THE COLONIST. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1919. THE P.P.A. AND REFORM.

Colonist, Volume LXI, Issue 15203, 16 October 1919, Page 4

THE COLONIST. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1919. THE P.P.A. AND REFORM.

In the House of .Representatives yesterday the member for Wairau gave the Prime Minister an opportunity of expressing his views on the "recent utterance in Nolson of the organiser of the Protestant Political Association,, the Rev. Howard Elliott, on the political situation, to which we directed attention in a brief editorial on Monday last. Mr. Massey availed himself of the opportunity thus afforded to f deny categorically and with warmth the statements made hy Mr Elliott. ' His emphatic* repudiation of any connection with Mr. Elliott or anyone associated with him is of course to be accepted without reservation, and it will be welcomed by everyone without regard to creed or political sympathies who is concerned for the exclusion from our polities of an element which has hap- I pily never obtruded itself in the past, and is essentially foreign to the British ideals of freedom and tolerance on which our representative institutions i are broad-based. Mr Massey's prompt, and emphatic refusal of the patronage of Mr. Elliott and his organisation is much to his credit, but not so his gratuitous suggestion that we reproduced a garbled quotation from Mr Elliott's address in order to distort its meaning and to enable an inference to bo drawn that was neither intended nor warranted. We quoted Mr. Elliott's exact words and indicated the only inference that could be drawn from them, alluding further to the striking harmony that existed between Mr Elliott's prediction of Mr. Massey's attitude on the question of party politics, and the Prime Minister's own pronouncement on the subject in his policy manifesto, which followed a couple of days later. If it will please Mr. Massey and remove any doubt as to Mr. Elliott having been misquoted or misunderstood, we will quote from our report of his speech the entire passage in which ho referred to the coming campaign. After speaking at some length of the influence of Rome on politics in the past, he went on to say: The Protestants must in the future see that only men were returned who would do what was right for the country. The Roman Catholic Church would be behind the Liberal and Labour parties. In the coming fight Mr. Massey would not lead a party, but would put forward a policy which he would ask them to follow. There was practically no Reform Party now. The P.P.A. was standing against Rome, extreme Labour, some part of the Liquor Trade, and the Liberal Party. The P.P.A. was the only political organisation that could fight that combination, aaid they were going to do it. They should to return a decent set of men —not necessarily men of the Reform Party —and let those men elect their own leader. Their slogan should be Protestantism for New Zealand, during the elections. If these words can bear any other construction than that we placed upon thorn we should like to know what it is. Then as to Mr. Massey's appeal for a non-party system, or a one-party system, which, of course, is the same thing, this is what lie said in his manifesto: With regard to party matters, there seems to be a section .of the people, both in, Parliament and outside of it, who are anxious to get back to the old demoralising party system, with all its iniquities and drawbacks. I know perfectly well that no Government can carry on without the support of the majority of Parliament. I know also that, except under abnormal conditions such as were experienced diiring the war period, there cannot, with satisfactory results, be two parties in the Government. There need not be anything of the sort. There should be only one party, a national party, and I am not suggesting a name —a party working and held together with one object, that of promoting the welfare and prosperity of New Zealand. The P.P.A.'s sponsorship of the national party of Mr Massdy's dream is, it seems, unauthorised, and distasteful to him, and we are exceedingly pleased to have his emphatic assurance to that effect. But oven Mr Massey, we suppose, will not deny that Mr. Elliott's prescience was .extraordinary.