"ON PARTY LINES"

MR. DAVY'S ANALYSIS

"I dp not think that the results -of the election will come as any great surprise," said Mr. A. E. Davy,, organiser .of the People's Movement "Although we were encouraged to believe that the people had had enough of party politics, it is: apparent that this election has been decided upon strictly party lines. It is evident that the people are too preoccupied with the war to give much consideration to anything new in our political life. The experiences of the campaign show th at candidates' meetings all over the Dominion, irrespective of party, were, with a few-exceptions, attracting most meagre audiences, y I'doubt very, much !if more than a small percentage of electors actually saw or neard the candidates standing,. which is a clear indication that this election became a contest between the Labour and National parties without much regard to the candidates themselves. 'This is to be regretted. 'The small votes recorded by many candidates are due very largely to the general lack of interest in the election campaign. People were preoccupied with the" war, and simply made up their minds to vote for or against the Government on strict party lines. It is for this reason that the outstanding qualities of many candidates went unrecognised. "The actual voting results reveal an interesting position. Of the total votes cast in the election, approximately 48 per cent, went to the Labour candidates and 46 per cent, to the National candidates. The remaining 6 per cent, went to the other groups, but in a twoparty fight, would probably have gone in the ratio of about 4 per cent, to Labour and 2 per cent, to National. On a strict party vote, therefore, the country would give the Labour Party a lead of about 4 per cent, of the total votes cast. The soldiers' votes were strongly in favour of the Labour Party. "The electorate position is also interesting. Apart from* Labour and National votes, the only votes cast to have any effect on the election were those for the Democratic Labour candidates. These votes gave six seats to the National Party, and in a twoparty fight the final results would probably have been:—Labour, 50 seats; National, 29 seats; Independent, 1 seat.

"Two other factors had a strong influence on the election. The first was the virtual monopoly of the broadcasting services by the parties, which had the effect of gagging the Independents and smaller parties. National Party broadcasts were rather more. effective than those of Labour, as they played heavily upon the difficulties of the people. The second factor was. the claim to independence by Nationalist candidates, which was strongly featured towards the close of the campaign. It will be interesting to see how this works out in Parliament.

"I should like to congratulate those who had the courage to offer their services to the people at this most difficult period. Men Tvho fight for a principle, though they fail at first, contribute more to human -progress than those who wash in and out with the tide. I would also like to thank all those people who had the courage to support the principle of true democratic Government by voting for the Independent candidates."

WANGANUI-RAETIHI ROAD. i The Automobile 'Association (Wellington) reports that the WanganuiRaetihi road is now open for traffic^