took office down to tile present time. It is no wonder that the personally popular Minister of Lands is in grave clanger of losing Ins seat in the House just now through a policy of drift which lias encouraged reaggregation and driven thousands of established settlers from the /and. The ; figures have been published over and over again, and conjure with them as the Reformers will, they cannot lie made to disguise the fact that the party's promises are unfulfilled, and the j greatest need of the country has been j shamelessly flouted. Mr Massey is least impressive of all ! when lie appeals to the electors to give him a still larger majority in Parliament in order that lie may save law | and order from the impending violation. Mr Massey has had his majority and his opportunity and has failed to j use them effectively. Such talk is j simply the language of the needy politician seeking to trade upon the fears ' of the timid souls in the community for party purposes. No one knows better than the Prime Minister does, that the appeal on the grounds made is not worthy of him, for during the past three years lie has had his pliant majority ready at all times to do his b!dI ding, and if lie had ally real reforms to : enact for the betterment of the couii- ' try, for the security of the people, and I the public interests lie held-Parliament l in the hollow of his own hand—a well ; entrenched autocrat. The fact is New Zealand contains in the aggregate a sanely, educated community, capable of understanding for themselves, aiid that they are thinking hard just now is evidently all too apparent to Mr Massey. And it is well for him to re-

member at this juncture that while we have a Prime Minister of the Dominion obstinately upholding a system <f election which makes our Parliament representative of the minority, and not of the majority,’ we have no light to he surprised when thinking men and women speak slightingly of our legislative institutions and their constitution. It is the cause of injustice that breeds social and industrial unrest and the great Mr Lloyd George lias emphasised this conclusive fact in passing judgment on the late British elections.