The Press TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 1946. The National Party

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24910, 25 June 1946, Page 4

The Press TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 1946. The National Party

The National Party conference, reported in several messages during the last few days, has produced encouraging evidence of the vigour with which the party is addressing itself to the problems of the near and the remoter future. If its political strength were to be judged by a single sentence, the one to be chosen would be this, from a speech by the leader, Mr S. G. Holland: “ Our desire is to provide the “ sort of Government that is worthy *■ of acceptance by the people of “ New Zealand, and not merely tc “ get into office on the demerits of “ the other party.” The National Party has, undoubtedly, reason to believe its electoral chances are good, because it offers the country the only possible alternative to 3 Government frorri which many are turning in disillusion and distrust. The party might rest on that reason and fight a campaign calculated accordingly. Such a calculation would betray the party, win or lose. Either the want of a positive, constructive policy would disappoint the electors waiting for it, or it- would rapidly turn victory into disaster. There is only one safe and wise course: to recognise the fact that a decade of Labour has wearied thousands who once welcomed it—and then to forget the fact, fight as if Labour’s hold were unweakened, and work for the right as well as the chance to govern instead. Mr Holland’s words promise that this will be the course to be followed. The party’s full policy has yet to be announced. The president, Mr W. J. Sim, K.C., and Mr Holland have disclosed no more than, at this stage, is politically discreet and very little more than has previously been disclosed: for instance, and very significantly, that wages, pensions, benefits, and allowances will not be touched, but taxation will come down, that every other incentive to high and efficient production will be offered, that policies prepared against any economic adversity will be designed to protect “ those who may be hit “ the hardest ”, and that the “ ener- “ gies of the community ” will be released from the dead hand of the State. But as Mr Sim said, in timely warning, the transition from the present order to the new must take time and must be directed “ with understanding and with pati- “ ence ”. The National Party, in office, would be sharply admonished by hard facts, international as well as national, it it began in the belief that a change of administration, even from the worst imaginable to the best possible, could swiftly substitute plenty for scarcity, rehouse thousands of families, restore the robbed soil, give more purchasing power to the pound, and make lower tax rates easily carry the dead-weight debt and the great cost of social services. When the party’s policy is fully disclosed, it will, or it should, disclose not only aims but methods and measures. And it should do something more. It should show that the National Party has been able to find seme object, or principle, or idea, or ideal, unifying its policy, of wider validity than freedom, the • greatest attainable for the general good, of economic enterprise. Politics are more than economics; and the National Party, it is to be hoped, will find its inspiration in that fact.