Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 1945. SPIRIT OF NEW ZEALAND.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 227, 24 August 1945, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 1945. SPIRIT OF NEW ZEALAND.

Under the Labour Government New Zealand has progressed at an alarming' rate along' the road to a completely socialised State. Since the advent of the Party to power in 1935 legislation both in Parliament and by Order-in - Council has been implemented to give effect to the Socialists’ doctrainaire proposals. Bit by bit the freedom enjoyed under Liberal and Reform Administrations has been whittled away until now the public are weighted down by a mass of regulations that harass them at every turn. Control in both primary and secondary industries obtains in large measure and some business avenues afford no scope for a returned soldier’s enterprise, because they are subject to license. Are we any better off because of this accelerated socialistic advance?

The evidence wherever it is given freely and competently is to tlie contrary. This matter has been clearly analysed and constructively criticised by the president of the New Zealand National Party (Mr W. J. Sim, K.C.) in bis presidential address to the Dominion Conference. The theme of his remarks in the main was based on the “Spirit of New Zealand,” the spirit shown by the Fighting Forces through the whole of the war without flagging and bringing distinction to tlie Dominion, which “must give a sense of pride in their feats of

arms.” Mr Sim’s frank survey of the internal position as viewed from the national aspect must arouse every citizen to an acute sense of alarm as to whither we are shaping our course and the consequences of it. Mr Sim finds a “general picture of frustration, delay in promoting domestic order where the beginning of post-war order is possible, procrastination, indecision, and general confusion.” He makes a fine appeal that the “free New Zealand spirit which springs from the soil of New Zealand itself . . . shall find its way into the government of the country.” The clear distinction he draws between tlie New Zealand National Party—“a party composed of New Zealanders and national in outlook”-—and tlie “dominant group who have come to New Zealand from abroad,” under whose government we have been for ten years, is not made in a personal sense, but to prove that the “governing group” is not capable of interpreting the “national spirit of New Zealand

and the mind of Hie individual New Zealander with his passion for independence and individual freedom.” Mr Sim also states with conviction to be widely supported that the political theories introduced into this Dominion by these political theorists are not only unsuited to it but also can be doubted to be of .British origin. The subtle point will not escape unnoticed by. all who prefer sound British political government. As he points.out there is a testing time ahead in the immediate post-war years. Its gravity cannot be sufficiently stressed. The intention to make the Bank of New Zealand a State bank and the nationalisation of airways will go far towards consummating the party’s ideals, and the next steps towards complete consummation will follow. Then in Mr Sim’s words will come the extinction of the free New Zealand spirit. The. New Zealand National Party is the answer • he

gives and with it a clarion call to free New Zealanders to throw off the socialistic bonds that shackle them.