LIBERALISM

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3348, 28 November 1919, Page 5

LIBERALISM

ITS ASPIRATIONS AND ACHIEVE'.\IENTS.' BRIEF RECORDS OF THE PAST. Now that a general election is near, the time is opportune for a review of what Liberalism has done for New Zealand in the past. This brief sketch, is not to be regarded as a complete lristory of the Liberal movement and its successes; but it may fairly claim to provide full justification for our faith in Liberalism, and for our confident belief that its triumph will ensure the progress and prosperity of our country and its people for the ‘future. ' LIBERALISM, AND DEMOCRACY “What is Liberalism‘?” -Liberalism is Democracy, and Democracy is :‘the government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Liberalism is thus a political system which would" secufe through the Voice of the people, the realisation of Democracy’s grand ideal, “the greatestgood for the greatest possible number.” It is this form of government by the people that true Democracy seeks to ,attain; and it is because Liberalism has in the past achieved so much for the people, by pleading -their cause and defending their «rights, and advancing their interests, on purely democratic and constitutional lines, that we confidently claim the sympathy and support of the electors of New Zealand for it ‘to—day.

FIRST PHASE———GrREY. During the early years of colonisation and settlement. the people were too much engrossed in the struggle for existence to pay much attention to politics; and -all that time the':..wealthier classes were stvr-engthening‘~their hold upon political rights and privileges, and were establishing ‘for them'selves.a practical monopoly of the land.’ To Sir George Grey belongs the credit of "grasping alllthis, and of conceiving a policy which might ultimately enable this country ‘to realise those‘ Democratic ideals 'Wh~ich. ‘that great statesman, almost. alone among the distinguished -public’ men of his age,-had" air-eady ‘come to appreciate at '-their true value. « ’ _ ‘ Sir -George Grey”’g”rnain ivdrk was his advocacy of manhood sufirage {and his denunciation of land nlono»p6l’yl“Af re‘markable tour that he made throughout ‘the Dominion did -much torkindlev the fize of Liberalism, and at last the continuous Ministry which had‘ held power with" short intervals for many years, suffered final defeat. For Grey’s propaganda of “one man, one vote” had, by rousingthe people. against‘the' limited franchise of the mime, compelled his opponents to concede manhood suffrage; and as a result the election of 1890, at the close of the great maritime strike, placecithe first Lib-eral-Minister in power, with Mr Ballance as Prifne Minister.

3 w . BA-LLANCE. ’ - ' When this Ministry took oifice, the country was in a parlousrstate. ~lts finance dependedon the property tax, which taxed property. without refer« ence to its earnings. Economy in‘tlle lshape of retrenchment, was -the mainspring of the policy; enterprise was dead, doles were the remedy for unemployment, and the population was [beginning to emigrate. ‘ THE NEW TAXATION. The new Government. took hold with vigorous determination. It made good the promises of its members, by repealing the obnoxious property-«tax. The taxpayer waslfreed from paying taxes on his buildings and" his personal effects, the taxes on all these weretransferred to land’ and income. The need for checking land monopoly was not forgotten, neither was the necesksity for encouraging !the lprofitalfle use of land neglected. Graduation ‘taxes were introduced for the first time, and care was taken not to touch the improvements. This was the touch of true Democracy. It was also the touch 0-f sound finance——-a touch which secured good balances for many years, and revealed as time went on the financial strength of :1 self-reliant people. i THE NEW HUMANISM. ‘ But. the ‘Liberal Leaders sawclearly I that their chief duty was to the people ‘ themselves, and from the outset they took a firm hold of the Labour problem. The Liberal Government" estab-I lishcd a Labour Bureau, set up agen-l cies all over the country. found Where‘men were wanted, and sent them to‘ the‘ work. The -Liberal _ Governmen-t fought emigration with immigration, and relieved the congestion of «the towns. Doles ended, the exodus ceased, and the people who had gone began to return. »- _ It was government of the people, by! the people, for the people-——true Demo. cracy. V Q .The principle was extended in one remarkable instance by the establish. ment of. the Co-operative Contract sys. tem on the railways. ‘ » Naturally enough this was a terrible sl:-ock to the-Conservatives of those ti“xr‘s. Here was a shameless interference with the divinelyappovintecl law’

of supply and demand,"and 1119 Ctefnal principle of free competition! But in spite of shrieks of protest -and torn rents of abuse, the Government persevered, kept. these men on the Works in gangs carefully selected, and in the’ end the system went its way to suc~ cess. The men made good roads and; made good money. ' ‘Government of the people, by -the pieopfe, for the people——*true .Demo~ craey again. . " (To be continued.) 1