The Dominion MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1919. THE NEED OF GETTING THINGS DONE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 57, 1 December 1919, Page 6

The Dominion MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1919. THE NEED OF GETTING THINGS DONE

.At bottom the issue raised in the present general election is whether or not the country is to enjoy the benefits of settled and stable government during the next three years. In other words, the question is whether work that needs doing is to be clone in an orderly and enterprising way, or the country instead is to be plunged indefinitely into political turmoil and upheaval—or something worse than that if the Labour extremists realise their larger hopes. The easiest way to detect and label the mistaken tendencies that are operating in this contest is to consider the practical consequences that will result if these tendencies arc not repressed. All who take a national as distinct from a party outlook recognise as a matter of course that stable conditions of settled government are greatly to be desired. Preference for such conditions and dislike of the alternative is not, however, a mere matter of abstract principle, nor is it based merely upon a liking for order and security as against disorder and insecurity. It includes thesp. things, but it includes also a thoroughly practical recognition that settled government, and it alone, permits and gives free scope to useful and profitable national activities by which all sections of the community stand to benefit. In this election, as in most others, there is far too much talk of party aims and hopes and fears; far too little heed or thought is given to the practical activities in which politicians of all shades ought to be eager to combine in the interests of the whole population. In this part of the country, for instance, much more might well be heard about the great railway and road works that arc urgently needed to afford reasonable transport facilities between the port of Wellington and the interior area of the province and about long-delayed works like the Wellington railway station. Some of the candidates who have mentioned these undertakings have taken up a hopelessly wrong standpoint. A local Liberal candidate, for instance, declared last week that' Wellington representatives had been content to make Parliament their club and have a jolly good time while neglecting to press the claims of such works as the Paekakariki and Rimutaka deviations- and the new .railway station the city so badly needs. Even a new hand in politics might have been expected to remember that there was neither hope nor possibility of getting such works under way during the war period; he might have been expected to know also that the Wellington city and provincial members have taken every opportunity of impressing upon Ministers and the Government that Wellington province is entitled to an early settlement of long-standing claims where important public works are concerned. As was observed on Friday hy Mit. ft. A. Wiuoiit, himself an assiduous advocate, of district claims, only a political novice would say that Wellington members had neglected pie interests of their city. Avoiding any such injustice to those who have done what they could in difficult circumstances, it may be agreed very heartily, however, that the groat need at this time is that of getting things done, and that electors will Ijb wise if they keep this need steadily in view during the campaign and on polling day.

The people of Wellington City and Province have the same interest as their fellow-citizens in other oarts of the Dominion in establishing setlkd government, unci they have ill the same lime weighty reasons of their own for desiring and promoting such an outcome of I he elections. Fur them settled -government means amongst oilier things the prospect of the earliest beginning that is possible upon , works of which t\v.' Packakariki a ml Rinwtakii. deviations and the new railway station are conspicuous examples. Under the best, conditions, the eompletion of these works and others only less important is likely to occupy ;i great deal of time. There is a plain choice open to the electors, however. They can either establish conditions which will permit an early beginning and smooth progress upon such undertakings, or contribute to a state of affairs in which the rapid progress of "improvement and development works would bo impossible. No one needs to be told that if the election resulted in leaving the two main parties uncertainly balanced, and the Labour extremists endeavouring to profit by the circumstance, conditions would be created in which the enterprising prosecution of even the most pressing public works,would of necessity be deferred. Whether parties struggled along in these conditions or threw the country prematurely into the turmoil of another general election, the essential result would be the same—a great deal of time would lie wasted which might have been spent instead in forwarding works which would yield the country a rich return. People here and all over the country ought to give full heed to the fact that if by scat-

faring their votos they create conditions of political instability and unsettlcment they will bn voting to prolong conditions of hampered transport and inadequate housing, and to impose quite unnecessary and avoidable restrictions on the progress of settlement and development generally. The fact is particularly obvious, but in the heat of an.cleciion contest, disturbed by all sorts of meaningless and misleading catchcries and appeals to partisanship, it is nevertheless apt to be overlooked. The sound line for electors to take is to support only those candidates who are able when occasion requires to rise above partisanship, and are pledged to concentrate on getting those things done that the country most needs, and to work unitedly and in harmony, irrespective of party ties and ambitions, with all of a similar inclination. Candidates who answer to this standard arc not confined to any one party, but it is evident that the destructive aims of the Labour-Socialists, the distempered ambition of the Liberal Leader, and the narrow outlook of those who blindly support his pretensions are alike absolutely mimical to the establishment of stable conditions of settled government, and therefore to an enterprising policy of progress. On the other hand the broader outlook of most members of the Reform Party, and its frank offer as an organisation to combine with other progressive forces, mark it out as a natural gathering centre for those who are ready to place national interests first and party ambition last.