ABSTRACT
The Conservative government of the time held a general election in October 1900, hoping to capitalise on winning the war in South Africa, a war which had divided the Liberal opposition into pro-Boers and anti-Boers. In 1903 Joseph Chamberlain resigned from the government in order to pursue his campaign for tariff reform, and henceforth the Conservative government was in some disarray, split over the issue of free trade versus tariff reform. True, vague references were made by individual candidates to the need for housing reform, or for old-age pensions, or even to the need for land reform, but there were no direct party undertakings in these matters. Other social reforms in the early years of the Liberal administration include the provision of school meals for needy children, and the medical inspection of school children. The period 1906 to 1914 saw the heyday of Liberalism, and indeed of New Liberalism and its efforts to right social injustices.
