SOME THOUGHTS FOR RICCARTON ELECTORS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14223, 11 December 1911, Page 6

SOME THOUGHTS FOR RICCARTON ELECTORS.

Sir Goo. Witty, -who is again seeking re-election' as member for Riccarton, occupies an anomalous position, for he has lost touch with a large portion of the farmers and with the working men as wolU As a, bitter opponent of tholato Mr Alfred Saunders and an equally strong supporter of the late Hon. W. Rolleston, ho was chosen to fight tho man who had wrested tho Riccarton seat from Mr Rolleston. Mr Witty received the support of the Opposition, and by its aid he was returned at tho top of the poll over Mr G. W. Russell. Ho was classified as an Independent Government supporter, but it was naturally expected that while he gave his allegianco to tho Government no would at least hare hod some- sympathy with the views of the party with whom he Bad previously worked, and to whom lie owed his election. v ... But he has been one of tho Government's most obedient followers, and he has practically thrown to tho winds many of the' views which ho expressed in his first campaign. He was mot only a strong supporter of the Farmers' Union, but took credit to himself for having assisted to form -a■■ branch in his own district. In one of his first election addresses, ho said that tho Farmers' Union "was note political organisation "to oust the' Government or crush .the "working man. In his district the "men were better paid than before 11 the Union was started, and there was "no compulsion about it." To-day Mr Witty is absolutely hostile to the Farmers 1 Union, and .apparently for no other reason than that members of the organisation' in his own district havo disagreed with his change of front, particularly on the land question. On the same occasion that he made tho flattering reference to the Union, quoted above, Mr Witty said: "The freehold "was the best tenure on God's earth, "but the colony must have a mixed "tenure. Ho did not believe in re- " valuation; it was not fair." And yot Mr Witty has been one of the safest votes the Government have had in their attempts to foist a leasehold system upon the' Dominion! As far back as 1902 Mr Witty said that tho colony was borrowing too much, biit. sinco then no less than twenty-five millions have been borrowed. Has Mr Witty protested against over-borrow-ing? Is it .likely that he would do so if in the event of the Ward Government's return to power it pursued its borrowing policy'as long as it could induce the people at Homo to lend it a few millions? And yet the high taxation rendered necessary by the Government's financial policy presses particularly heavily" upon two classes of electora in tho Riccarton electorate—tho small farmers .and the workers. The time has' come when there should be elected for Riccarton a- member with a better appreciation of.tho needs of tho people.