Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, FEB. 9, 1892. Take All We Can Get.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 9 February 1892, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, FEB. 9, 1892. Take All We Can Get.

Ma T. L. Buick, the paid organising secretary of the National Libeial Association, has been on a canvassing tour to Palmerston, and there, as tlie mouthpiece of the party, lias declared that the lease of power held by tlie present Ministry is considered to be very doubtful, as he said " it was quite one thing to pufc a Liberal Government in power and another thing to keep them there." Of course the Government desire to remain in power, and so they formed the National Liberal Association which their paid secretary admits is formed chiefly to accomplish this object. We have had exhibitions of the many strange acts which the Ballance Ministry have sanctioned, so that to have a paid member of parliament further paid to canvass for members fc an association formed to keep them in office, need not create so much surprise as it would had not the way, for such an extraordinary proceeding, been paved by other though less extraordinary acts. The secretary assured his hearers that the Ministry would be able to take care of themselves if this Association was supported, as the Hon J. Ballance was the President, and two other members of the Ministry, Messrs W. P. Reeves and A. J. Cadman, would be in the Council, as well as four Members of the House of Representatives, strong supporters of theirs, and Sir Robert Stout, K.C.M.G., the ad>iser and director of the Government. The paid Secretary was not very careful in his statements, a fault which is noticeable in members of the " Liberal " party, as though he appealed in the first part of his speech, for help, as it was another thing to keep the Government in power, he later on stated " the Conserxatives received their death blow at the last i general election"! ! ! "The" I party was shattered in the Lower 1 House " ! ! ! Yet so sure do they feel i that they find it necessary to pay Mr . Buick £250 a year to obtain private < members for this association who 1 will have to pay £1 a year, and from t societies such subscription as each i may determine, to pay for the election c expenses of the chiefs of this great s Liberal party! "All moneys re- t eeived by' the Federation shall, alter r bhe necessary expenses ot the ad- I ministration are provided for, form t i fighting fund, to be expended at the * r

discretion of the Council, in assisting candidates to contest elections," says Mr Buick. If ths A s .ciation (.uns out a success, the "lighting fund "will be U3ed energetically as the paid secretary laid stivss again on the facfc thafc " the most impoitant object of this Federation is to provide a fund to contest elections and defend petition*." Where money is not freely spent very seldom is an election petitioned against, and as the fund is to be used to defend any petitions, it is evident thafc the secretary thinks there will be more use for it in this manner, than to use it to sustain any petition against the opposing party. In this we hold he is correct. Money for the next election must be had, seems to be the instructions under whicli the secretary is told to speak, as it is reported he said "as a matter of fact he did not wish to appeal to the poorer classes because they had a hard and bitter struggle to get bread for their families, and keep the wolf from the door " yet money was money and " they would not exclude a man because he was poor and not refuse or dispise his raite no matter how small it might be." In facfc this great Liberal party is prepared to take all it can get.