The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1925. A CALL TO NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12161, 11 June 1925, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1925. A CALL TO NEW ZEALAND

The Prime Minister goes from good to better. His message to the people made a profound impression. His speeches at Dannevirke yesterday, following on a wonderful reception to the Government party, were almost memorable. Mr Coates is, perhaps, the most unconventional leader we have encountered. He is setting a distinctly new style in Prime Ministers. Not being an orator or a rhetorician he attempts no oratory and eschews rhetoric. What he has to say he says as bluntly as the newly-elected chairman of any Rabbit Board. He deals in no platitudes, no equivocation ; only a manly sincerity and sturdy commonsense. We can recommend no more effective means, in politician or pulpiteer, for capturing an audience. • Dannevirke, which obviously was delighted to provide the Prime Minister with his first outside official job, was treated -to some excellent counsel. It was counsel to which the whole Dominion can profitably lend an ear. Mr Coates preached the of work, of rolled-up sleeves, and a united effort—to the end that New Zealand shall be made the best little country in the world. He preached, too, the gospel of justice to all, and eqtyil opportunity for all, in terms which admitted of no doubt as to the speaker’s earnestness. New Zealand, tired of the Tweedledum-Tweedledee form, of wrangling, and more than a little dubious of plausible Socialism, will welcome this new political note and take heart of grace again. It believes in Mr Coates, because it has tested him and found him ring true. “Judge me by results, 1 not words,” he urges. The community has done, is doing, so, and the goods are right up to sample. ... Another quality which has assisted the young Prime Minister to an instant wide popularity is the frank admission of Kis own forensic: limitations and his refusal to permit mere politics to take precedence over State administration. He insists that political humbug, must be divorced from the prosecution of the country s developmental works. In other words, State enterprises should proceed oh their own merits, unaffected by political considerations of any description. The sole test henceforth will be: Is it in the public interest? The “Times” the more emphatically supports that view inasmuch as we ourselves have stressed the same point. Here is a principle which should be unhesitatingly accepted by every citizen whose desire it is to have added peace and contentment brought to these Nature-favoured islands. If we mistake not, what Dannevirke applauded so wholeheartedly yesterday will be acclaimed throughout the Dominion to-day.