V.

The next characteristic of historic Liberalism is the co-extensiveness of taxation and representation. This has been the sharpest and strongest arrow in the quiver of conquering Liberalism. In our Motherland formerly the parliamentary franchise was possessed only by a very small fraction of the people. This led to discontent and agitation, and the people at large claimed the franchise on the ground that they paid almost the whole of the taxation, and that taxation and representation were co-extensive. Their claim was logically irresistible, and was satisfied in part by the great Reform Act of 1832. After this reform the great majority of the nation found themselves still excluded from the franchise; and the agitation was resumed, and the cry was again raised—that taxation and representation should walk hand-in-hand; and household suffrage in town and country was the result.

The said principle of co-extension has been equally successful in New Zealand, where the two sexes, taxed or untaxed, have the vote-the outcome of Liberalism. Here, however, our Liberalism, like Macbeth's ambition, overleaped itself and fell on the other side. Our complete success as Liberals, strange to say, has resulted in the divorce of taxation and representation. The taxed are all represented now, but thousands on thousands are represented who are cither untaxed or taxed so lightly as not to feel it. We have separated the power of imposing burdens from liability to hear them. We have given complete political preponderance to the class that is most ignorant and most unfit to exercise it; and at this moment the property and wealth of the Colony are under the control and at the mercy of the unpropertied numerical majority.

What, then, should the true Liberals do in the peculiar circumstances in which they find themselves in New Zealand ? They should just do what their ancestral Liberals from time immemorial have done: that is, they should resist injustice and oppression. We have already remarked that when the tyranny of King John became page 10 intolerable, the Liberal barons of England interfered and compelled him to sign the great Charter. And, as we also have seen, when the aristocracy was supreme and leaned towards injustice and oppression, it was the Liberals, mainly of their own class, who put an end to their unfair privileges and prerogatives. And when the rich middle classes in Britain, and those who, in a small way, corresponded to them in New Zealand, were thought to be using the supreme power, when it was almost entirely in their hands, rather oppressively and for the promotion of their own class interests, the Liberals stepped forth to redress wrongs and reform abuses. In New Zealand we have gone much further than the British people; the supreme power of Government, and with it the whole property of the Colony, have passed over to the numerical majority. What, we ask again, is the duty of conscientious, genuine Liberals? It is, we repeat, to play the enlightened and manly part played by the former bearers of the Liberal name, by withstanding whatever tyranny may be attempted in the name of the numerical majority by the Opportunists, who are now striving to keep themselves in office by pandering to the meaner and more selfish passions of our human nature.