EDITORIAL COMMENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 129, 27 November 1940, Page 8

EDITORIAL COMMENTS

(Speclal to tlie

Evening Post.")

AUCKLAND, This Day

The "New Zealand Herald."—ln electing a new leader to succeed Mr. Hamilton, the Opposition has made the best possible choice in Mr. Holland. A warm tribute is due to Mr. Hamilton

for his steady and sound leadership during four strenuous years, including the ardours of a General Election and the country's entry into the war. His service has been crowned by his self-effacing willingness to resign the leadership upon the decision of the party, exhibiting an unassuming modesty that is rare in politics. Thus the way has been cleared for the new leader, of whom much is hoped. The country needs a fresh impulse in its counsels and renewed vigour in its administration, both of which Mr. Holland, if he proves that he possesses the qualities of leadership, should be able to supply. The • country needs to be fully awakened from sleeping and touched to those vital issues that confront it. Mr. Holland is a comparatively young man; he is a returned soldier, a good sportsman, an experienced industrialist, and has latterly made some acquaintance with rural problems. He should be. the better placed to lead the party because his position is not complicated by membership of the War Cabinet, as Mr. Hamilton's was. It is expected of Mr. Holland—it is a duty that he.showed last night he recognised—that he will eschew factious opposition, seeking to direct criticism helpfully and constructively, while pressing it with vigour and without compromise.

(By Telegraph.) (Special to the "Evening Post.")

DUNEDIN, This Day.

The "Otago Daily Times."—Mr. Holland has e/own himself to be a vigorous speaker and a keen student of national affairs. Moreover, he is endowed with a good personality. He will, in his new office, be able to devote to his political: duties, to party control, and to the vast task of national organisation a greater measure of time and energy than Mr. Hamilton could be expected to spare while the responsible and onerous necessity of almost daily War Cabinet meetings has first call on his time and attention. Mr. Holland assumes the leadership at a time when the country, after a prolonged experience of Socialist rule and misrule, will be prepared to respond to an uncompromising call for political and economic renovation in New Zealand. In his capacity as Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Hamilton has been an acute and intelligent critic of those aspects of Government policy that, in their cumulative effect, have disposed electorates to the question of how long the Dominion can afford the luxury of Socialist Administration. It is in a very great measure due to his untiring zeal that the forces of the Opposition in the country are today strong and cohesive.