Political Mists

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 194, 2 September 1937, Page 4

Political Mists

Opr Own Parliiimentary Cprresdent.)

WHAT TO DO NOW? A Changed Atmosphere on Parliament Hill IAB0UR ON REFENSIVE

(From

WELLINGTON, This Day. As the second session of the Labour Oovermnent approaches, parliament Hill once moro bcgins to be slirouded in the mists of political doubts antl auxieties. In the last few days, iu fact, the atmosphere lias had almost the quality of the depression years when the then Prime Miuister was teljing the country the worst as soon as he heard it and the Minister of finance was declaring that predictions were useless beeause the ground was- shifting from day to day. The ch&nge in putlook, in fact, is qqite notable. By contrast with that atmosphere of resolute planping, and cousciqusness pf.ajssured virtue, which oue found tRere before fh© last session, with thp whole secretarial ptaff conscriptcd to deal with tli© mountains of mail, and the Jeaders; pf the Government tuliting Tfith thc ajy of conjurors producing aces from their sleeves, Parliament Buildings to.rday |s a place of anxious preparation and eager searching for ways and means. Mr Savage, it is true, continuep his oracular way and Mr Nash is at ever bouyant, confident and careful, but the inore talkative members qf the Cabinet make no secret of their uneasy fpeling that the pace may have been too i'ast, that they would have been wisey, both politically and. economicajly, perhaps, to have been in less of a hurry to redeem pledges. It might have been wiser, they feel, to have restored wages in ope year, say, and brought the 40hour week into being in another. This nagging uncertainty is aggravated by' two. things ; th® fact that the Opposition has now outgrown its earlier attitude of * 'giving Labour a chance," end the further fact that Labour, heving had its chance, is beginning to accumu-. late a body of performance, Labpur, ffi sh0J?t, is ceasing to be a brilliant prppjise and is becoming a party with a recora in government, and any party which hlls that positipn e?P°ses weaknesses to its adversaries. The variety and nature pf those weaknesses which ara beginning to be felt pn Parlis* ment Hill, 1 The. Sourt&s of Uneasines8 The spurces of nneasiness, in sum, arp eonsiderable. They ostend all the way from an uneasy cjou.bt as tq the outcome of Mr Nash's bulk-trade plan (a doubt not for a moment shared by Mr Nash), thrpugh a fpeling that the strain on jndustry of the 40-hour week may be a trifla more than indnstry is able to stand without government a» sistanee, a feeling that prices are riping too rapidly and that nothing can be done about it, some cogent doubts about the new flood oi impqrts and tlie eifeqt on lopal industry, puzziemont about the recent tise in uneinployment figures at a time when seasonal demands f,9V workers should cause ,the figures to fgll, to a budding realisation that the high pace pf legislative aqtion may leave no spectacular things to he done ne$t year when the electorate is to express its opinion on Labpur's record. The nneasiness js beginning to be shown by a growing willingness tp be drawn by criticjsm and a certain asperity in ministerial replies. Even anonymous letters to the Presa bave been npticed by Ministers, and doubters iiave had tlxe speeial attention of the prime Minister, But doubt continues |ts work, and an example of it was given by the Miuister of jndustries and Commerce a few weelrs agp when be mentioned the effect of Labour legislation cn production jn the secondary industries and warnej industrialists on the necessity pf reducing costs. Before the Labour Party conference, again, he declared that the addition pf holidays with pay to the load that secondary industry was carrying might make the t>urden more than jt cpuld easily bear. Can N-Z. Be Insulated? The two things which ara prineipally troubling the party leaders ftrp tim prqblem Pf these manufaeturing iiidustries and the fceHfig that Labpfb is losing gupport. fn bravely em barking on its path towards a bpight'! er existeuce, the Labour Party qlaimed that prosperity could be made a Nqw Zealand pbenomenQn; that thp pountry could be msulated against the troubje? of the rest of tlie world., The industrialists were promised , their sharp pf the good things, and on the strength of these promises they aecepted thp new legislation without deinur. The Labour Department aduiits that it has had practieally no trouble at all with thc pmployers" while iniplementing the new poliGy, far^reaching as some of the phanges in the management pf the pe?f sonnel have been, To-day thp inippft flood is becoming a reul prpblenit and ulthqpgh fhe Government (d°Cs nof doubt |ts ability to deal with the situ= ation, apd. there is reason tp believe that an iudustrial programme being drawn up for ihe governance pf New Zealand manufactures against the pos; sible acceptance by Britain of Mr Nasli's trade offpr, the lingering f]pubt is rvkether considerabe damage has not already been done. Mr SullivRn, de^ spife his sweeping retprts to recent stateraents by ihe manufacturers, admitted something of these suspicions several months ago. On top of pther auxieties has coigg the farmer#5 revolt pver the guafanteed pricef, Tt 4S herp tbat Labour feels its weakness, for if js realised that no oue, not even the best-equipped pf guaranteed-priee committees, could forsee what t]ie production costs of the new season vyill be. If the Government is tq remain in office it cannot alford t.o alienate the districts whiGh. swung over to it so remarkabiy tw.o years age. Mr Nash is cenfideat with

the conlidenee "thife eqmes of fi* gures, but there are many of hip colleagues who are less convinced, and it took a lot of argning to m-- . duce Gabinet tp paas the ney? pficp at the present level. FffiaUy, There is Ta^ation Finally, there 5s the taxation issuf. Though this in linked with thc gegefal qucstipn of financing fresh Governinent works, that aspect of the matter is not troubling the Government oyermuch. What is bothering ifc is the fact that up to now the modcrately well-fo-do man, Who i? far from bping a negligible factor iu the electorate, has receiyed Very Jittje for the support hp ggvq the labour Party, aud is llkely to receive very little more save the payment of more taxes; indeed, he is probably tfi be made to contribute tQ a healtk richeme from which he expects few OT no henelits, There is no immediate prospect of any mahrial rejief in taxatiQP., for though the revenue, is buoyant. cnough there will be new enterprises this year which will demaud more fuixds, There is not the siightcst cliance of the esebfffige rate being lowered in the mauncr promised. Thp salcs-tax is Pp«f so considerabie a pprtion of th« national revenue that. it 19 taken for grauted that it will continue. The upward trend of uneraployment figures, if it continues, may proYe quite serious, As a symptom of -a slackened industrial gain it is disturbing enpugk* This is the state of affairs which h§# bronght about a spate of apologies fot Labour in office. Since, as one vet* eran observe? remarked the other day» thp Gdvernment ppffers from an bVPI* supply of literary MinisterSj those apologies are not without their awkwardly mutually-contradictory side. For the first time, in short, Labour is beginning to feel itself on the defensive. !t is an experience which ' it does not relish.