SOME PRESS OPINIONS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 264, 29 November 1928, Page 1

SOME PRESS OPINIONS.

THE POLITICAL SITUATION. “LISTEN TO THE CALL.” After pointing out that the fear of another election is ever paramount in the minds of members newly returned to Parliament, and saying that any future election will probably be fought under a system which ensures majority rule, the Southland News says: “ Whatever £he Reformers say, the United Party has always persisted in seeing a vital difference in policies, and an alliance is inconceivable. The position will be stabilised by those who listened to the call of expediency during the years when Reform was in the heydey of its power, again listening to that call and returning to the Liberal fold.”

FUSION ADVOCATED. “ It is not often that we have the pleasure of agreeing with political comments by Mr. H. E. Holland, leader of the Labour Party, but we can cordially endorse his remarks with reference to the desirability of the Reform and United Party amalgamating,” remarks the Greymouth Evening Star. “As both parties in the nfew House of Representatives will be of about level strength, negotations could be conducted on terms of equality, and if national interests were placed before personal or party advantages, the fusion that has been too long delayed, should he effected, without any loss of political principles. Sir Joseph Ward seems to have the greater claim to the Premiership, with the reversion to Mr. Coates, who meanwhile could he DeputyLeader,”

“AN OPEN SEASON.” Apparently this is an open season for Prime Ministers, and any person may make them with or without 'a license. So we have the lookers-on in politics offering suggestions as to who shall be chosen to lead Parliament and offer advice to the King’s representative. Mr. Holland has cut out of the game by stating that a Labour Government is not a possibility, but there is still a wide choice if all other leaders and Independents are considered. . . . We cannot offer the political pickers the sport which they would have had in Gilbert’s fabulous State where Party leaders you might meet In twos and three in every street, Maintaining, with no Tittle heat, Their various opinions. Still, with eighty members in the House of Representatives, not to mention forty or so Legislative Councillors, there should he enough to keep the game going, and if everybody has a try somebody is sure to be right. There are no prizes.—Wellington Evening Post.

A DEBT TO THE UNITED PARTY. In the opinion of the Wanganui Herald, the election proved beyond all question that Liberalism is the greatest political force in the Dominion, and that it is far more powerful than the Marxian appeal of Socialism; it overthrew the numerically overwhelming Reform Party and reduced it to a shadow of its former self and it holds out to-day the promise of sound and progressive Government. “ For these remarkable results we say that all anti-Socialists in the Dominion owe the United Party a debt which can best be paid by giving Sir Joseph Ward a fair chance to carry on the Government of the country and to bring into operation his party’s popular democratic and progressive policy.”

NO LIBERAL REVIVAL. The truth is, as most people know, that there was no Liberal revival. A great many people took the opportunity to vote against the Government, not because they cared for either of the other Parties, but because they desired to express somehow their discontent with the ‘Government for this reason or that. Having registered their discontent, they will he satisfied to leave the Government to reflect upoir it, and at a new election will vote Reform again. . .

Nobody has yet explained why the United Party members should not join the Reform members for the p,urpose of forming a stable antiSocialist Government. And this is a more sensible proposal than the other, since the electors who supported Mr. Coates outnumber those who supported the United Party.—Christchurch Press.

“WHAT THE COUNTRY NEEDS.” “ What the country needs at this juncture is not political romance, but the evolution of a staid and steady and serviceable Administration soberly and sanely working for progress along safe lines. The responsibility rests upon the party which we prefer to style Liberal, but which, however named, dominates the position. If a serviceable and safe Administration is to be evolved out of the partial chaos it will have to be moulded on lines laid down by that party’s head, Sir Joseph Ward.”—Napier Telegraph’. THE LIBERAL MANTLE. Alliance between the United Party and Labour would not be acceptable to the country, and it therefore remains to be seen whether the Reformers, who have, always claimed to have inherited the Liberal mantle, will prove sufficiently progressive to give loyal support to the recognised Liberal leader. On broad principles there is no sharp line of demarcation, and the interests of the people should outweight any minor differences. If that proves the case, it should be possible to form a Cabinet that would command the confidence of the country and ensure progress on the sound lines that are essential to national welfare.—Ashburton Guardian.

MAJQRITY RULE. Commenting on the results of the elections, the Oamaru Mail says that of the total of thirty-five members returned by minorities, seventeen are classified as Reform (three being Cabinet Ministers), ten United, and eight Labour. “ Again we ask, j can a House elected under such a system be deemed to be truly representative of the people?” remarks the Mail. “ Most certainly it cannot, and the existence of such a process of election is a grave reflection upon the democracy, which should be removed. There is warrant for hope that it will be ended, for Sir Joseph Ward has undertaken to replace it by adopting the system of preferential voting, under which every member will in the end be credited with a majority of the votes cast.” The Mail supports a fusion of all the elements of solid progress upon sound lines.

LITTLE DIFFEREN CE. “ There is little difference between the policies of the two parties,” says the Taranaki Herald “ There may be irreconcilables on both sides who would refuse to coalesce with the other side under either Mr. Coates or Sir Joseph Ward or any other leader. But the United Liberal members, taken all round, are equal of the Reform members whom they have displaced, and we believe the country as a whole would prefer to see a coalition of the moderate elements of the two parties form a Government in which both Reform and United Liberals were represented rather than have a weak Government, holding office under sufferance, with the practical certainty of another General Election before long.”

NO VERDICT. Why the Liberals should be manufacturing a theoretical majority for themselves, when they had only to wait for a few days in order to have the actual and official results, might puzzle the ordinary man. The United Party would do better, while waiting

for the final returns, to reflect upon the fact that whatever those returns might be the popular vote was in no way a verdict in its favour. It was certainly a vote against the Government—which, at a new election, with the electors understanding what they had done, would be recalled—but it was. no more a declaration for the United Party than a declaration for j Mr. H. F- Holland.—Christchurch Mb