Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, NOV. 21, 1935. BRITAIN’S LEAD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 304, 21 November 1935, Page 8

Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, NOV. 21, 1935. BRITAIN’S LEAD.

An admirable lead has been given to the people of New Zealand by the electorate of Great Britain. There the issue was between the National Government and Labour. After four years of heroic endeavour to restore prosperity, so far as it was humanly possible to do so, and at the same time working' internationally to preserve world peace to bring- happiness and better days to the nations, the National Government submitted its case to the electors. Before it took office the finances were in a deplorable condition. In spite of the shock of depressed trade in 1930 the rake’s progress of the Labour Administration had proceeded at ah unabated pace. Early in 1931 the Conservative Opposition launched a no-confid-ence motion based on charges of extravagance and failure to effect much needed economies. With the help of the Liberal Party the motion was defeated, but the Chancellor (now Lord- Snowden) accepted a Liberal proposal that an economy committee be appointed, after having issued a grave warning about the state of the national finances. Deficits were continuing and the Unemployment Insurance Fund was in debt to a huge amount, the Observer going so far as to say that the dole was jeopardising the country’s financial stability and the nation was spending one hundred millions a year to subsidise idleness. Yet when the committee mentioned submitted its report in August, 1931, there was at once considerable hostility from the Labour rank and hie, amounting to contempt and ridicule for recommendatkms that subsequently had . to be carried out by the National Government. So "a discredited Labour Administration passed, and the people did not forget what they owed to sound g-oyernment when a few months later the National Government went to the polls. It was a verdict that immediately restored Britain in the eyes of the other nations, for British general elections mean a lot in the foreign sphere. A second time last week tlie same Government went to the polls and triumphantly returned with a majority that is -striking evidence of the people’s will. Clearly the electorate does not wish to see the return of Labour. The lessons of the years immediately prior to 1931 are still vividly remembered, and the people of Great Britain have no wish to see them repeated in these still critical days. That lesson from the voting last week should, and must in the public welfare, be regarded by New Zealand electors at its true value. In this country there has been no experience of a Labour Governmnt. Always New Zealand has stood firmly for sound administration, refusing to be beguiled by the specious promises of a party untried in government. More than ever in this election is Labour making a determined assault on the security of the National Party, and to buttress its case it has come forward with proposals that may be attractive to the unthinking, but are deeply suspect by the voter who prefers to analyse the platform submitted. The contest in this country is between the Government and the Labour Party. The Democrats do not count; neither do the Independents, and every vote cast for them is a vote against the Government. All that is asked on behalf of the Forbes-Coates Administration is an intelligent appraisal of the difficulties of the past four yeais and credit at least for wliat it has done. To-day the country lias a balanced Budget, the outlook is splendid when compared with twelve months ago, confidence is extending, and trade within tlie

Dominion is steadily expanding. The people have to decide whether they are readily prepared to exchange these undoubted benefits for a policy of political control of the issue' of money —the establishment (in the Labour Party’s words) of a national credit authority whose duty it will be to provide a money service sufficient to give effect to the will of Parliament —and the payment of guaranteed prices to farmers by printing money, a policy of inflation which will have most direful effects upon the national prosperity. The public of New Zealand simply cannot afford to exchange safe and soxind government for such a policy. To do so would mean rising costs, .treater unemployment, and the destruction of all that has been done in the past four years. Britain lias given a lead to New Zealand and it is a paramount duty to follow it.