The Times. Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons. FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1921, WHAT IS WANTED.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 638, 3 June 1921, Page 6

The Times. Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons.

FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1921, WHAT IS WANTED.

"Wg nothing extenuate, nor aught set down in malice,"

Platitudes and promises never yet made a nation great. A government elected by the people does not necessarily mean a capable or useful government. ' The handling of a young country like New Zealand is spoilt solely because its destinies are shaped by politicians—not statesmen. This country possesses untold potential wealth. Its rivers can carry commerce and supply power and light for a continent. Its hills hide stores of minerals waiting to be dug, and millions of acres lay waste which should be producing wealth. Why? Simply and solely because democracy has no vision, never has had and never will The hour is upon us when a master mind is needed; a man who combines the qualities of a Napoleon with those of a Lloyd George and a Kitchener, Disciplined and directed, the people of this Dominion could build reads, railways, bridges, power houses and factories —could transform wildernesses into smiling farms and build up a nation. The internal forces of the country are scattered and powerless, labour pulls’one way, capital another, and the inass of the people are discontented and dangerous. Any returned soldier will tell you that if it was not for discipline and direction their armies would have been a rabble, therefore capitalists and labour leaders must be disciplined sternly and positively, but in such a manner that neither will be injured for usefulness to the State,. It would pay New Zealand in the long run to do this and raise fifty millions for public works alone. If the Dominion were cultivated to the last inch,, and ten or twenty times the present number of rni’es of roads and railways and of bridges built, discontent and trouble would disappear. Why? Because a busy healthy nation has not time to grow miserable. Everyone would have to work —even those most autocratic and parasitic individuals, the labour leaders. For instance, we wifi state- that: 20,000 houses are needed in the Dominion. Organise 5000 or 10,COO carpenters bricklayers, plumbers, etc., conscript the output of every timber

mill and cement works in the .Dominion for this purpose* and the housing problem grappled with in a determined and disciplined way would soon vanislp During the war the Allies were up against problems hundreds of times more difficult and carried them through. Only a statesman can lead and direct such movements. Timidity, doubt nr.d vacillation will never overcome obstacles of this magnitude. A. Government can do anything; yes, anything, if it is sure of itself, its cause and the ultimate good arising from its action. It can so discipline the masses that they will respond to every order-—like soldiers in the field—if failure to respond means deportation. It can control exports and imports, mobilise capitalists and workers, financiers and thinkers, civil engineers and navvies, architects and builders. Instead of allowing the nation to drift and be torn asunder by dissensions it can mold and direct those very forces to the development of the country. Unfortunately this is a vision. Politicians increase their salaries while old

age pensioners—the pioneers . of development in this country-—can hardly live. Fancy a country with a population of a million and a quarter requiring over a hundred legislators to sii; at Wellington and make its laws. Progress is retarded by weight of numbers. Where big decisions are made in battle two or three generals decide tiie fate of millions unencumbered by mob rule. Surely the fate of a nation in peace is as important as when it is at war. What need for an army of politicians at all? Three strong men could administer and develop this Dominion in one quarter the time, and at a quarter the expense incurred at present. Emerson was right—‘‘Every great institution is but the lengthened shadow of a single man." And Hubbard spoke more than a half truth when he said that “ Democracy after all was only glorified mob rulq.