DAYS OF BALLANCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 52, 24 May 1927, Page 14

DAYS OF BALLANCE

LIBERAL OPTIMISM SOUP-KITCHEN CONDITIONS REFORM CRASH PREDICTED (From, Our Resident Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Monday. Very definite visions of shortly seeing the old flag of Liberalism flying steadily in the breeze of Parliamentary debates, are presented to the mind of Mr. W. A. Veitch, M.P. for Wanganui, the chosen leader of the movement to rejuvenate the old Liberal Party in the House of Representatives. He sees in conditions as they are to-day a repetition of the state of things that existed when John Ballance swept the polls in 1890. and believes that the next General Election will produce a reversal of public feeling from the Coates Government towards Liberalism.

Since he undertook leadership of the Liberal revival, said Mr. Veitch, when discussing the prospects of the party with a SUN man to-day, he has been corresponding with different interests throughout New Zealand, establishing the nucleus of an organisation. Branches have been formed in a number of districts, and so far expectations have been exceeded. So successful have been the initial efforts that Mr. Veitch is now going to campaign the country from the platform, and will commence at Invercargill on Wednesday night, and he will probably speak at other places in the South.

“The replies that have come to hand." he said, “and the action that has been taken convince me that the country has very largely lost faith in the Coates administration and fears the Holland party. These conditions have resulted in large numbers turning their attention towards Liberalism as the only sane alternative to the present administration, which appears to be doomed in any case." Mr. Veitch was asked if he anticipated such a reversal of feeling to be expressed by the next General Election. SOUP KITCHENS “Unquestionably the next General Election will show a tremendous change of public opinion in the direction of Liberalism,” was his reply. “The conditions that obtained in New Zealand when John Ballance swept the polls in 1890 are all present today—an epidemic of bankruptcy among the producers and to a lesser extent among businessmen, unparalleled unemployment and attempts to reduce wages, while even the soup kitchens of those days are being seriously spoken of as relief for the distress caused by unemployment. “In the face of all these difficulties the present administration stands aghast at the result of its own inertia and appears to be utterly bankrupt of ideas and ideals." Upon being asked the prospects of representation in the House for the newly-revived Liberals, Mr. Veitch said that the utmost good feeling existed between the members of the National Party and himself. The leader of the Nationals, Mr. G. W. Forbes, had promised to bring the matter of changing the policy and name of the party before the first caucus when the session arrived. There was no opportunity of testing the feeling of the Nationals yet on account of it not being possible to get them all together. Asked about the policy, Mr. Veitch said that their policy could not be finalised yet, but, he added, there is enough in Liberalism to go on with in the meantime, more particularly in the violation of Liberalism that is to be found in the Reform and Labour platforms. While both these parties claim that there is no difference between the Liberals and the Reformers, the truth is that the real similarity in basic principles is between Reform and Labour policies, in so far as the Reform legislation of recent years has been largely along the lines of the objective of the Labour Party, the nationalisation of everything. The Labour Party is to be congratulated that, although It has only 13 members in a house of 80, the present Prime Minister has done much towards writing their political Ideals on the Statute Book. Instances of this were given in dairy control, bus regulation, local bodies’ loans and other enactments.