IS DEMOCRACY DEAD?

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 58, 9 March 1944, Page 4

IS DEMOCRACY DEAD?

From the facts given in W E 1 Waldegrave's letter to the Star on I the last general election there i s ' little doubt that democracy has not i only become defunct in principle but is fast disappearing in name! Apart from the depriving of the I democratic right of the magistrate I to scrutiny of the military or armed i -forces ballot, which in effect means ' that the scrutiny was not only out [' of. order, but savoured strongly of' totalitarian principles, votes could either have been destroyed or kept according to the political value to l ' the unofficial scrutineers. Another important factor, forgotten by our very short memory public, is the large number of people who did not vote at the elections, approximately 200,000, without the Government taking the action as defined in the Electoral Act. The proper action to take, if democracy has any meaning > at all, would be an immediate and 1 insistent demand for another general election to be held now, before the country is further committed to policies on which the people have not been consulted. The people only i get the Government they deserve— this applies to New Zealand just as it applies elsewhere. If we neglect to think for ourselves others -will do our thinking for us, and government of the people, etc., will pass into the I hands of the would-be Hitlers, 9 Francos of the totalitarian ideas and cease to exist. G. F. HOLIBAK, J