PRIME MINISTER’S NEW YEAR MESSAGE

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 321, 31 December 1936, Page 4

PRIME MINISTER’S NEW YEAR MESSAGE

INTERDEPENDENCE OF ALL THE NATIONS. SECURING A -TRIUMPH FOR DEMOCRACY. The year just passed has been for New Zealand a year of gain. We have made a substantial beginning towards laying the foundations of a new social and economic order and on all s|des we ob*, serve welcome signs of economic recovery. Seasonal prospects have seldom been brighter.

The primary industries on which so much depends, are responding to better times and the wage earner, now in the possession of higher earnings, is able to face the future with contentment and hope. The New Year has seldom offered such favourable prospects and it will be the heartfelt wish of everyone that 1937 shall not belie its splendid promise. 1 do not intend on this occasion to give any outline of the achievements of the past year. They have already been reviewed and indeed are familiar to all. The restoration of fair and reasonable standards of living is the principal task which has absorbed the activities of an eventful and strenuous year. A large measure of success has been achieved, but in the programme of social reform, as well as in the other spheres, much more remains to be done.

eminent, all fill one with disquiet, if

not with fear.

It must be remembered, too, that in the modern world no country stands alone. We arc all interdependent, sometimes directly and more often indirectly. The relationship between nations is not merely one of trade and commerce. It is also based on common ideals and common social systems.

The British Commonwealth of Nations, to which we have the honour to belong, represents one great association of peoples. We must inevitably stand or fall together. Our responsibility in this Dominion does not stop with our own shores. We have a vital interest in affairs overseas, and though one can face the future in New Zealand with equanimity, the same feeling cannot be held when one regards affairs abroad. The race for armaments, the ever increasing occasions for international friction, and the spread of the antidemocratic form and spirit in Gov-

Fortunately the nations of the British Commonwealth remain true to their democratic forms and ideals and despite open attacks no breach has been made in their democratic, front. I am certain that democracy’* ideals are higher than those of other forms of Government, but the achievement of these ideals calls a great degree of self sacrifice ara devotion. Defeat has always been caused by lack of faith, by lack of efficiency, and the absence of some form of self imposed discipline, and the triumph of democracy can only be secured by guarding against all such dangers and by maintaining among the majority a common front and a common desire for human betterment and social justice.

It is recognised in New Zealand and abroad, that we are conducting in this country social ■ changes, the success of which must have far reaching effects in many other parts of the world. By remaining true to democratic ideals and by achieving success in their application, we can point a way to other peoples whose aspirations are similar to our own..

Few countries in the world have been so richly endowed by nature as New Zealand. Still fewer, have our unique opportunity of building a new and better economic and social system. That complete success will crown our eflarts I have not the slightest doubt. The coming year will, I am confident, be one of complete economic recovery and one of hastened progress towards a new and better commonwealth. M. J. SAVAGE, PRIME MINISTER.