LIBERAL RALLY.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 August 1927, Page 4

LIBERAL RALLY.

PARTY BY NO MEANS DEAD. AUCKLAND, Aug. 20. “I don’t believe any other cause could have got such a large meeting to turn out in such weather,” said Mr Hall Skelton last night at the Chambtr of Commerce Hall, where a Liberal rally was hold. There were between 50 and 60 pople present, including several women. Dr W. H. Horton, who presided, foretold the resuscitation o: the glories of the Liberal regime. He said ho had been much amused to sec. in tli papers that evening about Hie ierjmation of the '‘Uni*od Now Zealand Party." It v.as oniv the old ReVim under another name. When male!actors found that they were to he arrainged, they looked round f nr : »l alias, and that was exactly a hut the Reform party was doing, now that it uus to be brought before tlie bar of public opinion. Mr R- B. Spiers, organiser of the Liberals, gave a fluent account of tlio glorious work done in the past- by the Liberals. He declared that farmers, commercial men, industrialists and the great bulk of tho right-thinking people were sick and tired of tht present -inexpert administration of the country s adairs, and demanded a change. Iho meeting that night was called tor tho purpose of reviving not only the principle, but the very name of Liberalism itself, and he predicted that it would in the future repeat the splendid achievements of the past. At the present time New Zealand was controlled by Royal Commissions, and ridden to death with Orders-in-Comuil. Mr Coates lias gone, in with a flourish of trumpets, but ho had failed to keep his promises, and even his own party wa‘dissatisfied with him. Air Hall Skelton, who gave a very full account of the Liberal platform, prefaced his remarks by reading .< I--grants of good wishes t rout -Mis I’ l -" lance, widow of the great Liberal le. tier, and Lady Carroll. Mr Shelf mi contended that tlie country uas ~i f•• present time in a state ol -duos due to maladministration. He particularly complained about the stare into which tho farmers had been trove! b\ the Reform party. The primary producer was the backbone of Ihe country, and he was drowned under a burden of interest. There was no free bold nowadays; it was all mortgagebold. There were too many tug estates. and the country must get back to tlie Ballance land settlement principle before it coin'd prosper, and a cure be found for the present crying evils, when children were short of food, and farmers were driven to suieiilo in increasing numbers. Another strong plank in the Liberal platfoiin was cheap money, through a State bank. The trouble, with tlie Reform party was that Mr Coates did not understand economics; in tact, be was in that respect a mere Imby in swaddling clothes. Air Coates was good looking, and the party had commercialised his good looks and uar record, and put him in power upo i that. As for the alleged new party that was announced in Auckland, tho United New Zealand party, it was a bogus affair and was nothing more than the old party under another name. He knew all about i‘.. and where it. Innl boon hatched in 't house . iii Remuern—and the man at the back of it was a staunch supporter <>l the Reform party, hut people woimi not swallow his bind'. The time had come when tho old Liberal banner mu.-t he unfurled again, and once more ’ lO partv would restore order out c! chuo-. just as it had done, in ISSK). In answer to a question, if was stilted by the chairman that the matter of a leader for the party had not been decided.

At the (lose of a very successful meeting those present, on tho nm J .ion of Air A. J. Louden, seconded by Mill. V. Allow, re-I.lveii: Tint d be

a vocuinmeiHlaLon Iron this mc-ciing to the democratic reprcseiHatives m Uarliamcnt that -.b y it~c- every endeavour to bring about a union <J the democratic for:(\s of this country on a common policy.'