THE REFERENDUM

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 529, 12 August 1949, Page 5

THE REFERENDUM

Sir,---ihere are many things in your editorial of July 29 which should be contested, but I will confine myself to one point — one which will not be affected by the result of the vote. You write: " , , . a referendum is being taken because the Government requires an unequivocal indication of public opinion." But does it? You instance the radio to show that both sides are‘ being. presented. The ratio is six speakers for conscription, to four against, if we include the Prime Minister’s original Sunday night broadcast. And it is still an open question whether even this disproportion is due to fair-mindedness. Further, all stations have advertised pro-conscription public meetings, Again, public funds have been spent on advertisements in the press, and upon huge hoardings. A pamphlet distributed through householder post has been printed at the Government Printing Office, Finally, a new phenomenon has entered our politics: a Government (as a Government, using public funds) has seen fit to attack a rival political party, These facts lead me to believe that the Government does not want "an unequivocal indication of public opinion." It seems more concerned to mould public opinion in its. own way. This is hardly a referendum we are having; it looks more like an official plebiscite on the Napoleon III model. There is ho legal check upon the Government; but there would be a moral one if democratic precepts meant anything to-day-if, in your own words, we lived "in a country where thought is free." Perhaps the democratic way is anachronistic. If this is the case we should have dropped the outdated phrases when we discarded the social realities which once they

reflected,

W. H.

OLIVER

(Wellington).