TRUE PROGRESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 May 1941, Page 4

TRUE PROGRESS

ADDRESS BY NATIONAL PARTY PRESIDENT CRITICISM OF LABOUR ADMINISTRATION. PROBLEMS TO BE FACED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Aii appeal to New Zealanders not to be guided solely by material considerations in casting their votes at Parliamentary elections was made ' by the president of the National Party, Mr A. Gordon. Hamilton, in liis address at I hi‘ opening of Ihe Ilominion conference of Ihe party in Wellington yesterday. “Much more important than winning an election," said Mr Gordon, "is an intelligent and educated public opinion which will cast its vote in the interests of the country and for the welfare of (he whole community.” Many of the people who voted Labour into power, he said, were people of high ideals, who saw in Labour’s philosophy and policy much of what they believed was in line with Christian principles and practice. They believed that Labour placed a higher value on human personality than on material things, while the capitalist form of society tended to make human personality subservient to material considerations. Labour had now been in power for nearly six years, and had gone a long way toward converting New Zealand into a Socialist State: it had endeavoured to redistribute wealth in accordance with its policy; had curtailed hours of work for a large section of the people; provided sustenance in various forms; and in general had! made the conditions of life easy. t With what result? If it were conceded that the greatness of a people was measured and determined by the character of its individuals, could anyone say that individual character had improved during the period Labour

I has been in power? Could the wellbeing of the people be measured in iotalisator returns or- in brewers' profits? "These,” said Mr Gordon, “are but manifestations of a spirit ol recklessness, a spirit which, I feel, can be said without prejudice, has been engendered by Labour's policy. We find this spirit manifested by many of our people in a dulling of imagination, initiative, enterprise, and energy. “Such a spirit is not conducive to the development of character or to the building of greatness in a people, and the atmosphere created by it is not in the interests of the children of today, who will bo the trustees of the nation's welfare in the future. The theory that you can change man by changing his environment, that you can build character by making the conditions of life easy, was exploded a long time ago. Such a philosophy is the antithesis of progress.

"We have every right. 1 feel, to judge the results of all administration by the touchstone of whether its acts have been helpful or otherwise to the development of personality and character, and I believe that by that touchstone Labour stands condemned. Our task is to frame a philosophy based'on truly moral and spiritual values, and to produce a policy which will assist in the development of character and help everyone of our people to stand on his own feet.” Mr Gordon said that while all their energies should be directed to winning, the war, the problems to be faced at the end of the war probably would be more complex and difficult than those of today. In the case of . New Zealand, these problems might be complicated by the agreements Britain had been forced to make with America. Canada, and the Argentine for the purchase of agricultural products, and by the increased acreage put into production in the United kingdom. This might involve a shrinkage of the Dominion’s markets at Home. “It may mean for New Zealand,” he said, “considerable changes in her internal economy; it may mean a diversification in production and a development of economic resources yet untouched.”