WHAT OF THE BIG ISSUES?

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 111, 4 February 1943, Page 4

WHAT OF THE BIG ISSUES?

J'he by-election campaign which has been proceeding iu the Christchurch constituency for the past few weeks has caused the Labour Party organizers to summon the assistance of several membeis of the Ministry and a number of members of Parliament, and now the head of the Government has entered the lists. I his must have puzzled many people, for at the last general election the seat, which has been held by the party for very many years and at the last election gave Mr. Armstrong a majoritj r of over 7000 votes, might well have been legarded by the Government as a safe stronghold. The presence of so many Ministers and their active campaigning indicate that they recognize the extent to which public opinion is swinging against many aspects of their policy and administration. Apparently they are appi ehensive lest an expression of this dissatisfaction—through the ballot box—should command the attention of a wider public and have adverse effects. Whatever the explanation, they are working as though the stability of the Administration depended upon the results. It is perhaps significant of this electioneering activity that the members of the Government have been content to stress the minor issues. At a time when the nation faces some of the most serious problems in its history there has come little indication of wider. policy in the direction of national affairs. Much stress has been laid on the plans for rehabilitation, as though they alone possessed any urgency. The are very important, but only as part of a national, policy designed to meet the carefully considered requirements of a difficult period of readjustment. No one could say that the speeches delivered by any member of the Ministry in this by-election have covered the larger issues of national import. The old practices of. lavish promises regarding the future and unrestricted claims as to things done m the past 'have been adopted in a strenuous effort to retain votes, and any clearcut discussion of the problems which confront us as a nation, any balanced judgment as to the effects, economic and other, winch the wareffort mav have on the State, have been missing. The issues of the day, and the problems of tomorrow, concern the people as a whole and here was an opportunity to review them candidly and indicate, if not the solution, then at least the line ot approach. The other candidates, faced with this battery oi ministerial oratory. for the most part have followed this bad example and up to the present have shown an inclination to meet the Labour spokesmen on their own grounds. That, too, is a matter for regret. Instead of the bv-election helping to make the wider aspects of national problems clearer, not only to the people of one electorate but also to the Dominion, nothing of that character so far appears to have been seriously attempted.