The Press Friday, October 30, 1925. The Country Seats.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18526, 30 October 1925, Page 10

The Press Friday, October 30, 1925. The Country Seats.

Although the revolutionary Socialists are a menace to the peace and economic well-being of the 'whole community, it is* the primary producers whose interests are more immediately threatened. The electors in the rural and mainly rural districts are therefore even more concerned than other electors to make their votes tell against the enemies of their interests. If they had to choose | between a Reformer and a Red, they would see at once what they ought to do. But in 'several country electorates in the Dominion the choice is between a Reformer and a Liberal or National- j ist. What the farmers must realise is that to support a Liberal is to sup-] port an enemy of the only Party which j really represents anti-Red feeling. In j Ellesmere, for example, a vote for .Mr Connolly will be a vote for the Reds,' and it would "be this even if Mr Con-j nollv had not declared his intention; to follow at Mr Holland's coat-tails should the Red leader move a vote of 110-camfidcnce in the Government. That Mr Connolly is a very well-to-do man, whose interests are directly dependent upon the land, and who is himself quite as unlike a Bolshevik as his opponent—this docs not alter the.fact that as an opponent of the Government he is an ally of the Reds. He may not be consciously so, hut there is much in politics of. which -Mr Connolly is unconscious. "We can easily beliere that he is honestly unaware of the fact that his leaders aim. only at prevent ivg the return of a Government • strong enough to make the Reds innocuous. His opponent is a man of recognised ability, one of the beslj equipped politicians in the Dominion, and a man particularly well fitted to represent a farming community. The position in Hurunui is very similar, the main .difference being in the fact that the Liberal candidate knows, what Mr Connolly appears not to know, that the Liberals are playing the game of the Reds. The fact that Mr Forbes is leader of the Liberal Party gives him ,-mo claim to the support of the Hurunui electors, who can have no interest in returning the chief opponent ol a stable Government which can he trusted to defend the national interests. In Ivaiapoi the real issue is emphasised for the electors by the candidature of iin official representative of revolutionary Labour. For in .1922 the Reds voted pretty solidly with Mr Buddo, and it is difficult to believe that the moderate majority can wish to be represented ,by a Liberal whose superiority to the Reform candidate, from the Reds' point of view, was thus proclaimed. Clearly, it is the duty of all rational moderates to concentrate upon returning the Government candidate. And this applies equally in Ashburton. The Rieoarton contest is not Unlike that in Ellesmere. Mr Langdale-Hunt may be an estimable enough mail, and may also be anything but a Red, and he further resembles Mr C" jnolly in his want of acquaintance with even the elements of politics. In this case there is a Red candidate standing, and the Red polled so well in 1922 that it is specially necessary that Mr Lang-dale-Hunt shall not receive support sufficient to allow the Red to squeeze in. The electors of Ellesmere, Hurunui, Ashburton, Kaiapoi, and Riccarton will therefore merely be serving the interests of the Party which, opposed .to all existing institutions, reserves its keenest hatred for the farmer, unless they vote for Messrs Jones, Armstrong, Nosworthy, Brock, and Kyle. Votes for Liberals or Reds are merely votes to help the farmejf' enemy.