Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, MARCH 30, 1931. THE STONEWALL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 51, Issue 143, 30 March 1931, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, MARCH 30, 1931. THE STONEWALL.

As the leader of the Labour Party stated in the House of Representatives on Saturday, New Zealand has been proud of the absence of provision for the closure in the Standing Orders of its Parliament, but in view of the circumstances in which it has been found necessary to introduce machiney for such an extreme step, it savours of the farcical for him to bewail the loss of that fine tradition. A stonewall is one of the recognised manoeuvres of party politics, of value in certain cases in which the government of the day desires to force upon the country legislation that is not acceptable to the majority of the people. The delay that is thus entailed enables the full force of the opposition to the proposals to be brought to bear upon the Ministry. But these instances are very rare, especially in New Zealand. In the present case, the tactics of the Labour Party are most reprehensible, for there was no question of the country not approving the proposals brought down by Mr Forbes for the restoration of the financial position of the country and the improvement of economic xonditions generally. In the House itself the Labour Party was fighting a battle the futility of which must have been apparent to the persistent- members themselves, for the other two parties were distinctly opposed to them, and no matter how protracted the struggle might be the outcome was a foregone conclusion. The arguments by which Labour sought to impose its will on the House have been shown to be weak and misleading so often and so convincingly that it is not necessary at this juncture to recapitulate the reasoning. The only comment that need be made is that by its attitude in the face of a grave national emergency Labour has revealed itself incapable of taking any but a narrow, partisan view, inspired less by concern for the national welfare than bv a desire to gain political power by playing on the prejudices of a section of the community whdse outlook on public concerns is based on imperfect knowledge and dictated purely by personal considerations. The upshot of the deplorable exhibition of last week will be a strengthening of the forces that oppose Socialistic tendencies, for many who might otherwise have had a certain amount of sympathy with Labour will be forced, on grounds of pure logical reasoning, to align themselves definitely on the side of the upholders of economic law and order. Viewed from this aspect the stonewall may be regarded as not an unmixed eviJ-