MR. COATES' MESSAGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19214, 31 December 1925, Page 8

MR. COATES' MESSAGE.

The Prime Minister's message to the Dominion's people on the eve of the New Year has a ring of sincere cordiality. In a unique sense he belongs to New Zealand. Nativeborn and closely identified with the agricultural pursuits that comprise its chief activities, he manifests a natural interest in the outlook for those pursuits, while impressed with the prospects for our secondary industries. It is the wise interest of one who knows these things from the inside, and is withal more than the interest of a mere politician. The people whom he so intimately addresses will not fail to be inspired by his confidence, nor be heedless of his counsel that thrift and economy should be practised. 'These things are uttered by one unaffectedly proud of his country and deeply concerned in its welfare. But there is no mistaking the main urgency of Mr. Coates' message. It is voiced in his plea for closer unity and co-operation. This plea should not be treated as that of a party leader anxious for political support. Mr. Coates is so placed that such an interpretation would be grotesque. His concern is lest there should develop here to serious dimensions those divisive influences that have gravely menaced some other countries. Their growth in our midst would wreck all prospects, however promising, of prosperity. Class conflict is civil war of the most ruinous sort. Mutual toleration is a duty obligatory on every citizen. There is room for difference of opinion about political programmes, but they can be discussed without threatening a breach of the peace. There is no room for cut-throat hostility where social and economic advance is involved. On his succession to the high post he now occupies, Mr. Coates as a devoted New Zealander voiced his creed in this, and he has given practical proof that it has from him much more than lip-service. It is an admirable creed with which to face the tasks of the Dominion's new year.