CASE FOR THE COALITION

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19802, 18 May 1934, Page 8

CASE FOR THE COALITION

Confessing „tlie need for a short let-up in his close association with the affairs of the State which have for some years weighed heavily upon the shoulders of the representative men who serve the country in high and perilous places, Mr Coates has, decided to embark upon a little trip into the recesses of South Westland where he will have “time to think.” Responding to a welcome at Blenheim, the Minister said that he left Wellington because he had been unable to get time to think. Interviewers and different versions on this and that kept coming along and made it impossible to get a few hours to himself to think out important legislation for the coming session. The stress of public business that holds the principal Ministers to their offices has been known to crush many men, and it must be conceded that if Mr Coates feels he ought to take a little breather, before facing the enormous strain of the approaching session, the country will not deny him such much needed relaxation. It must be said, however, that the Government on its part has been a little remiss in meeting tiie people. One or two Ministers ought to have made a flying tour of the Dominion before the session opens, to acquaint the people with the full story of the Government’s activities in discharging the difficult task of restoring the Ship of State to an even keel. The Labour Party has done considerable campaigning but the results have been a little disappointing from the party point of view, because no one has taken very much notice of the speechmaking. The Government has a case to put before the country, and efforts should have been made, through the medium of a series of processional addresses by representative Ministers, to state the case for the Coalition in the light of the enormous difficulties it has met, and the rapidly improving internal conditions, and thereby furnish an effective answer, which can be given, to the propaganda being carried through the country by spokesmen of the official Opposition Party.