POLITICS IN N.Z.

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 25061, 18 December 1946, Page 5

POLITICS IN N.Z.

SECTIONAL VIEWS ON NATIONAL AFFAIRS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY SEEN (P.A.) WANGANUI. December 17. "Politics h= ve been called a game, but that cynical thought carries within it the germs of a great national disaster,” said Mr R. O. Montgomerie, in an address to the Wanganui Rotary Club to-day. Mr Montgomerie added that instead of members of Parliament being looked up to by the community as men of principle and honour, all kinds of clandestine activities were associated with their office. “Politics to-day are just what the people h~ve made them,” said Mr Montgomerie. “If. politically, the people have demanded that an aspiring politician must put a sugar coating round all matters of political delicacy, we cannot blsme politicians. It is on our own shoulders that the blame rests.”

Mr Montgomerie said we were apt to look at national affairs through the spectacles of the political party to which we happened to belong, and such a habit was the genesis of an atmosphere of unreality. Our first duty was to look at all questions of national affairs as good New Zealanders. “We are not alone, here in New Zealand, in this growing threst to democracy of either the sectional or political party view.” Mr Montgomerie added. “It is a world-wide symptom that can well mean the ultimate doom of democracy.” Introducing the speaker to Rotary Club members the vice-president. Dr. G. H. Robertson, said Mr Montgomerie wss not only a successful district farmer, but had also made a close study of the economic aspects of farming.