The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1938. NEW PARTY: NEW POLICY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 223, 20 September 1938, Page 8

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

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1938. NEW PARTY: NEW POLICY.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Many New Zealanders, as the election campaign opens, are in a state of considerable perplexity. Reared in the humanitarian tradition, they have approved, in -en era I. the efforts of the Labour Government to improve and extend the social services. At the same time they have wondered, to use the common phrase, " where the money is coming: from." In particular, they have been disturbed by the grandiose nature of the Social Security Act. YVith its principles they are in entire agreement, but they wonder —and have rea>on to wonder—whether the scheme now on the Statute Book can be operated Mi.cessfully, or whether it will not collapse under its own weight in a very few years. I*or these and other reasons many people, we believe, are disposed to vote against the Government, but the thought occurs to

them: "If we vote Labour out, will that

not mean that those measures of Labour t policy which we approve must be abandoned f To get rid of Labour must we sacrifice* — for inshmee—social security?" Those who have asked themselves some such questions should moke a careful study of the National I'f'i-lv's policy, published to-day. i PROGRESS WITH SAFETY. I' "'HI !>j> obvious even on a quick !'<-ni-,il of the policy that the new and ili-tti icratic organisation of the National party li.is been reflected in a change in its temper nnd spirit. The party is" moving with the times. Labour members, when their measures have been opposed, have been fond of allep:ing that the Opposition is " reactionary," that its only policy is " to cut wages again," to do the things which, under the pressure of economic circumstances sneh as the Labour Government has never known, it felt itself obliged to do in the bad years of the depression. Those who have believed such talk, which has been

iterated and reiterated in the hope that it

would "sink in," can easily perceive its falsity by studying the National party's 'It is an anti-Socialist polky, first and foremost, but it is neither reactionary nor negative. It has been framed in the full realisation that New Zealand progressed since 1931-32, in thought and

ideals as well as in material things, that the National party to-day cannot just begin where the National party left off in 10;tt, because the people expect more of it—and of any party—than they expected then. The policy, in short, has been .framed by those people, and for those people, who believe in progress, but progress at the rate and in the manner likely to be approved by the good sense of the community. The first question that will occur to many people to ask is: "What will the National party do about social security?" The Government, obviously, ha.s run into difficulties with its scheme, and principally because, as a party, it approached the problem with preconceptions of which it has b€»en unable to rid itself. It

promised—and it proposes to try—to do

' everything at once. The National party .recognises that in respect both of national superannuation and national health

insurance, any Government takes over a

"ffoins concern." Some people are amply provided for; some are not provided for at all. The obvious course is to help first those who really need the help. This can be done without any increase in the wage tax, and without creating those injustices of which the Labour party was warned, but which it refused to remove. It can be done, too—in so far as the health service is concerned—with the co-operation of the medical profession, which has unequivocally declared that it has no use for the Government's scheme. Will it not be better to have a scheme, within the Dominion's means, which can be brought into operation, rather than a scheme which, however imposing it may look on paper, is certain to prove very different in practice? RACE PRESERVATION. What the National party proposes to do concernirig a variety of questions of the day—wage rates, civil servants' salaries, the Arbitration Court, the guaranteed price system, etc.—readers may speedily ascertain for themselves. On every matter they will find the party's attitude is the reverse of what the Labour party's assiduous propaganda may have led them to expect. In addition, the National party has made one declaration which, from the viewpoint of New Zealand as a nation, is far more important than any other.

There Is the fundamental issue of race preservation, which can only be based on family life. . . . Wβ regard this question ... as Hoiiinthing transcending the mere mechanic* of politics, and we are prepared to base out whole policy on the strengthening of family life.

In this declaration the party faces a j problem which is, in very truth, at the foundation of everything. All that anyparty holds dear, all that it wishes to achieve, can be of no avail if in this sparsely populated country the population growth is to come to a standstill, and a dec-line to begin. No party has ever recognised this sufficiently; but no party can afford not to recopmise it now. By its declaration the National party commends itself at once as a party concerned not merely with the winning of an election, but with the truest interests of the country in the future.