NATIONAL PARTY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 27, 3 February 1939, Page 8

NATIONAL PARTY

VOICE NOT RAISED AGAINST IMPORT CONTROL

PROFESSOR ALGIE’S STATEMENT [ Ppt Press Association.] AUCKLAND. Feb. 2. The Government’s control of trade and industry under the import regulations is referred Io by Professor R, M. Algie in a statement which he has issued on behalf of the Auckland Provincial Freedom Association. : “While importers are threatened! with serious loss, even with ruin, and many of their employees are compelled by the actions of the Gov-1 ernment to face the gloomy prospect of dismissal. o.ne wonders what | has happened to the National Party,” says the statement. “Is there no Op-; position? Has the National Party ini a time of crisis ceased to function? , Was there ever a time in the history of this country when a determined! and effective Opposition was more i urgently needed? ’ “If that right of full and free dis- - cussion which is incidental to par- - liamentary government is to be ' trampled in the dust, and if restric- ■ five and p/en destructive legislation • is Io be issued over-night, without I any previous reference to the people ’ of their representatives; and , if • Ministers are Io he able by their 1 own regulations to place themselves • outside the law and beyond the • reach of the law courts—if all this : is to take place without even the ’ suggestion of a protest from the Op- • position, then surely we may say that our democracy is dead and we may ‘ as well prepare ourselves for the consequences. • “The way down this path is easy • and perhaps at first inviting. The 1 way back will prove to he long, diffi- ' cult, and possibly painful. If at 1 critical times such as these no help ’ is to come from the official Opposi--1 tion. the need for a real awakening on 1 the part, of the people becomes all ; the more imperative, and, if any assertion of our civic manhood and independence of spirit to be effective, it is essential that there should bo a ! sound understanding of the actual facts of the position.”