The Dominion. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1911. THE DUTY TO VOTE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1311, 14 December 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1911. THE DUTY TO VOTE.

There is an impression, wo have gathered, that those electors who voted last Thursday need not vote to-day. It is unlikely that this grievous mistake is at all generally made, but every victim of it will be a. vote lost to Reform, sines nobody has so much to gain from a small poll as the chieftain of Wardism. In urging our readers to remember that every elector is competent to vote to-day, whether he or she voted last Thursday or not,,.we.,inay, say, a Jew. .words upon the importance "of the issue. Nobody, and least of all anybody well conversant, with past and present politics, will deny that today is the most important political date in New Zealand's history, or will deny that, it will bo so regarded during the measurable future. Twenty years ago a great change took place in Now Zealand politics. A Liberal Government took office, with a programme truly and splendidly Liberal in many respects, although unwisely Radical in some other respects, and this Government has year by year rotted and decayed until it has at last forced the people to decide upon an issue that no nation ought ever to be required to determine. Tho issue of Liberalism against Conservatism long ago disappeared : tho issue to-day is Wardism against Reform, Corruption against Clean Nationhood. Whatever may come after, that is the issue to-day. It is a question of attending to the drains. The issue is less political than septic. What the (•lectors are called upon to do to-day is to wipe derm the* slate, to finally demolish Wardism, to set square oil their feet again the normal standards of politics, and then to abide by what a vlnin democracy will do. The utmost that Wardism can hope is that Reform may not secure a clear official majority in Parliament. With all its resources, all its wealth, all its powers of patronage, all its opportunity of bribery, nil its lingering control of the weak-kneed betrayers of Labour, Wardism can hope for no more than that Sik Joseph Ward will not have to send in his resignation-after the. peopb have spoken . to-day. Behind the Wardisfs' frenzied support of the dregs of Labour leadership—for they cannot support the real Labour men, like Mr. Veitch. against whom they fighting, tooth and nail—there is nothing but the desire to shroud for a little the horror of defeat. They are using the M'Larf.xs and Hixdmarshes for'no other end than this./ They are supporting Mr. Hogg lot no other end than this. Foiy' no other end than'this are they we C pi n! r crocodile tears over Mr.. Hofco, forgetful of the public's fresh ; remembrance that they kicked "out Me." Hogg from the Minisjti-y on a mean false pretence. For no other end than this arc they supporting Mr.' Fletcher, i n short, is simply usin.tr' whatever it can and whomever \i can, in its desperate a " x ! c ty *0 be able to say, that tho official Reformers do not make m< absolute majority. And it will afterwards light-heartedly leave its t.961s to the difficulties that must .tome to them.

Every friend of Reform recognises all those facts, but what the friends of Reform must realise is that every effort, every ounce of energy, must be expended in giving Reform a majority. AVardism knows it is beaten : it is fighting only to make a brief pretence that it is not. Will the country that has endured the wrongs inflicted upon it, the tricks played upon it, by Wardism, allow that degraded political body to die playing another trick and inflicting a, last insult ? There is but one way for the friends of Reform, who are now a majority in the nation, to prevent this happening. They must realise that this is the year, as Dii. Nuwman says, of liberation, and regard their suffrage to-day as their most precious possession, and their exercise of it as the highest national duty they will ever huvu an opportunity of discharging. Everyone who voted on the first ballot can, unci must, vole to-day. Every elector who failed to vote last Thursday can, and must, vote to-day. The nation's interests require that there shall be no ahirking, no uulit lamps, no ungirt loins.