CARDS ON TABLE

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 66, 11 December 1930, Page 12

CARDS ON TABLE

Party Fusion Talk REFORM’S ATTITUDE Is United Doing Its Job? LEADER ASKS QUESTIONS Dominion Special Service. . Napier, December 10. Very definite indications of Reform views on the question of political fusion were given in speeches delivered at a women s Reform League gathering at Hastings to-day, when the Leader of the Opposition, the Right Hon J. G. Coates, J. A. Nash, M.P., for Palmerston, and Mr. H. M. Campbell, M.I. for Hawke’s Bay, spoke on the subject to nearly 300 women, “It all sounds very nice,” said Mr. Campbell, “but people who speak of it seem not to think of the difficulties of it. I do not say that under certain conditions it would be absolutely wrong, but neither I myself nor, I am sure, the leaders of my party would take it on at the present time. It is not long since Mr. Coates issued to the Press a statement on the subject, and he then gave very good reasons. We want to pull down overhead costs, to cut taxation , and to make it possible for everyone to live in a reasonable degree of comfort. What chance of those things is there if we fuse with a party that is constantly piling up the costs of government? If the country wants to carry on with what is wrong, then let it carry on and stick to the Government that it has got.” Relief Works Pay. “There are other reasons against fusion,” Mr. Campbell continued. “One of them has been given by Mr. Coates, and that relates to pay on relief works. There should be a difference between relief pay and standard wages. Again, when things get better we shall have to resume our share in the protection of the Empire. We must do something. Instead of scrapping our defence forces they should be kept there ready and able to carry on when times improve to sueh an extent that we are able to do our bit in the Empire’s defence. When the Reform Party was removed from the Treasury benches Mr. Coates made a straight-out offer to do anything reasonable to help the Government in its task of governing the country. That offer was flatly rejected and the United Party went into the arms of Labour. Must Alter Ways. “Is it possible we should join up with the United Party unless it alters its ways?’’ Mr. Nash asked. “We must ask ourselves this question: Is the Government doing its job? It is getting rid of men from the railways, from the Postal Department, and that’s the Government which told the country, it was going to clean up unemployment in three months. “Would fusion mean anything to any of you present?” asked Mr. Coates. “Is there anything for us in the word fusion? What are you going to amalgamate and what are yoti going to amalgamate for? Do you ask us to conform to the policy of the United Party, and, if so, can you read in any such conformation a solution of the political problems and difficulties of ta-day? Unless we have a Government strWig enough to do the right thing irrespective of section and irrespective of sect and of influence, then 1 for one cannot see how long it is going to take New Zealand to get through her troubles.” Courage Needed. Referring to the United Party electioneering tactics, Mr. Coates mentioned “the London loan mystery, Arapuni, and the Kirikopuni nonsense,” and went on to say: “The country is entitled to just the Government it deserves and to no other. If we are going to face our difficulties the process must be painful, but if we tackle them with courage New Zealand will’be one of the first countries in the world to return to prosperity.

WIDE DIFFERENCES Repentant Attitude Wanted By Telegraph.—Press Association. Christ church, December 10. “The differences between the parties are so wide that unless a repentant attitude is shown by the United Party, qn the lines of altering vital decisions, it is quite impossible for us on our side of the House to sit in Cabinet with them, for there would be immediate disagreements,” said Mr. D. Jones, M.P. for Mid-Canterbury, speaking at Methven on the suggestion of a fusion between the United and Reform Parties. Mr. Jones devoted a considerable portion of his address to the question of fusion. He stated that Mr. Coates stood higher in the opinion of the members of the Reform Party to-day than ever he did before, and the party was standing more solid than it ever had. There had been fusion for the last two years; - surely it was realised that there had been fusion between the United and Labour Parties. Members of the House knew that there had been an understanding or an agreement between the leaders of the United and Labour Parties. “The erv to-day is for a saviour, Mr. Jones continued. “The suggestion is that fusion of the Reform Party and the Uniter] Party would result in the combined party being the saviour of the country. Fusion means a common ground of union, as if melted together. Can anyone suggest that there is common ground for a union between the Reform Party and the United Party? The first thing needed in connection with salvation is repentance. There must be repentance on the part of the United Party, and the fojsaking of its spending and borhbwiiig policy, before we can discuss fusion.”