Grey River Argus MONDAY, May 21, 1928. REFORM’S ELECTIONEERING TACTICS.

Grey River Argus, 21 May 1928, Page 4

Grey River Argus MONDAY, May 21, 1928. REFORM’S ELECTIONEERING TACTICS.

Unlike the last General Eleclinn, the present Reform campaign finds neither party nor press advertising as their principal or sole political stock in trade the “man who gets things done.” That stock has slumped, and they know well it would be a waste to spend another quarter of a million upon advertisements to “sell Goates to the people,” the virile young New Zealander who was to lead the country out of the labyrinth, of depression. It is therefore time to look for whatever substitute the Conservatives are going to offer. The indications are. however, that it will be anything but a policy. Had the late Prime Minister lived, the Government of 1925 would have had to formulate a policy, instead of concentrating on the leadership of Mr Coates in a press campaign unprecedented in our history, which evidently convinced thousands that the Prime Minister was not the politician he is now known to be, but a national saviour. The indications, nevertheless, are that the press will be again relied upon lo fool the people. There is no attempt by the Government to explain its failure during the past three years, and there will be none. The railway deficit will be forgotten. The dictatorship of the banks will remain in the background, and the demands of the Chambers of Commerce and the farmers for lower interest and cheaper money will be met with the reply that the Treasurer has to consult the bankers. The stagnation in land settlement will be ignored, and the “bright cloud on the horizon” will be invoked. It will be denied that immigration has caused unemployment, and that the Government has any real responsibility to care for those whom the brand of prosperity we .have been getting since last election has stricken with idleness and poverty. The farmers, so generally disillusioned with the “promised land,” will be told no other politicians would or could have done better for them than Reform has done. One Cabinet Minister may tell his Tim-1 aru constituents that he will sound

Cabinet on the possibility of getting tlie 9s and 12s relief work wages brought nearer to the Arbitral ion Court minimum, but the Acting Minister of Labour will assure a Labour deputation in Wellington that the present rates cannot be. raised. When these political sins of omission or commission are at present pointed out, tlie Reform press says glibly that Labour is only using them to make political capital! Not one word will be said about the attacks on the workers’ standard of living, the restriction of advances to settlers and workers, the Jentry in the past year of 5000 immigrants under the “restrictions,” or the Government favouritism of the Associated Banks at the expense of Hie State Savings Banks. To side-track all of these pertinent Dominion questions, the Reform press, is busy already with press anti - Labour propaganda: Not the failure of the Government. but charges against Labour; not against New Zealand, but. overseas Labour; not. against the principles of Labour, but. the shortcomings—real or imaginary—of individuals associated with the Labour Movement—are what is being served up at present bv cables and scribes in the press, with an eye solely to the coming General Election. The question is whether the electors are in a majority susceptible to this sort of thing twice within three years. It has been said by a wiser man than any in the Reform ranks that you cannot fool the people all the time. We therefore do not expect to see the party in power “get away” with their new stunt so easily as the stunt they used before the 1925 electors. We do not expect the man who gets things done to advertise in the constituencies that a vote for a certain candidate is a vote for him! The ruse will rather be that a vote for a certain candidate is one for the Devil, or something of the sort. At anvrate, there is nothing like optimism. The Government can bank on that. They can promise that the moon will be given after the election is over. So, the electors, if they have not yet had an elegant sufficiency of disillusionment, will certainly have it if they give this Government another term in which to show the contrast between their promises and their performances. Almost. the only I straightforward declaration during the Reform electioneering of

late has been the obvious one that the only genuine alternative to this (loverniucnl is a Labour Gov-

ernment. Our history may yet resemble that of another island Stale. When the Conservatives had finished with Tasmania a few years ago, she was a bankrupt State. To-day, under her Labour Government, sin' is not only solvent, lint her people have a new outlook, and her recovery is a genuine testimony to the practical ability of Labour government. Indeed, the only States which have made a success in Australia of immigration have been those with Labour Administrations. However, as already remarked, the

electors may' be prepared during the next few months to read in the press of New Zealand, which is practically a Tory monopoly, nothing but disparaging allusions to any of the four Labour Governments which in Australia are each doing more for the future welfare of their States than either of the two non-Labour Adininist rat ions.