MR. COATES OFFERS CO-OPERATION

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 187, 6 May 1931, Page 10

MR. COATES OFFERS CO-OPERATION

An Alternative to Fusion of Parties

! f REFORM COMMITTEE TO AID MINISTERS

Will Safeguard the Interests of the People

identity, Mr. Coates promises that his party will not block offers in addition to furnish a small committee of to confer with Cabinet before necessary legislation is introduced.

"You will readily understand that an answer to your proposals for the elimination of the Reform and United Parties and the formation of a new party has demanded from me as grave and careful consideration as I do not doubt you gave your offer before making it,” Mr. Coates says in his reply to. Mr. Forbes. '‘The Reform Party has accepted without reserve your assurance that your suggestion is dictated with no view to personal or party advantage and is made in what you consider the best interest of the country, and I ask you to believe that the Reform Party, In refusing at this late stage in the life of, the present Parliament to disband and-form a new party with the Unitid and Independent members of .the House, does so in the belief that such action would not be in the best interest of the Dominion. “It does not appear to us that by jaming the proposed party the Nationalist Party, any special sanction or authority is acquired which entitles either yarty to depart from its pledges to the electors or, without consulting the electors, to start anew with, as you express it, a clean slate. 7 My experience is, as you'are aware, that a Governnent must faU or resign when its policy ceases to command public approval or, If it wishes to change its declared polity, must consult the electors. Preserving Electors’ Rights. “If this sound rule is to be relaxed >t must be done by the electors and no one else. No offer of office will induce us to join in an attempt to remove from the electors this right, especially when at so early a date as next November the future policy of the country will be determined by them. “Avowedly the bond between the United Party, tlje Labour Party and the Independents which enabled the United Party to gain and retain office was their common animosity to the Reform Party. Our policy has not changed, and as far as we are aware the alliance you have maintained with Hie Labour Party for two sessions has come to an end pot because you are converted to,the policy we have advocated but because the Labour Party is dissatisfied with your policy. Fear of Class Government. , “Those who are asking that all available political forces, be ranged against Labour are influenced by fear of the accession of Lab- • our to power. Since we do not share that fear, we refuse to destroy ourselves and to become part of a party; however named, called into being for a wason which will influence every step it takes. The Reform Party seeks to represent not a section of, but the wliole people, not the country or the city, but the country and the city, not the employer or the employee, but employer and employee. The course you suggest would, in our opinion, set up class government and create a definite separation in politics between employee and. employer which would be disastrous to New Zealand. The application of the term Nationalist to such a party is misleading,' and would react against those sheltering under it. - “While I appreciate the good fait J which dictated your statement, I cannot but think that the very short life

of your own party has blinded you to the fact that a party that has served the country for many years and has a record of service in office and out of office of which its adherents are proud, cannot be torn up by the roots by its representatives in Parliament at a moment’s notice, and I think on further reflection your.-long experience in Parliament will convince you that more than a name is needed to secure the stability and. harmony so essential to strong government, and you must know that the proposed new party would contain none of the elements of stability or harmony and all the seeds of inefficiency. To my mind the suggested party would mean io the country great loss and little gain, inasmuch as at the present time a party to be effective must be knit in closest agreement on principle* and policy. Expediency Deprecated.

“A Ministry of expediency, chosen as suggested, on practically the eve of an election, by members elected on different programmes, would command in the House neither confidence nor loyalty, and in my opinion would inevitably suffer disruption. It would be grossly unfair on my part to allow you and your Cabinet to resign portfolios in a belief induced by the recent comparative absence of criticism in matters of administration, apart from known differences on major policy measures, that your administration has been such as to command from our party any substantial degree of confidence in the administrative abilities of Ministers. ‘.‘Sir Joseph Ward’s long illness, your own absence at the Imperial -Conference, and the necessity we have been under lately to assist ypu in your economy measures, stilling criticism for the time being, may have misled you into an assumption of a wider range of agreement than actually obtains. Any misconception of this nature would ultimately lead to internal recriminations which must provoke discord and prevent harmonious co-opera-tion. ~ Offer of Assistance.

“In conclusion, we think it in the best interests of the country that the assistance you are entitled to ask of us should be given on the lines traditionally adopted and so far followed by us. The Reform Party has made it clear in the session just closed’that it will support such measures of economy and. finance as the present crisis demands. We recognise your responsibility to balance your Budget and will offer no factious opposition to such measures as may be necessary to attain that object. If further help is required, not merely in the House but in the preparation of legislation, I am prepared, in the public interest, if you so wish, to furnish a small committee of Reform members to confer with your Ministers before the legislation is introduced.

“If you agree with my proposals it should be reasonably possible to safeguard the interests of the people in the present period of economic strain and to carry on the government of the country until the time when the electors will decide the policy and the government the country desires.”