FUSION URGED IN N.Z. POLITICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19238, 27 November 1930, Page 5

FUSION URGED IN N.Z. POLITICS.

WOULD SOLVE PROBLEMS, SAYS HON W. D. STEWART Per Press Association DUNEDIN, November 26. “Speaking as an individual member of Parliament,” said the Hon \\ . Downie Stewart to-night, “I regard any measure of fusion as desirable if it will stop the orgy of uneconomic loan expenditure which threatens to land New Zealand in the same mess as Australia if persisted in. I have advocated fusion ever since I entered Parliament, and when the National Government was formed in 1915, I hoped the union would remain permanent. While I can appreciate Air Coates’s difficulties in the matter, I believe that the soundest men in the United Government realise that party interest ought to be subordinated to the avoidance of the great and real dangers with which the country is faced. It is not easy for an Opposition to open up proposals for fusion without being suspected of seeking office. In my view. Air Coates would never take office except as a national duty and when he believed it was the wish of the electors. The Government is the party that should open up any proposals for fusion. There must be no artificial fusion of inconsistent elements created solely for the purpose of keeping out Labour, otherwise it will be resented by the electors. “So serious are our present problems,” added Air Stewart, “that, if feasible, I would support the creation of a real National Government such as Britain had during the war, with representation from Labour, United and Reform. But the New Zealand Labour Party refused to share the burden of m ® m © si © hi ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ® mu® m &

Government during the war, and would still fefuse to ally itself with the other parties. That is, no doubt, in accordance with their constitution, so that a real National Government must remain in New Zealand a political dream in the meantime. But that should not prevent some steps being taken to form a strong party to try to cope with the serious price level situation and to put a stop to the huge uneconomic loan expenditure.”