A Messianic Delusion

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21858, 11 August 1936, Page 10

A Messianic Delusion

In an address to Labour supporters in Riccarton on Saturday night the Minister for Industries and Commerce, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, dwelt with apostolic fervour on the importance to humanity of his Government’s programme of social reform. “If we fail,” he declared, “it “ is a bad lookout for the rest of the world. . . . “We mean to fight the battle for humanity, “to find a way out of the paradox that has “ defied the world, and to give the world a lead “in social matters.” Mr Seddon and his colleagues were fond of talking like this; and they had their rebuke in a comment from a French visitor which has become famous:—

Many New Zealanders are honestly convinced that the attention of the whole world is concentrated upon them, waiting with curiosity and even with anxiety to see what they will say and do next. . . . Europe struggles painfully in social and political crises from which she cannot extricate herself. She yearns for a passport or a guide to show her the way—something to lift her out of the rut into which she has sunk. Poor Europe, bound by her own traditions and prejudices! Poor European continent, victim of its own unbelief! Well, say the New Zealanders, New Zealand will be her guide. To qualify herself she will make the necessary experiments. She may well suffer from them herself, but no matter, it is her duty, and she will not shirk it. When one lives so far away, how can one avoid the sense of being in the centre of the world? Like provincial celebrities who, coming to Paris, feel that everyone is looking at them, the New Zealanders, in their distant insular isolation, think that they fill a great place in the world.

These are hard words; but they are fair. Mr Sullivan and his friends had better face the truth that what they are saying will not reverberate round the world and that what they are doing will not deflect the course of history one hair’s breadth. When New Zealand’s Labour Government falls there will be no repercussions in Moscow or Nanking or Berlin or Montevideo; and millions of Frenchmen, Esquimaux, Letts, Finns, Mongols, Hindus, Chinese, Mexicans, Bantus, Turks, Bulgars, Poles, Croats — yes, and even Irishmen—will go to their graves without ever knowing that Mr Sullivan appointed himself to be their deliverer. It may seem unkind to take serious notice of a statement made, perhaps without much thought, at a party meeting. Yet it must be remembered that Mr Sullivan is echoing what has been said on many occasions by the Prime Minister; and it must also be remembered that important measures were, in the Seddon period, adopted, not because they were considered wise or necessary but because the Government believed that to experiment was a duty to humanity. The task of the present Government is to govern the people of New Zealand according to their needs and wishes, to keep them contented, prosperous, and at peace. If it allows itself to be swayed by the view that New Zealand is a “laboratory for the world ” it will soon find that, in the political sense. New Zealanders are anti-vivisectionists.