The Press Wednesday, June 17, 1925. The Political Situation.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18410, 17 June 1925, Page 8

The Press Wednesday, June 17, 1925. The Political Situation.

Although the Prime Minister, in the address at Pukekohe which we report to-day, was recommending the electors to show their confidence in the Government by sending Mr McLennan to Parliament, his words have a good deal of weight and meaning for the electors in other parts of the Dominion. He made it plain that he regards himself as entrusted with the work of carrying on the policy of Mr Massey, and he has given no sign—and why should he?—that he feels obliged to break up, or partially disrupt, the Administration which he took over oh the death of its chief. "Now that the end of " the present Parliament was drawing "near," he said, "it was their duty "to complete the task which Mr Mas- " sey had-set himself, and, having done " that, to go to the country and ask "it what it wanted." It may have been expected by some that Mr Coates might aim at securing for Mr McLennan the votes of the Liberals in the. Franklin electorate by telling them that they would be supporting a Heform-cum-Liberal Government; but Mr Coates avoided giving any such assurance or promise. He merely asked them, as sensible and reasonable men, to give an example of "getting "together." Whether Mr Coates was or was not thinking of the conference of Party delegates which is to bo hold to-morrow, it is not to bo disputed that the delegates should consider fusion from the standpoint of national, and not of party, interests. An overwhelming majority of the people are anxious to see an end of the needless and artificial division in the ranks of tho moderates,' and "although many people think that fusion must bo paid for by giving Cabinet posts to Liberal front-benchers, more do not. Wo are expressing the view of most Keformers and of no inconsiderable section of the Liberals when we say that the business of the conference ought t to be, not the striking of a bargain over seats and portfolios, but the arrangement of a common programme. Some"~of the Liberal- members and some of their friends outside Parliament, as everyone is aware, take the view that the Liberals can, and rightfully may, demand rewards of one kind or another for giving' up their power to divide tho moderate' vote. If it is in that frame of mind that tho Liberal delegates will attend the conference, the Government will act most wisely if it refuses coalition on such 'terms, for tho country will unsparingly condemn any set of politicians who will agree to do the right thing only if they get something out of it. This is not to say that the Government should stand out against the allocation of portfolios to Liberals, for it may be thought desirable to make some such concession in order to please the general body of Liberal voters, and in any case it may bo possible really to strengthen the Cabinet by taking in one or two Liberals. There is one Liberal member, indeed, whose name has not been mentioned in-'the discussions which have taken place, who would certainly bo an ornament to the Cabinet, and that is tho Hon. A. T. Ngata. But tho main point to be remembered, however, is that Mr Coates is the present trustee of Mr Massey's political estate, and that it is his duty to carry out the policy of the Massey Government and to remember that the present Parliament is a Parliament elected to maintain the Massey Government in office. There can be no vital concessions for the sake even of fusion, and we. can hardly imagine that the Liberals would be willing to appear before the country as a Party asking to be bought off. And in any case, any arrangement that is come to must be subject to the Prime Minister's right to select his own colleagues.

primary schools and an extra-upper sixth to the high and technical schools has placed itself on a "pedestal of "effete and snobbish isolation" on which it can no longer feel the people's will. When democracy is brooding over the integral calculus the Senate not only does not know, but is so aristocratic that it does not care. On the other hand when the "expression " of the will of the community" might be cookery and carpentering the Senate's will is letters and philosophy, and not even soap-box oratory, and this is more than democracy can endure. "National Education" is going to remove "the barnacles of " tradition" by changing the constitution and representation of the Senate —we are sure on the principle of P.R. It is going to make the University into a place that will supply culture as well as a degree by effacing those hopeless reactionaries on the Senate who know nothing but languages and science and philosophy, and substituting for them those true representatives of the people —the butcher, the baker, the grocer, the farmer, the shearer, and the waterside worker. And when it has "accomplished the effacement of "the reactionaries" on the Senate—with the aid of a Master of Arts and a lettered Knight sitting as a Royal Commission "National Education" will begin effacing the "oracular in- " efficients" on the teaching staffs to show that "after all it is the student " that matters." Most people think it is the student that matters. But " National Education" knows that it is democracy that matters —that there is "a will of the community in regard "to higher education" which is being ignored because the members of the Senate are effete snobs, tho professors "text-book gramophones," and the University itself "a thing apart from "the general scheme of Stato education." How the will of the community is going to be mado to express itself in individual students when individual students are not. expressing themselves in harmony with the will of the community wo do not know; but "National Education" knows; and to doubt the capacity of a journal that has already made tho discovery that, "the practice of education has two "personal factors, the teachers and the " taught," would bo getting up on a pedestal again, and ignoring democracy's hunger for culture.