ELECTION RESULT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27266, 17 December 1949, Page 6

ELECTION RESULT

AMERICAN VIEWPOINT “ REVOLT OF THE GUINEA PIGS” “Revolt of the Guinea Pigs” is the heading given to a report on the New Zealand election results in the current issue of the influential American newsmagazine Time. “On election night in New Zealand, the flat voices of radio announcers reported the people’s choice,” says Time. “The broadcasts came from State-owned radio stations; thousands of New Zealanders heard the news in the comfort of Stateowned houses, and even the partially deaf listened with hearing aids provided by the State. Many of the welfare State’s supporters and beneficiaries could hardly believe their ears; after 14 years of Socialist Government, New Zealand had had enough. “A solid majority had voted against shrewd, able Labourite Prime Minister Peter Fraser, who had governed the country with the red-taped rod of compulsory benevolence. Into office, with £ parliamentary majority of 46 to 34, would comje the free-enterpris-

ing National Party, led by kinetic, fast-talking Sydney George Holland. “For more than half a century, under various parties, insular New Zealand, with its butter and mutton economy, has been an experimental laboratory for welfare Statism. . . . Liberal and conservative Governments have shared in the vast social experiments. But ever since the Labour Party took office in 1935, what had begun as a humanitarian drive gradually ossified into bureaucratic Socialism.” Time then gives a summary of the social and economic state of New Zealand prior to the elections, and cites the main reason's for the Socialist downfall. “ Labour’s best hope for victory lay in the Maori vote. New Zealand’s 100,000 Polynesian natives have long been Labour’s pets, benefit especially from family payments of 10 shillings a week per child, which they called ‘stallion money.’” Though the faithful Maoris gave Labour their votes—and four parliamentary seats—they could not block the decisive National Party victory. “Most New Zealanders last week cheered the change of Government. Many Labourites themselves hoped Labour’s defeat would revitalise the party. . . . One natipnal leader parried questions about his party's intentions with another question: ‘ Have you ever tried to unscramble eggs? ’ Stating that the New Zealand elections would be of particular sigmflcance to voters in both Australia and Britain, Time says that the New Zealand elections held “a sharp, simple political lesson: the bread and boons which the Socialist Santa Claus had handed out—from the taxpayers’ money—did not necessarily buy and bind the people’s votes. New Zealanders, for all their human yearning for security, had decided that Socialism’s drab, regimented version of Christmas was a pain in the neck.’’