Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1941. DOING THE RIGHT THING.
A N opinion may be offered very confidently that all but an entirely inconsiderable minority of the people of New Zealand will have received with unqualified relief and satisfaction the announcement made by the Prime Minister yesterday that it had been decided to extend the life of Parliament by one year. While this step will be approved in the country with virtual unanimity, as it was in the House of Representatives during the notably amicable debate last evening on the Prolongation of Parliament Bill, some surprise may be felt that the decision .reached was reached so tardily. Public opinion throughout the Dominion on this important matter ran well ahead of the action of our political leaders.
That Parliament has done the right thing in sparing the country the-clamour, turmoil and'waste of time and energy that an election would have entailed in these days of graver and greater things is not for a moment in question. In his speech last evening Mr Fraser was at pains to explain that the Bill to extend the life of Parliament would not have been introduced had there been evidence that this action ran countei to the wishes of any considerable section of the people. It would, of course, not be right for Parliament to extend its life against the opposition of the people, but.it is plain, not only that there is no such opposition worth mentioning, but that the idea of an election in existing circumstances is to most people repugnant and even abhorrent.
Parliament is not only justified in extending its life, but would have been guilty of a culpable dereliction of duty had it failed to do so. As the servant of the people whom it represents, Parliament is no more entitled than any other servant, high or humbly placed, to adhere blindly to the letter of its mandate and to ignore the spirit of that mandate. As constitutional practice has developed in this and other countries of the British Commonwealth of Nations, Parliament of necessity is invested with'a, wide discretionary power and is bound to act, in any such emergency as that by which we are now confronted, with intelligence, responsibility and initiative.
A good many people may regret that the Prime Minister, having gone so far, did not take the further step of proposing to set up a National Government for the duration of the war. Instead he declared himself of opinion that action on these Hues, having been found impossible in the past, was still less possible now. Mr Fraser’s statement that his researches into the position had convinced him of the impracticability of forming a. National Government will hardly, carry universal conviction. A different opinion is held by a good many people who have no direct part in political life and take remarkably little interest in party controversy. The ease may be one in which the onlooker sees more of the game than; those who are in the thick of it.
There are, of course, some difficulties in bringing together in effective working agreement and co-operation opposed political groups. If the extension of the life of Parliament is to serve its full purpose, however, and to yield the results the country has a right to expect, these, difficulties in any event will have to be overcome. Ft is perfectly true, as the Prime Minister said last evening, that the Government must govern and that this means that it must be entirely free to take any action it deems to be in the interests of the country. It is also true, as the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Holland) observed, that it is impossible to say just what is and is not party or controversial legislation. The imperative demand now made on our politicians, as they themselves freely recognise, however, is that.they should allow nothing to stand in the way of effective combined action in furtherance of the war effort. This surely could not be accomplished better than by the formation of a National Government.
The people of the Dominion will be grateful meantime that they are to be spared an unseemly outburst of party political controversy at a time when men are fighting and dying for their country—at a time, too, when the war situation in some important aspects is becoming, or seems likely to becom'e, more critical than it has been. It seems by no means unlikely that before the way to final and decisive victory has been opened, calls may have to be made on New Zealand, as Mr Holland suggested last evening, which would be made best by a fully representative National Government. 1
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 October 1941, Page 4
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779Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1941. DOING THE RIGHT THING. Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 October 1941, Page 4
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