THE CHOSEN PEOPLE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 58, 30 October 1931, Page 2

THE CHOSEN PEOPLE

The definite intimatioii irom the joint leaders of the Coalition that all sitting membefs with the addition of the Independent member for Stratford, Mr. W. J. Folson, will receive the patefnal benediction of the Government as its official nominees at the forthcoming general election will be received with very mixed feelings by the electors, wLo once again have been the last people to be consulted as to their inclinations in the matter. The Government of the day, whatever else iriay be its handicap, eertainly labours under rio misconception in its own mind as to its divinely appointed mission. "Yerily ye are the people and wisdom shall die with you" said Job pf old, and his modern and N.Z. protype, Mr. G. W. Forbes, and his new ally, Mr. Gordon Coates, appear very successfiilly to have arrogated the ironic compliment to themselves. Mr. Forbes has already expressed his very natural disinelination to consider the skeletons of the past, and although Mr. Coates, with his usual caution, has not actually voiced his own sentiments in that direction, we can understand that his disinelination to contemplate the past, may be if anything stronger than that of his new found colleague. With few exceptions there is little in the performances of the niembers of the Coalition as at present constituted, which entitles them to? assume that if granted a further term of office, they will achieve anything more than a prolongation of the muddle which they have already created. The prevailing financial and trade depression has been made a mantle to cover a multitude of errors, and while due credit must be given for the difficulties which the present conditions liave created, these would-be saviours of the country should not be allowed to ignore the fact that their own iiiepitude and lack of foresight have been largely responsible for accentuating the trouble. The drastic and rigorous economies which are now bearing so heavily upon the people, could eertainly not have been entirely obviated, but their effects could have been "diffused had the politicians of the past displayed sufficient foresight to realise whither their expansive ideas were leading them. But it is perhaps too much to expect foresight from politicians, and it would eertainly be unjust to set our owii law-malcers any higher or lower than those of other. countries in this respect. At the same time, the world like its compoiienfc units, learns by painful experience and it may not be too much t'o hope that the lessons of the present may bear spme fruit in the future. We are learning now, the burden which a poliby of unheeding public expenditure and expansion of social serviees can bring upon a country ; when conditions revive agaih, the most that w'e can hope is that a little reason will place the brake upon political enthusiasms. However that may be, a politician like any other man, must be judged upon his achievements and' if that acid test is applied, the Government nominees who are to be presented to the country in December, in very many cases f all lamentably short of the standard. The most urgent lieed in New Zealand politics has been and is still, the introduction of new blood, of new energy and of new ideas. By foisfing upon the electors, en bloc, the same conglbmerate colledtion which has mhddled" and h'ddled along for the last three years, the Government is very largely closing the door to the introduction of this new vitality. The success of the Coalition Goyefhmenf at Home can be taken as no justiiication of our own case. " Theife, a Labour Government which had failed lamentably and entirely was displaced by an amalgamation of its own more infelligent members with a section of the opposition. The British Coalition lost no time ih draftipg a rigorous policy to meet its emefgency, apd on the strength of that policy, reqeived Ihe overwhelming endorsement. of the people. But in our case, tllh cifcpih^taiicds are Ya^tly'otherwise. Here we have two parties "which already individually and collectively, have failed to pbpe. with the cpuditibhs, ' With RO satisfactory policy, and a ^ jWstjfiabie' .suspiciop ihat they were for ced iiifo facing the coun- I try, asking for a .new lease of life at the hands Pf the people. j