THE POLITICAL PARTIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18296, 12 January 1923, Page 6

THE POLITICAL PARTIES.

| Quite a definite invitation to join | forces for the good of the country | has been issued by the Government • Party to the Liberal Opposition. | The offer is a perfectly straightforward and reasonable one, which should provoke no vehement partisan denunciations, but on the contrary deserves to be weighed soberly and on its merits. Practically the ques- | tions to be considered are whether ! the Reform and Liberal Parties are far enough apart in policy to justify I their separate existence and rivalry, ; and whether any good can come from i a continuance of the three-party system. On the first point there are prejudices which die hard, but surely few will be found to say that the differences are so vital as to make this overture unworthy of consideration. That the two parties have enough in common to make fusion worth discussion will be the verdict of most. So long as it is a discussion without prejudice, committing nobody, no harm can be done. Obviously i? anything is to come of it there is no hurry in consummating the union. Everybody is now agreed that Mr. Massey's party is strong enough to win on a no-confidence motion. The Government is in no danger and it can carry on the administration of the country until the Liberals decide whether they are to share in it — improve it if they prefer the word— or whether their separate organisation is likely at some distant date to be in their opinion of greater benefit to the country than fusion can now confer. The right of the next word, then, lies with the Liberal Party. An abrupt rejection means a deliberate decision to continue the three-party system, for if the union now suggested. fails, there is no , other in sight. What can justify such a course? Electoral [reform has been suggested as a \ cure for all our political ills, but | there is no system of election that J will leaf! to stability and stable government so long as three parties are clamouring for the favour of the electors. The proposal put before the country by the Reform Party is not how the three parties can be balanced in Parliament in proporj tion to their voting strength in the constituencies, but how the country ' can get a strong Government representing the great majority of the I people and with an unmistakable mandate to act on their behalf. Whatever system of election had been adopted the Parliament returned last month would have been pretty much what it is. Had.only two parties appealed it would have been a very different and a much stronger Parliament. The purpose of the overture is clear and unmistakable, and the country will wait with interest for the Liberal Party's answer.