NOMINATION DECLINED

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29352, 3 November 1960, Page 21

NOMINATION DECLINED

Labour Man’s Reasons The Government's attitude to exclusion of Maoris from the Rugby tour of South Africa, its policy on defence, and its policy on television, are among the reasons given in a statement by Mr W. E. Rose for declining to have his name put forward as a candidate for a Wellington electorate this year. .Mr Rose was the Labour candidate for Pahiatua in 1957 against the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Holyoakei and was the Labour candidate for Ashburton in 1949 and 1951. “When arrangements for the Rugby tour in South Africa were made, the Maoris should have been asked, ‘What do you think about this?’ If the Maoris had answered, ‘We will stay home,’ and if everyone toutside New Zealand as well as in) could quite clearly see that the decision was made by the Maoris themselves, then that might have avoided controversy,” says Mr Rose. “This, however, was a Rugby Union matter and not governmental. But a government which can intervene in private trade to the extent that it does, can inter-, vene in sport on an issue which affects our national reputation. The way in which decisions are made is the whole difference between colonialism and independence. It is the' duty of the government of New Zealand not merely to profess equality (which it has done at great length), but to act equality in substance and in manner. Television Control “When we have some activity which cannot properly be attended to by private enterprise, the answer is a public corporation, strictly charactered for the function it has to perform and responsive to parliamentary as distinct from ministerial (i.e. secret caucus) control. “This is how television should be organised, not by being passed up the backstairs to the Chamber of Commerce but by an independent television authority, strong enough to resist political interference as well as unscrupulous advertisers of trash. “Our defence programme is still inadequate. With some exemptions for people receiving specialist training with defence value, all young men and women require a period of camp-style discipline—a basis of efficiency if war comes to New Zealand, or of civil pride if we are left in peace. “Some fresh thinking about the way in which our total prosperity depends upon British markets is also required. We are running the risk of a crisis which might drive us right back to the Kumera economy, if the British market should ever fail,” says the statement.