COALITION RULE

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1931, Page 5

COALITION RULE

LESSONS FROM THE PAST "HISTORY NOT ENCOURAGING.” HON. A. D. McLEOD’S VIEWS. Reference to the recent proposals for political party fusion was made by the Hon. A. D. McLeod during a speech at Carterton on Friday evening to a meeting of delegatee, which unanimously selected him as Reform candidate for the Wairarapa seat. "From the political as well as the party political standpoint, the question of fusion has clearly been set out by Reform’s leader, and I fully concur with what he has stated,” said Mr. McLeod. “For the purpose of diecrediting, Reform is often referred to as the Conservative Party. Personally at least, I do not object to being so termed. The political history of the home of the Empire, as well as its various self-gov-erning parts, prove that Conservative Governmenta have played a distinguished, and, I believe, unequalled, part in the • progress and development of the whole Empire. It says much for Conservatism—as distinct from Toryism—that it is toward Conservative Governments, more often than not, that electors fly in British democracies when in serious economic difficulty. In any case, whether Reform or Conservative, I am in full accord with our leader when ho says that the political principles for which Reform in the past has stood, and still stands, are of too much value to people of this Dominion to be lightly submerged in a hotch-potch political party of yesterday. "The history of coalitions in British democracies, as to usefulness, has not been an encouraging one; still, it is true, that following coming elections, something of the kind may be found unavoidable. If this unfortunately should prove to be the case, and a constructive policy is capable of being agreed upon, it will .at least have three years for testing out. But rest assured, this country will not be relieved of its economic difficulties by a policy of jumping upon the throats of workers and taxpayers' alone. “We are being warned in certain directions not to bring up the past. With Governments as with individuals, it is not always wise to forget the past. At last general election there were those who did their level best to defeat Relf orm, using as one of their main political weapons the cry that the- then Government was too strong. To-day the same people, still anxious to destroy Reform, are among those leading the cry for a strong Government and fusion; and in this I may mention prominent city members of the now, I understand, defunct 1928 Committee, and the president of the Farmers’ Union, Mr. J. W. Polson. Their changed political attitude and cry as to a strong Government is hard to understand, and in sporting parlance amounts to a reversal of form worthy of close public inquiry, if not even disqualification. “We also are being told by fusionists that the wartime National Government is an example of what now might be copied with safety and benefit. Those of us’ intimately familiar with its formation and life are by no means sanguine of the wisdom of its being again repeated. “The wartime Government was farmed for war purposes alone, all other political questions being strictly barred. Its birth was a matter of hard bargainin"’ in many more matters than portfolios alone, and during its whole afterlife was an armed political camp only saved from open revolt on several occasions by the extraordinary tact of that great statesman, William Ferguson Massey. ‘‘‘New Zealand’s Parliament has no William Ferguson Massey to-day, nor ia there one in sight. I believe, however, that of all those available or in sight the present Reform leader stands well out as one having the courage of his political convictions, and in many ways is possessed of the attributes making for statesmanship. It is for you who think with me, not only in the Wairarapa, but over the whole Dominion, to do the best in the coming elections toward seeing that Mr. Coates has his chance.’-’