The Dominion. TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 1934. LONDON LESSONS THAT FIT NEW ZEALAND

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 171, 17 April 1934, Page 8

The Dominion. TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 1934. LONDON LESSONS THAT FIT NEW ZEALAND

In the triennial elections for the London County Council last month, the Municipal Reform Party, which had a majority of 42 on the old council and had been in office for 27 years, lost 29 seats to Labour, which now rules. The Liberal Party, which had a strength of six in the former council —the total membership is 124—was wiped out. Only about one-third of those eligible voted. While there is little similarity between local politics in London and national politics in New Zealand—whose population is roughly one-third that of London County—some of the “Lessons From The Poll” pointed by The Times are appropriate, to the New Zealand political situation. Thus: The usual stories of apathy among their supporters will not serve to explain, away so decisive a defeat. Apathy, no doubt, exists, but the poll on this occasion appears to have been slightly larger than last time, and it is high time that organisers ceased to be astonished at the lack of response to efforts at the eleventh hour on behalf of a cause of which the electors are seldom reminded during the intervals between elections. -It is very little use for Municipal Reform candidates to cry, “Vote now or these dangerous Social ists will win,” to electors many of whom have not been previously acquainted with the champions of either party.

Eleventh-hour campaigns .and last-minute appeals are at Home a peculiarity of local politics. . The national political parties have their permanent organisations which are active all the while, arranging meetings, supplying speakers, and planning educational work. In New Zealand national polities we have at present samples of each of these two methods. The. Labour Party, with a thorough industrial organisation upon which to build, is ceaselessly active up and down the country —scourging the Government for having taken a stand and pulled the country through the worst of its troubles: and promising lavishly what it will do if only the people will put it in office to profit by the results of the Coalition’s difficult and unpopular recovery programme. On the other hand the Coalition itself, its two party organisations necessarily more or less in a state of suspended animation, and with no joint organisation to take their place, is doing little or nothing to counteract the clever and occasionally conscienceless propaganda of its opponents. What avail, as The Tinies pertinently asks, to cry loudly at the last minute, “Vote now or these dangerous Socialists will win,” after having kept silent when one ought to have been revealing tlie dangers of Socialism or protecting oneself and one’s record from wordy Socialist attack? Observers notice also, as contributing to the London defeat, a second weakness which is becoming too common in New Zealand. “Votes are being transferred to the Labour or Socialist Party,” says The Times, “although it has never been more disunited and infertile in a long history of disunion and infertility. ... A main cause of the defeat is the ceaseless and erratic cavilling to which the Government has been 'exposed from those whom the people think to be its friends.” Ts London so big and so far away that we cannot learn from her mistakes? Failure on the Government’s part to inform and hearten the electorate, and failure by the Government’s supporters to realise the folly of grumbling and muttering against it when there is no acceptable alternative, could easily land New Zealand where the County of London has landed itself. - y Last, but by no means least important, the Administration’s record. The chief subsidiary cause of its defeat is said to have been “the reliance which the Municipal Reform Party placed far too emphatically during the campaign on its past record,” It is admitted that the record was in many respects admirable; “but no greater mistake can be made than to imagine that the past counts at .all largely when so much clearly remains to be done in the future; It is at any rate one of the truisms of politics that a bad record counts adversely Very much more than a good record counts favourably. It is a fact which the National Government itself' would do well to bear in mind.” And also the Coalition Government in New Zealand. The 1 Prime Minister, who was once a representative half-back, plays a rugged defensive game. When it was’ a case of going down to rush after rush to save the line, he did it magnificently. Now that the pressure of economic attack is easing, he ought to be able to see—for he was a representative captain also —the tactical advantage to be won by turning defence into attack. “Much clearly remains to be done” in New Zealand as well as in London. If it be done well, the spectators on the political bank will forget the monotony of the first half in the enthusiasm of the second. For political memory is short, while popular reaction to political leadership is whole-heartedly generous.