Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 1911. THE "LIBERAL" SOCIAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10262, 14 June 1911, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 1911. THE "LIBERAL" SOCIAL.

Time was when Masiterton was \ regarded as the centre at which Liberal Ministers cast oft' dull care and talked platitudes and political inanities by the yard to a credulous people. That time has gone. Masterton is no longer regarded as the Lilberal (Btronghold whence Ministers can seek (recreation in the fulsome adulation and flattery of their friends. The scene has changed. But there is ' one spot in the Wairarapa which has not yet lahsolutely recanted. That spot is Carterton. Even the laxlengrease railway nostrum of the Hon. J. A. Millar does not icau.se the faithful of that territory to revolt. . Thejre are some—fortunately not a great many—in that community who fit ill entertain the ibelief that: the party i&ffich has arrogated'to aitself the title of "Liberal" possesses all the virtues, and that the rest of the political world is but a xieighing •oonglomeriatioiaof. 'National Asses," or- .something of that sort. And so it happened that the Acting-Chief Patriot was invited .to dine at Carterton on Monday night, and to say things. He did •both. fsj even condescended to "join, the .people in tlieir dances." Is there any wonder, therefore, that the local paper should declare that, "as a political rally the social -was ,a great success r"' Seriously speaking, however, the days of determining; national issues over the flowing howl or in the mazy waltz are about gone. Even ispeeches of forensic eloquence, such as those which the Acting-Patriot is wont to give when in his host humour, do not influence the average voter. People now-ardays want some tangible reason for the faith which is din our politicians. They want facts, not fiction. And it is here that the Liberal Party fails. It claims to have done gJ'ejJl things for the people, but the peopw want to know where the great things are. It declares that it legislates for all classes of the community, without respect of persons, but the people know differently. They know that the Ministry is destitute of a policy, that it has played' fast and loose with the public services, that it has discouraged thrift and dwarfed individuality. They know that its chief mission in politics is

to retain, office. They know its boasted Liberalism is a sham and a delusion. And, knowing these things, they are not satisfied wifth the poetic eloquence of a Minister whose chief political object in life appears to be to put off till to-morrow what might and should be done to-day.