THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1922. THE COMING ELECTION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 19 October 1922, Page 4

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1922. THE COMING ELECTION.

The date of the general election has not yet been announced, but it will probably be fixed for early in December. Next month will find members of the present Parliament scurrying off to their electorates to woo the electors' support W rhat attitude does the average elector take towards a general election? We . think that the man in the street, the j average elector, looks upon a great deal i of what takes place during an election ; campaign as much bluff, and the feeling at the present time is that it does not matter much what brand the party, in power bears; the thing that matters is to secure good, sound government. The average elector adopts towards the terms Liberal and Reform an. entirely different view from that which he held twenty years ago. Great problems face the and greater problems are calling.for the best brains which the Empire possesses. The times in which we are living are too serioas for wasting thought upon trivialities, and the rapid movements which are taking place in the world make it most undesirable that the people of the Empire should live only upon the great deeds of the. past. We do not for a moment say that we should cut adrift entirely from the past;. in fact, more than ever is it necessary to see that the national edifice should be placed upon the strongest possible foundations. Such foundations were laid by the great men who helped to build the Empire; we who live now should continue to build as they built, solidly and very carefully. There was never a time in i history when a nation was looked to so much for leaders-hip as the British Empire ig at the present time. The Empire's strength is not the strength of the United kingdom, but of the j .whole group of nations in the British Commonwealth. It is necessary, therefore, to keep every portion of the Empire strong and abreast of the times, and that can best be done by maintaining a sound Government. In New Zealand the position is quite clear. There are three parties seeking office. First, the Reform Party, led by a man who lias received great praise from statesmen in the Ofd Country for his fine work for the nation. Second, the Liberal Party, a strong party and ably led in days gone by by three of New Zealand's best known men—Ballance, Seddon, and Sir Joseph Ward—has met with no little misfortune, and is at the present time weaker than it has ever been. What its modern policy is Mr. Wilford has not yet disclosed, and, except for its advocacy of proportional representation (the Sydney Bulletin, which has seen it in operation, calls it "contortional misrepresentation") and a State bank, the Liberal Party appears to have no definite policy, unless general opposition to the Reform Party, can be termed a policy. Third, there is the New Zealand Labour Party, which hates British tradition, imperialism. and Empire; it is the party which has always striven to stand in the way when the Empire has a great task on hand. This party has a policy, the millennial dawn policy, which begins it.s political creed with its name and then crams into the succeeding pages many words and phrases, some of them 1 beyond the limited understanding of | the man in the street, but all so easy of fulfilment by the Communist political wizards whom Mr. Holland would lead if only the man in the street would close his eyes and vote, without asking the one obvious question: "How can the impossible be done?" The New Zealand Labour Party's defence plank is a fine specimen of how to> defend a country from its enemies: "The repeal of the Military . Service Act and the Defence Act. The repeal of all provision'? in the War Regulations Act and , its amendments that interfere with civil

and industrial liberties." That is all. What a fine army and navy that plank would prcoduce to stop an invasion! But the New Zealand Labour Party's programme towers far above such tiny matters as defence and the continuance of the British Empire, for its objective is the of the means of production, distribution and exchange,'' and above all ib stands for the superseding of capitalism by an "industrial democracy" and for "the unity of all workers in all countries in a world federation of peoples for the purpose of : peacefully organising all the resources Jof the world for th© peoples of the ' world." We think that our average elector who has no fanciful theories j ahout "world federations," "industrial j ' democracies," "universal language— J Esperanto—in schools," "proportional j representation," etc., is not prepared to giv-e the party the chance to experi- ( mpnt with this Dominion. What steps then will the average elector take in the- interests of sound government? He j has the right, and also the duty, to exercise his vote. The candidates will, | within the next few weeks, tell him j wha.t their views are > and they will state to which patties they belong or if they belong to the independents. The New Zealand Labour Party w rill make plain its policy; the Liberal Party has i yet to proclaim what it stands for I besides proportional representation and a State bank; the Reform Party will point to tne legislation which it has put on the Statute Boole since it took office. The independent candidates will express their ideas upon what is and what ought to be. The analysis of the various wooings will rest with the elector. If he views tlie position broadly and -apart from that curious , sentiment which sometimes becomes so ! noticeable at election time, he will see , that the party with a real policy and a strong leader- should receive his support. Mr. Massey is, beyond question, that leader, and Mr. Massey's party has a policy that %we believe th© great Liberal leaders Ballance and Seddon would not be ashamed to use for present day conditions; in fact", we are told that one who was connected very closely indeed with Mr. Seddon said in conversation in "Wellington a few days ago: "Mr.- Massey is becoming more! and more like Mr. Seddon." Such a ' statement from one who knew. Mr. Seddon far better than the great majority of the people knew him is indeed interesting. Electors may cherish the ■ memories of the great Liberal leaders, but memories are no effective substitute for the party which is now weak and so poorly led that it is losing the support of some -of its most prominent members. Mr. Isitt has made his position plain, even plainer than he did prior to the last , general election. Mr. Vigor Brown has joined the Reform Party, and there are other members of the Liberal Party who are reported as being torn between two opinions and who ar© ( likely to leave Mr. Wilford's fold. If, then, the policy of Mr. Massey is such that it does not. offend such Liberals as Messrs Isitt, Vigor Brown, dnd others who are likely to. go over from Liberal to Reform, why should it Jbe" necessary for the Liberal Party to put up candidates in definitely Reform electorates or for Reform to put up candidates for definitely Liberal electorates? Strong opposition to. the extreme Labour policy is essential, and we cannot see what else the electors can do but support the party which has made the most definite statements of its attitude towards the extremists. The Liberals' misfortunes are due, we think, mainly to the absence of a strong leader, and there does not appear to be any hope of the party gaining strength at the coming : election unless the party's candidates ' show themselves to Be particularly able [ men with a better policy than Reform has. |