REFORM OR LABOUR?

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19436, 23 October 1925, Page 11

REFORM OR LABOUR?

THE ONLY ALTERNATIVES MR COATES SUMS UP POLITICAL SITUATION (Special to “Chronicle.”) KOKAKO, Oct. 21. “The Labour Party have to say exactly where they are in respect to this strike,” said Mr Coates at Paparoa. “No one can face both ways at once. The industries of the country have to be protected. We cannot have the whole of our trade tied up.” Concerning the plank in the Labour platform respecting the nationalisation of food and services, Mr Coates said that this meant that the Post and Telegraph Departmeat, for instance, should be managed by a board of control, or the workers themselves. “I have yet to learn,” he added, “that the State departments are being run for the worker in those departments. They are run for the whole of the people, and So far as I am concerned they will continue to be run for the people.” “The real issue at stake is just this,” said Mr Coates; “We can eliminate the Country Party and the National Party, and the question is whether you are going to have a Reform Government or a Labour Government, and whether the Government is to be led by me, and I am to have an opportunity of putting my manifesto into operation. In my opinion, if the Nationalists did the right thing they would support us, and let Parliament get back to the two-party system as soon as possible. The position must be clear to all of you. While there is a distinct clearage between us and Labour, the National policy is much the same as our’s, except that it is not sufficiently progressive, and they have not vision enough to recognise the objectives necessary to put our country where it ought to be.”

One of the audience at Paparoa stated at the conclusion of the Prime Minister's address that a representative of the Country Party, when questioned, had said that the Country Party would coalesce with Labour to put the Government out, which meant they would join hands with the Bolsheviks to defeat the Government. He thought the farmers ought to take notice of that. . It is significant that at all the meetings at which Mr Coates thus stated the position, ho received unanimous votes of thanks ai.rt confidence.