The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED DAILY SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1028. POLITICAL POSITION TO RE AT ONCE TESTED

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10752, 24 November 1928, Page 4

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED DAILY SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1028. POLITICAL POSITION TO RE AT ONCE TESTED

It will be generally agreed that Mr Coates has adopted the proper course in requesting tlio Governor-General to convene the new Parliament to test the political situation and the date that lias been fixed, December 4, is as early as could have been decided upon. Unless the Reform Party can secure a considerable number of allies, the present Government is, assuredly, doomed. Sir Joseph Ward will then he afforded an opportunity to show whether or not ho really thinks it is in tho interests of the Dominion to attempt to carry out his extravagant election pledges. A United Government is not likely, however, to get far. Sir Joseph Ward, it may have been noted, has denied that any arrangement with Labor has lreen made. “I have,’ - liesaid at Dunedin, “no idea what the Labor Party will do.” As a matter of fact, the United leader does not need to negotiate, openly, with Labor to gain office, for the Reds are pledged against the Government. He has, however, already given a clear indication that he intend? to meet Labor sentiment to some extent, without heing asked for any such assurance. At Invercargill, it is worth mentioning, ho complained that the Reform Government had been in office on a minority vote' all along. (The Uniteds. by (ho way, will also be- in a like predicament should they secure the Treasury Benches, and this they are generally expected to do, even if their stay in power should prove hut brief.) But Sir Joseph Ward says lie intends to end the present system of election under which it is possible for a Government that has not gained a majority of the votes east at the polls to hold office. With that object in view he will, he says, set out to enact preferential voting. or, as he calls it, the alternative vote method of eldbtion. Thus the United leader has lost no time in making what Labor will regard a? a pleasing gesture. But he must go a lot farther! In the course ot the address to which we are refer, ring, Sir Joseph Ward worked himself up into a very angry rnood “Supporters of the Reform Party.” he said, “had had the audacity to ask United Party candidates how they would vote in the event of the leader bf the Opposition moving a vote of no-confidence in the Government. That is clumsy science and supreme audacity. What would you do? I know what I’d do. Don’t you think I would be a frightful hypocrite if, realising the way the country is heing managed, I didn’t vote to put the Government out. I’d vote with Mr Holland like a shot. 1 would vote with anybody to put the present Government out from the point- of view of helping the country in the matter of land, railways .and finance; from the point of view of doing my best for New Zealand.” What supporters of the United Party may not yet fully appreciate is the fact- that Sir Joseph Ward will find it much more difficult to remain in power than to get there. It will be after tho United Party Government has begun to function that its real troubles will begin. Labor proved, during the election campaign, just as hostile as the Reform Party to S : r J : o.?eph Ward’s “borrow, boom and burst” policy. Only by pleasing either Labor or Reform would a United Government bo able to hold office. It is, therefore, very unlikely that a United Government will remain in power over a lengthy period.