The Press MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1951. The People’s Verdict

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26516, 3 September 1951, Page 6

The Press MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1951. The People’s Verdict

: Though the final composition of the ’ new Parliament is still indefinite, preliminary count figures show that the electors spoke clearly and decisively on Saturday on the main and subsidiary issues of the General Election. The Government required no more than retention of its 1949 position for the electors’ full endorsement of the issue on whicn it decided to go to the country for a mandate. On the preliminary count the Government’s position was improved. Its proportion of the aggregate vote was greater on Saturday night than on the 1949 election night; its representation in Parliament will not be less; it may well increase. This position can be viewed from two angles; from both, not only the winning party, but also the nation, can be deeply satisfied with what is seen. The first is a view that excludes usual party political issues; the other takes in parties and policies.

The Government was challenged on the methods employed to ) reestablish industrial law and order in the recent waterfront strike; the Government accepted the challenge and submitted its case to the electors. The electors were asked by the Government to keep first in their considerations the vital issue whether law and order were to prevail in industry. The answer they gave was plain and definite. By a considerable majority the electors rejected both distracting arguments about the cost of living and the baser appeals in a party policy which offered more in the way of taxation reductions and immediate social benefits. The nation is entitled, therefore, to be thoroughly gratified that a question of first-rank national interest l\as been so firmly and satisfactorily answered. The nation endorses law and order in industrial affairs; it asserts that the well-established practices of conciliation and arbitration must not be cveridden by, and in the interests of, militant unions. The arm of the constitutional Government is strengthened against attempts to usurp power by industrial action. Saturday’s vote implies that the majority are satisfied with the character, ability and strength of the Government that they first elected in December, 1949—a new government that took office after 11 years of Labour Party government. Perhaps more than anything else, the electorate rejected the Labour Government at last because its authority had declined. The National Party Government encountered a most severe test of, its authority. The electorate clearly approves of the way the National Party Government upheld the authority that a government must have if it is to discharge fully and faithfully the tasks the nation entrusts to it.

The sharp rebuff that the electors administered to the Labour Party cannot be disguised. The party can account for it easily enough when it acknowledges that the election • was fought not on grounds of its , choosing, but of the Government’s choosing. For reasons of its own. the Labour Party decided to take no side-in the recent strike. Its influence throughout the strike was against the Government and sympathetic to the strikers. During the election campaign the Labour Party tried to explain and justify 1 its stand and attitude. The poll showed the electorate to be against the Labour Party on all counts. Tfce political Labour Party will be better and more useful to the community as it absorbs and takes profit from . the electorate’s message, which is precisely the message the Federa- ■ tion of Labour conveyed early in the dispute—that industrial law and ' order must be observed, that processes of industrial conciliation and > arbitration, by which the vast 1 majority of organised unionists are content to abide, must be respected i Political labour did not lead its own i tanks; this, apart from anything ’ else, disqualified it to lead the . nation.

Figures are not yet full enough for detailed analysis and examination. Despite an expansion of the European electoral rolls by 53,000, fewer votes than in 1949 are accounted for in the preliminary election' night figures. This position cannot be usefully commented on until fuller figures are to hand. It is regrettably clear that the Maoris remain politically apart from the European electors, if in fact there is a common theme in the political philosophies of the two races in the same nation. Whereas a deterioration in Labour’s position is general in all but eight European electorates, in three of the four Maori electorates the Labour candidates’ positions improved. Though there were fewer candidates this time for Communists to vote for, the vote in electorates where Communist candidates stood indicated how lightly regarded their philosophy is by the great majority of New Zealanders. Though bitterness aroused in the recent strike will not end in days or months, now the election is over, the strike and the method of its handling are past issues. These are facts which the Opposition in Parliament will do well to acknowledge. By precept and practice the Parliamentary Labour Party can help to assuage bitterness and establish the industrial harmony that is essential to the nation’s wellbeing. The people have said the Labour Party was wrong in its stand and attitude during the strike. It need not continue to be wrong; it will not be if it heeds the people’s verdict.