The Grey Election.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16217, 21 May 1918, Page 6

The Grey Election.

The issue before tho Grey electors is plain and simple. Ordinary party politics are suspended for tho period of the war.. Whother Mr Coates is a "Ro- " former" or a "Liberal" we do not know - and do not care. W T e notice that in his speech ho freely criticises the National Government. But he is a patriot, determined to support the Government by every means in his power to help to win the war. It is not too much to say that every vote cast for his opponent, Mr Holland, in 'the coming! contest, is equivalent to a vote for tho ivaiser. We have never heard of Mr Holland lifting a finger to assist recruiting, or helping in the slightest degree in the struggle for Christianity audi civilisation against the dominance of 1 the Hun. On the contrary, he has been convicted of making seditious utterances calculated to assist the enemies of our country. He has not a single claim on tho electors of tho constituency, unless they really aro seized with a mad desire to prove to the world that they would rather be under the rule of tho Kaiser than of King George, or, at any rate, that they are not game to fight for the maintenance of the British Empire. The late member, Mr Webb, was at least a resident in the district, and a genuine representative of the workers, since he was one of themselves. Mr Holland is a political adventurer, who drifted over to NewZealand when he found that Australia no longer presented a favourable field for his mischievous activities. Some of tho West Coasters who disapproved of Mr Webb's anti-militarism may still have been attached to him on personal grounds .and on account of his local claims. In the present case it is Mr Coates who, by his long residence on the Coast, and his honourable conduct as a citizen, has fairly earned the confidence of his fel-low-olectors. To discard such a candidate for a professional politician, who, having been rejected in Wellington, has now the impudence to offer himself for Grey, would simply stamp tho electors of that district as . disloyal to the Empire, caring nothing for tho ideals for which we are fighting and for which so many gallant young West Coasters have already laid down their lives.