The Press Tuesday, December 5, 1922. "A Change of Government."

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17629, 5 December 1922, Page 6

The Press Tuesday, December 5, 1922. "A Change of Government."

We notice that at the close of Mr Wilford's address at Hastings last- Thursday the meeting carried a resolution .similar in effect to that adopted at his Christehurch meeting, expressing the opinion that "the time has arrived " when a change of Government :s "necessary" and that Mr Wilford remarked that the same motion had been carried at every meeting he had addressed from Auckland to Dunedin. We can remember one instance at least in which ths desire for a change of Government was qualified by the words "or a much stronger Opposition," but Mr Wilford's statement was sufficiently accurate for ordinary purposes. As, however, lie was no doubt consulted beforehand in each case as to tho phrasing of the resolution there is nothing more surprising in the resemblance between all the resolutions than in the resemblance betw-een Mr "Wilford's own speeches. These resolutions purport to express the voice of tho people, or of as many of them as listened to Mr Wilford's remarks, whereas they really represent that gentleman's estimate of wlint was the most enthusiastic motion that the meeting was likely to pass. It would be unkind to laugh at him for being gratified with a succession of machine-made resolutions of this nature. After all, what do they mean? Only, at the most, that a handful of people want a change of some sort. As a contemporary remarks, in conexion with this chain of resolutions it Mr Wilford's meetings, 'Tor not a few, especially among the "younger members 'of tho community, "gamblers with life's serious problems, change for its own sake has at- " tractions, irrespective of what it may "bring. Thinking, perhaps that they " have little to lose, they are 'game "for a long shot' and have little care "for the future." But apart from these, and from the others who, having failed to get think that they might do better if the Government were changed, there can be but few really intelligent people who honestly believe that a Government headed by Mr Wilford and kept in power by the.Reds—for by- no other means could the Liberals hold office for a day—would be in the faintest degree an improvement on the .Government led by Mr Massey. Why Should they? What has Mr Wilford to offer that promises better Government and better conditions than the policy that Mr Massey has been pursuing ever since he camointo power, and that he will continue to carry.outt If the Liberals possessed some formula for wiping out our debt, reducing taxation, and increasing the revenue,, ib it not .probable'that their leader would have given the electors some' definite idpa of his proposals? But when one has taken away from the Liberals' platform the borrowed planks of a State bank and proportional Representation, there is nothing left that cannot be found in the more solidly constructed Beform platform. Mr Wilford in his speeches mentions nothing lesa than the. measures which. •weald at least excuse his appeal to the electors to put him in Mr Massey's place, and one is forced to the conclusion that he, has no such measures in his mind. Instead of an exposition of policy, he gives , 4iis hearers a rechauffe of exploded spandals and of i blunders alleged to have been committed by the Government, all of them having been satisfactorily explained away a dozen; times. "The hungry "sheep look up and are not fed." Sheep is the right description of them, for their endorsement of the suggestion tossed to them, that what the country wants is Wilford and not Massey—an idea that can hardly have entered their minds before—resembles nothing so much as the way in which a flock of sheep , will dash through a break in a fence if one of their number, moved by. a sudden impulse, gives them the lead; At this late stage of the election campaign we have yet to hear any valid reason why any intelligent body of electors should record their opinion that a change of Government is "necessary"—at a time when New Zealand's greatest need is administration by experienced and trusworthv men. '