Development of unity and organisation in the New Zealand political parties of the Liberal era

Abstract

Between the elections of 1890 and 1912 several major developments took place within the New Zealand political and governmental system. First, and most significant, there was a revolution in political ideas. New Zealand lost that neo-mercantilist outlook which was its inheritance from early Nineteenth Century Britain. The Orthodox Economists, the Utilitarians, Mill, Spencer, Owen, and Henry George, all contributed to this new enlightenment, and their influence affected conservatives as well as liberals. Within New Zealand, the most influential purveyors of these new ideas were the more respectable radicals, like Sir Robert Stout, or Sir George Grey, while John Ballance, as well beloved Liberal Premier, lent his great moral prestige to facilitate their acceptance. However ideals and theories do not in themselves provide the dynamic force so necessary for the colonisation of a new land, nor do they contribute much towards its development once the period of the initial colonisation is over. This dynamic was provided by Sir Julius Vogel, who first applied the methods of high finance to New Zealand's government policy. The loans he obtained from London were used to finance those State public works schemes which have now become a permanent institution of our political and economic life. The short tenure of the succeeding ministries together with the atomist propensities of most members of Parliament did much to negate Vogel's policy, and to emphasise its worst aspects. The chronic ministerial instability caused modifications to be made, which in turn helped accentuate the depression of the eighties. Conservative leaders feared the short term effects of the depression on their personal tenure of office, and as a result were quick to select "Vogelism" or Borrowing as a symbol to draw political fire away from themselves.