THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1943. AN ELECTION MESSAGE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 32346, 13 October 1943, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1943. AN ELECTION MESSAGE

One of the incidents of the recent election campaign was the publication of a “message” to electors entitled “Action for Christian Order.*” Issued under the auspices of the Campaign for Christian Order some 250,000 copies were put into circulation. Its ostensible purpose was to focus the minds of the electors upon certain principles of vital importance to the welfare of the State as a whole, principles founded upon Christian doctrine. Its motive was frankly political though aloof from party politics. “Politics,” it declared, “is a sphere of Christian action . . . the putting into action of Christian ideals.” This statement can hardy be questioned in a country, professedly Christian, in which the sittings of Parliament, the highest institution in the land, are formally opened with an invocation to Divine Providence.. Nor can it be doubted that this method of raising the political problems of the times to the higher plane of ethical value was bound to have some effect on the public mind. The definite questioning attitude bf people toward Government and. the management of public affairs very probably had made them more than usually susceptible to new angles of approach to these problems, to new lines of thought on politics and principles.

- So many different factors, however, .play a part in shaping the .decision of the electorate on polling day that it is only possible to draw broad inferences from the general swing of public opinion as indicated by the voting. One clear inference, for example, is that the people as a whole are not satisfied with present Government policies and methods. This aspect of the result has already been discussed in these columns. It is a more difficult matter to diagnose in detail the various contributory causes and assign to each its relative degree of influence. But if -we. admit the existence of a questioning attitude in the public mind, it is reasonable to believe that the election message of the Campaign for Christian Order-was not without some effect on the thoughts of people who took the trouble to read,and digest its contents. Many of the statements made were in line with much .of the public thinking of the .times. Added to them was the weight of ethical sanctions and of unquestionable sincerity of purpose and aims. As an illustration, there is this statement, associated with a warning .of the dangers inherent m a decline in public respect for Parliament.

Where members of Parliament are more concerned with intrigue and party advantage than with truly representing their electorate, where sectional interests try to override Parliament through nressure groups outside, where people inside or outside (Parliament cast sluis on the character and motives of those who hold different political opinions, there the decay of democ-

racy> begins. Other matters of public interest affecting’ the general welfare included the principles of post-war social reforms as viewed in the international perspective. Nearer home, of urgent concern to New Zealand people, were social problems touching the welfare of the family and the home, the importance of which has been stressed from time to time in these columns. There was in this field, it was urged, an obligation upon our representatives in Parliament to face up to all the complicated factors which impirige upon family i life. “Has your candidate,” it , was asked, “ever come down out,of the clouds of

more spectacular issues to give these very homely questions any constructive thought?” Education, the art of living, social diseases, the tremendous importance of our rural industries, were also discussed in articles posing provocative questions. But the question fundamental to a com-

plete answer to all of them, said Action, was the important one of reanimating the Christian religious impulse as a social and political force, a force deliberately and purposefully generated in the schools, permeating the mentality and influencing the actions - of our future citizenship. Whatever may have been the real extent of the ihfluence upon the minds of the electors, this sowing of the seed, those directing the movement for Christian Order, must realise that continuous effort in the advocacy of the principles animating it is essential. One of the main precepts of education is that it is a continuous process. The Campaign for Christian Order is essentially a campaign for public education. It should therefore be systematic and persistent, not spasmodic, if the ends are to be achieved.