TO BE OR NOT TO BE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 132, 23 July 1941, Page 4

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

Sir, —Your leader of recent date is hardly fair and impartial to our member Lieut. A. G. Hultquist. The statement that "the position of the Whakatane electorate is one which is probably without precedent at the present time" is. hardly correct as the interests of other electorates represented by soldier M.P's are being fostered by neighbouring M.P.'s. Tlip interests of Haurabi electorate arc being Itjokbd after by the member for Waikktctamcl others in a similar way. V-/ v The further statement that Mr Coleman is undertaldng the two electorates besides his own is also (ncorrect according to information supplied to me. I am informed that the interests of Rotorua electorate Rre being undertaken by the member for Hamilton. lay I state that Mr Hultquist regrets very much his absence from the electors of the Bay of Plenty electorate, and is looking forward to the day when this war will do over, and he will be able to return to his electors once more. It was no easy decision for him, who had a wife and daughter, and the goodwiTt of his. electors, when he offered his services for overseas, but the call of duty prevailed, and we admire ham for the sacrifice he made. May T further point out that. Ijhe present arrangement for represent.** tion was come to in the last war, and. has been mutually agreed to by the two parties in this war, and I doubt if the majority of New Zea-. land electors would have it otherwise. Yours etc., F. B. MAUNDER, Secretary, Bay of Plenty Labour Representation Committee

(We feel compelled to footnote this letter, mainly because of the fact that our correspondent has seen fit to uste these columns after a two-hour discussion in this offico with the writer of the article refer-, red to, in the course of which all OifTiculties were smoothed away, and he himself admitted that he had iot read the article carefully or d?-» tested its meaning. We had hope*! the matter would have rested at fhat, but as apparentlj r something more is needed. Ave have Dleasure in repeating again that we made no attack upon Lieut. Hultauist whatso* fiver, that we endeavoured to he fair and impartial to a degree-, and that we Avere voicing what we sidered to be in the thoughts of the electors generally quite irrespective of 'Partyism.' If our correspondent /•eads harm into a genuine expression of neutral opinion we are sorry, but we cannot "deviate from 1 our right to speak for the people. If • t suits certain persons to put a wrong construction upon a perfectly innocent suggestion, by hinting, that Ave for one moment attacked 5t man who was away doing his duiy* \v«> are again deeply sorry, but what can Ave do about it? What we •wero mainly concerned with was —just for how long were the people of this electorate to be tossed from one representatiAre to another; for who, perfectly honest, can deny that the present state of affairs is anything but a farce. Why not put up candidates as usual, cskrv on with a normal election and if Labour again succeeds in retaining this seat, Avhat is to prevent* it m being handed back to the gallant man who won it in the first place. In the meantime peopPie Avill have had the opportunity of expressing their views and enjoyed some degree of representation. We sincerely trust this Avill put the matter right an*! that misconstructions in this connection Avill be at an end. Ed.)