The Waikato Times FRIDAY, JUNK 16, 1939 CO-OPERATIVE EFFORT WANTED

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20832, 16 June 1939, Page 6

The Waikato Times FRIDAY, JUNK 16, 1939 CO-OPERATIVE EFFORT WANTED

While it may not be possible to agree with everything Mr 1. W. Doidge said in his pre-sessional address at Tauranga regarding the policy of the Government, there can be no two opinions about tile need lor co-operative effort by the most capable men in the country, regardless of party politics, to bring New Zealand safely through the several difficulties it is facing. Undoubtedly Mr Doidge has magnified the present “state of emergency” to give force to the political side of his address, but none but the wilfully blind would suggest that there is not need to take stock especially of the trend of financial affairs and mould the policy of the administration accordingly. Political dogmatism is a paltry thing by comparison with the safety and welfare of the whole people.

Mr Doidge has expressed, although with a clothing of political partisanship, the conviction in the minds of most thinking New Zealanders that political bias has already had too much influence in the conduct of national affairs. The public welfare has indeed become the shuttlecock of political parties which place more value upon g,\ ling or maintaining power than upon governing for the freedom, prosperity and happiness of the people generally. Politicians are not deliberately unmindful of the main reason for which they were elected, but the fact remains that far too much energy is being expended on the political tight and not enough on the scientific management of the country’s affairs.

The suggestion that the Government should call upon the country’s best brains without regard to political affiliations has much to commend it. It would be futile to suggest that all administrative ability is confined to any one party. The difficulty is that when a proposition for the betterment of government is put forward thb political partisans immediately ask themselves what effect it will have upon the voting at the next election, and not whether it will make for good or bad administration. The facts of the present situation arc clear. A policy lias been pursued which has quickly consumed the country’s financial reserves and led to restrictions which have fallen very heavily on large sections of the community. At the same time wage-earners have received considerably more money than they ever had before, although its value has been offset to a large extent by increases in the costs of everything they buy. The questions to be faced arc, can that policy be pursued indefinitely, or even much further? Can the country continue to “spend its way to prosperity”? If those things cannot be done, what is the Government going to do ? The leaders now know whether they can go on as they have been going. Can they see the road clearly ahead ? If they can they arc justified in keeping a firm hand on the tiller. If they cannot, they owe the duty to New Zealand to call for a co-operative effort by all who are able to contribute something towards national stability. It would be a tragedy if the Dominion’s real welfare were sacrificed or placed in jeopardy for the sake of a political foible. From the thinking man’s point of view that is all there is in it. Radical or Tory, the average man wants not a political bear-garden but a genuine effort to make his future secure, prosperous and worthwhile. The statesmanship of to-day will to-morrow be judged, not by the colour of the flag at the masthead but by the condition of the country’s affairs as they are handed on to posterity.