THE "MENACE" OF SOCIALISM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 159, 8 July 1935, Page 6

THE "MENACE" OF SOCIALISM.

The apathy of New Zealand citizens towards political matters, deplored "by Mr. Doidge, is perhaps partly due to the amazing inconsistency of the speeches delivered by some of our political aspirants. Even Mr. Doidge, after extolling Mr. Seddon as one of New' Zealand's greatest statesmen, proceeded in the next breath to warn his hearers of the menace of State Socialism. Surely the legislation enacted under the leadership j o'f Seddon was the most Socialistic in the history of New Zealand. He it was who inaugurated State coal mines, State fire insurance, the Public Trust Office and other Socialistic measures too numerous to mention. Mr. Doidge's veiled reference to tie Labour party as "a group of muddle-headed visionaries" sounds rather humorous coming from a sup-* porter of Lord Beaverbrook, whose policy Mr. Baldwin, the British Prime Minister, once described as "economic lunacy taking shelter under the Imperial banner." Perhaps Mr. Doidge will explain the recent landslide towards Labour in the British ■municipal elections. Is it that the citizens of Britain are even more "apathetic" than we are, or is it a tribute to the splendid record of Labour councils in places like Sheffield, Wigan, Barnsley, Rotherham and St. Helens during a period of great difficulty and economic stress? Surely the clean, efficient, vigorous administration of those cities for many years, past under Labour councils constitutes a decisive refutation of the stigma that they are "muddleheaded visionaries." E.C.S.