The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1934. WHY COALITIONS EXIST.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20361, 19 July 1934, Page 8

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1934. WHY COALITIONS EXIST.

COALITIONS in politics come into existence in a national sense, as distinct from a narrow party sense, only to meet a national emergency. When the crisis is passed it is futile to expect a coalition to serve the country faithfully, because it undergoes internal changes in which sectional selfseeking imposes the will of the majority upon the will of the minority for purely party purposes with a consequent abandonment of a distinctive national policy. This tendency towards disintegration is barely restrained by that most powerful of all motives, self-inter-est, which holds coalitions together commonly until the expiration of the term for which they were elected. Actually the disintegrating forces are at work before an election, as we have seen in the case of candidates who have refused to stand down in favour of a coalition nominee, and have been elected without the official approval even of their own party. Any proposals, therefore, for a continuance or rebirth of the present Coalition can be based only on the ground of national emergency, and with sixteen months of the present Parliament to run—for an earlier election is quite out of the question—it is at least certain that the need will not he as pressing as it was three «years ago. A coalition dominated by Reform interests would be quite unacceptable to the country, which nourishes very strong resentment against the abandonment of the arbitration principle, to mention only one of the false steps taken by the -Coalition, and would result in a very large turnover of Liberal votes either to Labour or to some other Liberal but less militant force in politics. , ENTER THE LEGION. TT IS WITH THESE considerations in mind that the more pushing members of the New Zealand Legion seem to have come on the scene with a proposal to form a new party. The mischief is that the Legion has had its head in the clouds, and while prattling about lending its support to the most respectable candidate, irrespective of party, has failed to see that electoral reform is the only means by which it can realise its own ideals. Such reform is urgently needed to avoid the dangerous tendency towards individual or group dictatorship, and to give effective freedom and power to the elector in the choice of a representative. That choice is limited wherever a Coalition candidate stands. Mr Churchill has said that “ the present state of the House of Commons is most unhealthy, for all views should be represented there,” and a manifesto “ in support of Parliamentary Government,” issued last November over the signatures of many eminent men and women, including Lord Rutherford of Nelson, has a passage that might have been written to suit the position in New Zealand to-day:—

At each general election the present system exposes the country to the danger of a political stampede; electors who may be discontented with the Government of the day have no course open to them, if they vote at all, save that of voting for an opposing party of whose programme many may feel no positive approval; and a slight turn-over in votes produces excessive changes in the composition of Parliament—changes the extent of which the electors cannot control. The danger is so real in New Zealand that the only safe policy to pursue is, at the earliest possible moment, to have done with Coalitions and to offer the electors an unfettered choice in the selection of the individuals that promise to fulfdl tlieir ideals. A FLYING HITCH. O PORTING INTEREST in Kingsford Smith is so keen that there will be general dismay at the report that his new machine will not comply with the conditions of the Centenary air race. Rut the prohibition has a serious side, inasmuch as machines of this type are constantly flying in America, and creating records, too, and to the extent that they are neglected in British countries British flying must be the loser.