The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1928 "WHAT A FALL THERE WAS...!

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 512, 15 November 1928, Page 10

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1928 "WHAT A FALL THERE WAS ...!

THE right to govern the country has been torn out of the Government’s hands. In consequence of the Parliamentary poll yesterday, the Prime Minister’s first and plainest duty to-day is to prepare his resignation for early submission to the Governor-General. Nothing else has been left for Mr. Coates to do, and beyond doubt it will be one of the things he quickly will get done. What can be said, what need be said about the Reform debacle at the polls? With vivid clearness and with almost violent emphasis the Dominion electorate demonstrated that it had had enough of the Reform Party and its sixteen years of administration. Any sensational simile fits the occasion; indeed, the result of the poll was a landslide, or a shipwreck, or an eruption: briefly, and as a stark fact, it was for the Government a catastrophe. Twenty-five of the Reform Party’s former fifty-three seats in the House of Representatives have been looted by the Opposition marauders—a much nicer term than political pirates. Three Ministers were among those slain. Two of them may now go back to the plough and disprove their administrative assertion that the Government’s greatest difficulty was to keep farmers on the land. The third, the Minister of Justice, who annoyed many people by interfering with their progressive euchre parties, may now learn to play “Patience.” It were futile to waste time on surveying the Reform wreckage. Without difficulty a score of valid reasons for the Party’s grievous fate could be found, but it would not be easy to find half-a-dozen good excuses for it. In town and country the people were surfeited with Reform rule. There’s the truth and no argument, however plausible, could provide a plainer story of the stern facts. And no one, even in the great moment of exultation, will desire to rub salt into raw wounds and mock at political mortality. The supreme question alone concerns the future. What should be done about the confusion of three-party strength, none strong enough separately to function as the Government? The constitutional position is simple enough and should not cause any bewilderment. As already said, the Prime Minister should resign with the least delay possible and recommend the GovernorGeneral to send for Sir Joseph Ward in order to learn if the veteran Leader of the United Party could form a Ministry. That invitation is Sir Joseph’s privilege and constitutional right. Though Mr. Coates won’t like the reminder, “Dempsey has come back.” The triumphant chief ef a new party which six months ago was something between a phantom and a political joke has not only wrecked the Government, but also has deprived Labour of its title and prestige as his Majesty’s Opposition. This is a double personal triumph that cannot fairly be qualified or belittled. Sir Joseph sensed the psychology of a discontented country and proved that it neither wanted Reform nor Labour to have charge of the national purse. Thus he is already on the box seat and soon may take over the reins. There is no necessity whatever for summoning the new Parliament in a panic to an emergency session. It would be folly to do so on the eve of national holidays. Enough just now and for the short remainder of the year to effect the early resignation of the Government and give Sir Joseph Ward the deserved opportunity and reasonable time to form a Ministry. Following on that proper and common-sense procedure Parliament should be summoned to an extraordinary session early in the New Year. Then would be the right time for the crucial party test. There is no valid reason why the Reform Party should not decide unhesitatingly to keep a United Ministry in office, while applying a firm brake on the Government’s policy vehicle. Precedent supports such a course. It is not likely that any one of the three parties will want a dissolution. Since the introduction of payment of members there never has been a snap dissolution. And no party would be justified in causing, administrative chaos. Meanwhile, all the honours are with Sir Joseph Ward.