THE Hauraki Plains Gazette THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” MONDAY, MAY 10, 1943 THE ELECTIONS ISSUE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3261, 10 May 1943, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” MONDAY, MAY 10, 1943 THE ELECTIONS ISSUE

Discussing the decision to hold a general election; Mr Holland, speaking at Timaru, said that when Parliament extended its life “there were protests from all over New Zealand” that could not be ignored. There were, but not so much against the prolongation of the life of Parliament as against an indefinite continuation of the very clumsy arrangement caused by the formation 'of a War Administration tacked on to a party Cabinet That fell so far short of what rhe people wanted and what they had expected, that the prospect of its continuing possibly for years was far from being acceptable. People realised that the postponement of the elections had been a condition imposed by the Labour Party precedent to agreeing to the formation of a War Administration. Had there been a. national Government in line with the general desires of the people, then the question of the life of Parliament simply would not have arisen. The protests, then, were not so much against the longer term as against giving an unprecedented experiment, a strange and vague combination of civil and war administrations, an indefinite lease of office. Many people realised immediately that the arrangement made —and made solely because the Prime Minister was not allowed by his party to go further —contained all the. elements that would make for its disintegration. It obviously was an attempt to make the war effort simply a department of State, something apart from the rest of the national activities. That department was to be directed by a special administration, but the rest was to remain strictly a party matter, with the retention of all the old barriers and the continued use of the party machine. The protests made —and they were many—were in a very real sense expressions of disappointment and came from a people much more united in spirit and more willing to work together than were those in authority. To very many people the only important advantage to be* gained by a general election in the near future will be the. opportunity it will afford electors to even up the strength of parties in Parliament, and thus pave the way to a closer unity of effort there for the purposes of the war and a mutual agreement to the elimination, for the time being, of . party strife on issues of domestic policy.