LIBERALISM.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 April 1921, Page 2

LIBERALISM.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—l crave space for a few lines to enlighten Mr. W. T. Jennings on the great virtue of his pet Liberal. There was a Liberal Party worthy of the name led by that great Liberal leader, R. J. Seddon. But Mr. Jennings must know that the Liberals died when Mr. Seddon died, for the simple reason that those Liberals who acted the Liberal under the leadership of R. J. Seddon turned out :o be greedy place-hunters, and quarrelled amongst themselves, all striving to get on the box seat to enable them to claim the £2OOO a year. I would like very much to know what Liberal, humane, or progressive law the present Liberal Party brought forward. The only ones that I can remember are two brought forward by Sir J. G. Ward in his dying hours. The one was the elimination of the Mortgage Tax, which the rich' man was paying formerly, and the imposition of a Land Tax on the full value of the poor man’s farm, Including his mortgage. For instance, if a man owned a farm worth £6OOO, with £3OOO mortgage on it, he would be charged land tax on the full £6OOO, and I remember the so-called Liberals voted for it. so you can see they were some Liberals. The only party that opposed this most unjust tax were the Labor Party, who spoke and voted against it with all their might. Now I am going to enlighten Mr. Jennings. He, mentions two great Liberals in support of Ills argument who did a .great service to Ireland, Sir George Grey and Mr. Gladstone. . I’ll take Sir George Grey first. I don’t know If Mr. Jennings is aware of the fact that the greatest service Sir George Grey did for Ireland was to lead a force of brigands io rob Irish Catholics of one-seventh of the year’s produce to feed the English Church parson with. Mr. Gladstone was one of the greatest opponents of Ireland and Home Rule until the year 1882. In that year the Irish Party had the balance of power between the Tories and Liberals in the House of Commons, and on account of Mr. Gladstone’s antagonism to Home Rule, the Irish Party voted with the Tories on a no-confldence motion, which turned Gladstone and party’ out of office ; but Gladstone came back as a Home Ruler next- time, and, in fact, passed a Home Bill that would make the Irish more servile than before if they had the misfortune of it becoming law. So much for what these two gentlemen did for Ireland.—l am etc., JOHN DIGGINS. Inglewood, April Ist.