WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 26 September 1927, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE NEW POLITICAL PARTY. HIGH ASPIRATIONS. (Special to “ Guardian.”) WELLINGTON, Sept. 22. Though the newspapers have been supplied only with the organiser's report of the proceedings at the meeting held here on Monday evening for the purpose of forming a local branch of the “ new political party,” which has been in the air for some months past, there is reason to l>elieve that the movement obtained some real impetus from the gathering. It is difficult to think of “ citizens of all shades of political opinion ” sitting round the same table discussing means for the overthrow of the Government, or of the finance for the new crusade being “ fully assured ” ; but information obtained at first hand goes far to confirm these assertions. The meeting was not a large one in the matter of numbers, there being twenty-four or twenty-five persons present, comprising, perhaps, half-a-dozen recognised Reformers, as many stalwart Liberals, and a dozen unattached enthusiasts who wanted better government and less of it. The talk was mainly of the Ministry’s failure to turn its big majority to good account and of the need for greater ability and wider vision in Parliament. The organiser himself announced quite frankly that the movement was not an offshot of either the Reform Party or the Liberal Party, but a combination of the most progressive of both. PHILOSOPHER AND FRIEND.

Sir Joseph Ward, whose definite decision not to accept the leadership of the new party was announced on Tuesday. when interviewed to-day said be would he glad to see almost any additional driving force in polities at the present time. He did not know a great ileal about the new party, though some of its promoters and its organise! had been good enough to give him some idea of its aspirations; but he felt that the House would be all the better for the introduction of new ideas and broader principles. It seemed to him, though he might be mistaken, that in recent years there had been a tendency among the rank and file of the House to leave too much to their party leaders and to divest themselves of personal responsibility by leaning on their election pledges. He was not suggesting for a moment, he emphasised, that a member should desert the party lie had been elected to support without first going to his constituents, but there was a difference between being a loyal supporter and a mere automaton. “ Anyhow,” said Sir Joseph, in dismissing the subject, “ among the names mentioned to me in connection with the movement were those of men wlio woni'd ho very useful in tlie public life of the Dominion whether in Parliament or not.” INSENS ATE A P ATI! Y.

Presiding at a. meeting addressed by Miss B. E. Raughan, the corresponding secretary of the New Zealand branch oi the Howard League for Penal Reform, Sir John Findlay, who was AttorneyGeneral between 190 G and 1012, pro-

nounced a stirring stricture upon the insensate public apathy that delayed reform at every stage. The groat ob-

stacle in the way of those who were unselfishly endeavouring to promote i great and generous cause, lie said, was not opposition; it was not prejudice; it was the chilling apathy of public indifference. Many a reformer, many a man and woman who had sought with whole-hearted zeal to elevate and help those who were cali'ing for their assistance, had found their feet halting in the immeasurable sands of insensate public apathy. For five years lie had sought to place upon the Statute llook and in regulations an enlightened prison reform, and what enabled him to get his way, so far as he did, was not the assistance of either political party; but total indifference ns to whether lie had his way or not. Sir John’s burning words well might have been broadcast throughout the Dominion, hut ns it was they fell upon the ears of a keenly sympathetic audience amounting to no more than two dozen souls. PENAL REFORM.

Miss Bnughnn, who in her earnest appeal for penal reform that woui'd save and succour “ irresponsible offenders ” us she (allied the feeble-minded, the moral imbecile, the chronic alcoholic, the senile and those on the borderline of insanity, bad the advantage of her sex, her self-abnegation, her personal experience, and her womanly appeal. Her production of official figures from the annual report of the Prison Department, just fresh from the printing press, showing that while the daily average of the prison popui'ation in England was steadily declining, the prison population in New Zealand was as steadily increasing, came as a shock to her audience, which probably was bettor informed on such subjects than the great majority of its representatives in Parliament. The Hon. F. J. Rolleston, the Minister in Charge of the Prison Department, had j noted the fact and had suggested the j adoption of the ameliorating measures, which had brought tho prison popula-J tion of England down to a much lower, proportion of the total population than j that of New Zealand. The situation is j not one that redounds to tho credit of the Dominion, which some years ago was a leader in penal reform, and the Howard League deserves the utmost encouragement in its efforts to re- 1 quicken the public conscience.