WHAT IS STABILITY?

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 4 February 1925, Page 2

WHAT IS STABILITY?

(To the Editor.) Sir.—Tlie report m your issue of yesterday relating that a deputation or citizens anxious to secure “stable” government had waited upon Colonel l'. W. McDonald, urging iiim to contest Wellington North as a “Unionist” candidate, is not without its humorous aspect. Why ever a deputation that desires to avoid ‘‘unstable’ 5 government should approach the colonel is incomprehensible to anyone who has followed the political gyrations of the colonel during recent months. Why, it- seems only the other day (though in fairness to th© colonel it must be admitted that it was as long ago as 1921) that he arrived m Hawera after journeying post-haste from the other end of the Dominion, where lie had already announced bis intention of contesting the Paten scat as a Reform candidate at the pending by-election. Though the colonel did not meet with the unanimous reception he might have expected, he certainly left us no room to doubthis staunch adherence to the cause of Reform. Undaunted by his rejection on this occasion, the gallant colonel kept liis political ambitions alive until the 1922 election, when many of his Reform friends in this district were greatly surprised to find his announcing his candidature for Wellington East as an Independent. On the eve of the election, the Eiberal Reader. Mr. Thomas M. Wilford. advertised in the Wellington papers personally appealing to Liberals in Wellington East -to support Colonel McDonald, so that it must he assumed that bv this time the colonel, if not a straightout Liberal, was at least, Jndependeiit-cum-Lib-Lab. The political world next heard of the colonel about the middle of last year, when loyal citizens in many parts of New Zealand were profoundly disturbed by an announcement that “Colonel. McDonald had joined the New Zealand Labour Party.” The fact, was chronicled in the “personal” columns o.f the leading city and many of the provincial dailies, while Labour received the glad tidings per medium of the Maoriland Worker. But the. restless soul of the übiquitous colonel had apparently not yet found a fair haven wherein ,to shelter from the cross-currents of political, controversy, which had hitherto tossed him so helplessly from party to party. For before the close of the yea : r members of the Labour Party were distressed (colonels being scarce in the party) to learn that- -their colonel had back-slid. His exact destination was unknown until the recent announcement that he was being courted by the “Unionist” party. Now if “stability” menus anything, and if the citizens who comprised the deputation really do wish to avoid “unstable” government, why ever do they seek to bring out- the colonel ns a candidate, when lie probably holds a world’s record for political instability. His only possible rival for the honour is Mr. Winston Churchill, and even Winston has hardly boxed the political compass so completely or in so short a time.' Why, the chances are a- hundred to one that, even if the colonel today accepts the invitation ancl agrees to become the “Unionist” candidate at the next election, before the election comes round he will have again changed his political: colours at least twice in the meantime. , In fact-, if the colonel does ever again contest a seat, no one will be at all surprised to find him starting out some night to address a meeting on “Unionist” principles, devoting the middle portion of his speech to an appeal: for a Labour victory, and ending with a declaration of unswerving devotion to Reform. If the colonel is a fair sample of “stability” let us aim at sometln'ng else, I am etc., .... w.s. Hawera, February 3, 1920.