CANDIDATURE OF MISS McLEAN

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24023, 11 August 1943, Page 4

CANDIDATURE OF MISS McLEAN

Sir,—Mr T. N. Gibbs, chairman of the Canterbury division of the New Zealand National Party, in his mere recital of facts, is unable to dispute the accuracy of Miss M. McLean’s statement. The victimisation of Mr H. S. S. Kyle, M.P. for Riccarton, by the Canterbury Division simply because Mr Kyle would not become a nodder to Mr Holland’s new order, will not be forgotten. Nor will be the tactics at the present time being adopted against Mr Endean in the Remuera electorate by a professed leader of a freedom movement, supported by the National Party’s selected delegates. If Mr Gibbs could give an explanation justifying these tactics he would be serving a useful purpose.—Yours, etc., H. BLISS. Heathcote, August 9, 1943. Sir,—l can safely say that many electors are amazed at Mr Gibbs’s letter in to-day’s issue concerning Miss McLean’s candidature for the Hurunui electorate. It is surprising that the chairman of the National Party should reveal that party’s truly trembling hands and great fear that their aged stronghold is to be invaded by a “mere woman” under the good independent banner. To my mind the whole epistle pays a great tribute to the candidate, and to her political knowledge and convictions, as the country is ripe for new ideas and progressive plans, which have almost become a memory. Party politics are at present strangling our Parliament: and ,it is high time we had a candidate, who, when elected, is not compelled to vote this way or that on great issues, just as she is ordered, which smacks of dictatorship.—Yours, etc., EXCELSIOR. August 6, 1943,