The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1925. THE CLAIMS OF REFORM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19443, 31 October 1925, Page 8

The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1925. THE CLAIMS OF REFORM

Electors may recall the fact that Mr. Coates made it clear when he took office that he proposed during the last session of Parliament to carry out the policy bequeathed to him by his distinguished predecessor. He made no attempt to propound a new policy, his aim being to complete the work that came to his hand and then to go to the country with a programme of legislative and administrative proposals. The Prime Minister has kept his promises. As Leader of the House he guided Parliament through a session which achieved a great deal of useful work and he has since placed a full statement of policy before the country and expounded it from many platforms. There is nothing revolutionary in Mr. Coates’ programme, nothing that is spectacular, nothing designed merely to tickle the ears of the electors. The Prime Minister and his party make no appeals to class prejudice, no imputations of corruption on the part of their opponents, no wordy promises to bring about a millennium, which every reasonable man knows to be an impossibility. The programme is a plain, straightforward pronouncement of a desire to do things which actually can be done, and to do them in a way that will promote the progress of the whole Dominion and assure to the whole of the people justice and fair treatment.

The aim of the Reform Party, as outlined by Mr. Coates, is by means of wise legislation, based upon the sound knowledge to be acquired through patient investigation, and by means of businesslike administration to afford this country full opportunity to fulfil its unquestionably great destiny. Mr. Coates is filled with an abounding faith in his native country and with an unswerving sense of loyalty to the British Empire. He sees New Zealand at the present time as the country that is richer in. promise than any other country in the Empire, and his simple creed is that New Zealand can be made the fairest and the most attractive British country in the world. Because of his faith in the Dominion, and because he believes that sound and steady development can be attained if the country is adequately protected against the influences of extremism, Mr. Coates asks the electors next week to return him to the office of Prime Minister, accompanied by a sufficient number of pledged supporters to enable him to give full effect to his policy. Those who have seen and heard Mr. Coates will have realised that he is no visionary. He has impressed them with a sense of his abounding energy and keen vitality, his simplicity of speech and his capacity for action. As the administrator of some of the most important Departments of State he has shown conspicuous initiative and enterprise, fully justifying the belief that his ability can be usefully directed in the supreme control of public affairs. The people of the Dominion are saying that he is the right man in the right place. He asks them to trust him to look after their affairs and to give him such a following of Reform members in Parliament that he will be able to use his ability to the greatest advantage. The important point to be borne in mind by the electors when they go to the polling booths next Wednesday is that the election issue is between the Reform Party and the Labour Party. If they will study the list of nominees for Parliament and also the comments on election prospects which appear in the “Chronicle” to-day, they will be convinced that there is not the remotest chance of the Nationalists forming an effective party in the new House. At the best the Nationalists can only be a handful. Their presence in the election contest is, however, a source of danger. Where Reform, Labour, and Nationalist candidates are contesting a seat, every vote given to a Nationalist instead of a Reformer will increase Labour’s chance of taking office. The Reform Party is the only party that can keep Labour out of office and safeguard the country against the ills that it would suffer under Labour control. Every elector who values his personal liberty and the progress of the Dominion should vote Reform.