The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1911. THE LABOUR PARTY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13521, 1 November 1911, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1911. THE LABOUR PARTY.

Wh are not of those who fear that it would be disastrous to the welfare of New Zealand if the Labour Party held the reins of office, neither do we believe, as Professor Mills would have us believe, that a Labour Government can and would solve important problems any better than a Liberal Administration. In his speech last evening Professor Mills said that the three greatest problems to be faced were land monopoly, industrial and commercial monopoly, and problems of education, and he contended that none of these questions could be dealt with effectively by either the Liberal or Conservative Parties. The Professor lias surely not followed the trend of legislation in the Dominion or he would not surely have committed himself to such a rash statement. Take the first question—that of land monopoly—, what is its history during the past twenty years of Liberal rule? When the Liberal Party came into power after the strenuous campaign so successfully conducted by John Ballance in 1890, land monopoly was the crying evil of New Zealand. Huge areas of land were held by individuals and by private companies, and there was wholesale trafficking in Maori lauds, natives parting with large blocks for a mere pittance. Mr Ballance immediately stopped the trafficking, and the Land for Settlements Act was passed. This measure •authorised the purchase from private individuals of suitable properties for subdivision into farms, and thousands of settlers have as a result of this beneficent provision been placed upon the land. Not only have the big estates been purchased and cut up, but cheap money has been introduced by the Government through the Advances to Settlers Act, and farmers today can secure loans at little more than half the interest they were called upon to pay in the days when land-grabbers and speculators held sway’in the Dominion. The efforts of the Government to break up the land monopoly did not end with the Land for Settlements scheme and the issuing of a ban againsfthe trafficking in Maori lands. A graduated land tax was introduced, and Professor Mills, if he is acquainted with the working of this Act, must admit that it has also materially assisted to the end that he desires to see. In addition, numerous other provisions have been made for the closer settlement of the land by fruit-growers, by settlers with little capital (who are assisted by the State), by families, and by men employed on public works, while the Agricultural Department is spending largo sums annually to educate and assist the settlers in the successful working of their allotments. In this connection it is only necessary to quote the assistance given by the State, to those engaged in the dairying industry, which has been such a, prime factor in the progress of the Dominion.

So much for land monopoly. With regard to industrial and commercial monopoly, the Government has alto been alive to the interests of the people, and we only need quote the Monopoly Prevention Act and the careful watch that is being kept upon the oil trust and the sugar monopoly. Ami what of the problem’ of education? Surely the people of New Zealand have much to thank the Government for in this reaped. The aim lias been to make education free from the infant school to the university, and to so equip the youths of our land that they may compete, and compete successfully, in industrial life with those great countries where technical education has proved such a great boon; and each year sees some material advancement in the solution of the problem which Professor Mills declares the Liberal Government cannot deal with effectually. The fact is the successive Liberal Administrations have done well in the past, despite their faults and failings. It may bo true that they lay themselves open to the Professor’s charge of being split on various questions; but is it not a little curious, in view of this jibe, to find so many shades of opinion in the camp of Labour. They seem to he quite as widely divided on certain questions of policy as the Liberals arc, hut of course these differences of opinion arc not necessarily to their discredit. Some are much more radical in their views than others, and some are extremists who would without the slightest compunction turn the world upside down to effect their ends. Liberalism’s record in New Zealand is one any party might well be proud of. No other political force can compare with it in the work it has done for human betterment, and its record in the past is what it rests on for authority to go on in the future.