TOOK NO PART

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 112, 14 May 1938, Page 10

TOOK NO PART

LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS PRIME MINISTER EMPHATIC STATEMENT DENIED An emphatic denial of the statement that he had intervened in a local body election anywhere was given today by the Prime Minister (th£ Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage). "I received numerous requests for messages in support of Labour tickets," he said, "but I studiously refrained from complying with any of them." The statement to which Mr. Savage took exception was part of an editorial in the "New Zealand Herald" on Thursday commenting oq the results of the local body elections held in Auckland the previous day. The extract read as follows: —"Electors have registered their resentment at the intrusion of factional political issues into local community affairs. That intrusion went to the unpredecented length of intervention by the Prime Minister with direct instructions to vote for all Labour candidates. Mr. Savage may not be pleased at the result, but Auckland has correctly asserted its right to manage its own local affairs." "I kept out of local body politics," said Mr. Savage, "and in that I have the backing of the national executive of the Labour Party, which considers it undesirable for Ministers to take part in municipal politics, unless, of course, they happen to be candidates. I am given the credit of having asked I local body electors to vote for Labt our candidates and blamed for their defeat. When I was an ordinary member of Parliament I took an active part in Auckland municipal elections, but it is not my job to interfere in local politics." Mr. Savage said he had made no mention of local body politics in his address at the annual conference of the Labour Party at Easter, nor had he referred to the subject In his public address in the Wellington Town iHall on April 20. CONTENTS OF ADVERTISEMENT. The following statement was published under Mr. Savage's name as part of an advertisement in Auckland newspapers on Monday in support of Labour candidates: — "The approaching municipal elections will provide another opportunity for the progressive forces to make common cause at the ballot box. "The object of the Labour movement is to make life worth living for all by extending the people's right to govern in every sphere. , "My four years as a member of the Auckland City Council and twelve years as a member of the Auckland Hospital and Charitable Aid , Board convinced me that Labour's policy is the only policy which can result in so ordering our local affairs, by cooperating nationally with Labour's policy in Parliament, that a fuller life and a higher standard of living for the people can be,assured. "Today we have a Labour majority on the London County Council, the greatest municipality in the world; the achievements of the* Labour council are famous and respected throughout Great Britain, and, indeed, throughout the world. "Citizens are urged, therefore, not to be misled by old parties with new names, but to work and vote for all Labour candidates." In Tuesday's paper the first and third paragraphs of the above were again published under the caption "Remember the Prime Minister's Message." Mr. Savage said today, when this was brought to his notice, that those statements might have been taken from something he wrote three years ago, when he was Leader of the Opposition. "I cannot say where they came from," he said. "All I know is that I did not take pari in any local body election," he added with emphasis.