WHY NOT A MINISTER?

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 505, 7 November 1928, Page 10

WHY NOT A MINISTER?

MR. HARRIS’S CHANCES PARTY COLOURS ANALYSED “Why Mr. Harris is not a Cabinet Minister is the one thing that puzzles us,” remarked Mr. C. M. Browne, in introducing Mr. Alex. Harris to a Stanley Bay audience last evening. “His 17 years of activity for Waitemata and New Zealand surely entitles him to the honour, but I am afraid that until he is less representative of his electorate and more of a politician he will not be a Minister. “He lias always been independent, and really I do not know why he need add Reform to his description. In any one of the three parties he would be a sure winner, and be a useful member.” The candidate spoke for an hour and 40 minutes without interruption, and after two questions had been answered a unanimous vote of thanks and confidence was carried. Mr. Harris explained .'n detail why he took up the attitude of Independent Reform. He could see only one party remaining in government. There was not a thousand to one chance of the United Party getting into power, and he could not support extreme Labour. Yet it might happen .hat Labour may hold the balance of power in the next Parliament. On a no-confidence vote a member had to vote for or against the Government; there was no middle lobby. In its first manifesto, published in August last year, the United Party had announced that it formed itself in order to prevent the Socialistic Labour Party from getting control of the government. In its recent advertisements it did not say anything about that, but its candidates light through New Zealand were saying that they would vote with Labour to put the Government out. The real successor to the early Liberals was the Reform Party, which had out-liberalised the Liberal Party; in fact, the party in power was in many respects almost radical. The Labour platform had faded from red to pink, and was now almost white, but the underlying instincts and motives were just as red as ever. The original platform of the party, as adopted at the recent annual conference, contained 28 planks, but only 14 had been published. It was a job to get the full details, but he was one of the fortunate ones that possessed a complete copy of the 28 planks, and there was no doubt of the inherent redness. The schemes of the Labour Party would involve the Dominion in an annual expenditure of at least another nine millions, at a moment when every effort should be made to reduce the crushing load of taxation.