THWARTING THE POPULAR WILL

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 146, 21 June 1924, Page 6

THWARTING THE POPULAR WILL

The South African Party has been defeated inasmuch as it has failed to secure an absolute majority in the Assembly. At the present time the opposition parties command a majority of twentynine; but this majority, it is important to note-, is commanded by two parties which have nothing constructive in common. The Nationalists, with sixty-three ~ votes out of 135, cannot hold office without Labour support; and Labour certainly has no chance of obtaining even a measure of power except by a further bargain with the Nationalists. The South African Party has been defeated by the Nationalist-Labour Pact; but that Pact does not provide for a position such as has now arisen. The Nationalists agreed to take no vote upon secession during the term of the present Parliament, and Labour promised to put its Socialistic objective in the background. But the Nationalists did not discard T!i'pub!k:a.n].sni, though General .Tk'i-tzog attempted u> vouvey the impression that secession had never Wren ;i. part, of l,|n- N'al.iotniJist v'rotjTU4iuue. iNur did iiaiioor Umi

from its socialism. Indeed, Oolonel Cresswell, in explaining the alteration, argued that the socialistic objective should be dropped because it was superfluous, not because it was in conflict with the rest of the platform. Campaign speeches have not placed this Pact without principle in a better light. Eather, they have served to show that it lacks even the semblance of principle. Od the one hand we have had General Hertzog's claim that the Eepublican bogy had been killed; and on the other the declaration of some of his influential followers that the Pact meant nothing but the postponement of a vote for five years.

But now that General Smuts has been defeated his opponents must consider how they will govern the country. In opposition they could agree because they had a common ioe. But how will they agree when something constructive is required of them? Will Labour be content to drop not only the socialistic label but the socialistic aim and support a party which is even more conservative than the South African Partj', or will the Nationalists make *a further bargain, against what remains of their principles, for the purchase of Labour support1? Whatever is done it appears certain that the will of the people cannot be given effect to; because that will is not known. The Pact has operated to prevent the people of the Union from expressing their views. There would have been difficulty in securing a clear expression with three parties in the fields but the Pact made the position worse by n presenting an appearance of unity in the opposition where there was in fact no unity, except for the defeat of General Smuts. Three-party politics always contain the germ of intrigue and unprincipled bargainmaking, of which the South African campaign and election have given an illustration.

There is all the more reason, then, for discarding the triangular system if it can be discarded without surrender of principle. In South Africa this may not have been possible; but in New Zealand there are no similar marked differences between the two moderate parties. Yet while they remain separate there must always be the danger of unnatural alliances, prompted not by political principle but by party feeling. There is this further lesson to be drawn from the South African election —that where it is impossible to avoid a triangular fight there should be provision in the electoral law to enable the voters themselves to speak decisively. They cannot do so with a first-past-the-post system, and the very existence of such a "system is a temptation to the intriguing politician to attempt manipulation of the issues for his own benefit. At the end of last session the New Zealand Government circulated a. Bill containing proposals for electoral reform. We hope that early in the coming session the sincerity of all members will be tested by prompt consideration of these proposals. To plunge the country into another election under the old system would be fair neither to the electors nor to those candidates who wish to obtain a verdict not on chance but on merit.