The Press MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1933. The Case for the Coalition

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20957, 11 September 1933, Page 10

The Press MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1933. The Case for the Coalition

The four speeches by Mr Coates on Saturday mark a turning point in the Lyttelton by-election campaign. Hitherto the Coalition speakers, but for Mr Ransom, have been mainly occupied in answering Labour criticisms of the Government. Mr Coates has opened the counter-attack and opened it impressively. In most byelections the record of the government in power is weighed against the promises of an opposition. Mr Coates, however, is able to show that the Coalition Government has a policy as well as a record. The electors of Lyttelton are not being asked, as they might well be asked, to vote for the status quo, to prefer what is to what might be under a Labour government. They are being asked to choose between two programmes of economic rehabilitation. The Labour party's programme consists mainly of promises to increase the purchasing power of the workers and to assure to farmers stable and remunerative prices for their products. How these things are to be done or who will pay the cost is not indicated. The only certainty about the programme is that it involves an immense extension of the field of State enterprise and a degree of protection, through tariffs and import restrictions, that justifies Mr Coates jn calling it " reactionary." The Government's programme recognises, what cannot be disputed, that the prosperity of the country and the solvency of the State depend mainly on the value of primary exports and that therefore farming costs must be adjusted to world prices for farm products. The measures already taken to reduce these costs include a general seal- ] ing down of interest rates, relief to mortgagors, a reduction of rates on urban farm lands, and economies in State expenditure, while the problem has been tackled from the other end by raising the exchange rate. In the near future the Government intends to reform the banking system, to amend the mortgagors' relief legislation so as to enable mortgagors " to get the full measure "of relief intended by the legisla- " ture," to give further relief to ratepayers, and to take up the question of local government reform. The choice between these programmes is a choice between a promise to work miracles and a promise, backed by a substantial record of achievement, to carry forward a programme based on conditions as they are. That choice is, or should be, the only issue in the Lyttelton by-election. The electors of Lyttelton have an obligation to the country to balance the cases they have heard for and against the Government and to put aside personal or sentimental considerations.