NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 70, 16 December 1919, Page 8

NOTES OF THE DAY

There is nothing that calls for anyspecial notice in Sir Joseph Ward's speech at the Town Hall last evening. , It was on familiar lines. Wo are pleased to note, however, that" the Loader of the Opposition, escaped the unpleasant attentions of rowdies who have been causing disturbances at some of the meetings here. Perhaps there is one point that should not be entirely ignored, for it illustrates very admirably the prreat gulf which lies between Sift Joseph Ward's admirable p rotes'-1 sions and his less admirable, actions, i He said, in the course of his re-1 marks:'

His own unity was not dealing in insults. . It was fighting, the election fnirlv and cleanly. This sounds well. But here' is a specimen of Sir Joseph's idea of polite controversy with which lie regaled his audience a few minutes earlier:. Tun Dominion newspaper, which rewivcnted very largely the large landowners of New Zealand, had not been above descending to the lowest level of newspapers published in any pari of the world. Such newspapers cried nut neninst the -Bolshevists and the 1.W.W., but thev .themselves were worse than the Bolshevists and worse'than the T.W.W. ■ ■ If. Unit sort of thin? is eoine on'can you wohder that decent men are afraid lo come out into the onen and run the snuntlet of the nlxm>innblo loi<-.ilnwii, fmrwni'Ulp. Mod., gnardly Press?. (Laughter and ap-nliui-se.'j Now, we are not thin-skinned, but if wo took Sir Joseph as seriously as he takes his own prospects in the present election, we might almost feel that he had tried to be a little insulting. There may be newspapers, /as he says, who descend a low'level of criticism, but we must confess that in our experience of the daily Press of this Dominion we have failed to come across anything to quite equal the elegant collection of epithets with which Siu Joseph AVard himself seeks to elevate the tone of our public life.

The Wardists and the LabourSocialists are putting forth great efforts in Wellington North, hut. in spite of the fact that he has to contend against vote-splitting by the Wardist candidate, there does not seem any reason to doubt that Mn, Luke will successfully defend his seat. Still nothing should bo taken for granted. Every vote should be polled. It is all in Mn. Luke's favour that the electors o£ Wellington North are particularly well informed as electors go, and must realise clearly that this is a time when the country i cecls above ."1! things security and solid guarantees of order and progress, and ran ill afford to accept flashy, platform talk and electioneering as ft substitute for these essentials. Some of (hose who oppose him have made a great deal of the fact that Mr.'Luke is not a particularly :ft'edive platform speaker, but the .Reform candidate's shortcomings, in this respect weigh lightly, enpii gh* • frith : ll hose i understand the cssch-'l tial qualifications. ' of ■ A working';

member of Parliament. So far as experience and public scrvice are concerned, Mr. Luke i uts lioth bis opponents very completely in the simile. Adding lo this that he is a member of the only party that is capable of sett-ins- up the strong and independent Clovinimont the conntry vitally needs, for its security and in order that il may p:osper, it is evident that the elect.irs of Wellington North will study their own interests in sinking all personal or party prejudice in giving him whole-hearted Vote-split-ting is only going lo help the Lab-our-Socialist candidate. It is true the Wardists are trying hard to inako people believe that their votesplitting candidate has prospects, but their efforts in this respect are quite unconvincing. Xor are suggestive indications wanting of the nervousness these efforts arc intended to mask. For instance, a correspondent informs us that some of the supporters of the Wardist candidate, possibly without his knowledge, were straining the law yesterday by continuing to canvass tor votes after the time set for the disbandment of committees. The lines followed by one canvasser in ITill Street-yestev. day, if correctly reported, do as little credit to the estimate cf-the intelligence of the electors approached as to the cause they arc designed to serve. # * a • The outlook for the Reform Party in the Patea electorate is very much brightened by the announcement that Mr! G. V. Pearce, who sat in the last three Parliaments, has decided to retire in favour 'of Mr. W. . D. Powdrell, who now becomes 'the Government candidate. Although he has a record of useful service in the House of Representatives, there is no doubt that Mr: Pearce has done the right thinjj in' standing aside to avoid vote-splitting. The effect of his withdrawal is obvious. Until he retired there were four candidates in the field for Patea, and the possibility appeared that the Wardist nominee might win on a minority vote. The odds : ought now to be hcavilv in favour of the Government candidate.'Mr. Powdkeu/b business activities bring him into touch with the farmers as well as with the townsl'f6lk of his district, f.nd ho ought to | make a particularly useful representative: The only matter for regret is that Mr. Pearce did not arrive earlier at his decision to withdraw. Apart from the fact that, some confusion might thus haye beeri.avertcd, his withdrawal prior to the date of nomination would have made it possible to issue a corrected ballot paper. As it is his name must appear with those of the candidates who are going to the poll. Patea electors, more especially those who inte-nded to vote for late member, ought to carefully note this fact lest they inadvertently throw away a vote. They should now vote solidly for Mr. Powbrkll, whose experience and knowledge of the requirements of his district should make him a valuable member.

It cannot lis. urjred too strongly on electors that they ought not to allow anything to inUrfevf' with -t-hfl duty of recording- their votes. Some people assume cheerfully t-liat matters will po as they (Jesirp and allow trifles to keep them away from tlw poll, but, as Mr. R. Wright pointed-out the other evening, s»ch a .course is highly (lanwrous;, Fi"e hundred electors, as he justly observed, might pursue, this policv,, and an election in the event migh--he lost,;- :livcn iri ;themost'critipr]-- , v 3(it.ioiv some people are apt- to take ivi i'l'-'ifferent view of their voting nbli**a lions, and all that can be done is to nrp-nal in strong -terms t-n the hv-jilt" of electors so inclined, to their sense of civic duty, and to ordinary for their own interests. People of moderate views who sometimes negloct to record theiv votes ought to ... reflect that similar failures are exceedingly rare amongst those who support the most dangerous elements in politics. TV'.' ought to consider also "that, a moderate vote withheld is in effect given to the extremists, who n n arlv always count for success on a block vote in- a small total i.oll. This fact should be borne in mind particularly by 1 the electors of Wellington North and Wellington East, where. Liberal candidates have come late into, the field and are splitting the votes of 'uodn-ate people to the advantage of the 'Labour-Socialist candidates. In each p»ro the Reform candidate has much th - ' best nrospcct.of beating the Labour-Socialist, ;,nd should be loyally supported to avert the danger of vote-splitting.

An, but conclusive evidence has already been supplied in the Hutt contest that the electors of that district were only waiting for the right, man to come forward in order to change their representative in Parliament, and that, (hey heartily welcome the opportunity afforded them bv Hit. R'tSHWoitTii's appearance in the field.. Mr. WiU'oi'.D's platform performances and campaign methods are distinctly the v.-orse for "'ear. He has little to offer that is likely to attract or entitle l im to support wheii the need in Parliament is for men of sincere convictions and solid qualifications, able lo take an active pari in the work of i.alional reconstruction and development.- ' Mk. Illshwouth is getting the supnort to which his knowledge, capacity and standing in the district plainly entitle him. His election would add a welcome infusion of new'blood to what is likelv to prove the most important Parliament-m the history of the Dominion, while the retirement of the sitting member would remove one of the cbstacles to that political unity which alone will enable Parliament to '.onccntratc its whole energies -on the great tasks which lie ahead.