THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1922.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18730, 7 December 1922, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1922.

Three years ago on .the morning of election day we laid stress upon tho primary obligation, resting upon every elector (unless absolutely prevented), of exercising the political franchise. We desire to reinforce That consideration to-day. Voluntary abstention from voting amounts to nothing loss than tho foolish disclaiming of a valuable right and the craven shirking of a clear duty, though (strange to say) some people havo been known to take a pridp in what they regard as a superior attitude of aloofness. The man or woman who docs not think it worth while to exert his or her modicum of power in directing the course of public affairs'can have no right to complain of any disagreeable effects of political developments, no right to engage in comment or praise or criticism regarding anything that may be said or clone in the National Legislature. Such a person stands self-deprived of tlfo highest privileges of citizenship. Some people might perhaps plead that they have no wish to shirk their electoral duty, but in the constituencies to which they belong 1 there is no candidate who either accurately or approximately represents their political views. Such people may be advised to vote for the

candidate whose expressed opinions on really important questions approach nearest to their own. It should bo borne in mind that abstention from voting may virtually bo tantamount to the casting of a vote in a direction which the abstaining elector, if ho thought the matter oat, would regard as highly un-

desirable. Wo shall be glad if what we have just said should stir inert electors to a recognition at flio eleventh hour of their patriotic duty but it may be admitted that definite counsel ns to the direction in which votes should be cast cannot bo without an air of futility on the morning of election day. Still, even the last moment is not too late to emphasise the consideration that, while the exex’dse of tho franchise is the primary obligation, the manner of exercising it—tho measure of intelligent judgment and discrimination shown by tho voter—is of paramount importance. Owing to lack of wary thoughtfulness, too many electors allow’ themselves to he influenced by side-issues, personal prepossessions, sectional interests, and other secondary circumstances. To our mind, the main issue of this day’s trial of strength is quite simple. It is, as regards prospective government and legislation, an issue between well-bal-anced poise and perilous instability, between sagacious moderation and passionate excess, between sound economics and capricious empiricism. It is also an issue between statesmen who in trying times have guided the destinies of the country with fidelity and efficiency and aspirants to power who have shown no trace of the qualities requisite for the task of national leadership. On Tuesday night a Dunedin candidate “ asked the audience to consider the principle for which the Labour Party stood, and said that if they would only do that tho success of the party and the people was assured.” We would also once again ask the electors to consider, searchingly and dispassionately, the principle (if principle is the right w’ord) for which the Labour Party stands ; and w’e are convinced that if they only do this tho success, not of the party, hut of the people—the success of the cause of true democracy—is assured. As tho Minister of Internal Affairs observed on tho same evening, “the whole issue i° that between Official Labour and all other parties,”. and no one should have' any difficulty in understanding the essential character of Official Labour’s main objective, in spite of the varying tones in which its exponents speak. One Labour candidate may . talk smoothly about constitutional principles and disown the idea of employing “red revolutionary methods,” while another, in a mood of candid abandonment, may declare, after advocating an inequitable kind of class taxation, “they could call it confiscation if they liked.” But the accepted programme of the party, w’hether emphasised or glossed over, is plain for all folk to read, and, broadly speaking, it spells experimental heresy and sectional rapacity. Wo hold no brief for the English Labour Party, which is not free from vagaries of its own, but Mr Dowuic Stewart has done well to lay stress on the divergences which separate the two industrial policies. “The most unhappy of prevailing assumptions is that taxing capital relieves labour. To the extent that Government needlessly takes capital by way of taxes, it is responsible for unemployment.” That considered judgment of an English Labour leader, quoted by Mr Stewart, would bo scouted by the official protagonists of the Labour movement in New Zealand. It pleases and suits tho extremists to stigmatise the past performances and present policy of tho Massey Government as reactionary, but the invalidity of this charge must be obvious to all candid and unprejudiced minds. The Ministry and party have made good their title to "the epithet “Reform,” wishing that New Zealand should be recognised as “ a land of settled government, whore Freedom slowly broadens down from precedent to precedent” and discouraging the foolishness of “expecting all things in an hour.” Mr Massey.himself has been a tower of strength and security in difficult and dangerous days; and sure we arc that if some malign Fate, helped by electoral complications, were to upset or imperil his political position, a state of unrest, insecurity, and appreheusiveness’ would speedily ensue. It should be —hut perhaps it is not—unnecessary to* repeat our warnings in regard to snares besetting the thoughtless or unwary. Appeals to the electors based on the acknowledged desirability of having an effective parliamentary Opposition possess a. specious plausibility, masquerading as plain reasonableness; but if many of the political friends of the Government were to vote for antiGovernmeut candidates on this score, the result of such topsy-turvy tactics can easily be conceived. Electors should vote for, the candidate whose views on the questions that really matter are the same, or approximately , the «ame, as their own; and if more than one candidate supplies this condition the preference should be given tefe the one who appears to have the best chance of winning. Finally, New Zealand expects every man and woman to do his or her duty, according to the dictates of individual conscience.