The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 22, 1935. LYTTELTON BY-ELECTION.

Evening Star, Issue 22087, 22 July 1935, Page 6

The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 22, 1935. LYTTELTON BY-ELECTION.

On Wednesday the poll for the Lyttelton by-election will be taken. The issue appears to be 4 between Mr T. H. M'Combs. who carries the banner of Labour, and Mr M. E, Lyons, the candidate. There are two others in the field, one described as Independent Labour and the other as Independent. Apparently they are not in the running. It is freely predicted that Mr M'Combs will win the seat. His father held, it from 1926 till his death, and his mother was elected in his stead in 1933. Thus the dynastic ties may be expected to have an influence on the result. Further, the electorate contains a strong Labour vote, though it is one of those curiously - constituted constituencies, like Chalmers, which embrace town and country in something like equal proportions. Less than half of the votes in this case are contained in the port of Lyttelton and the Christchurch suburb of Woolston, where workers vastly predominate. The electorate also includes residential areas of Christchurch, on the Cashmere Hills, and elsewhere, and a great part of. Banks Peninsula, which is a fanners’ district. It extends, indeed, as far as the Chatham Islands, but that vote is not large. The late Mr M'Combs had to fight hard to win the seat. In 1925 he was returned by one' vote over’Mr Lyons.. At, the next election he had a big majority against the Reform nominee, but in 1931 his margin over the Coalition candidate (Mr Freeman) was only 32. Mrs M'Combs’s majority in 1933 was overwhelming, but sympathy was an important factor in that decision. The present contest has been conducted very quietly. Interest in it appears to be lukewarm, the imminence of the General Election having discounted its importance in the eyes of the public. Labour, however, realises the value of winning this by-election in order, if successful, to use it as an illustration of want of confidence in the Government. Mr M’Combs has adopted the Labour platform without reservation, and, following the lead given in speeches in this electorate by Mr Savage and other leaders of the party, has advocated it vigorously at his meetings. Circumstances have played into the hands of Mr Lyons,/ and he has made effective nse of his opportunities. First, there was the success of the conversion loan, the operations connected with which were conducted by Mr Coates in London. The , new arrangement gives a return to the investor of £3 2s per cent, over the full currency of the loan (twenty years), and this Mr Lyons is justified in claiming to be a result highly satisfactory to the Dominion. Then followed the meat agreement, which the Coalition candidate- reasonably described as a

triumph for the Government. He remarked that no such bargain could have been struck except by the personal representations and negotiations between this dominion’s representatives and the British authorities. In a few weeks New Zealand’s Ministers at Home had been able to achieve results that were worth £1,500,000 to the primary producers of this dominion. “It is a signal success for Mr Coates, the man whom the Labour candidate condemns as incompetent, ” asserted Mr Lyons. Before this result was achieved the Labour leader, in order to gain support in the rural districts of the constituency, advanced his plan of guaranteed prices] which Mr M'Combs supports. This scheme ‘ was severely criticised by Mr Ly«. , who pointed out that of our dairy produce' 84 per cent, is exported, and he pertinently asked what the cost to the taxpayer would be when a loss was made in the marketing of our primary products. Planned production was, part of the idea, and that would mean that primaiy producers would be told how much butter-fat, or wool, or meat they were to produce year by year. Mr Lyons contended that the whole scheme is based on inflation, is unsound in principle, and if adopted would lead the Dominion .into economic chaos. It will therefore be seen that this election indicates important principles to be submitted to a test at the end of the year. During the campaign the Coalition Government’s record will be placed against ideas that are fantastic and unsound, and consequently impossible of successful application.