NEWS from one hundred years ago: LIBERALISM: A BULWARK AGAINST SOCIALISM AND TORYISM

Thomas Wilford, lawyer and newly chosen leader of the Liberal Party, has just given an important speech in Petone about parliamentary politics. He talks about how his party stands in the centre between the Labour Party and, on the right, the Reform Party. The Liberal Party stands ‘as a strong wall or buttress against extreme Toryism and extreme Labour.’ He calls on all ‘moderate’ Labour voters to support Liberalism and turn their backs on socialism . At the moment the Liberal Party gets the support of many skilled workers as well as a good many white collar workers, shopkeepers, workshop owners and some small farmers. Wilford is not getting very strong backing from Liberal members of parliament, however; the party is in some disarray. Labour and Reform hope that Liberalism will soon collapse. Politics can then become a simple competition between left and right. The Liberal Party will keep going, though, and will be more or less as strong at the end of the 1920s as at the beginning.
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The Press, 21 September 1920