The Sun TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1928. THE “UPPOS” ARE COMING!

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 272, 7 February 1928, Page 8

The Sun TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1928. THE “ UPPOS” ARE COMING!

A SIGNAL honour has been conferred on Auckland. The new United Party’s Political Organisation has selected this favoured city as its first field of battle against the Government and the wild and woolly Socialists in another camp. So, in the jargon of publicists and spruikers, let it be noted with such joy as the citizens may he able to wring out of arid politics that the “Uppos” are coming, terrible as an army with banners. To-morrow evening tlieir platform and plan of campaign will be explained by Mr. George W. Forbes, M.P., for Hurunui, former leader of that lost legion, the Nationalists, and presumably first lieutenant to the still unknown Commander-in-Chief of the composite army, the Uppos or Unionists. Unkind critics might say that it looks as though the new party’s political war is to be opened with a pea-shooter and not by the devastating fire of heavy artillery, but such comment would not do justice to Mr. Forbes who, at least, is an expert at throwing political bombs.

Neither friends nor foes will envy Mr. Forbes his task of explaining the platform of his latest new party. As broadcast with enthusiasm some months ago it was little more than a sputter of catchwords and pretentious phrases. Take at random, for example, one of the exact score of planks divided almost equally and designated “general objects” and “specific objects” “To provide efficient land and sea defence for the protection of the homes of the people and the preservation of internal law and order.” If that is not blether of the crudest brand then there is much more in political manifestos than meets the eye. Such protection as the homes of the people need these days is protection from profiteering and distress caused by 'unemployment. As for the preservation of law and order, even the Commissioner of Police has ceased to worry about crime and disorder. It has been announced officially that the battle-cry of the Uppos is “The Reform Party Must Go.” This probably is as good a slogan as any, but the Reform Party will not go unless and until a better party appears to take its place, completely equipped and able to fill it, not with big mouthfuls of syllables and catchy shibboleths, but with plain and practical legislative measures and constructive ideas of government. Not one of the nine specific objects of the new party offers anything better in substance than the vapid stuff given to the country in recent years by the Reform Government. There is a promise of a system of land settlement guax-anteed to prevent the drift to the town. There is fine talk also about the creation of a new interest in the possibilities of Extractive Industries (thus initially capitalised for emphasis), the imitation of a modern system of finance for all sorts of developmental purposes, and, in short, the remoulding of everything to the heart’s desire. The Uppos should learn to realise quickly that, if the country is sick of the Reform Government and suffering “unrest, dissatisfaction, shameful unemployment, and acute anxiety,” it is also sick of political promises and party pretences. It wants political action and real progress, and would welcome these with support, if the party giving them without delay were Hottentots or Anthropophagi. Can this so-called virile new party, through Mr. Forbes or any other leader speaking with authority, offer in acceptable detail this concise programme of legislation? (1) To make an immediate end to unemployment and prevent, its recurrence. (2) To put back on the land the 9,000 workers who have drifted to the towns within the past two years. (3) To reduce taxation, direct and indirect, hy at least £2,000,000 a year. (4) To make a quick success or the hydro-electricity schemes. (5) To secure first-class national service for less than an expenditure of £18,500,000 a year on the employment of 82,000 State and local government servants. (6) To make the cost of living less irksome to ordinary folk. These are but a few of the Dominion’s most urgent needs. Can the Uppos out-reform the Reform Party? A BOTANIST’S VISION MANY generations must come and go before New Zealand possesses botanical gardens on the same scale as those at Kew, over which Dr. A. W. Hill, now visiting this country, presides with distinction. But the botanist’s visit may so stimulate interest in plant life, both from the scientific and economic points of view, that the establishments he recommends may be founded relatively soon. Such gardens would be to some extent, of necessity, “close preserves.” The. public could not be allowed to picnic beneath valuable specimen trees, nor, small boys permitted to climb their leafy heights in search of birds’ nests. Therefore, though the visitor saw in Cornwall Park an ideal location for the type of institution he recommends, his choice is hardly likely to be endorsed by the citizens of Auckland. Cornwall Park was presented to the city in 1901, by Sir John Logan Campbell, and its 230 acres form an unsurpassed area of park land. The donor’s specific stipulation set the land apart for the people of the city, and the establishment of a botanic reserve would therefore introduce inevitable conflict with the people’s rights. Dr. Hill advocates the establishment of national botanic gardens in northern and southeim divisions, and his arguments should commend themselves to the attention of the Dominion’s legislators. In such institutions practical research would be facilitated, and commercial values accurately assessed. Beyond that they would serve a valuable aesthetic purpose, and help to remove a load of ignorance from the mass of New Zealanders who do not know a rimu from a gooseberi-y bush. As a scientist in principle and in profession Dr. Hill naturally found Rangitoto Island a realm of curious phenomena, attracting his professional interest. But his suggestions that it, too, should be reserved as a plant sanctuary will not meet with undivided support from the city. There are many arguments against the introduction of motor-cars to Rangitoto. Its mystery and remoteness might at first seem to be destroyed at once by such an invasion. But there are equally strong arguments the other way. Motors and a motor road would permit many elderly or infirm people to reach the summit and revel in the glorious panorama of the gulf, instead of staying below in fear of the laborious walk up the scoria track. It has yet to be shown that a road to the summit would in any way mar the symmetry of Rangitoto’s gentle slope. As for making the place a sanctuary—one island, Motuihi, is already, closed to the public. And one is enough.