The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1911. CITY AND SUBURBS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 288, 4 December 1911, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1911. CITY AND SUBURBS.

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AUCKLAND EAST. As is natural in an Important cityconst: tuency, the electoral campaign in Auckland East has attracted a good deal of public attention, and has evoked much enthusiasm on both sides. Yet if political contests could be decided solely by an appeal to the public interest, that ns to the -welfare of the constituency concerned, and the country regarded as a whole, the issue in this electorate would not remain long in dispute. For, judged by whatever standard we choose to apply

—proved practical ability, or familiariiy wiih local requirement?, or knowledge of

local affairs, or experience in the wider field 01 political life—Mr Arthur Myers is so manifestly superior to his opponent that it is obviously impossible to work up an effective case against him on political lines. And aa a matter of fa-at tin only hope that Mr Withy or any other Opposition candidate could have of making any sort of a fight T»itn Mr Myer9 must depend upon the possibility of divertinir public attention from the exceptionally high qualifications that Mr Mvers possesses, and concentrating on some irrelevant topic entirely extraneous to the dominant political issues of the hour.

It is to tie regretted that in what ought to be a purely political contest, considerations of tflis sort should tind a place; bu the necessity tor dealing with this aspect of the election has been forced upon us, as upon Mr, Myers, by the persistent efforts of his opponents to confuse the true issues at stake. Mr. Withy and his friends apparently despairing off holding their own on political grounds, have taken up this line of argument, that because Mr. Myers is connected with the liquor trade, therefore he is "ipso facto'' disqualified from representing the constituency. We need not follow the controversy in all its detail?, but we may quote the statement signed by Mr. Withy which appeared in our advertisement columns on to the effect that any person connected with the liquor traffic is "unfitted to be entrusted -with the guardianship of t-be best interests of the democracy." It is seldom that this crude and preposterous view of politics has been stated in such uncompromising terms, and the supporters of "the trade" owe some gratitude to one prohibitionists for this illustration of the excesses to which their enthusiasm carries them. No sane man could venture to assert that anybody concerned in the liquor trade is for that sole reason unfit to hold a f>n,t in Parliament, unless the person responsible for this allegation had in the first place mixed up Prohibition hopelessly with his politics, and in the second place convinced himself that No-liecnse is infinitely the most important question that the electors or their representatives can ever be cailed upon to decide. On both points we need hardly say. we differ a%>solnterv from Mr. Withy and his party. It seems tn us simply puerile to assume that Xolicensc is the predominant public question of the day: and it seems to ns also absolutely illogical to confuse either local nr national Prohibition with tile other grave po'.itfcal and social problems that our legislators have to consider. .Ami. therefore, we hold that the case against Mr. Myers—the only case that his opponent,- have seriously attempted to moke out against him—falls hopelessly to the ground. We .70 not imagine for a moment that our arguments will make any difference to the extremists of the Xolicense party. But, happily, our electorates are not composed entirely of Prohibitionists; and even in the ProhibiUonift ranks there is a considerable proportion of reasonable and intelligent men and women whose whole political outlook is not obscured by the Nolicense question. In fact the great majority of the voters throughout New Zealand, recognising that the law now provides for a separate vote on this question, deplore the intrusion of Prohibition into every other political sphere, and ■would infinitely prefer to keep the two issues entirely distinct from each other. The absurdity of their confusion is manifest as soon as we consider it in any individual case. It is surelv a ludicrous perversion of plain and palpable facts to say that, because a man does not believe in Prohibition, or because he is connected with a certain legitimate trade, he is therefore unfit to discuss or pass laws on Land Taxation or Land Tenure. Protection or Free Trade. Sinking Funds or Town-planning, Railways, or Deforestation or Water Power? How can the fact that a member or Parliament draws a part of his income from a certain legalised trade, conducted in accordance with the law, nullify his ability to perform such public services as these for his constituents? To state the argument in this specific form is to reveal at once its childishness and futility.

And the. argument for the isolation of the No-license issue is doubly Rtrong when we apply it to the ease of Mr. Arthur Myers. Here we have a man i who. having won the highest civic I honours that the city could bestow- upon i him. has already worthily represented j Auckland East in Parliament; a mi , n j of well-tried business capacity; one of i

the members of the House qualified to criticise our public finance on broad lines; a man who has already made his mark in the House by his assiduous attention to his duties and his firm grasp of facts and his clear view of the public questions that he lias helped to discuss, and who is well able to advance the important and expanding commercial arid industrial, interests of the city, upon which its prosperity depends; a man of absolutely stainless personal record and unimpeachable private character. At a time wiheu Auckland is suffering severely from the dearth of political ability and public experience among her representatives, and when Parliament is to be called upon shortly to discuss such difficult and complicated measures as the promised Local Government. Bill, the electors of City East are asked by the prohibitionists to forgo all these advantages, to reject Mr. livers simply and solely because he is connected with the liquor trade, and to elect in his stead—Mr. Arthur Withy. L'nless we are entirely mistaken as to the amount of political intelligence and public spirit represented by the electors of City East, they will answer this preposterous request on polling day in a fashion that may convince Mr. Arthur Withy that other "'accidents" beside connection with the liquor traffic may disqualify a man from Parliament here.

EDEX. In entering the lists against Mr. Bollard, the Liberal candidate for jciden has undertaken a rather arduous task. But no one knows this better than Mr. Speight. As an old Parliamentary representative of Auckland City he has a loDg and varied experience of public and political Hie to look back upon, and he has made good use of this experience during the campaign. In the earl;.' days of Liberalism Mr. Speight did good service for Auckland and for national progress, and his return to political life after this long interval affords the electors of this constituency a splendid, opportunity to secure the services of one of onr most caparble and most widely trusted public men. As a business man, with a high reputation for practical and administrative ability, as a fearless and outspoken criLic of social and political abuses, and a* a Liberal whoso convictions, while standing the test of time, have broadened and deepened with the passing of years, Mr. Speight has undoubtedly a very strong claim upon the support of the electors in his district. Against all this Mr. Bollard can set little but the personal regard of his constituents. There must come a time when purely sentimental considerations of this sort should no longer be allowed to stand in the way of tho public interest; and even those electors who feel most cordially toward Mr. Bollard must realise that they are compelled to ask themselves whether they are justified in rejecting the exceptional opportunity offered to Auckland and Eden by the candidature of Mr. Speight.

MA-YUKAU. It Is unfortunate from the Liberal point of view that the party rote is split in the Manukau electorate; for the sitting member undoubtedly has a strong bold on the district. But Mr. Lang's previous successes appear to have been secured chiefly through two entirely fallacious assumptions—that Manukau is disiinctively a country constituency with interests entirely separate from, if not opposed to, those of. the city and its suburbs, and that the interests of a country constituency are best committed to the hands of an enemy of Liberalism. Both of these hypotheses are, in our opinion, hopelessly and entirely wrong. And -while the suburban section of the electorate can safely dissociate itself wholly from 'he peculiar programme which Mr. M.osscy has invented to catoh the country vote, the settlers and small farmers in the district can certainly do better for themselves and for their industrial prospects by supporting a Gov ernment which has already done so much for them than by Toting for Mr. Mossey 5 * nominee. Tn an electorate which combines rural and suburban elements in large proportions, the most eligible representative is. generally speakitig. a man who. has had personal experience of public life and affairs in town as weTl as in the country. Mr. R T). Stewart certainly answers to this definition: he is a man of undoubted ability and of strong Liberal convictions: he put np a remarkably good fight for the seat against a stronger candidate than Mr. Lang six years ago: and we hope to fin<i that the combined liberal vote of the district will put him at the head of the poll nest Thursday.

TAURANGA. The difficulty tfait seemed likely to arise in the Tauranga electorate through the. splitting of the Liberal vote has now been fortunately removed by the withdrawal of Mr. Clinkard. There is now only one Liberal candidate in the field, and as Mr. Clinkard is working zealon-sly on Mr. King's behalf, the whole strength of the Liberal vote in the electorate will be available against Mr. Herries. The Government candidate will certainly need every vote he can secure, ■bat even against so powerful an opponent as Mr. Herries. there is good ground for the hope that Liberalism will emerge triumphant.