Evening Post. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1928. A TRIANGULAR CAMPAIGN

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 82, 16 October 1928, Page 8

Evening Post. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1928. A TRIANGULAR CAMPAIGN

'On Wednesday last My. H. E. Holland, Labour leader and Leader of the Opposition, outlined in a speech at Masterton the policy which his party proposes to carry out if returned to power. The programme of the Government and the , Reform Party is disclosed in the Prime Minister's manifesto which is published to-day. In a speech at Auckland to-night Sir Joseph Ward will face the most difficult task of all—that, namely, of justifying the claims of a long-dormant party to a renewal of the public confidence which under another name it had previously enjoyed for so many years. In-less | than a month the electors will, be called upon to adjudicate upoa the! rival programmes and the qualifications of the various candidates who will mostly be definitely pledged to at least a general support of one or other of them..The conflicting claims of measures and.. men have always been a crucial part of the electors' difficulty, but in recent years this difficulty has been considerably aggravated. Tlie multiplicity of issues has been complicated by a multiplicity of parties. In France and Germany the' process has been carried so far that party government in the British sense is an impossibility, and the choice of a Ministry, the progress of its measures, and the duration of its life are- determined by the bargaining of constantly shifting groups. In Britain, where the system of party government originated, and in New Zealand, where the British model has been faithfully followed, the Continental group-system is fortunately not yet in sight, but in both countries the rise of a third party has made for embarrassment, confusion, and instability. Even in Paris and Berlin there are only two lobbies, and .even in London and Wellington three parties are more than the tAvo lobbies can conveniently hold. , ,;;; . ._ From this.point of view it maybe", said that it is for the weakest of the three parties to justify its right to jeopardise the working of a machinery which is only adapted to the competition of two. Last week Mr. Lloyd George essayed the task on behalf of the British Liberals, and we shall not seek to anticipate ilie arguments by which Sir Joseph Ward may attempt to do as much for the United Party. One of the few important points on. which the three parties are in agreement is, indeed, that two would be quite enough. The Reform Party and the Labour Party are also agreed that the United Party is the one that should drop out, but it will not be surprising if Sir Joseph Ward finds in this agreement of its opponents a sufficient reason why it should not. The electors may at any rate take, it for granted that Sir Joseph Ward will not be converted on this side of the General Elec-; tion. The relatively simple issue of the old days when Sir Joseph Ward did most of his fighting—the Liberal-Labour Party versus an Opposition which ultimately called itself the Reform Party—will remain as complicated as it has always been since Labour was strong enough to knock out the hyphen that joined it to the Liberals. In one respect the complication may perhaps be regarded as now aggravated by the question whether after so many trials the expediency of a reversion to the two-party system should not influence the electors' choice. One great advantage that the country enjoys in the present contest is thai, tangled as the issues must always Joe in a triangular fight, they are free from one perturbing cause which exercised a great influence three years ago. Mr. Coates had at that time been only a few months in office. He had done Avell in subordinate positions, but he was an unknown quantity as a leader, and it was largely the legacy of goodwill derived from Mr. Massey and the goodwill due to a novice in a position of great difficulty and importance that enabled him to acquit himself with credit, during his first session as Prime Minister. But at the General Election the unknown and untried element in the new leader was astutely turned to a very great advantage. "The man who gels things done" and "Give Coates a chance" made a combined slogan which touched the popular fancy and carried all before it. The immense majority unequalled since Mr. Seddon towards the close of his career was at the height of his power was a tribute not to the policy which the new Prime Minister had inherited from his predecessor nor to the additions which he had himself made to it, but to his personality, and lhat admittedly a personality which was to a large extent unknown. The majority was indeed far too large to be wholesome, and, in spite of their vagueness, the expectations aroused were on a scale that rendered disappointment inevitable. No mortal man ■ could possibly have lived up to them. In due course came nemesis in the shape of the slump, the collapse of dairy produce export

control, and the revolt of the farmers. One of. llic things that the glorified Prime Minister of llie General Election had shown himself unable to get done was the control of the seasons and the world's market, and of course lie had to pay for it. It was a common saying in those clays that the Coates stock was very much depreciated, and commercial men who had no faith in the nationalisation of commerce or anything else declared their determination to vote Labour. Freed from the perturbations of cither the bulls or the bears, the Coetcs stock has since reached its i proper level. If the glorification of three years ago has passed, so has the almost equally extravagant depression of half-time. The golden haze of Reform propaganda at the elections of 1925 and the fogs of the slump were equally fatal to a good "visibility." According to a New York message yesterday, "the prosperity issue has been a priceless jewel in the crown of Republican ambitions." Our own Government has had no such luck, but it has at least had the luck to escape from the depression which always provides an Opposition with its most irresistible arguments. The present 50-50 condition of the country really gives it the best possible chance of delivering a fair judgment. If, the electors will forget that they ever expected Mr. Coates to do the work of a super-1 man and will measure the merits and the blunders of his government from the standpoint of ordinary fallible humanity they Avill be able to do ihe right thing by the Government and by themselves.