THE ELECTION ISSUE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19437, 24 October 1925, Page 6

THE ELECTION ISSUE

The general election next month will be the first in ten years that has been held under anything like normal conditions. We had a war election, an immediately post-war election, and three years ago an election at a time when we were feeling the most, serious effects of the post-war depression. The recovery is not yet complete, but conditions are sufficiently stable, save in the industrial world, to indicate that the present election must be followed by a period of activity and expansion. At such a time the fate of the country must be determined at the ballot box. New Zealand must decide whether to make progress under a stable and efficient Administration or to begin an era of unrest and' retrogression under the control of an extremist section.

The course of the election campaign shows plainly that the old Liberal Party is dead'and the so-called Nationalists who claimUo be its successors have nothing to offer the country. They haxe none of the aggressiveness, none of the vigour and vitality that enabled the Liberals of the past to dominate the country. The issue is between the present Government and Labour. Is Mr. Coates to carry on his sound and progressive policy, which will enable the Dominion to prosper and expand, or is Mr. Holland, an international Socialist, as he has described himself, to be permitted to put into operation a policy that is foreign alike to the traditions and the needs of the country? The Reform Party stands for the people who have faith in their own country. The Labour Party stands for a policy of internationalism— others first, New Zealand last.

Before long the electors must give their verdict. It cannot be. too clearly understood that the decision lies between Reform and Labour. The National Party, a collection of odds and ends, with a policy of fragments, can do no more than cloud the issue' If an electorate puts in a Nationalist in preference to a Reformer it Will weaken the Government and thus make the way easy for Labour. In this election a vote for a Nationalist will be a "vote for Labour and against Reform.