The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, JULY 14, 1917. A GENERAL ELECTION URGED.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 14 July 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 1917. A GENERAL ELECTION URGED.

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News).

It cannot be said that it is any one particular political party that is expre/sing i very definite \ opinions against .Parliament prolonging its life by its own will or by the will of the two parties of which the National Government is formed. In fact it is shown by extremists of both parties that it has ceased to be a National Government; the unanimity it was to bring about is a misnomer, for it is not an uncommon occurrence to find Ministers at obviously bitter variance, and only the other day one expressed himself surprised that another should tell a deputation some real .home truths about how the Union Shipping Company had been exploiting the country. Nor is the uneasiness confined to the Government or the lower house, for it also pervades every shade of opinion in the Legislative Council. Such old political partisans as Sir J. D. Ormond and Sir. Wm, Hall-Jones, one an ex-Minister on the Liberal side, the other a mainstay of Conservatism, are now uniting their voices against the political alliance which should never have come about for it is now being demonstrated that it has failed in the main purpose for which it was instituted. Political mergers, it has been proved throughout -history, are dangerous to the best interests of the people, and it is only because all political considerations have been entirely wiped out in the British administration That a fair measure of success is being maintained. In Britain we find peers of the realm fighting and disarming the hated profiteers who are growing fat on the spilt blood of Britain's sons, and on the lives sacrificed for Empire by New Zealand and other Dominions. The indecently rich, in w-hose households poodle-dog banquets, costing thousands of pounds were frequently given, these highly-cultured filthilyrich, who find pleasure in orgies at which Dancing Girl Pie is the chief dish. If the huge fortunes that are being made by profiteering and exploitation were spent in human interests there would be at least some excuse for permitting them to be made. But experience has taught that nothing better can be expected in the future than has obtained in the past, and a!4 shades of political opinion are beginning to realise the truth about this fortune building out of the best blood of the nation. Sir J. D. Ormond spoke very strongly in the Legislative Council yesterday against the Jingoism that was reaching a dangerour extreme in New Zealand. It appeared to him curious that the National Government should be divided on important questions, for this alone made it inefficient. He stress-

ed the point that the country was already bankrupt in men, that it was suffering from industrial enemia, and J still the Government was unnecessar- j ily continuing its bleeding operations. He argued that the country was falling into dilapidation, bridges had been swept away, and roads destroyed by floods, and -he might have added that millions of acres of land were producing nothing,. and hundreds of thousands that were producing are lapsing into an unprofitable state for want of men, money, and an intelligently humane policy. He did say there were large tracts of land that should be cultivated and that the produce therefrom would be of great benefit to the Empire. He taunted the Government with conscripting men and packing them off to face the Germans in greater numbers than the B'ritish Government had asked for. The money could be found for that purpose, but there was no money to put idle land in cultivation, and to make already cultivated land produce more so that the people might be fed and a condition of famine averted. In concluding his speech, Sir J. D. Ormond, with obvious feeling, stated, "I am an old man, but I have always endeavoured to do my best for my country, and now, I think it infinitely better than continue the present undesirable state of affairs, the people should have a chance to elect a new and satisfactory Government. We should then have an Opposition to watch the working of the Government instead of the present Cabinet which does not agree, and goes on inefficiently."' He said it would be no credit to him to sit still while such inefficiency and want of co-operation existed. This is an indictment of the National muddle, called a Government, by one of the strongest bulwarks of Conservatism, the party headed by Mr. Massey, has ever had. A stirring speech by Sir Wm. HallJones followed. He referred to the talk of the Governmnt as "blatant Jingoism." He said New Zealand ships were going home crammed with the meat of the American Meat Trust, which now haoT a firm grip of New Zealand; could nothing be done? Everything was being handed over to these trusts, and if the people did hot look out they would wake up some morning to find their Government had transferred them to some x foreign power. He was truly horrified to hear a rumour that there was not to be another election till six months after the war, and he indignantly stated that men who proposed this were not Imperialists. They were self-seekers! Had such words been used by Socialist members they would have been poolj-poohed, but coming from great Liberal and Conservative leaders they clearly indicate the dis-integrated and chaotic state politics have drifted into. The sentiments of these two «x----perienced politicians have been given attention, because they are calculated to cause all sections of our people to think. To go on delaying a general election till six months after the war seems a monstrous suggestion, not knowing whether the war may continue one year or five years. Some politcians urged in the Council that we should go on sending men until the whole manhood 61 the country was exhausted, leaving the work of production to the w|omen, but little notice need be taken of such stupid, feather-brained reasoning. Matters political have reached a condition, with which all sections of the community are showing their resentment, and when such is obvious the only honest and straightforward course left is to put matters right by a general election. There is no unanimity of opinion amongst the members of any one party, and there cannot be, simply because there is no political lead. Differences are now so diverse and deep-seated that nothing but a general election seems able to secure political peace.