POLITICAL NOTES.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16699, 6 December 1919, Page 11

POLITICAL NOTES.

"1 weep (or you," the Walrus said, "1 deeply sympathise." When Mr Sullivan, Mr Whiting, and Mr llir.un Hunter wore defeated by Liberal opprnents in 3011. the "Lrttoltoa Tunes" tluw consoled then: (December loth. 19111: — '"Their reward will come. Men like Mr Sullivan, Mr Hunter, and Mr Whiting cannot be kept indefinitely out oi Parliament, and no one whoso «.ympat':i»s .-.re with the cau>o of j>ropow ni l wish that they onild.'' And now, years afterwards, the good, kind Liberals are still passionately urging that Mr Sullivan's and Hunter's torni has not vet. come. The Home of tte "Reds." A cii:ioiis thins about the present election is the extent to which the candidates of the official Labour Party have been drawn from 'Wellington. Not only (l i the extremists in Wellington supply candidates for tho seats in their own city, and its vicinity, but they supply them aJso for seats on the East Coast and in the South Island. A La'.our candidate was required for He.wkc's Hay. Mr C. H. Chapman was sent away from Wellington to contest the seat One was required for !>'is!)orne. Mr llrindle, who shared with Mr Somplc and Mr l'raser the distinction nf imprisonment for his seditious utterances during the war. was sent from Wellington to contest the scat It might have been supposed that Canterbury, out of its motley collection of eccentries, could havo supplied Labour candidates for all the scats in that district. Not so, however. From Wellington \rn.s obtained a candidate to contest the Iticcarton seat. — ,: ()tago Daily Times." Sheaves of Promise). It is necessary at this stage of our history," said Mr Oakley Browne, one of Wellington's Liberal candidates, "that we should havo constructive statesmanship. We are in n great building-up age, and it is no use any party going before the electors with a more sheaf of promises, because tho country will not allow it." Precisely. Hut Mr Browne did not sav what leader it was who carries the biggest sheaf of promises. Indeed, ♦ho •'Dominion" says, he acctisod Mr Massey of hnving no policy, meaning, possibly, that he had not promised enough. Straight from the Shoulder. There is a refreshing rigour and straightspokonness about Mr W. J. Cuttle, who is contesting the Wanganui soat against Mr W. A. Veitch. I fere is a characteristic specimen of his style of stating his views:—"To-day 1 stand on a clear platform, a platform that conforms to my principles, and which offers to the people of the Dominion clean, strong, democratic government under the leadership of a clean, strong, and democratic statesman, the Hon. W. F. Mnssey. Experience tenches, it has taught me, as I believe it has taught hundreds of thousands of electors, that out of the small farmer there has evolved a great states* man, and out of tho big merchant there hj'.s emerged a pettv. peddling partisan. 1 am for the statesman every time." Mr Cuttle, who is a "working man" in the fullest sense of the term, and widelv respected, has made remarkable progress in his electioneering campaign, nnd is said to |>e gaining «npport every dav. He cave up his job in the Railway "Workshops at Wanpanui to fight the contest as a Reform candidate, and he is causing quito n flutter amongst tho supporters of Mr Veitch, who imagined their candidate had an easy time ahead. Confused Thinking.

Tho Labour candidate for Matiiura says that in creating n reformed Legislative Council tho Government should "appoint some half-dozen men of tho calibrc, say, of Sir Robert Stout, the Chief Justice—men whose legal knowledge and abilitv would be of infinite value —and pay them a good salary, and so make them independent." This, remnrks the "Dominion," is a sample of the confused thinking that goes to the making of the extremists' policy. Tho present Legislative Council .is subject, in tho final test, to the will of I.he people's elected representatives, since tho Government of the day can nominato new councillors in sufficient number to swamp an obstinate majority of "lords." But an independent Council of tho kind suggested by the Labour Candida to could defv the will of tho people. Tho Iteform Government has already passed legislation providing for an elective Upper House, so that tho electors may hnve full control of both Chambers. Tie Commandetr. As the outcome of the system of commandeering introduced by the National Government, said Mr J. C. Thomson, M.P., and Lii»eral candidate for Wallace, over £300,000 was being paid by tho Government to the butter producers. "While recognising that, this was only just, he thought that tho cheeseproducers were also entitled to compensation. Before tho checso output was commandeered the price was lUid per 11>, but the Government had fixed tho price at 9Jd per lb, which had meant a. considerable low: to the producers. But the Opposition paper in Wellington denounces this payment as tho "butter bribe." and tho gag has boon adopted by numerous Opposition candidates all over the. Dominion!