The Dominion. THURSDAY, MAY 14, 1936. REORGANISING THE OPPOSITION

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 194, 14 May 1936, Page 8

The Dominion. THURSDAY, MAY 14, 1936. REORGANISING THE OPPOSITION

Since the Government revealed the marked Socialist tendency of its legislative programme and its intolerance of criticism in Pailiament, the need for the effective organisation of the political forces in the country opposed to its policy has become increasingly evident. The present Opposition is so overwhelmingly outnumbered that it can do nothing to influence the course of legislation. All that it can do, all that it is likely to be able to do during the term of the present Parliament, is to voice its protest against the reckless experimentation with Socialist ideas to which the Government apparently is definitely committed. The general impression gained from Labour’s pre-election campaign was that if the party were returned to power its policy would be to revive and carry on the Seddon tradition of radical Liberalism. That was a prospect much less disturbing than the reality which has arisen from the Government’s sweeping and far-reaching legislation. The country’s tolerant expectancy is giving place to apprehension. Opposition, to be effective and salutary, must be well organised throughout the country-. The Labour Government claims that it received a popular mandate at the last election. But it was evident from the feeling in the country at the time that the result might fairly be interpreted as a vote of dissatisfaction with the late Government rather than as a vote for Socialism. The Democrats came into the field too late in the day to make a convincing impression on that portion of the electorate —fairly large—which has no fixed political creed or party allegiance, preferring the privilege of free and independent judgment at the -ballot-box. At all events, anti-Socialist sentiment in New Zealand is much stronger than the Labour Party evidently believes it to be, It cannot be given effective expression, however, unless the forces behind it are thoroughly organised. If the conference now sitting in Wellington can reorganise the various sections of anti-Socialist opinion into a single political unit to be known as the National Party, a useful beginning will have been made. It will be well if those concerned in the movement can resist any temptation to shape a platform and policy representing a compromise of threadbare fragments ransacked from the old party cupboards. The Opposition’s task is, or should be, twofold—first, to convince the country of the dangers to the State and its finances of socialistic experimentation; secondly, to demonstrate the absurdity of Labour’s claim that those opposed to it have nothing practical by way of constructive statesmanship to offer the electors. The very fact that Socialism in government' has failed in the United Kingdom and in Australia, and failed disastrously, should be enough to strengthen the conviction in this country that an alternative must be found. The times, and the conditions and circumstances of the times, have greatly changed during the last thirty years. The old party shibboleths and slogans must be jettisoned. The new party must be prepared to put the past behind it, and face the country and the future with a platform and policy suited to the requirements of the present. It will be better equipped to formulate these if it discards completely the left-overs of its previous political associations.