NEW ZEALAND ELECTION

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19762, 18 December 1935, Page 9

NEW ZEALAND ELECTION

PARALLEL WITH CANADA. DOMINIONS AND THE FUTURE. ENGLISH PRESS -COMMENT. (Times Air Mall Service.) LONDON, November 28. The Manchester Guardian, j* 1 a leader on the New; Zealand elections, sa few Zealand yesterday returned its first Labour Government by a swing to the Left that compares m its tore with that which lately unseated Mi Bennett in Canada. Mr * llcha Savage, the leader of the Labour Party, finds himself with a backing o 52 in a House containing 80 members. The Government that has fallen was a coalition of Liberals and Consenatne formed in 1031 to rescue the count from financial emergency. It , itself the term “National, but, uni . the “National” Government of t c Mother Country, it has fatled to maintain the pretence at a second election. The parallel with Canada is the closei, since in both Dominions a new pauy took the field, with prospects ha baffled the election prophets, and n both failed completely at the pollsMr Stevens’s Reconslructionists m Canada returned one member, A Stevens himself. In New Zealand the Democrats, who sought to mob li»e those discontented with the olde parties, have not secured a single member. Large Promises Made. The new Government has made large promises. It Is pledged to establish a national credit authority that will provide a money service sufficient to give effect to the will of Parliament; to embark upon a public works policy that will establish able-bodied workers in industry; and to guarantee economic prices to producers. Its critics maintain that these promises cannot be fulfilled unless -the Government embarks on a dangerous,/ inflationary policy. That remains to oe seen. Meanwhile, as in 1909, when Australia elected the first Labour Government the British Empire had known,* the Antipodes become the scene of social and political experiment that should have in It much from which the more conservative of the British nations may learn. There was a vogue a few years ago for volumes lamenting the decadence of the British peoples. “Cassandra: or the Future of the British Empire,” was a typical minor treatise of the sort, “The Empire in Decline” another. We were assured by men of learning who should have known better that the virtue had gone out of us, that unless we hedged ourselves about with the tall fence of a Customs tariff and inside -it primed our guns and took in each other’s washing we should somehow disperse and be as naught, like the empires of Babylon or of Rome. The fact, on the contrary, is that the British peoples have seldom been more lively in political -thought and never more helpful in the counsels of the world than they are to-day. The development was inevitable to the eyes of anyone who had a true perspective of the Empire. A New Epoch Begins. When the Dominions put their separate signatures to the Peace Treaty and to the Covenant of the League a new epoch in Imperial history began. None, perhaps, fully foresaw the consequences of that step. 'To-day the League and the ’ world have every reason to commend the wisdom that encouraged it. The council chamber of the nations is reinforced by the representatives of free peoples who can speak of the conditions, the needs, and the fears of far distant quarters of the globe, and wiio can bring to the affairs of Europe a sympathy that is qualified by an admirable detachment and critical faculty.' They play their part well. It is of the utmost value that the representatives of South Africa should be able to warn the world at Geneva, with an authority no others have, of the possible'repercussions of a white conquest of the only remaining independent black kingdom. So it is that from Canada should come the realist suggestion that sanctions against the aggressor should include oil and coal. It is fitting that, as is to-day announced, the Dominions should for the first time take part in an international conference on naval armament. The views of Australia or of South Africa are as likely to make for sanity in handling that problem as are those of any nation. The prophets who delight in jeremiads on the Empire’s dissolution would do better to consider the great and growing parts in world affairs that are implicit in the destiny of its members. It is not fanciful to foresee that Canada, which lias firm cultural ties, both French and British, with the Old World, will play the part of on increasingly strong link between it and the New. Certainly it will be no fault of Canada’s present Premier if she fails to work for peace, world order, and freer trade both with the great neighbour across her border and with the League Powers of whom she is one. The projected reciprocity treaty with the United Slates is a beginning. Europe will be the safer and the’ saner when the spirit that dictated it gains some hearing on this tfitle of the Atlantic. Irish Free State's Influence. The Irish Free Slate lias already shown herself to he greater ,in wisdom and in influence in world affairs than her own temper and the bungling of British statesmanship have made possible in nearer problems. But that is a condition that must pas-s; and who shall set a limit to the value of Ireland's contribution to the world's councils as the member of a Commonweal lb in which she takes her place without misgiving or after thought? South Africa, for her part, cannot escape the fate of welding a nation that shall not only fuse two rival white races in full co-operation hut shall find the moans lo live in justice and amity with a native population that greatly outnumbers the white. That development is slow. The native Bills have been for years the subject of debate, but anyone who follows the long discussion in press and on platform wiii goo that n powerful earnestness and sincerity are being brought lo bear on it. The voices of Australia and of New Zealand in days to come will inevitably lie listened to with deference in world council on all problem-s affecting the Pacific and the (Continued in ne.u column.)

South Seas. India before long will speak with the pride of full partnership for the millions of mixed race and religion within her borders. These are not the developments of a decadent empire. Yet, unless indeed democratic government and liberal education arc overthrown in the Commonwealth by a greater catastrophe than the world has yet known, they are what the future holds.