Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 1895. The Hon. Mr Reeves.

Manawatu Herald, 2 April 1895, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 1895. The Hon. Mr Reeves.

What is he after all ? A Socialist Mr Reeves admits himself to be, but what sort of a one if there artdifferent brands of them ? la Australia he delighted the hearts of h s listeners by describing himself as a " straight out " Socialist. Now this is defined in the dictionary a* m aning " out and out," a " thorough partizan." If Buch use of the word is accepted the Hon. Mr Reaves i> holding himself up as a parcizao of the Socialists whose proposals are more nearly allied to Anarchism than the majority like. After a sea voyage Mr Beeves has found it wiser to endeavour to modify the Australian assertion and at N-w Plymouth told his hearers he was not so bad as he had painted him self, he and his friends were no; going about with bombshells under their coats or knives up their sleeves. This is well for them, as those who play with edged tools often get cut, and it is the discovery of such a liability that has caused our Minis ter of Labour to soften his assertions. Mr Beeves in explaining away his straight-out Socialism touched upon other "ism?" and asserted that I 44 Communism said that everybody should do everything in common. That was a dream of dreams, and it

would be a very bad thing if it were realised in any community." And so Ray all of us. However we And Socialism is Bet oat to be " any theory or system of Social organisation which would abolish, entirely or in great part, the individual effort aud competition on which modern society rests, and substitute for it co-operative action, w >u)d introduce a more perfect and equal distribution of the products of labour* and Would make land and Capital, as the instrument and means of production* the joint possession of the m tnbers of the community." Mr Beeves admit* there are degrees of Socialism, as th-ro are degrees of liibVralisni, a Very pretty explanation affording an excellent reason for more earnest inquiry imu the particular views on Socialism held by on«> of our Ministers. A< Sir Robert Stout, a good and valued Liberal) differs from the Premier a " straight-out '* Liberal, so, we are told, do some Socialists d ff.-r from other Socialists. Mr E.'tves has yet to explain away his sta eincnt made in Australia about his h ing a straight-out Sociali-'t, for .h. Ugh the Views he placed upon this subj'Ct before his New Plymouth audience may not be an he said it was not " a very terrible thing, a very dangerous thing, not a wildly revolutionary thing " yet the doctrines of the straight-out Socialists are all these, therefore it is well to know whether our Minister is as harmless as the turtle dove he desires us in New Zealand to think he is, or whether he is the revolutionary straight-out Socialist he declared himself to be in Australia.