THE LABOUR PLATFORM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18720, 25 November 1922, Page 6

THE LABOUR PLATFORM.

It is to be acknowledged that Labour candidates suffer under a disadvantage in the inordinate length and complexity of the party’s platform and in the physical impossibility of explaining it all in the course of an election speech. A number of the candidates make no attempt to perform the impossible. If they merely read some of the impracticable proposals to their audiences, leaving it to the electors to puzzle their brains as to what is actually meant, they relieve themselves, as far as they can, of an awkward onus. It has remained for a Labour candidate in a northern constituency to discover that the platform is deficient for his purposes. He was asked at one of his meetings how the Labour Party proposed to reduce the national debt. He confessed that the Labour platform gave

him no information on the point. He was in a similar difficulty on the question of naval defence, and he was, therefore, - unable- to say what his party would contribute towards the upkeep of the British Navy. His personal view was that, failing an incessant and persistent effort to reduce armaments, not a penny should be given. “That is to say,” adds a critic, “unless all need for a contribution was removed, he would not make one.” The candidate, however, merits sympathy. His personal opinion goes for nothing if the conference of the party, condescending to discuss the subject of naval defence, should arrive at » conclusion different from that entertained by him. Whit is, then, the use of his forming an opinion on the point when it may have to be discarded in favour of the party’s judgment regarding it ? We have had the assurance of the Labour candidate -for Dunedin West that “all sensible people” believe in defence. If, however, the Labour Party desires to come withm this desirable definition, its platform cannot be quoted as evidence of such desire. Respecting proposals which are visionary and which cannot possibly be brought to pass, the Labour Party’s platform is most elaborate, but questions which are generally comprehended in the phrase “practical politics” do not come within its purview. Those who dictate Official Labour policy seem to be oppressed by a sense of the /collective misery of parts of 'the Old World and to forget that in New ‘Zealand they live in one of the happiest and most richly endowed countries on earth. If they wish to be regarded as successful politicians it is incumbent on them to contribute something practical towards the good government of this dominion.