POLITICAL FUSION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21198, 2 December 1930, Page 5

POLITICAL FUSION.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Mr Downie Stewart, M.P., says that when the National Government was formed in 1915 he hoped the union would remain permanent, but, unfortunately, after the war the Liberals broke away, believing that the post-war Government would be unpopular. In that, he says, they were mistaken, as Reform remained in office Tor nearly 10 more years. Mr: Downie Stewart does not tell us that in 1919 Reform got into power on a minority vote through vote splitting and-the cutting out of the second ballot, for which the Reform Party promised to give us something better. Like a lot of the party’s other promises, we never got this electoral reform. If I remember aright, the Reform Party was down and out at the 1922 election. Reform had 39 seats and the others 41, and Messrs Isitt, Bell, and Witty voted with the Reform Party, which consequently was able to carry on by what I would call “ a political schlenter.” Strange to say, neither of the three named stood at the 1925 election, and as soon as the election was over each was called to a cosy job in the Upper House. . That was the year Mr Coates made all the promises, and the-Reform

candidates expounded from nearly every platform that Mr Coates was the man to get things done, and the country took him in trust. The electors confirmed-him in the position of Prime Minister and gave him a big majority in the House. He. had three years to carry into effect his great policy, but he did nothing towards putting into a solid form a policy worthy of admiration in any particular direction. Among other things, he undertook to make the country financially strong and prosperous. He borrowed money on a big scale and spent it lavishly, but produced no beneficial effect upon the country. He was going to help the farmers by providing them with cheap mones. Instead of doing so, he and his Ministry devised some schemes by which money was to be available for hard-pressed farmers, but he left others to find the money and. become the guarantors, and what he. and the late Minister of Finance left behind them was a Treasury with a deficit. Mr Downie Stewart says that the United Party has involved itself in a reckless borrowing programme. I would ask him what part of the borrowing he would cut. out and how much of the money which, the United Party borrowed went to paying for the Taupo railway, the Palmerston North deviation, and the Auckland railway station, and how he can claim honour for the Reform Party holding power for nearly 10 years after the war.

Mr A. D. M'Leod is crying spilt milk over his speech at Timaru. He and other Ministers who were beaten last election are known by the fanning community from Auckland to the Bluff and are not wanted back in Parliament. The Reform. Ministers bungled the advances to settlers and land policies. The electors do not for-

get that when Mr M*Leod was Miifister of Lands he preferred to help those already on the land to putting others on homes of their own. It may have been that he was nervous after the £4,000,000 that "went west” through the Reform Party’s rush land policy. Not only that t but returned soldiers lost their life’s savings, and walked off those ex* pensive farms. The £4,000,000 waa distributed among a few big landowners, who, needless to say, were all strong Reform supporters. The same . moneyed men and their ilk are those who are complaining about a few paltry thousand pounds being spent on relief work for thousands of unemployed, and even on all the electric schemes that are going on to-day. These same men are complaining about the high wages that are being paid—l4s a day—but as electricity is a luxury and labour-saving, let those who want it pay for it. Since Mr M'Leod went out of office the United Party has cut up estates which the Reform Party should have cut up, and a-few hundred families are making a living instead of being unemployed. I would ask how it was there was some £3,000,000 worth of applications waiting attention from both settlers and workers throughout,. the -Dominion. when the Reform Party went out of power. Some applicants had been waiting as long as two years, and the United Party settled up the'huge amount within'six months. No, we do not want the Reform Party back, with its piecrust promises. Once bitten, twice shy.—l am, etc., . Queer Fellow. November 28. ■