YOUTH AT THE POLLS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 310, 25 September 1943, Page 6

YOUTH AT THE POLLS

Boys and girls’ who were at school at the last Genera! Election, five years ago, will- be going to the polls today to cast their votes |as electors for the first time in their lives. And not only as electors, but'as taxpayers. There are more than enough of these first-time voters to decide the fate of the Government. It is to the younger generation that a nation looks for the dynamics of political progress. Although a tempering restraint may be applied by its elders against unwise extremes, the force of the upward thrust from the more ardent spirit of youth nevertheless leaves its mark, as history bears testimony. It is right that this should be so, for it is upon youth of today that the burdens of the morrow will fall. It is largely their part, and their responsibility, to say what sort of country they would like theirs to be, what opportunities for advancement they ought to be given in order to satisfy their aspirations in regard to their careers,, marriage and family life, and the creation of homes preferablv their! own to have and to hold. In reflecting upon these and other questions, young New Zealand electors no doubt have been led to examine more or less seriously thevarious political doctrines that have been propounded during the ejection campaign; and the possible impact of these upon their aspirations for the future. If their interest in the contest is as keen as may . be imagined, standing as they are on the brink of a new experience, l they cannot but have been struck by an outstanding feature of this election,-that is the repeated protests being made against, encroachments by the State on the liberty of the individual; the restrictions and regimentation imposed in so many directions. Yet to the. young men and women of today these restrictions and this regimentation may not' appear so oppressive as they are to an older generation, for the youth of today has, to some extent, grown accustomed to State interference and perhaps does not fully’realize how much.in the way of the free exercise of his or her individual talents and desires he or she has been deprived of. Possibly that view is a misjudgment of the majority, that in actual fact the effects of/State restrictions over the lives and desires and-freedom of opportunity of the individual have been as deeply impressed on the younger class of voters as on those of more matured experience.’ Election day may throw clearer light on the point. -