Evening Post SATURDAY, JUNE 5, 1915.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 132, 5 June 1915, Page 4

Evening Post SATURDAY, JUNE 5, 1915.

PARTY TACTICS AND IMPERIAL NECESSITY

Almost six months' have passed since the General Election, and Parliament will be in session before three weeks more have passed. Yet the political deadlock with which the country was brought face to face' by the provisional results of the polls has not been resolved. The ultimate issue is still as uncertain as ever. Time and the Law Courts have brought us some' distance on the road towards a solution, but in two cases the electors have still 'to speak- again, and meanwhile the politicians who ought to have settled the matter out of hand four or five months ago are _still playing a waiting game. Never has a political crisis in this country been so long drawn out, never did one come at a more unfortunate time, never have onr public men more grievously neglected a great opportunity. The occasion has been an embarrassing one for the politician, but it' provided an admirable chance for the statesman, and unfortunately the statesmanship is not yet forthcoming. Nevertheless, we are not without hope that the necessary forbearance and self-sacrifice will be available at the eleventh hour, and that the patriotic co-operation of all parties will give the country the strong and stable Government which its interests and the interests of the Empire imperatively demand. If there is one thing that the politician- can discern as clearly as the statesman at the present time, it is that a dissolution is out of the question. The public mind is even more firmly set against it 1 now than it was immediately after the General Election. At that time there was naturally a strong repugnance to the renewal ol the struggle through which the country had just passed. It would have involved all the weariness and not a little of the demoralisation of the second ballot, but on an indefinitely extended scale and without the advantage -presented by the second ballpt of a decisive result. The exhaustion of a General Election is no longer in the country's bones, but the gravity of tho Empire's crisis is • more vividly in its mind thai) ever. We spoke six months ago of a life-and-death struggle, but since then w.e have reairy begun to feel it. The end seemed' to be within sight six months ago, but we all see that it is a very long way off now. Those who eight or nine months ago were urging the postponement of the General Election must at least admit that since December no more suitable time for holding it has yet arrived, nor could any future date be fixed with the certainty of its being more suitable. It is, therefore, common ground for a}l the politicians that the escape frqm the deadlock is not to be sought in a dissolution. Mr. Parr, M.P., proclaimed this from the Ministerial side of politics a week or two ago, and one of the leading lights of the Opposition, Dr. M'Nab, M.P., whom the country iss glad to wel-Lcußia.JiacJt.--iu noliticfe* «aid the .sama

thing with equal confidence in a \ speech at Hastings on Wednesday. After a reference to the difficulties of Parliamentary "work at a time when all the energies of the different Governments of the Empire should be concentrated upon the conduct of the war, Dr. M'Nab said : "Whatever leader was found ultimately 1 to have a majority, however small it was, there was no fear of another general election in New Zealand until peace was declared." The member for Hawkes Bay is not a rash or impulsive man, and he well knows the power of party spirit and the meaning of party discipline. But he realises that this is not the time when the tempting opportunity provided for an Opposition by a Government majority of one or two can be exploited in the usual way. Party tactics must be subordinated to Imperial necessity Upon this common ground the parties will surely be able to erect a structure that will last as long as the war. It is, however, to be noted that with characteristic caution Dr. M'Nab refrains from any definite suggestion as to the method by which this result is to be achieved. Mr. Parr's suggestion was that the Government should strain every nerve to win both the by-elections, and in the event of failure should seek a coalitiqn. It would have been ( far preferable.. if the rival leaders could have come to a working agreement irrespective of the pending elections — an agreement that might have allowed these two seats to retain their previous allegiance, after the fashion established in Great Britain since the beginning of the war. But this is not to be. Each party is sparing no effort to win both the vacant seats in the hopes of making better terms on the final settlement. Even so, v the country asks the leaders to refrain during their campaigning from anything that will add to the difficulties of the inevitable compromise.