INDEPENDENT’S ROLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 September 1943, Page 4

INDEPENDENT’S ROLE

NEED OF NATIONAL UNITY PARTY SYSTEM CONDEMNED. w CAPTAIN JUSTIN POWER’S VIEWS. Speaking to the electors, Captain Justin Power, Independent candidate for the Masterton seat, said he was standing as an Independent because, in his opinion, only a strong force of Independents sandwiched between the two existing parties, could save New Zealand from the fate of being completely socialised and secondly, as an emphatic protest against a general election being held when the United Nations were in grave peril. “It is almost criminal,” Captain Power said, “that 80 fully-grown men—men who are supposed to represent the intelligentsia of the country, and who are elected by the people—could not come together like real men and form a truly National Government to direct and harness every ounce of energy and intelligence in New Zealand to help to bring this ghastly and bloody w6r to a speedy conclusion.” POLITICIANS’ OUTLOOK. Because of politicians’ hunger for power, jealousy and party bitterness, a truly National Government was now an impossibility and no one knew this better than the electors in general and Mr Holland in particular, said Captain Power. The whole farcical situation was attributable to the existence of party political machinery which operated outside Parliament and was controlled by people who were not the elected representatives of the people—the Easter Conference of the Labour Party on the one hand and the National Party’s annual conference on the other, the former composed of trades unionists and the latter of vested interests. “ELIMINATION OF ROBOTS” Captain Power alleged that vested interests contributed large sums of money to both parties so as to be on the safe side. It was this party political machinery which the Independent candidates were out to crush and kill for all time. With that done they would consider they had rendered a great service to New Zealand. The elected representatives would then be able to vote on any issue in accordance with their own judgment and conscience. They would no longer be “yes-no” men or political robots. Discussion and debate in the House would be of value and not a sheer waste of time and public money. Captain Power asked why did men uproot themselves from all the things they cherished and go away to fight? The answer was because their country was in danger. Then, so also must those who had been content to drift along in the party groove and party atmosphere, realise that today this wonderful country was in grave danger of being turned, on the one hand, into a completely Socialistic State by a bunch of profesional politicians who catered only for one section of the community, or on the other hand of returning to the old conservative form of government which would bring in its wake industrial troubles and unrest. If the present parties were returned in anything like their present strength, then it will be goodbye to freehold, private enterprise, freedom, security and justice, all of which were their inherent rights. Only by voting Independent could electors preserve all the things which New Zealanders loved and for which their boys were fighting, a true and practical democracy. GROUP’S ASPIRATIONS.

The Independent Group, said the candidate, stood for a truly National Government. The elected representative must live in his electorate. For the duration of the war the candidate must devote himself wholly and solely to his constituency. There would be a trenchant reduction in both Houses of Parliament and the Legislative Council would be made elective. Other objectives were: The preservation of the freehold tenure; encouragement and assistance of private enterprise; State control of liquor; motherhood endowment on a liberal scale; an overhaul of manpower and of overseas manpower commitments; decentralisation of secondary industries; overhaul of Defence staff and system; reduction in the cost ( of living; a gradual reduction in taxation; true guaranteed prices for farmers (not a fixed one as at present), a comfortable standard of living allowance for the aged and permanently afflicted; immediate long range planning for rehabilitation of service men and women to include all those now serving in war industries (primary and secondary) in New Zealand; immediate long range planning for the transition period from war to peace time in industry, to include heavy metal industries, plastic and cellulose industries and afforestation, and the abolition of the Internal Marketing Board. These and other important matters would be dealt with in accordance with the country’s wealth and resources.

Captain Power saic| that all party policies left in their making a path strewn with broken promises. He reminded his audience that Santa Claus did not come down the chimney, nor did rabbits lay Easter eggs. Any bountiful outpouring of the people’s money must be paid for in the end by the recipients themselves. The Independent Group were out to raise New Zealand politics on to a pedestal of honesty and sincerity. The Independent .Group felt that the National and Labour parties could only be brought together to form a National Government by Independents acting as intermediaries in the House.