PARTIES AT WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 9, 10 July 1935, Page 12

PARTIES AT WORK

POLITICAL FIELD

COMING ELECTION

GOYEKMIEXT. PLANS

At the end of the present year the t people of New Zealand will be faced c with the task of electing a new Parlia- c merit. Much may happen, politically I and otherwise, before December next, c but present indications are that there i will be no lack of candidates and very t few straight-out contests. A start has I already been made in organising the 1 various electorates, and in some cases , committees have been set up to assist j candidates. Members who are seek- 5 ing re-election have been particularly ( active, for they realise that, with such t a late start being made with the final j session of the present Parliament, the t time at their disposal for making con- < tacts with electors will be brief, j Especially does this apply in scattered t country electorates. The general opin- c ion of members of Parliament appears ] to be that no more than three weeks j will be allowed for the campaign ) proper after Parliament has been pro- i rogued, and representatives of country ' constituencies are foreseeing difficulty in visiting every corner of their electorates in that time. One member stated yesterday that he was facing the ' prospect of addressing three meetings , a day for three weeks. • 1 At the 1931 General Election ' the 1 issue facing the electors was a fairly ' clear-cut one. It was a case of return- , ing the Coalition Party to office on a ] blank-cheque policy or entrusting the 1 future of the Dominion to the Labour Party on a policy of rosy promises, j There was no third party to confuse the issue, and in 39 out of the 76 1 European seats there were straight-out ' fights. If the Democrat Party carries ] out its expressed intention of contest- ,| ing practically every seat at this ' year's election, it seems certain that in the majority of constituencies electors will have at least three candidates j from which to choose, with the possi- ; bility of Independents stepping in to ' make the issue even more confusing. ' Up to the present only one or two ' Democrat candidates have been an- [ nounced, but it is known that the or- ' ganisation has been working steadily j throughout New Zealand, and the national organiser (Mr. A. E. Davy) ■ has intimated that next month will ■ probably see the announcement of a ; long list of candidates. ] CAMPAIGN PLANS. Before the leaders of the Government —the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes) and the Minister of Finance (the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates) — left for London, plans for conducting the campaign at the General Election were the subject of preliminary discussion, and since then considerable progress has been made. The National Party, bringing together^ for the purposes ()i the election the United and Reform elements in the Coalition, has been formed, and Mr. D. Ardell has been appointed Dominion organiser. Mr. Ardell and representatives of both parties have been active in various parts of the country, and a number of candidates to carry the Government banner have already been announced. As has already been stated, the Government went to the country in 1931 on a blank cheque policy, but it is generally realised by Government members that such a policy will not be sufficient to carry the day this year. Not only will Government candidates have to, justify the manner in which the cheque has been filled in, but they will have to hold out some promise for the future. Government members j admit quite frankly that the task they* are facing in asking for the continued support of the electors is not an easy one. Low prices and the prospect of quotas and levies have not made the farmer an easy man to deal with, and in some 'districts it is obvious that there has been a move towards thosa who are advocating certain types o£ currency reform as a way out oE the producers' ■difficulties. Labour's guaranteed price policy is also attracting the interest of sma.ll dairy farmers who see in it possibilities of some, relief from their financial burdens. Government members recognise that it is up. to them to contest Labour's case on the guaranteed price question,- but they are finding that the farmer is not the easiest man in the world to.convince. COMBATING PROPAGANDA. The policy on which the Government will go to the country at the end of the year is a question _lhat must be left very largely to the two leaders, and the rank and file of the party is concerning itself at the moment in combating the propagandist activities of the Opposition, currency reformers, and others. It is significant that last week the Acting Minister of Finance (the Hon. A. Hamilton) went to Oamaru to-give an account of the Government's stewardship, and it, would not be surprising if other Cabinet Ministers fo;^ lowed suit in other parts of the Dominion. The feeling of Government members is that once the session opens there will be little opportunity for Ministers to get about the country, and with the prospect of a short election campaign they are afraid that the Government's case may suffer. It seems

pretty certain that the next few weeks will see increased political activity in New Zealand. LABOUR'S ORGANISATION. Labour at the moment is concentrating very largely on the Lyttelton seat, and its candidate, Mr. T. H. McCombs, is receiving the active support of not only the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. M. J. Savage), but of an army of Labour members as well. The Opposition realises the importance of retaining the Lyttelton seat, not only in order to maintain its numerical strength in the House, but on account of the moral effect a Labour victory might have on the country in- election year. But Labour is not altogether neglecting the rest of New Zealand. Indeed, ever since 1931 members of the party have been engaged in organising work, and there is no doubt that they are impressed with the support they have received. The policy on which Labour will woo the electors at the end of the year has been clearly defined by Mr. Savage and other speakers on numerous occasions. With the prospect of retaining the majority of city seats now held by it, and the possibility of gaining others, Labour is looking to the country electorates, and a feature of policy statements made by Mr. Savage over the last two years has been the means by which the Opposition hopes to help the farmer in' the event of its becoming the Government. Mr. Savage declares that Labour has a "glorious chance" of becoming the next Government. Whether he will be doomed to disappointment, as his predecessor so often was, remains to be seen. THE COUNTRY PARTY. And what of the Country Party? What will be its part in the coming contest? Up to the present the activities of this organisation have been confined to the Auckland district, and this will probably be the case again this year. The party has a solitary representative in Parliament in Captain H. M. Rushworth, and every effort will be made this year to give him support. Candidates have already been announced for the Kaipara, Waikato, Tauranga, and Rotorua seats, and there will probably be others to follow. ". Suggestions have been made in political circles that there is a possibility of a working arrangement being arrived at between the Labour Party and the Country Party in certain electorates in order to avoid a splitting of the anti-Government vote, but so far there have been no outward indications of this. In Tauranga and Rotorua, for instance, Labour and Country Party candidates have already been announced. One suggestion made, however, is that in the case of Raglan the task of opposing the sitting Government member will be left to Labour, and that in the Waikato seat the Country Party aspirant .will be given a clear j run so far as Labour is concerned. But with the Democrats deadining to show their hand it is difficult at the moment to see what will happen in these electorates.