EARLY ELECTION

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 63, 12 September 1938, Page 10

EARLY ELECTION

HINT BY MINISTER

NEED FOR PREPARATION

"The date of the election will be announced by the Prime Minister on Thursday," said the Minister of Agriculture (the Hon. W. Lee Martin), speaking at the official opening of the new district hall at Waikokowai, states a Ngaruawahia correspondent in today's "New Zealand Herald." "I cannot anticipate that announcement, but I would say that you should 'go for your lives' with your preparations." The Labour candidates had never before been in such a happy position from a monetary point of view as they were this year, Mr. Lee Martin said, and they could fight the election without financial worry. "There is more money in the fund now than there has ever been since there has been a Labour Party in New Zealand," he added. "This augurs well for our success, for where the people's money is there will their votes be." Mr. Lee Martin warned the audience to be prepared for an early closing of the electoral rolls. He believed the Government would be returned with at least as many seats as it now had, and perhaps a few more. He himself proposed taking part in the campaign at Taranaki, where Labour held high hopes of capturing three seats, particularly the Stratford one. The real election issue would be the Social Security Act, which the Minister described as the greatest piece of humanitarian legislation in the world, j