VOTING FOR PARTY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 50, 27 August 1938, Page 8

VOTING FOR PARTY

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —May I, through your paper, express my admiration and encouragement of the fight put up by Mr. Barker for the National Party. The future of the party lies very much in the hands of vigorous men like Mr. Mazengarb and Mr. Barker, who can carry the war into enemy territory without rancour, bigotry, or offensive language, and can parry silly interruptions without losing their tempers. At the same time, I should like to take Mr. Barker to task for saying that voters do not think. Why should they? The outstanding feature of a democracy is that voters do not.. think, otherwise why the astounding swing-over at each election, unless you are going to attribute this to the method of voting? The outstanding success of the Labour Party is due to the fact that Labour men vote for their party without thinking, which is the correct attitude in a democracy. If the great middle classes, who carry the burden of taxation did likewise, the Labour Party would have little chance at an election. Consider that in New Zealand, with a population of a big city, and 80 men to represent, or misrepresent, us in Parliament, the average voter could not write down the names of half a dozen of them, and these would be Cabinet Ministers. The private, member is j merely a voting machine, and the In-j dependent member is neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring. As Henry Ford truly remarked. "It matters little to the man in the street what party is in power; he will be ruled by a handful pf men." i.e.. Cabinet. If. then, we are opposed to reckless, theoretical, and costly methods of ruling this country, methods which set all experience on one side and substitute armchair economics, in which the wish is father to the thought, let each one vote for the party which either supports or opposes this policy. Names mean nothing; party will decide the day. Vote for party and not for the man. Your man may do much or little; your party will make or mar the country.—l am, etc., NATIONALIST VOTER.