WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 160, 13 September 1916, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

"BETRAYAL OF LIBERALISM." "NATONAL GOVERNMENT TO CONTINUE. " (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 11. These are the startling head-lines under which the "New Zealand Times'.' presents to its readers a story of a shameless conspiracy among the members of the Cabinet to betray Liberalism "body and soul to its hereditary enemies," and to instal the Reformers firmly in office after the war under the leadership of Mr Massey. The story begins with an allusion to the downfall of the "first really* Liberal Ministry, under the Leadership* of Sir George Grey," which it attributes " to the ratting of four Auckland members of the party who gave their votes to the Conservatives in exchange for a grant of £40,000 for roads and bridges in the North and other political considerations," and proceeds to trace, stage by stage, the progress of the still greater party perfidy which is, it declares, rampant in these days. The "National Cabinet," it says in effect, was engineered by Mr Massey and his friends to save their party and themselves from extinction, and ever since has been employed to magnify Reform above Liberalism, and to defeat the democratic aspirations of a~liberty- loving people. The Liberals in the Cabinet, it seems, are ready to submit to any indignity so long as their seats and their salaries are secure, and only two of them remain faithful to their former political professions. Now, as the Culminating step in their conspiracy, Sir Joseph Ward is to be established in a high office at Home, Mr Herdman is to be made a judge, and the remaining ten Ministers —all on full salaries—are to be entrenched behind a solid phalanx of Masseyites and W T ardites, calling themselves Liberals, safe, from all the malign forces of Labour and Socialism. The Conspirators. i

That, .briefly, is the story told, apparently in sober earnestness, by the local exponent of Liberalism. It is embellished, of course, details, of^a.;- personal character., flattering to mio side than they are to the other, .but these- need'not-'be re-

peated hero Perhaps the > most effective answer to the whol-e -ridiculous concoction TiS the amusement it -has oe'c&sibivM to the Ministefs-'fliemselves. -Arr -Allen, who is, not blessed with, a, very.acute sense of humour, regards the story as a joke—"a poor one," he confesses, but he has seen worse in the place. Dr McNab laughs at it outright. "I don't see what I am going to get our of the arrangement," he says, "and absence of motive must ,be .accepted as prima facie evidence of my innoence. "

Other Ministers, 1 when told'the. story, j protest that- they iraTe"hoTime"fJy~wor~! ry a'boni ; s^ch x hcfirseirse. ■*■'Mi A^i&cTfp n-j aid thiiiks'he'-niiist be'-'onfeof the 1 stead- j fast members of theT"Cabiet who are holding on to their former''convictions, '■ and on that account has not been ap- ! proached by -tire' conspirators. "But"! jjesfiiVg apart,'"' he adds, "it is very deplorable that we should have stuff of j this sort thrown at us just now. We can laugh at.it here, but I suppose stray c.opies of this paper get to other coun-

tries and give the public there the idea that we are a pack of political brigands." This, practically, is the attitude of all the Ministers. They smile at the suggestion that they are plotting against the political liberties of the country, but they resent such a suggestion being made at a time when the inprincipally concerned are unable to, .deal with it themselves. The Truth About the Matter.

I But, after all, the.publication of the ! story will do good rather than harm if | it serves to remind the public of the Circumstances connected with the formation of the National Cabinet. It may be quite true that Mr Massey welcomed the party truce, even on Sir Joseph Ward's own terms, as a means of saving himself and his friends, but no politician need be ashamed of having accepted an honourable compromise in preference to an- inevitable defeat. Be-

ing the arrangement with the approval of their respective folowers, it became the duty of the party leaders to observe it to the best of their ability without counting, how it was goin« to profit this side.or that. , Their present critic , does not scruple to distort the most obvious facts in order to make it appear they were proving unfaithful to their trust. He says, for instance, referring '■ to Mr Massey, that he is taking "all kinds of care" to ensure that the measure "applying iha principle of the refrenduni" to the Legislative Council, although placed on- the Statute Book, is not allowed to eome into operation. As a matter of fact there is nomeasiire on the Statute Book or anywhere else applying the principle of the referendum to the Council, but doubtless this delightfully irresponsible person intends to refer to the measure which made the chamber elective, and the operation .of this, as everyone ought to know, was suspended on the express demand of the Liberal Party at the time the party truce was ratified. It would be possible to bring charges against the. Prime Minister which could not be so easily refuted as this one can be, but to. depict him as conspiring with Liberal Minis-

j tors to betray their party to its here- ( ditary enemies implies a much graver charge against Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues than it does against Mr_ Massey and the rest of their political opponents. The Liberal leader has suffered enough already, both personally and politically, from his reluctant association with the National Cabinet without being held up.to public opprobrium for his devotion to what he conceived to be th e interests of the Empire. A Scrap of History. Perhaps the allusion to the downfall of the first LiberalMir.istry. in 1579 with which this strange story opens might have been pardonable a quarter of a century ago when party feeling ran high and the facts of this historical incident were not generally known. But at this time of the day, when the truth is open for everyone to read, to stigmatise Mr William .Swanson and his three Auckland colleagues as "rats" who sold their party for a paltry grant of ±'4.0,000 to their district an c ] "other political considerations" is an infamous aspersion upon the memory of these high-spirited pioneers of Liberalism. The downfall of the first Liberal Ministry was nor due to anything these gentlemen did or left undone, but to the temperamental inability of its great leader to retain the assistance of colleagues, such as Mr Ballance and Sir Robert Stout, who wished to restrain his more extravagant impulses, and who would have saved him from the catastrophe which overtook him at the polls when he appealed to the country from a no-con-fidence vote in the House The negotiations between Sir John Hall (the new Premier) and the four Auckland members are now a familiar story. They resulted in Sir John and his colleagues being pledged to Liberal measures, manhood suffrage and triennial Parliaments among them, and in these measures being placed on the Statute Book. Mr Swanson and his colleagues had been returned to the House as supporters of Sir George Grey and of ' the "Liberal measures," but when Sir George declined to take the leadership of the new Opposition after the election they deemed it better to secure the passage of the measures by giving their sux>por.t to. the party in power than to join in the .intrigues over jthe leadership which ttheif' own feide of the did not AroyMe grant. to. fh| tionate share of public expenditure going to.'ithat rprovinee,-. and it-expressly - stipulated,:fhat. ;ho/ personal advantage should' be ■ the members concerned in the arrangement.