TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 123, 21 November 1911, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

How bewildering it is to be just a plain, ordinary member of Electioneering the public I The right Comedies. ear (or is it the left?) is tugged by, the Government man, and the left ear.(or is it the right ?) is pulled by the Oppositionist. "Hear not 'we, ' unthinking creatures, voices of two different' natures?" asked Wordsworth, with his thoughts far away from electioneering. The Press Association gave Mr. Massey'e . Winton meeting a setting of cheers and loud applause. One had a glowing picturo of Winton won over for one night at least by the Leader of the Opposition. After enjoying the music of the band of the 10th Regiment at Oamaru as a counterblast to the Winton Town Band's strains for Mr. Massey, Sir Joseph Ward* has described hie rival's meeting as a "political trick " with the loud cheers and the loud applause by arrangement with Opposition stalwarts drafted into Winton from placeß far and near. ■ By casting this doubt upon the genuineness of the demonstration for Mf. Massey > Sir Joseph obviously invites the Opposition to retort in kind with charges about machine-made enthusiasm, and between them all the pubiic may be disposed to be suspicious of everybody. " There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face," said Duncan, and • the same difficulty applies to a political meeting. On the face of it, who doubts the "exEression of approval" for the candidate, ut then comes the rival with a theory to invest everything in a dark cloud of suspicion. If a candidate lias a meeting of 95 per cent, of favourable peoplt>, rather undemoiißti'ative, and 5 per cent, of opponents, darefully distributed in accordance with a plot of superhuman subtlety, what will be the meeting's complexion (1) at the time, arid (2) next day, when explanations are offered by the aggrieved candidate? It seems that ■ a cunning candidate does not give all his intelligence to running his own meetings. He believes it is very important to run "the other fellow's" as well. tt is a queer business from the electors' viewEoiut. Knowledge of strategy seems to e more valued by some candidates than knowledge of politics.

Iti.fe at night that the "hooligan" flourishes. He

The Valour of hunts in packs , the "Hooligan." under cover of darkness, but sometimes he will come into the artificial light at the back of a public hall. Darkness is favourable for the "hooligan's" purpose, but it is not so important as the support of other "hooligans." The "larrikin," the "rough," the "hooligan" acts in a gang. The election campaign has been notable for .outbreaks of "hooliganism," especially at open-air meetings of Prohibition advocates. Outrages have been reported from the South, where eggs and stones have been used as arguments, and the egg has also been tried in "Petone. We have not, so far, heard of any arrests for this sort of blackguardism, ibut no doubt the police are making an effort to catch some of the culprits. < The recent incidents recall memories of old-time election* at which and garbage figured notoriously, out the rigour of the police, firmly hacked by the public discouraged the persons who sought "fun" by bruising decent people or spattering their clothes with eggs t>r filth It was hoped that the day of the egg had gone by, but the old had history is repeating itself deplorably. Tlte "fun'* to date has hsen ail on tae "hooligans'''" side, and if they got the eggs for nothing they have had their entertainment cheaply. "It beats moVing pictures," they may say in their hour of vicious j triumph, and it is now the part of the I police to try to prove that all sport costs something. A few arrests, a few sharp sentences, would check this criminal conduct, which has been far too rampant lately in various parts of New Zealand.

A sense of power affects/individuals differently, just' as wine Woman's Power „ does. A large and in sudden access of power Politics. may "go to the head"

in a striking manner. A cabled statement from America says that the newly-enfranchised women of Los Angeles, California, used their power at once to stop cock-crowing in the city. This is being done not by a prohibition order against the' roosters nor by a drop-bar above the perch to prevent the craning of necks at dawn, but by a sentence of banishment against the melodious birds. We have no records to show that the franchise for women has had any such effect in New Zealand, though this country has cities and towns to which a Miltonic couplet applies :

While the cock with 'lively din Scatters the rear of darkness thin. Various benefits have been claimed for the franchise here, but it is not held that the cackling, quacking, and crowing of poultry have been reduced. One enthusiast (a lady) has maintained that the birth-rate has been improved by the franchisej but the Year Book does not help her argument. It i 3 fairly generally recognised, however, that woman's vote has been a powerful factor in pro.moting temperance and social reform. Even if woman has not the time nor inclination (this is only a supposition, mind) to study politics; candidatoriaJ man has to work on the basis that woman is carefully weighing his words. Never for one moment does he forget woman's vote. He has to add new arts to his list of wiles and new expense to tho cost of winning or losing a seat. Happy is the man who has a winning way with the ladies in addition to some power to appeal to men. There 1 is perhaps more evidence of activity among the women for this election than for any previous one. Committees of ladies have been formed throughout the country, 'and ladies have asserted themselves at candidates' sometimes encouraging, by winsome interjection, the man on the'platform, and sometimes confusing his thought with a" sarcastic comment. This power of.woman at the ballot is to grow still more formidable.