The Press. Tuesday, December 2, 1919. Sermons in Gold Bricks.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16695, 2 December 1919, Page 6

The Press. Tuesday, December 2, 1919. Sermons in Gold Bricks.

An interesting featuro of the Liberals' <;lectiori campaign is tho use which they are making of the advertising columns of "The Press" and other journals which are as hard to convince as wo ourselves are that what thiß country requires is a spell of government by the Liberals under the orders of tho Labour Party. Tho Liberal Party has always had a great deal moro money to spend than any of tho other parties, and they are wise in advertising where advertisements obtain tho widest publicity. Of course there is a difference Iwtween being heard and being believed, and much as we like our advertisers to obtain good results wo aro afraid that these advertisements will not sccuro good results, no matter whore they appear. Lot us consider, for examplo. Sir Joseph Ward's "plan" Fotr providing thousands of brand new houses for a rental of 10s fid a week, the half-guinea including the instalments of purchaso money. Tho Liberal Party's advertisement relative to this scheme is delightfully naive. "Tho Bcforra Government," it rays, "in its efforts to produce a "scheme likoly to win votes, has been "ablo to think of nothing better than "tho old Liberal measure, tho "Work- " ers' Dwellings Act, decked out with "now frills." But Sir Joseph Ward, iw an old hand at bidding for votes, hus thought of something much better than that as "a scheme likely to catch votes," as tho advertisement goes on to ••xplain. The very candid admission by tho Liberal Party that so far as it is concerned tho housing question is only something to bo exploited for vote-catching purposes is worth noting, dthough we aro bound to say that everybody knows that Sir Joseph's numerous "plans" aro just so many gold-bricks. So far as this particular is concerned tho vendor does no moro than declare that it is real gold, and he abstains as strictly as Sir .Joseph himself from encouraging tho public by demonstrating the purity of the gold by applying tho acid of explanation. But wo ourselves had the moanii of demonstrating that the brick is of tho purest brass. In the first place Sir Joseph has laid it down that money should cot bo borrowed by tho Treasury from the Post Office at

i loss than the market rato. Therefore he should pay 1J per cent, for tho t money. lie ronld not provide a deccnt | house for less than £7.50. To pay the I interest nlrtne there would ho neces«,iry n rental of I.ls n week. If the j tenant were to pay a rental thnt in- > < lttded thn instalments of purrhascir.nney, there would ho an estra amount of ahout os a wrnk, unless the tenant | vr< re to ho allowed 1000 years in which ; t > jay off tho prinripa!, when the in~:nlnu'nts of pr.'rrh.T-c-ninriey miirht ho j <"'1 :i wrv-i: added to the ].T- rent. I But the "plan"' is so obviously an imposture that rohody ran regard it c erioi]f.|y. Wo not ire it hero lieeanse the«(« gold-hrirks of the Liberal Party have an nf their own, nr.tl .'i tnn.<t intcri'-tin" Mi r nifKTtr, r v. They rrve.il lmv.- little the Liberal Party un» dorstands tho public. Tho Liberals have no! to realise thnt one of the major -~<-r|t:<- iir*f• ~f t}ii• w.-ir v..is the swrep'M'.' ."..way, i:i New Zealand, as in all n'iier countries, of most oi" the fog of icrin-raneo and prrindiep that enabled tho vendors of political uold-hrirks to obtain n hearing. In Now Zealand the process of awakeninr; had begun before -i.' war. and oneof its results was the sweeping aside of the old Libera! Party. In their present temper the people are imt-aticiit of old party catchwords and indifferent to lahels; they know that there nre strenuous and trying years ahead, in which prudent and progressive government is moro necessary than ever l>efore. They do not desire out-of-dato politicians who hnvc no equipment except tho prehistoric cold-brick; they regard Sir Joseph Ward as being at thn best nn anachronism. "Wo may observe in conclusion that nothing has done or is doing such mortal injury to the Liberal Party as these ahsnrtT "plans" of the Party's leader. They make it impossible for prudent men to believe in the bona fides of tho Liberal Party in nny particular; and it is largely to their evidence that what Sir Joseph and his friends desire is offico at any cost that tho Liberals can ascribe tho almost universal conviction of tho public that Sir Joseph will carry on the Government with tho assistance of tho Reds if ho can got tho chance of doing so.