Wfoe £tttt 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 1930 CHOICE OF A PRIME MINISTER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 977, 21 May 1930, Page 10

Wfoe £tttt 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 1930 CHOICE OF A PRIME MINISTER

THERE will be more public interest throughout New Zealand today in the result of the Rugger match between the British team and Wanganui this afternoon—the first game in the visitors’ welcome tour—than in the United Party’s choice of a new Prime Minister and Leader. In Auckland even the Munn trial on a a charge of murder will be of more absorbing importance to many people than the political party decision as to whether Mr. Forbes or Mr. Ransom, Mr. Atmore or Air. Veitch will succeed the irreplaceable Sir Joseph Ward. These questions and issues are the leading topics of this day and the least in popular attention and excitement undoubtedly is the United Party’s choice of an administrative chief. That it should be so may be a pathetic commentary on the standard of politics in the Dominion and the merit of aspiring statesmen without inspiration, but it is so. It is not difficult to find a complete explanation of the people’s lack of excited interest in the outcome of the United caucus at Wellington today. There is no Disraeli with the brilliant ability to make politics, even on the “talkies,” more alluring and entertaining than a coloured presentation of cinema Lady Godivas behind the scenes on Broadway. In existing political circumstances the choice of a leader for the United Government and its remnant of camp-followers does not really matter much. There can be no adequate successor to the retiring Prime Minister. A competent man is neither available nor in sight. All that the party may hope for in achievement under a new leader is to reconstitute the Ministry and try resolutely to keep it no worse in service than the Government has been during the past seventeen months. There is at the moment no vivid prospect of it becoming any better either in administration or in the devising of legislative remedies for many economic ills.

If, as predicted, the Hon. G. W. Forbes be chosen to lead the weakened Government, the choice will have the virtue at least of a safe stolidity in leadership. The experienced member for Hurunui is not a plunger, and throughout his long time in Parliament he has never “sedulously aped” the methods of those more glib and versatile politicians who can make the public believe that they are able to produce legislative rabbits out of a magical political hat. But it may not be pretended with any chance of acceptance as truth that Mr. Forbes will be able to rule a recalcitrant House with anything like the suavity and success of Sir Joseph Ward. Something more than longish experience of Parliamentary tactics and party capi’ice is wanted and unfortunately the Deputy-Leader of the United Party does not possess those outstanding qualifications which gained triumph for past Prime Ministers. Thus, if the mantle of Elijah should fall on the Canterbury Elisha, he will have to rely largely on the work of his team, its loyalty to its leader, and the forbearance and generous goodwill of the mixed Opposition. Fortunately for the prospective Prime Minister, whether he be Mr. Forbes or Mr. Ransom, or anyone else, the russet wing of the Opposition eagle is inclined to flap toward the United Government’s side. Labour has made it perfectly plain that it will go as far as bruising many of its most cherished principles in order to keep Reform in the political wilderness. Such manna as it has to spare will be showered upon the United Ministry. This process of aid in adversity will be neither an act of mercy nor an exercise of sympathy. Labour will continue to support the emaciated Government for two reasons: First, because it holds the fate of the United Administration in its hard hands and can wring out of it many legislative concessions and compromises almost as good as measures could be under a Labour Government; and, second, the Labour Party in the House of Representatives is not yet ready for an expensive General Election before the scheduled time late next year. And it is by no means alone in prudent desire to defer the risk of having some of its members thrown out of professional politics into the ranks of the unemployed. And there is wisdom in striving during the next eighteen months for the adoption of unemployment insurance and doles before the day of possible dismissal arrives. In any case, whatever may be the result of today’s caucus of the United Party to choose and elect a Prime Minister, the country will gain very little benefit. There will be another serial story of inept debate, another orgy of expenditure, and still another turn of the taxation screw. Perhaps it is not surprising after all that representative Rugger and murder trials are more popular than national polities without a statesman.

THE PARLIAMENT OF FARMERS

AX appreciative community can afford to review thoughtfully the initial deliberations of tlie Auckland Provincial Farmers’ Conference which opened yesterday at Whangarei. In the past year the man on the land—particularly the hard-working dairy farmer —has virtually saved New Zealand by creating a remarkable volume of production at a time when it was most needed, and his co-ordinated efforts to better himself, his conditions, and the standard of his output, deserve sympathetic encouragement. From small beginnings this union of farmers has developed rapidly into a useful, progressive organisation cultivating a wide, almost national outlook. It has extended, in fact, to the importance of a farmers’ parliament, the political flavour of which is enhanced by the character of its discussions. The leaders of the conference deserve every" credit for thenclose attention to Dominion affairs, and the carefully-prepared review of the past year offered by the president, Mr. A. A. Ross, provides a useful index to the farmers’ viewpoint on questions, political and economic, that face the country today. The necessity for a further increase in production and a lowering of production costs in view of the present trend toward a return to prewar prices is recognised, while it is noteworthy that the farmer appreciates, also, the existing weaknesses of' individual production methods —weaknesses which have been discussed already with commendable frankness in their relation to cheese manufacture. When men are ready to admit faults and seek tlieir eradication, further progress and a larger measure of success is inevitable.

If at this confused political time the Minister of Lands lends an ear to the multitude of voices from Whangarei, he will hear the practical opinions of practical men on a Government policy of land settlement that demands immediate revision and improvement. As Air. F. Colbeck has said, it is neither vigorous nor wise to make minor increases in the numbers of settlers, here and there, at a cost of seven times £7,000 and, sooner than make blunders of this kind, it would be better not to move at all. Here is a subject of pressing urgency upon which the assembly of farmers in the North can and should speak with authority.” It lies within their power to give bemused legislators definite and valuable advice on a question which, if properly and thoroughly ventilated, would alone justify the holding of" the present conference.

The views of the farmers’ parliament on other Dominion problems will be received with interest by a public that is learning the true value of the land holder and worker who, in his turn, may profit from a full and tolerant appraisal of the needs and productive possibilities of New Zealanders in other industrial fields.