The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1925. THE ELECTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 260, 3 November 1925, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1925. THE ELECTIONS.

For the oaxtse that lack* assistant*, For the terong that nttm* rMittance, For the future in ike And the good that toe can 4k.

According to a local Labour candidate, •this election campaign has been one of the "dirtiest' 1 in our history. This, however, is a common complaint. To some men every campaign is the -worst for misrepresentation and foul tactics. We should say that in this contest there had. been less '"dirty work" than in some others we can remember. Many of our readers will remember the '"wait-until-we-search-the-pigeon-holes r ' atmosphere of 1911. It is true that the fighting has been hard, but for the most part it has been clean. We have not heard of any candidate being absolutely denied a hearing. The sectarian issue seems to be less prominent than it was three and six years ago. The campaign has had three main features: first, Reform's strategy of fighting under the banner of Mr. Coates rather than of the party: second, the threeparty appeal to the electors: and third, the determined effort of Labour to displace Liberalism, and so become the official Opposition. As polling day has approached, the reliance of Reform upon the personality and record of the Prime Minister has become more pronounced. We do not remember anything quite like it, even in the days of Mr. Seddon's domination. The truth is that Mr- Coates is a god-send for Reform. The suggestion that he is a super-man ie absurd: and we do not suppose for a "moment that Mr. Coates himself countenances this. He is. however, far the best campaigning asset Reform possesses. Eliminate him, and imagine the Reform party throughout the country being rallied by (Mr. Downie Stewart has to be ruled out) Sir James Parr. Mr. Nosworthy. Mr- Anderson, Mr. Bollard, or Sir Maui Pomare. The Reform party would be less than human if it did not try to capitalise Mr- Coates' breezy personality, his physical vigour, and his administrative record. On the other hand, voters are perfectly well entitled to ask what else there is in the Reform party besides Mr. Coates. What has it done ? What is it going to do ? These are awkward questions for Reform, and it is more difficult to answer them than to go on shouting "Vote for Coates" and framing advertisements with the hero in the folds of the flag. But all the talk about him will not hide mistakes. It will not 'cover over Reform's broken promises— its cynical indifference to its pledges about the Legislative Council and electoral reform, and its failure to keep this country in line with others in respect to labour legislation, or its ghastly muddle of land settlement. Opposed to Reform there are the National and Labour parties—the one the inheritors of the Liberal policy and tradition, the other pledged to socialisation of everything, but ready to tone down its programme for immediate purposes. The objections to Labour are many, ranging from the red colour in its left wing to the absence of any carefully thought out scheme for getting the money to finance the schemes it so cheerfully propounds. Labour in New Zealand still clings to State socialism as its objective, a narrow, rigid, mechanical ideal. Mechanical Socialism, says an eminent English sociologist, is founded on a false economic analysis and a false interpretation of history. It "conceives a logically developed system of the control of industry by government. Of this all that, need be said is that the construction of Utopias is not a sound method of social science; that this particular Utopia makes insufficient provision for liberty, movement, and growth; and that in order to bring his ideals into the region of practical discussion what the Socialist needs is to formulate, not a system to be substituted as a whole for our present arrangements, but a principle to guide statesmanship in the practical work of reforming what is amiss and developing what is good in the actual fabric of industry." Labour in New Zealand, or elsewhere, will succeed in so far as it realises the truth of this criticism. It is undeniable that men and women who could not accept Socialism in anything like its entirety are, in their dislike of Reform, attracted by Labour, but there is no need for them to make Laboiir the alternative to the present Government. Liberalism offers the way of wisdom between two extrercee. It appeals to no one class more than another. It preaches the doctrines of liberty, equality, fraternity and opportunity. It recognises the value of individualism, but is prepared to use the power of the State for wisely selected purposes. It stands essentially for liberty against the encroachments' of privilege on either side, and for the free working of institutions and development of society. To-morrow it asks for the rotes of New Zealanders for the National party, so that the good work may be carried on, and the country spared the difficulties and dangers of the falsehood of extremes.