LABOUR ELATION

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 102, 4 May 1925, Page 4

LABOUR ELATION

The Labour Party in Christchurch rightly feels elated at the success of its candidate for the Mayoralty. 'With the non-party voters divided, Labour had its chance and took it. The Mayorelect told a May Day meeting that he thought his. election had sent a throb throughout the whole of the Labour movement in New Zealand, and that the country was ripe for a great forward movement. But if this is so in Christchurch, what is to be said of the result in Wellington? Here the Labour candidate was not elected, because the opposing forces were not divided, though some of them were apathetic. Yet Mr. Chapman polled 11,797 votes out of 24,938. In Christchurch the Labour nominee the Ecv. J. K. Archer, obtained 9069 out of 22,573. Though Mr Archer won and Mr. Chapman was defeated, the Wellington vote was much more noteworthy from the Labour point of view, ' and it should be more alarming to the voters who do not favour the Labour programme. Opposition division in Christchurch contributed, in a measure at least, to the Labour victory. Here division was avoided, though only at the eleventh hour. Yet the Labour campaign was so effective that, with a turnover of only 700 votes, it would have been successful: The lesson surely should not' require stressing. It is sufficiently plain. If the people who consider the Labour programme dangerous are to maintain their position they must copy Labour's thorough methods and organise effectively— not merely in the last few weeks, but throughout the year.

According to a Press Association message the recent municipal election in CWru is likely to produce interesting developments. At one of the outlying booths-a large number of'electors could not gam admission when the booth was closed :i[. 7 o'clock. The Muvor obtained authority from the Returning Officer to reopen the booth, anil many voters obtained admission alter the L-losiiiß hour. A petition for n. Magisterial inquiry will probably bn lodged. In the meantime the Returning Officer has asked the Minister' ot Internal Ai'f&ire to isetie on Order-in-VpunsU yahdatiHg big wtisjs.