Evening Post. THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 1917. UNITED NATIONAL EFFORT NEEDED

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 52, 30 August 1917, Page 6

Evening Post. THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 1917. UNITED NATIONAL EFFORT NEEDED

The people have been asking for a lead, and in some important respects they have got it. The non-combatant has been wondering and worrying as to how he could best serve his country,^ and a way has been pointed out to him. Members of Parliament have been pining for the chance of some solid work into which they conld put their backs for the good of their country, and the chance has been provided. All these wants have been provided for by the Budget and the Finance Bill. With rare courage, skill, and enterprise, a National Government which, like other Governments, has not always had these virtues at command, has submitted a policy to the country of ■which in the main it heartily approves, and which requires the earnest personal co-operation of tvery one of us to carry it through. The unprecedented conditions in which the country and the world find themselves in the fourth year of the greatest war in history have compelled the adoption of unprecedented financial measures. Efforts equally without precedent are needed to crown these bold but necessary measures with success, and the alternative to success is repudiation, disgrace, and the breaking of the faith which we have pledged to the Empire. Never before was there a more urgent need for a united national effort, but the need-which provides the patriot with his opportunity also makes an opportunity for the mischief-maker, and he has not failed to make what from his point of view is a good use of it. Mischief-mak-ing surely reached its climax in the House on Tuesday—the very day\of the opening of the Finance Minister's platform campaign for the War Loan and of the introduction of his Finance Bill.

The occasion provided was the motion for leave to introduce the Parliamentary Election Postponement Amendment Bill. In ordinary course a Bill that is meant to pass is not debated at this stage, but an abuse of the forms of the House, which members have strongly resented but never sought to remedy, permits a mem"bor who knowa that his Bill will never be heard of again to discuss it on this preliminary motion. Mr. Witty was thus able to get precedence over other business on Tuesday by cataloguing the sins of the National Government and giving reasons for an immediate appeal to the country when moving for leave to introduce the Bill above mentioned. According to the time-table established in the days of peace, the General Election falls due at the end of the present year, but it was clearly recognised by Parliament and people when the issue was raised last year that precisely the same considerations which had led to the formation of a National Government demanfed the postponement of the General Election. A party truce was declared and a National Government formed, because domestic strife was seen to be incompatible with the harmony and efficiency essential to the due prosecution of the wax. The same logic demands that there shall be no dissolution this year. A General Election which shattered the National Government and lei loose the ■waters of party strife would be a. grave disaster. A General Election with the parties stfll loyally united in support of the National Government would be a meaningless fdrmality involving.a criminal waste of money.

The logic of the. position is indeed so plain that it is not seriously denied by the. minority of malcontents who clamour for an appeal to the country. They, of j course, deny that the overthrow of the ' National Government would be # calamity, but they do not suggest that the continuance of the National Government and a seriously contested. General Election can possibly be combined. They would welcome a General Election simply because it would almost automatically put an end to the Government. On the part of those anti-Imperialist dreamers and schemers who would have been glad to see New Zealand ignobly stand out of the war altogether, and leave the defence of her liberty to others, this attitude is•logical and intelligible. They detest the' National Government because it has-,} been able to unite the people and wrestlei with the problems of Defence in a man-, •ncr which no party Government couM*, .possibly have emulated., They would 1 -welcome the downfall of the Govern-) ;ment because no other equally strong: and representative Government coald be put in its place, and New Zealand would have to draw out of the war.

The attitude of these quitters;'is,, asi we say, intelligible, but we cannot understand how those who profess and call themselves, patriots, and have given-clear proof that their professions have not been mere lip-service, can now advocate a course which must, from any patriotic point of view, produce such-disastrous results. The National Government has its faults. Some of its loading members have undoubtedly had their ears too closely to t,he groimdj jwicJ -■bfiijft, i at' L-too...yeud^ -to

believe that even in time of war a popular leadfjr's chief duty is to follow. They have created difficulties by a lack of firmness when' a bold front would have won. the respect even of carping critics, and have supplied a genuine rallying point for the patriotism of the great majority. But on the whole the record of the Government is one of which New Zealand has good cause to be proud, for without it little indeed of the great Avork that the country has accomplished during the. last two years would have been possible. And now that the Government has given us a really strong lead, the patriotism of the country resents more strongly than ever the blow which is aimed through the Government at the honour and safety of the country by a few disgruntled mischief-makers.