Editorial

Election Day next Saturday! What do we think about it? Some of us, remembering parental strictures on this "red" Government, or alternatively, thinking on what a nice name Democratic Soldier Labour Party is, may cast their vote according. Few, very few, however, we hope. It is high time we grew and faced our responsibilities. One thing is apparent—whatever the minor claim of any party, there is one paramount claim which must have first consideration in our minds and our hearts. We Must win the war. The administration under which New Zealand can make its most successful war effort is the administration we must back. We owe it to ourselves, to our friends fighting overseas, and to those who will not come back. We owe it to our country and to future generations of New Zealanders. We must pull our weight in the war.

Today the Government of New Zealand is Labour, although two members of the National Party, Mr. Hamilton and the late Mr. Coates, remained to serve in the War Administration after Mr. Holland had decided to withdraw his support. This Government has successfully governed the country through four years of peace and four years of war. The standard of living has not fallen, although naturally some luxury goods are unobtainable. Social services have been maintained and the Government has rallied the people of New Zealand to make a very creditable war effort. Stabilisation in wages and control to prevent profiteering in foodstuffs and necessary but short-supply goods has been a necessary feature of our war economy—unless we are willing to face inflation. Rationing is comparatively slight in this country, limited as it is to sugar, tea, and clothing, and yet we have to face up to the fact that the National Party, in the name of "Freedom," objects to the control and regulation essential in wartime. The Labour Government in New Zealand is doing the work which Churchill's Government is doing in England—welding the people into a real unity on which attempts of fascist disrupters will only break themselves, and in the strength of unity New Zealand will go forward under a strengthened Government to further work and further sacrifice till this war, beside which other issues must be dwarfed, is won.