GENERAL ELECTION

Evening Star, Issue 19063, 5 October 1925, Page 3

GENERAL ELECTION

ft3R FORBES AND FUSION [Pee United Peess Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, October 4. Mr G. W. Forbes, Leader of the Opposition, opened Ins campaign for the Hurunui electorate at Mackenzie last night. He comiue'nced with reference to liis elevation to the leadership of the National Party, and said they had a fine lot of candidates standing In the National Party’s interests. Referring to fusion, ho said that the split occurred on the point that there must bo a now party with a new policy, and not an allocation of portfolios. Ihe Reform Party’s idea was to carry on with an enlarged Reform Party, but the Liberals would not agree to that course.

Mr Forbes went at length into tho National Party’s policy, as previously published, and said he did not think that many people could find fault with it. The reforms prophesied were capable of being put into operation within a reasonable time. There were planks in the Prime Minister's policy that the Reform Party during the time it had been in office' had failed to carry out—planks that they wore now promising to carry out. Turning to finance, ho said the interest on the public and local body debt equalled £9 per head of the population, and ho stressed tho necessity lor effective control of tho public expenditure. A national stock-taking was wanted, and borrowing should be reduced. The Reform Party, ho said, had fallen down on its closer .settlement policy. He challenged the Government to produce figures in respect to the land acquired for soldiers relating to the prices paid and to the prices at which they had power to take the land. He advocated a system of preferential voting in country electorates and a State bank. In conclusion, Mr Forbes said the issue at the election was whether the country was to be run on the lines of the party politics of the past or whether they were going to wipe the slato clean and form a National Government representative of the people. The candidate was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence.

COUNTRY PARTY CANDIDATE ASKED TO WITHDRAW. [Pee United Peess Association.] HAMILTON, October 4. Mr F. C. S. Lawson, ihe Country Party candidate, opened his campaign at To Rahu last night. .Tho attendance was small. The candidate outlined the policy of the Country Party, lie contended that tho farmers wore not receiving a fair deal from either of the old parties. A resolution was carried thanking the candidate, hut asking the Country Parly to withdraw iis candidate to avoid vote-splitting. An amendment stating that the meeting considered the fanners should have direct representation in Parliament was lost on the casting vote of the chairman.

CHALMERS LABOR CANDIDATE AT FAIRFIELD. Mr AI. Connolly, Labor candidate for Chalmers, addressed Hie doctors at Fairfield on Saturday. Mr (J. "Wilson presided over an attendance, of about forty electors. In the course of a review of the railway policy under the Reform Government the speaker said that until rpiito recently the Dunedin suburban fare area extended lo Otokia and Waitati, a distance of seventeen and eighteen miles respectively. With the. revision of the tariff this bad now been curtailed, and was liniiied to Port Chalmers and Alosgiel only. A comparison of the suburban fare areas in the, four chief centres showed that Auckland, "Wellington, and Christchurch had a twenty-mite radius, whilst Dunedin was limited in ten miles. The worst feature about it, said Air Connelly, was that this alteration was made without any apparent protest being made against, such an unfair proposal, which placed the people of Dunedin and surrounding districts at a disadvantage when compared with other centres. At the conclusion of his address a motion was carried thanking the speaker and expressing confidence in the Labor Party. Mr Connolly will address the electors at Brighton to-night and at Tiileri Alouth and Kun Bush to-morrow. At the monthly meeting of the, Otago branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants held yesterday afternoon the following motion was carried:—“That this meeting of the Otago branch, A.S.R.S., wishes Air M. Connolly every success in bis candidature for the Chalmers seat, ami pledges itself to uso every endeavor to secure his return for sumo.”