THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, MARCH 14, 1927. ON LEAVING WELL ALONE.

Wairarapa Age, 14 March 1927, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, MARCH 14, 1927. ON LEAVING WELL ALONE.

It does not seem likely that more than a handful of people here and there will be stirred to interest by the efforts that are being made to resuscitate the old Liberal Party. Apart from the fact that its former leader, Sir Joseph Ward, has returned to the House of Representatives, very little of the substance of the party remains in sight. It has yet to appear that Sir Joseph Ward is willing to resume the leadership, and even if he were it would remain to show that • there is anything worth speaking about to The alternative/ suggestion, of which something has been heard lately, that Mr. W. A. Veitch, member for Wanganui, may be selected as leader does not open up any bright hopes of Liberal revival. The fact which undermines all hopes of this kind is that there is really no reason for attempting to revive and re-establish the Liberal Party.

The probability is that all attempts in this direction will die a natural death, and it is plainly desirable that they should. Their only important result if they succeeded would bp to divide and weaken the moderate pelitical forces of the Dominion. All other political divisions in this country are of small importance in comparison with the division between those who do, and those who do not, espouse the doctrines of the extreme Labour Party. It is true that within the moderate political forces of the Dominion there are some sectional interests more or less opposed that need adjusting, but all the moderate sections opposed to the Labour-Socialists have interests in common much more important than their differences.

At this time of day, no one needs to be told that the revival of the Liberal Party would bring no new light or 'leading into the political arena. Elements that formerly would have gone to strengthen the Liberals have been absorbed quite comfortably and naturally by the Reform Party. It is desirable that this fusion should be made complete and that all moderate elements should definitely merge their identity in one party. The continued

existence of even a weak third party keeps alive the danger that the La-bour-Socialists may be enabled in this country, as they have in most of the Australian States, to gain control of rational affairs less by the will of tho electors than by reason of foolish and needless divisions among their opponents.