The Wanganui Chronicle. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1928. THE REFORM GOVERNMENT GOES OUT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 291, 8 December 1928, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1928. THE REFORM GOVERNMENT GOES OUT

'Y’HERE never was any doubt as to the fate of the Reform Government, which was defeated yesterday on a division of 50 to 28, Sir Joseph Ward’s motion of no-confidence being supported by the United and Labour parties and the whole of the Independents. So ended a government that has lasted through seventeen of the most fateful years in history, leaving an honourable record of service on behalf of New Zealand which will only properly be appreciated when calmly surveyed in the perspective provided by the future.

The Government fought a determined and courageous fight to the very end. Having been beaten, its leaders express no resentment, but, like true foemen, they cordially congratulate the victors, and in the loftiness of their political outlook ignore the jeers of their less generous opponents. Mr Coates and his colleagues can afford to be philosophical. Their consicences are clear of having ever done other than what they considered best in the true interests of the public as a whole, and they have more than once shown the truest quality of government—that of ability to resist popular clamour for things that were not for the ultimate good of the country.

The causes for the defeat of Reform are clear. It had administered the affairs of the country’ during the most difficult economic period New Zealand had ever experienced, a period of pernicious financial stagnation, partially paralysing industry and reacting detrimentally to progress in any direction. An impatient people—as people always are in times of depression and consequent unemployment—blamed the Government. This was merely history repeating itself: Governments invariably get the blame for untoward conditions; and although the Reform Government had no more to do with bringing about lean times than had the man in the moon —and, indeed, had greatly mitigated the distress of those timqs by generally wise administration and sympathetic help wherever possible—it had cast upon it the odium of responsibility for misfortunes that were common to the whole world.

Had the Reform Government been unscrupulous enough to desire a retention of office at. all costs, it could easily have postponed its decline in popularity. By able financial management, its credit has been enhanced on the money market to a position beyond that of any other Dominion, and it could have had all the money it required for the asking. The securing of fresh millions, and the scattering of them with a lavish hand, would no doubt have brought a degree of revived prosperity to the country; but it would have been as brief as it was false, only to be renewed by recurrent borrowing, to. which there must surely come an end, and with it, the end of the Government. The Reform Administration set its face against buying popularity at the price of financial integrity. Instead, it set about resolutely to preach a doctrine of economy and care, so that the Dominion could be tided in safety over the crisis, and determined Io borrow no money that could not profitably be used on reproductive works for the development of the country. It was a policy that was unpopular with the masses, whose impatience demanded immediate amelioration. The result was the defeat of the Reform Party at the polls, culminating in its official dismissal by Parliament yesterday.

It cannot be said that this was the deserved reward of honest government; but it was the reward that all governments have conferred upon them sooner or later. The late Mr Massey foresaw what was to come; when he said that it was not good for a government to be in office too long, he knew that the reward of long and faithful service was discontent venting itself in rebellion expressed at the ballot-box. The public seeks a scapegoat for the sins of circumstance; the heads of the government of the time are the handiest for the guillotine of their disfavour. The new United Party is now in office, elected upon a platform of promises; it will not find the fruits of office as sweet as was anticipated in the flush of victory. It is long since a Government was faced with the difficulties which confront that to be formed by Sir Joseph Ward; and he would be a reckless optimist who would promise for it a happy future, or one which will enable the United Party to redeem its extravagant promises.