PARTY POLITICS AND PARLIAMENT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2464, 18 May 1915, Page 4

PARTY POLITICS AND PARLIAMENT

The interests of the Opposition will be ill-served by the persistent efforts which are being made locallv on then- behalf to embarrass the Government by means of a poliev'of persistant abuse of Ministers on* the narrowest and bitterest partv lines The great bulk of tiie public at thfi present, anxious time have little thought for party politics. The bigger issues of life and death fullv oreiiftv their minds, and properlv so, 'iho eiioHs that Kvu bcitlj> toad's

to keep alive an embittered party I strife are in themselves a pathetic' illustration of the pettiness and narrowness of outlook so characteristic of our political life. Day after day the columns of the local Opposition journal are crowded wifcli the stories of the heroic sacrifices of our troops in the great world struggle—stories of terrible suffering, magnificent courage, find noblo selfsacrifice—and side by side with these great heart-stirring records is printed a blatantly partisan attack on this or that member of the Government—a paltry, abusive, oftentimes venomous, tirade so out. of keeping with the spirt of the times as to appear quite grotesque. It goes far to prove the depth to which party politics have sunk in New Zealand when a recognised political party organ at the reat of Government can at such a time as the present, while sectional differences of all kinds have been so widely sunk, seek to maintain and accentuate tho spirit of party rancour and embarrass with party issues those in authority on whom so great a burden of responsibility now rests. Tho purpose of these attacks is of course to seek to gain some profit for the Opposition while Ministers are busily occupied with the added duties and. anxieties arising out of the war. It is inconceivable that any party can in the end derive any benefit from such unworthy devices. In a few weeks' time 'Parliament; will be called together for the transaction of business, and it will be possible then to observe whether the Opposition intend to pursue in Parliament the tactics which their newspaper supporter has been practising during the recess. The country, we venture to think, is in no mood to tolerate the usual bickerings and wranglings which constitute so large a part of the routine of the session. It will be more in keeping with the general feeling of the community to make the session as short as possible and to avoid all controversial legislation. It will be necessary of course to secure special supplies and certain legislation necessitated by the war will require to be passed. But outside of these imperative needs there is no call for legislation —nothing, that is, that cannot wait a- more opportune time. The session, in fact, might well be ended in a month or six weeks and Ministers thus freed to carry on their war tasks without the added burden of the work and worry of Parliament.