MY OF DECISION

Hokitika Guardian, 12 November 1928, Page 5

MY OF DECISION

(By Telegraph Special to Guardian).

WELLINGTON, Nov. 12

The Prime .Minister, so lie iold :im!ieiiro during; his progress through the North Island, ox poets his majority at the polls 011 Wednesday to he as big; a.-, the one sot 11 red three years ago. The Leader of the Oliicial Opposition is eoniident that Labour will he the largest party In the House of Repre-

seniatives when Pa rl ia men I n«‘Xt assembles. and Sir Joseph Ward is satisfied tiiat the halanee of power with ail its advantages will rest with tin' Pnited Party.

Snell are the latest: reports coming from Wellington, and in tin* eirciinistanet's the electors of Westland may count themselves fortunate in having only two candidates in the field lor their suffrage. Some day, no doiiht. the Dominion will have a system of voting such as the one Sir Joseph Ward has included in his programme, which will get rid at least of the evils ol vnte-spliti ing. hut meanwhile both tin* Pel• >rm Party and t.he l.'nitod Party are to lie congratulated upon having avoided so lar as Westland is concerned, a dissipation of their forces at the polls. Labour itself can take no reasonable exception 10 this expression ol its opponents good coiiininnsense. Nor, to do it, justice, has it shown any disposition to do so.

The Westland contest has now resolved itself into a trial of strength between Constitutional Government who have a long record of aehie\cinent behind it, and a class, experimental government with no definite assurance of its character or its purpose. AF.r Holland and his lieutenants lone talked voluminously during the campaign, mixing a good deal ol sound eoniiuunsense with a vast amount of extra.va.o a lit speech. Put the party asks I" he judged by its “election polie\. which appears to base been placed before the whole of the electors ol the Dominion with a view to letting them know what the Labour Government will do, “ during 11 10 period ol its first Parliament after attaining oflice.”

It is unnecessary to quote in any detj,;i from a document which already has obtained such wide publicity hut, uv should like to draw the attention of the Community at large to the two paragraphs dealing with finance, and defence. They are characterisl ic ol the other planks. A line stating, that full utilisation is to he made ot the Public Trust Oll'ice and the Post Office Savings Hank, is suggestive, so far ns it goes, hut if is not illuminative. The “utilisation'’ (.il these departments is no new thing.

As for defence, boy conscription is to he abolished and the whole scheme is to he reorganised. Statements ol this kind con\e\ no information at all to the average elector. They are merely words, more words, and still more words. Mr Holland and his colleagues doubtless, have at the back of their minds a vision ol a. perfected world in which the units count for nothing—unless they happen to be members of tbe administratin' body—and the community for everything. Hut the world is not yet ready for such an expression ol the millennium. It may be taken lor granted that the Labour Party is periodic honest in its aspirations, but if is plain enough to everyone who has eyes Psre, that it' is reaching out to the impossible, as well as to tbe undesirable, without any regard to the plain tacts as they actually exist. This being tbe case, it behoves every patriotic elector of Westland to assist in sending to Parliament a member who will faithfully represent the patriotic people olf a constituency which is intimately and personally associated with all tbe humanitarian and progressive legislation of the Dominion. The time is not one for experimental legislation, or for experimental representation. It is one that calls for earnest service, for deliberate consideration, and for constant vigilance. Westland is happy in having these requisites at its disposal. WAYFARER.