BULLI ELECTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 137, 13 June 1933, Page 8

BULLI ELECTION.

TRIUMPH FOR LANG.

BITTER FIGHT WITH WILLIS.

" SOB-STUFF" AND ABUSE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June !>. The result of the Bulli by-election seemed doubtful up to the very last day. The general impression was that if the miners, who had always been welldisposed toward Mr. A. C. Willis, would vote solidly for him, Mr. Sweeney, the Trades Hall candidate, would be beaten, and that Mr. Butterell. the U.A.P. candidate, might take advantage of the split in the Labour camp to get in between them.

Realising apparently that Willis meant business and that he was making headway in the electorate, Mr. Lang and some of his colleagues went down to Bulli, and the struggle in its final stages developed into something like a personal trial of strength between Willis and Lang. The "Labour Daily," which is simply Lang's mouthpiece, assured its readers that the fate and the future of the State Labour party depended upon this election, and there is no doubt that defeat would have meant destruction to the Trades Hall '-'miner group"' and to Lang's political ambitions as well. Therefore Lang naturally put forward all his strength both as an organiser and a demagogue on behalf of Sweeney, and, as the event proved, his personality was sufficiently powerful to carry the day. Early in the week Lang referred to Willis "more in sorrow than in anger," but as polling day approached the two enemies "took oft' the gloves." "Tool of the Tories." At first Mr. Lang gently reproved Mr. Willis for his hostility to the "Labour Daily," which "had been very kind" to him; but liis later references were marked by at least his usual brusqueness and asperity—Mr. Willis had referred to Mr. Sweeney as "a stay-at-home secretary," and Mr. Lang deftly turned the allusion so as to imply ■that Mr, Willis himself was at home in any company—"in the company of Sir Granville Ryrie or Mr. Stevens or the London Counting Houses" —Mr. Willis, he told the miners a little Mater, is "not satisfied with what he has got out of tlio movement," and he developed a vicious attack on Mr. Willis, not only as rebel and traitor, but as a tool of "the Tories," pointing to the support that Mr. Willis was scouring from the Nationalist Press as proof of an active alliance with Labour's enemies. Mr. Lang even went so far as to unearth the admission made by Mr. Willis to the Premier when compelled to resign his post as Agent-General —that it was his official duty only to carry out the instructions of the Government in power —and to interpret it as a proof of a friendly understanding with the Nationalists.

All this was to Mr. Willis very exasperating, and toward the end of the week he was rivalling Mr. Lang in the bitternsss of his invective. "I would have allowed the matter to rest with the electors on the clear-cut issue," he said apologetically one night, "but the cloven hoof and the yellow heart of the big fellow have been too clearly revealed." It is still possible that, as some observers maintain, the whole campaign was a "sham fight" or a "putup job," to strengthen the "inner group," and mislead Mr. Lang's enemies; but it is quite certain that Mr. Lang and Mr. Willis were very angry with each other before the campaign closed. "Old Jack" Wins. Meanwhile, Sweeney, the candidate selected by the Trades Hall junta, and Buttcrell, the Nationalist nominee, went on their respective ways with dignity and decorum. Sweeney soon got over his surprise at finding himself converted suddenly into a public celebrity—it is said that when Lang first referred to the candidate as "Mr. Sweeney," the audience who knew him only as "Old Jack" looked at each other in bewilderment —and he said all that was necessary in quite an effective fashion. After all, a man whose mother and grandmother are Australian-born, who started as a miner when 11 years old, and has hardly been out of the district during the'6B years of his life, deserves some consideration from his neighbours, and, fortunately for Lang, Sweeney's personal character has always commanded respect. There was real pathos in Sweeney's appeal to the miners. When the time came for the "sob stuff," in which Lang is such an adept, the Labour leader far outdid the candidate's humble efforts. His "story of my life," a last-minute emotional touch which is said to have carried most of the women in the electorate completely off their feet, was a masterpiece in its way, and his rather hysterical S.O.S. as the "solitary individual" who had striven to stem the tide that threatened to overwhelm Labour throughout "these tragic years of suffering" was apparently not too niclod'-ainatic for their taste. His last words to his audicnce at Mirroul —"Oh, ' you won't know how much I will think of you if only you will vote true"—might easily have aroused ribald laughter among more critical hearers; but the miners—and their wives—still take Lang seriously.

It is proverbially difficult to forecast the result of a triangular contest, but tlie Trades .Hall expert,?, were far more accurate in their predictions 'than their opponents. On Friday , last, the supporters of Willis prophesied a majority of 1500 votes for him. On Saturday, in a total effective poll of 11,817 votes, Sweeney secured 5309 votes on the first round. On the preferential voting system, Sweeney needed only 541 additional votes to obtain an absolute majority. As soon as the required total was reached tfoc counting stopped and the returning ollicer declared Sweeney duly elected. But it is estimated that if the count had been completed, Sweeney's final majority over Buttercll would have been in the neighbourhood of 4500—a couvincing victory for the Langites and from their standpoint a highly gratifying tribute to the, commanding personality of their leader and the efficiency of the party machine. Nationalists Disappointed. 1 here is nothing to be gained by concealing the. fact that this election has been a great triumph for Lang, and correspondingly a disappointment to the many people who hoped and believed i that his dangerous ascendancy over the rank and lile of "the proletariat" was on the wane. Apparently the strength of his personal appeal was too much for the miners. It is true that on the first count nearly 0500 votes—considerably more than half the -votes polled—were registered againct Lang and the Trades Hall. But the fact remains tliat tlie ] Langites won the seat, and their victory j can neither be ignored nor explained j away. -