The Press Friday, May 30, 1930. The Reform Party.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19941, 30 May 1930, Page 14

The Press Friday, May 30, 1930. The Reform Party.

It is to be hoped that the local Reform organisation will not repeat the blunder of excluding the newspapers from a meeting attended by two hundred and fifty people. If there were a better method of reaching the public than through the Press the organisation would be entitled to use it, but until a better method has been found it is merely foolish and offensive to treat the electors as they were treated on Wednesday night. The supporters of the Reform Party throughout Canterbury are not children who cannot be trusted to keep their heads when the Party wheels begin to revolve, nor are the supporters of the other Parties so utterly ignorant and simple that a hall can be filled to overflowing and the meeting still be "in committee." Even if it had been wise, in theory, to restrict the voice of the best political speaker in the Dominion to those who eould be packed into a single room, it would not have been common-sense in practice to try to do it—for reasons that everyone out of his political swaddling clothes must understand. But it was neither necessary nor seemly to call for a Reform rally and then tell all those who could not attend in person that they were not to know what the others had said and done. Except for legitimate committee business, which does not require the attendance of two hundred people, political mystery is political stupidity. Throughout the whole duration of Mr Downie Stewart's address the Leader of the Labour Party was addressing in a much bigger hall, not merely his own followers but all who chose to listen to him, and doing it in the presence of the representatives of four newspapers. Yet Mr Downie Stewart has the best political head in the Dominion, the best political education, the best method of saying things which even his opponents cannot help feeling persuasive and interesting. He is indeed the only man between Auckland and Bluff who commands attention whenever and wherever he speaks on a subject of first-rate importance. So while Mr Holland, With the aid of the newspapers, to Which he is entitled and which we do hot grudge him—while Mr Holland speaks to everyone who can .road, Mr Downie Stewart's public are those who can be in Christchurch at A particular hour on a particular night and get into the Automobile Association's rooms. It is time the Party's organisation understood that the political medlclne-man is about as useful nowadays as a town-crier, and a good deal less attractive.