THE COUNTRY'S VERDICT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 88, 4 December 1931, Page 4

THE COUNTRY'S VERDICT

Now that the shouting (in some quarters) has died away and some at least of the captains have departed into Par liamentary ohlivion, thq countr y as a whole has the opportunity to survey the results of its verdict on Wednesday. Two things are immediately apparent. There has been no overwhelming landslide such as that which marked the victory of the National Government in Great Britain, and the New Zealand Coalition Government would be wise to recognise that fact. The people of New Zealand have returned it to power, but with a reduced majority and unmistakeable indications that it has still to prove itself. The country has given the Coalition a workihg majority, and a strong Opposition to watch its interests; it now remains for the Coalition to prove to the country that it has the ability to handle the task which it has set itself. No thinking person will belittle the magnitude of that task, and having placed the Coalition in power it is now -for the people to assist the Government with. the co-operation which will be necessary to give its remedial measures effect. That is the onus on the people, but there is equally an onus on the Coalition to show that it is in fact, and not only in name, a Government united in its determination to serve the people. We do not entirely agree with the pictures of gloom and despondency which have been painted by some of the Coalition advocates in their efforts to convince the country that Coalition and Coalition alone, can meet the present critical situation, but neither do we discount the fact that the Government is faced with a task which entitles it to every support which the people can give it. Political parfies as much as individuals, must be judged upon the measure of their performance, not upon the volume of their protestations, and the next three years will show whether the Coalition Government can fulfil the task which it has set - itself. That alone "is the test, and Wednesday's poll has shown conclusively that if the Government falls far short of its objective, the verdict of1 the people upon its failure will be decisive. The Government cannot. lose sight of the fact that a large proportion of the people of New Zealand stand behind the Opposition; but neither must the Opposition ignore the fact that it is definitely a minority. The Coalition went to the country with a programme which promised the people little. This, in view of present world conditions, was an excellent thing and one which it is to be hoped will set a precedent in matters political. The Labour Party, on the other hand, made very definite proposals for meeting the position, but a majority of the Dominion electorate has shown conclusively that it places no reliance upon these proposals. Labour must accept that verdict and together with every other secton of the community, co-operate for the goOd of the whole. An Opposition is not merely an obstructionist organisation arid if Lab'oUT xises its increased majority in that direction, the verdict of the people will just as- surely administer to it the discipline which such tactics would deserve. If the present depression has done nothing else, it has contrbuted something toward levelling those insensate party barriers which in the past- have done so much to retard the progTess of this and every other British country. A preaching of class antipathies will j&ot solve our difficulties. It will accentuate them, and the propagation df such a doctrine in the present eondition of affairs would be fatal to the) rehabilitation of this Dominion. There can be no question' that the people as a whole- are watching politics with a more discerning eye, and it is- not too much to hope, in a country as essentially level-headed as New Zealand that that' serutiny may eventually replace the dross of party politics with the sound metal of statesmanship and sincerity. Wednesday's verdict has giveh Messrs Forbes and Coates, as the leaders of the Coalition Government, the opportunity they sought from the people. If they"make the best USe Of that; opportunity, the people will recognise that j • fact. If they do nbt,. th© conseqiiences will be upon 'their own heads.