MINISTERS' PART

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 79, 30 September 1938, Page 11

MINISTERS' PART

WOOING TARANAKI

(By Telegraph.) j (Special to the "Evening Post.") ] NEW PLYMOUTH, This Day. The likelihood of visits by no fewer than six members of the Cabinet is ample evidence of the Government's intense efforts to win over Taranaki, the only wholly non-Labour province. Candidates in all four electorates have now opened their campaigns, and wellattended meetings show the people's interest. National sympathy appears still to predominate in the province, and the attendances at the National candidates' meetings iri country districts have been noticeably larger than at those of the Labour candidates. Mr. H. G. Dickie and Mr. C. J. Duggan, National and Labour candidates respectively for Patea, and Mr. S. G. Smith, National candidate for New Plymouth, all opened their campaigns at the end of last week. The National speakers continue to attack the social security plan, which Mr. W. J. Poison has described as "an attempt to hamstring the capitalist system." Labour speakers, notably the Rev. F. L. Frost, the New Plymouth candidate, have in reply complained of "deliberate misrepresentation" by National speakers. In this dairy-farming province, the guaranteed price has naturally received much attention. Mr. Poison used the words, "a tragic story of State mendacity and muddling." Mr. C. A. Wilkinson, Independent candidate for Egmont, has been outspoken in his criticism of the Government. Criticism of the present control of broadcasting has been a feature of Mr. Smith's addresses, and he has stated that the National Party promised a full investigation and satisfactory revision of it if it returned to power. He would have a special station for Parliamentary broadcasts. He has also paid much attention to defence. The Hon. H. T. Armstrong's meeting at New Plymouth was largely attended and good humoured.