The Press TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1972. National stands on its record

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33061, 31 October 1972, Page 16

The Press TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1972. National stands on its record

For a Government party that has been in office for four consecutive terms the National Party has gone to unusual lengths in its election manifesto to recall what it has done in that period and, more particularly, in recent years. It is not surprising that the party should expect to be judged on its performance, or that it should seek to remind the electors that the kind of government they have had in the last 12 years is the kind of government they are invited to support in the future. With a good deal of justification, the Government is standing confidently on its record. It has had its less successful moments in office—any Government is bound to make mistakes—but it is probably right in thinking that it has given the majority of New Zealanders the kind of government they want. The basic policies of the party on most subjects are restatements, with minor revisions, of the 1969 policies. To these have been added sections on the control of the environment and on regional development—both matters to which public attention has been specially directed in recent years; The sections of the manifesto on education, health and social services, housing, and law and order are those to which the party has given most attention. They have been rewritten and expanded, and illustrated with examples from policy as put into practice during the last three years. While promising, for the most part, to continue present policies, the party can show that it has been remarkably innovative for a political organisation that would not wish to be called radical. The Government, indeed, has done far more in recent years to anticipate and deal in good time with emerging political and social problems than might ordinarily be expected from a Government of the Right. In accepting the need for economic planning, the National Party has acted consistently with its pragmatic approach to the application of its general principles, which perhaps might be defined as government with the minimum interference, consistent with efficiency and justice, in the lives of its citizens. At the close of its fourth term in power the party can claim to have put these principles into practice—to the advantage not merely of its traditional supporters, but of the country as a whole. Were the Government now promising to make many of the decisions it has in fact made in the last few months it would rightly be found wanting.