NOT A SET-BACK

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 102, 30 April 1921, Page 6

NOT A SET-BACK

LABOUR AND LOCAL

ELECTIONS

REVIEW BY MR. P. FBASER, M.P.

, UNBROKEN RANKS; UNDEMINI ISHED DETERMINATION.

When asked by a Post Tepreeeratat/lvd for an expression, of opinion an the results of the recent municipal elections, Mr. P. Fraser, M.P., national president of the New Zealand Labour Party, eaid :—

"After wtat Jias bean calted 'Labour's : overwhelming defeat' has been almost/

ferociously shouted from the headJancs,

if not from th© houstops-, for two days, .'it may seem v«ry audacious on my part ;*o point out that, there has beea no such thing. Yet such is the cold fact. Howler reluctant one may be to dash, the ■rather stupid hilarity of Labour's opponents, the truth must be pointed out. As the Labour Party, in contradistinc-tion.-to th& older political., parties, muss depend for success .essentially andl ultimately, not upon the number of seats .which it can secure upon any parti&alar elective body, so much as upon the number of citizens who support arid vote for •ft, it follows that the only defeat which Labour can really au.ftn.in would bo a aeriaus : falling off in votes. TWe has bean no such falling off. On the contrary, there has generally been. an increase in the votes cast for Labour. In Wellington, for instance, Mr. P. H. Hickey,, Labour, candidate for, the Mayoralty, scored .the highest vote ever polled by a straight-out Labour eaacLTdate, the increase on Labour's previous highest obtained by Mr. Rdadi in 3919 being 670. It istruo that Labour's vote, for ih& Mayoralty did not increase in proportion to the increase in th* vote cast, but the actual addition to the number of Labour's snpporters is.there, and that is the importailtpoint. A brief examination of the figures of the Mayoral contesi shows that the increase in the anti-Labour vote is not nearly so great as it appears to be on 'the cursory glance, which is apparently all that leader-writers consider it necessary to give to election results. The anti-Labour V;oto scored by Messrs. J. P. Luke and W. H. P. Barber in 1919 amounted to 10,891. On this occasion it is 13,456, ah increase of 2565, but aa the Labour vote was increased by 670 the increase in the anti-Labour majority was only 1895. "When the vote cast for the City Council is considered, we find that the Greater Wellington ticket received 143,291, the Independents got 43,209, and Labour scored 83,041. While it is impossible to say with absolute certainty what the result of the election would Jbave been if proportional representation had been in operation, because of the disposal of the preferences, it is clear that fair representation on 'the votes cast ..would give the " Blues " 8 city councillors, the Independents! 2, and Labour 5. ,/As it is, the " Blues" have 13, the -Independents none, and Labour 2. For the THospital Board anti-Labour obtained a •'total of 123,354 votes, entitling it to 8 ■■members, white Labour's vote was 1 84,473, which would elect under a fair system 6 members. The Harbour Board figures give the Greater Wellington nominees 45,282, Independents 3456, and Labour 25,948. Labour is, therefore, entitled to retain the seat on the Harbour Beard which it lost by a few votes. "It is all nonsense to talk about Laibour's 'set-back.' There has been none. My own vote was increased by 1231; That is the sort of set-back I personally ]ike. I regret, of course, that we did not secure greater representation, but the? possibilities of Labour's achievements in the future may be gauged by th© fact that on this occasion I polled only 181 votes lees than Mr.' Wright received when he topped th© poll in 1919. J. am speaking for the Labour movement /In Wellington when I say that I am very jwrry over Mr. Glover's defeat. Even :*is opponents will admit that Mr. Glover yiwas one of the most capable and efficient men on the last City Council, and I am quite positive that that fact will bo recognised at the next election. f'There have been some grotesque conjectures as to the cause of Labour's 'defeat, 1 which is no -defeat. There has been a recurrence of loose talk in the press about the effect of those who are called 'extreme.' It is sufficient answer to point out that throughout New Zealand, almost without exception, those who have been most, prominently denounced by our opponents as 'extremists' have- been the most successful on the Labour ticket, probably because they have been the most conspicuous in Labour's fight. The 'extreme* argument looks extremely silly in view of that fact. Then some o-re inclined to exaggerate the effect of such organisations as the W-el- ; fare League and the Protestant Political ! Association. But the method of these organisations is simplicity itself. It is to. pick out the most likely winners, back them, and then when they win strike an attitude and proudly shout: 'Alone we did it.' Sometimes it doesn't come off. For instance, Mr. Len M'Ken- '■ zie, who Was conspicuously not on the P.P.A. ticket, topped the poll. " "The reason for the big anti-Labour vote in Wellington is partly because of the efficient (Organisation of the Greater Wellington and Town-planning Association, which received greaAer financial assistance from vested interests than

ever befo'.n, I understand, which distributed the Blue ticket to-every ofßoe and business house in Wellington, most of ■which were duly handed round to employees, probably with the bosses' compliments ; partly because of the large x-.mnber of working people, amounting to thousands, off the roll; but, most of all, because of the fallacy assiduously circulated that a victory for Labour j •would mean an increase in the rates. As I only, a comparatively few peope attend the municipal campaign meetings the Labour Party had no opportunity of showing, as it can do, that if all Tating wagon the'unimproved value the majority of the ratepayers would pay proportionally less than they are paying now. 'Ihe greatest enemy of Labour is ignorance, and it is only a matter of time and effort to dispel that. The Labour ticket was the only one which consistently stood for a set of principles. On the Town-planning ticket wore those who stand for the preservation of the Town Belt and those who are prepared to carve ruthlessly into the people's reserves ; those who are in favour of municipal enterprise and those who say they aie opposed to municipal enterprise; a few who know something about town-planning, ,with a majority who know little and care less. 'Town-planning' under these conditions may easily develop into town plundering or anything else for that matter.

"In Christchurch, Mr. D. G. Sullivan, M.P., topped the poll, with the first count, and there seems to be a certainty of fonr or five Labour councillors being returned there. "In some places thfloughont New Zealand, in Greymouth for instance, Labour has succeeded for the first time in getting representatives on to the borough councils, and has generally shown good progress. It moves on to the next election struggle with unbroken ranks, with trndiminished determinationj and with certain hope of ultimate yictotyt"