The Timaru Herald. SATURDAY. JULY 21, 1945. Miniature General Election

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23259, 21 July 1945, Page 4

The Timaru Herald. SATURDAY. JULY 21, 1945. Miniature General Election

THE fantastic political zeal characterising other Parliamentary byelections during the past two or three years has been in evidence again in Dunedin North which is to choose a new Member ot Parliament to-day. The Prime .Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, Cabinet Ministers and other front-rankers of both parties have been in the electorate trafficking in the small change of party politics. It can be said without qualification that there is no excuse for this expenditure of time and energy by men whose proper place is in Wellington attending to Parliamentary and national duties. If the candidates, one of whom is to go to Parliament, arc not able to express their political ideas clearly and persuasively then it is questionable whether they should submit themselves to the electors at all. Both parties pay their nominees a poor tribute when they will not allow them to go into action without the protection of thundering barrages from the front benches of Parliament. It is pleasant, of course, for the electors of Dunedin North to be flattered by this attention from the country’s political leaders and their supporters; for their private delight these electors arc given the windy ceremonial of a miniature General Election. But in reflective moments intelligent electors must feel that they are simply being asked to support inarticulate puppets, and this is unfair to candidates who are certainly claiming the right to represent the electorate on their own merits. If there is any virtue at all in this monster demonstration form of campaigning it lies in the fact that leading members of the Government arc inclined to be momentarily confidential; they loose from the bag cats which might be better left slumbering for a time. Electors of Dunedin North, for example, are the first people in New Zealand to have the privilege of hearing the Prime Minister refer to the Government’s impending banking legislation. Speaking in the Dunedin Town Hall Mr Fraser said: “We believe that in a world depression a State Bank can exercise a stabilising influence and prevent the country suffering as it has done on past occasions.” Then he went on to mention that the trading banks had operated most helpfully during the war period. “But,” he added, “it was in the post-war period that the Government desired to be able to exercise control.” If that is the only reason for the Government’s taking over of the Bank of New Zealand, then haste is unnecessary. The Prime Minister does not believe that the post-war period is close at hand. He said so in Dunedin. He is reported as making this statement in referring to the future use of the New Zealand Division; “There were people he knew who thought that the war against Japan was going to be easy, but that was wrong. The Japanese still had millions under arms in opposition to the United Nations.” Nobody is more competent than the Prime Minister to express an opinion on this question. He has come straight from the United States where he spent weeks in company with leaders of the United Nations. With this war still to be won the New Zealand Government has no right to divide the country on a hotly controversial issue which has no urgency. Opponents of the Government’s legislation believe they are right; supporters of the legislation also believe they are right and each school of thought, acting from conviction, is entitled to press its case to the limit of its ability. There need be no doubt that this will be done and strong and bitter division of opinion is inevitable.

It would almost seem that the Prime Minister is acting under duress and is not personally persuaded of the immediate necessity for the action which the Government evidently intends to take. Mr Fraser has promised that the Government will not interfere in the management of /he Bank of New Zealand; it wotdd not make anv change in the stall and was even prepared to reappoint the present directors. “But,'’ he added significantly, “it would decide the policy to he followed. ’ There would be no need for directors, no need for high executive staff if the Government had control of the banks policy. Obviously neither the Prime .Minister nor the Minister of Finance can guarantee that the Government’s banking policy will not be dictated to it by Mr Langstone and his supporters. If Mr Fraser's personal views, based upon good judgment and wide experience, are at variance with those of lesser men in the Labour Party, then he should b ve sufficient trust in the people of New Zealand to tell them .so. A man who stood so eloquently protesting against the spokesmen of the Great Powers at San Francisco should be able to speak his mind to the political parti, he leads. Mr Fraser could have told a longer and better banking story ii: Dunedin than he did. Had he done so it would have been a nationally rewarding contribution to the byelection campaign.