Report From New Zealand

A N outsider might well pronounce New Zealand to be the most stable nation in a tormented world. This verdict would arouse the indignation of many New Zealanders, who would point to labour troubles, rising prices, mass protest meetings, and the possibility of sweeping political and economic change in the near future. Yet, seen in a wide perspective, the relative stability of New Zealand is an outstanding fact: stability not only in her forms of life but in the character of those forces making for change. The argument is by no means that New Zealand has stood still or has faced no problems that are new, but rather that both challenge and response have followed lines long familiar to those who have studied the New Zealand community in its international setting. Let the obvious point be made at the outset that New Zealand must be almost unique in continuity of government in recent years. A Labour Government first took office at the end of I935 and won its third general election (though with a reduced majority) in i946. It is still the same, not only in party label, but in most of its key personnel. The present Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash, has held office continuously, and the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, was from the first a dominant member of the cabinet. Further, certain very powerful groups among industrial labour are still, as they long have been, in vigorous alliance with the Fraser cabinet. That is not to say that there are no stresses and strains within the Labour Party, nor is it to ignore the inevitable and sometimes acrimonious accusation, dating almost from Labour's assumption of office, that Labour as Government has betrayed the ideals of Labour as Opposition. However, evolution in domestic policy has been gradual and consistent with data well known in 1936-37; and the same is even more true in foreign policy. Some observers would go further. In spite of ostensible differences from the older parties, and spectacular progress in certain spheres, it can be argued that the Savage-Fraser-Nash Government of I935 arose naturally out of a century-old New Zealand tradition. Similarly, when the electors go to the polls at the end of I949 they are likely, as in 1946 and I943 and even in 1938, to be faced with

Geography · Political science · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · New Zealand Economic and Social Studies

• Overcoming Separate Histories

  Peter Hempenstall•History Australia•2007

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• Confronting the 'master narrative

  Joyce Irene Middleton•Cultural Studies•1995

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