AIMS OF THE LEGION

Wairarapa Age, 4 May 1934, Page 5

AIMS OF THE LEGION

ADDRESS BY DR. CAMPBELL BEGG. ACTIVE PART TO BE TAKEN IN NEXT ELECTION. ADVOCACY' OF PREFERENTIAL VOTING. (Special to “The Age”). ‘ WELLINGTON, May 3. In an address to the Hutt Valley Division of thd New Zealand Legion to-night, Dr. R. Campbell Begg the Dominion President made it clear that the legion intended tb take an active part *in the next election. There was no intention of opposing certain valued members of the three present parties, ho said, but others would be nominated in such a way as to secure a majority in the House determined to carry out essential political and administrative reconstruction. Dr. Campbell Begg also referred to the complete revolution in Great Britain which, had replaced the policy of laissez-faire by economic planning. He said that the policy to increase the ■ local production of food-stuffs in England was based on the necessity of national security and would not be abandoned. There would no doubt be a sigh of relief to think that in New Zealand we had the courage to face the difficult road of economic planning to replace the spasmodic and “interference” of the past. NO. LAISSEZ-FAIRE IN POLITICS. We had now to face the fact that we had no machinery of government capable of carrying out any continuous policy. Unless that machinery waa amended the goal of the least possiWler interference with individual activity compatible with the interests of thb country, and other individuals, could not be carried out. Laissez-faire in politics was unfortunately still the policy of all parties in the field, and until that was altered it was impossible for New Zealand to launch out on a bold plan of reconstruction. The legion ’s proposals for an Economic Council built up from the organised economic life of the community Itself, and the co-ordination of local body activities by shires, were the only constructive programme that had been brought forward.

UNITY GOVERNMENT ESSENTIAL. The details were difficult but by no means insoluble, and the evils of party government could be controlled in no other way. The urgent need at the present time was a Unity Government which must include the iLabour side of the House, with the clear intention to take a bold line of action. The vital questions of political and administrative changes to meet the new economic situation could no longer be shelved without grave danger to the country. Dr. Begg said that he had carefully analysed the Labour party’s proposals, and he could see no recognition of this fact in them. It was apparently the intention that, if in the power, the party should handle such matters as the national control of currency and trade with no other machinery than that of the Government caucus as at present. The present Government and the parties composing it adopted a similar attitude. PARTICIPATION IN ELECTION.

The legion’s duty was clear enough. There were individual men in the Labour Party, as Independents and in the other parties, who were of great value to the country through their presence in the House. It was, however, the plain duty of the legion to secure a majority in Parliament who would abandon the hopeless attitude of lais-sez-faire to outworn political institutions, and so readjust the machinery as to meet, the new and much more exacting demands of government, while preserving intact the substance of democracy. The legion had to mould a machinery which would take an active part in the coming election, and the function of this machine* would be to assist the return of those members of the House on all sides whose power for service to the country had been proved and at the same time the return of others who were prepared to carry out the full programme of political and economic reconstruction. It was possible their activities might not prove attractive to the existing party organisations.

CRY OF VOTE-SPLITTING. The cry of vote-splitting hacj been raised by both parties, and of the two the Labour Party might have more grounds for such complaint than the Coalition. An analysis of the voting in the different electorates showed indubitably that there was a large group of progressively minded people who, in the absence of a third candidate of their own type of thought, vote for Labour or do not vote at all. The system of preferential voting advocated by the legion was simple and effective. 'The time had passed, talk of ‘‘mushroom growths” notwithstanding, when any of the existing parties, whether they be Reform, Labour or United, might imagine that they had bought out the monopoly of electoral rights. Preferential voting of a scientific type would up the tyranny of the party nominations, whereas the present system of first-past-the-post beloved of the parties resulted in defeating the will of the electors. He believed that under the Nansen-Hogben system this form of voting could be made a true and simple test of the electors’ wishes, and any party that tried to defeat this aim by nominating dummies or otherwise would burn its fingers badly. He said frankly that the country was rotten ripe for a group which would lead boldly to political and economic reconstruction with full knowledge of the world trends to which we must conform in these days of»rapid change. New Zealand had to slough off the shibboleths of insularism and progress-killing conservatism as well as the fear of sectional interests which had been the curse of our political life. The legion’s plans not only provided high ideals in national life, but practical proposals for their fulfilment. Organising and educational activities had been their role‘up till now. They must in future have action for their watchword. Unity in national spirit 6nd unity in government was the aim, and he believed that the whole country would respond and get behind them in their effort.