WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 31 December 1931, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS

COALITION G OVERNMHNT. DOWN TO BUSINESS. (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, December 29. The dismantling of the electioneering Organisation of the Reform and United Parties is a good augury for the maintenance of the Coalition Government as long as its services are needed. The recent elections throughout the Dominion showed no' less than did the elections in the Mother Country and the Commonwealth of Australia that the. great mass of the thinking people Qf tie Empire were not disposed to trust the shaping of their destiny either to wild optimists nor to simple dreamers. Both the Prime Minister, Mr Forbes, and bis coadjutor, so to speak, Mr Coates, \are to be complimented upon the courage and tact with they have faced the extremely difficult situation, previously unparalled in this country. Mr Coates, as was inevitable, took some time in mastering the gravity of the position, *jiut !pnce .seized of the facts he threw Jiiniself into the task of rehabilitation with all the zeal and activity of hi® former opponents, now his colleagues, in surmounting the most difficult pl'ob* lem that ever has confronted this country. FURTHER TASKS AHEAD. Not that it is to be supposed that the defeat of the so-called Labour parties in the . Mother Country, in Australia and here disposed finally of the perils of distorted notions and perilous aspirations. In the Mother Country arid in New Zealand, at any rate, the /' Labour parties put up far more than were negligible fronts so far as candidates were concerned. At the previous General Election in England, Scotland, and part of Ireland, in 1929, the Conservatives with 8,656,225 votes secured 256 seats, while Labour with 8,389,51'2 votes secured 288 seats and the Liberals and “others” with 5,602,638 votes only sxity-five seats. The Liberals, for the most part • siding with Labour, Mr It am say MacDonald led his party to the Treasury benches and y piloted them for a couple of years, by 'which time he realized that Labour in office, as he found it in time of stress, was intolerable. In his dilemma he turned, with the sane members of his party, to the leaders of the group he had ousted. APPEALS TO CONSTITUENCIES. Mr Ramsay MacDonald after consulting with Mr Stanley Baldwin, the leader of the Conservative Opposition, and discussing the position with other anthorities, definitely reached the Cotlelusion that an appeal to tbe electors Was the first step towards security. The result of the subsequent election aiiii was flghenomenab m r -it stood on paper. Roughly, according to the figures available, the National Government, formed as the Coalition Government N was formed here, secured 14,195,000 voteg and 554 seats, while Labour Opposition, including .seven Liberals and two “others” not Jiltely to be attached to either party, secured 7,529.236 votes and only sixty-one seats. The Labour vote, it will be seen from these figures, was substantially more than equal to one half of the total vote and yet it secured only sixty-one seats, including the nine of doubtful leanings. As a matter,:, of fact' Labour vote at the recent general election at Home was proportionately larger than the Labour vote here which has afforded Mr Holland and his colleagues so much materiol for jubilation. .UNITY. .

The sheet anchor of both the MotheT Country and this outpost of the Empire in the present time of stress is the union of the saner political parties. Mr Baldwin has placed the nation before the party without deimanding any' personal concessions, and Mu* Coates has followed this very ex-, cellent example: Mr .MacDonald has realized the imperative, need for unanimity, and Mr Forbes has welcomed the cheerful co-operation of his former opponent. It is to be hoped that the great mass of the people of Australia will follow these very admirable examples. The Oommonwieaßh already has adopted a. system of election which assures its peoples’ control of their Parliament, and so points the way to both Great Britain and New. Zealand which have l.gged sorely behind in this respect. In, the circumstances, no lover of the Mother Country will grudge it the National Government it enjoys, hut, as the “London Times has j Said, Mr MacDonald’s triumph would have been even more gratifying had it been lese overwhelming. ,