Affairs of State

The opening of Parliament this week will attract more than usual attention, even from wellingtonians, because the newly-elected Labour Party will have its first opportunity of carrying out electioneering promises. Since the lection, we have had from certain Ministers suggestive hints as to what is likely to happen, but not until Parliament has met shall we be able to judge whether Mr. Savage and his merry men are determined to carry out some of the proposed reforms, in spite of the opposition and newspaper criticism which these are sure to provoke.

That New Zealand is once again attracting attention abroad is the opinion of Mr. D. M. Sherwood, who, in a recent address to the Free Discussions Club, maintained that New Zealanders at the present time had a unique opportunity of showing the rest of the world how to solve the debt problem, which he regards as the fundamental cause of the present unrest. It would appear that the more progressive countries are too preoccupied with elaborate preparatilons for war(which, we understand are, of course, purely defensive measures!) to give this problem the attention it deserves.

If the present leaders of the Labour Party resist the tendency to followin the footsteps of their confreres in England and Australia, and are able to retain the whole-hearted support of allmembers for the next few years, the people of New Zealand will have an opportunity of determining whether a modified socialist propramme is sufficient to remedy their social and economic problems. The electors should also be in a position to say with a certain degree of truth that they are governed by their representatives in Parliament and not by a batch of well-paid commissions obediently carrying out the policy of the so-called Governmen's financial advisors.

It is also refreshing for students to see that an intelligent interest is being shown towards Education, and they will hope that the confidence New Zealanders have in the present Government is quite justified.