WAITEMATA BY-ELECTION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 170, 21 July 1941, Page 6

WAITEMATA BY-ELECTION

has retained the Waitemata seat, but it has very little cause for congratulation on the figures. A majority of 420, apart from whatever effect the absent and soldiers' votes may have upon the final figures, is hardly a cause for pride when contrasted with the majority of 2261 of the general election, especially as on that occasion the Natiortalist organisation was in the field, whereas during the by-election it took no part in the campaign. The Labour candidate had the support of the whole organisation of the movement, in addition to personal appeals from the acting-Prime Minister, the Minister of Health and the Minister of Agriculture, and various private members, who did their share of the campaigning, and carried it out as vigorously as if the fate of the Government depended upon the retention of the seat Further, the candidate was one of the strongest that could have been chosen, a candidate who at every election, besides getting a block vote from her party, has invariably polled heavily from the many outside me party who believe that women are not sufficiently represented in political life, and whose record in local body work has won her a hieh reputation. Yet with all these advantages in her favour Mrs. Dreaver was elected by a fifth of the margin secured at the general election The drop in the total poll is of sufficient magnitude, in a general election year, to indicate that the people are more concerned with winning the war than with elections. They do not know now whether there will be an election or not in November, but they do know that Labour leaders have specifically declared that the hundreds of thousands who voted against them have no right of consideration when the war effort is under consideration apart from their representatives upon the purelv advisory War Cabinet. The small vote cast for Mr. Lee's candidate shows that the electors are not willing for any further inflationary experiments, but are anxious to keep as close to the principles of sound finance as Mr. Nash will permit.