THE LIBERAL CANDIDATE

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 July 1913, Page 2

THE LIBERAL CANDIDATE

MR. HANNAN’S DETERMINATION. WILL SUPPORT MR WEBB. When seen by a “Star” representative this morning in reference to Mr Michel’s statement at Taylorville on Saturday night that “lie did not know how Mr Hannan, himself intended voting,” Mr Hannan stated that the statement was untrue, since he told Mr Michel at noon on Saturday, in the presence of Messrs H. J. Bignell, H. W. Kitchingham, G. T. Moss and H. C. Harley that lie not only' intended voting for Mr Webb, but that lie would do all he could to secure the defeat of Mr Michel In view of such a definite expression of opinion, he could not concieve how Mr Michel made such a statement. Questioned as to his reason, Mr Hannan told the reporter that, apart from the ■ct that lie (Mr Hannan) had stated at his various meetings that the Grey electorate should not support the candidature of an absent nominee of the Reform Go? vernment, he informed Mr Michel that he was so disgusted by the discreditable tactics and cruel slanders circulated and invented by Reform supporters that he in'.clci to vole and work for Mr Webb, whose party had fought cleanly and without recourse to such dastardly acts. Mr Hannan hoped that his supporters, quite apart from the desirability of supporting m man in opposition to the Reform Government, would vote for Mr Webb to show their resentment at the unfair tactics adopted, those not only relating to his personal character, but dragging in his religion as well. GAN WEBB WIN? A JOURNALISTIC SUMMING UP. - ATTITUDE OF ROMAN CATHOLICS.

(Ily Telegraph—Special to the Star

WELLINGTON, This Day. A very interesting weighing up of tlie candidates’ chances of success in the second ballot appears in Saturday night’s “Evening Post,” written by a well known New Zealand journalist, whose judgment is usually of Hie best, as lie is in the position of being able to view the contest from the standpoint of a well informed, disinterested outsider. Writing for a journal well-known independent tendencies, his verdict is worth attention.

The sectarian issue, he telegraphs has been discussed in every street group and from every conceivable point of view. The rev “Star,” which supported Mr Hannan, says that the position of the poll is “almost mainly due to the introduction tlie wretched sectarian question.”

lie “Reformers” discount this factor. As usual, the man on top claims (o have won on political principles, and tlie man underneath blames something else for his defeat. Any impartial observer coukT not have failed to be impressed with the amount of sectarian ‘bitterness existing, but it probably cut both ways and affected tlie political following of both Oppositionist and “Reformer’ "as to' raise a really virulent sectarian issue requires two sides. On neither side was the candidate to blame, for both Mr Michel and Mr Hannan fought a clean light. Tlie main question now is whether the Roman Catholics, who supported Mr Hannan, will vote at the second ballot for Mr Webb and his “Red” platform. Numerous Catholics in Greymouth are declaring that they will. *By Thursday next, however, heated feeling may have cooled down

The writer had an interesting conversation with a local Catholic of high standing. He alleged various instances, of tlie use of the anti-Catholic weapon. Asked whether the Catholics' holding substantial interests in the district would go so far as to vote for the bearer of the Socialist banner, lie replied in tlie affirlfe ative and gave various reasons: Firstly to increase the nqrnber of Labour Socialist members in the House from four to live would not bo a serious danger to property rights. It was not a question of what Mr Webb would do, but what lie could do. Secondly, at the general elections in

seventeen months’ time, it would be easier to displace Mr Webb than to oust Mr Michel. It is calculated that the “Reformer,” if once in the House for Grey would be more likely than Mr Webb to become a fixture. The above is not the heated comment of a nobody, but the deliberate statement of a man of prominence. A ' Catholic block vote given to Mr Webb could hardly fail to put him in the House, for its proportion of the whole vote in Grey is generally accepted as being about one quarter.

A complete red and green alliance would clearly be very hard to beat, but there are people who deny that even Mr Hannan received a Catholic block vote. They base these opinions on the. figures in Greymonth proper, where Mr Michel polled 1.150 Mr Hannan 1092, and Mr Wbb 501. They state they estimate the Catholic vote in Greymouth at 880, and point out that if Hannan polled all these, his non-. Catholic following in Greymouth was only 212. Many people refuse to believe that this is possible in the case of such an old and personally esteemed Grey man as j\JT Hannan. It is not pleasant, perhaps, to discus the factors, ho concludes, but half. Greymouth is discusing them openly and their bearing on the- second ballot is vital. Assuming a total poll of 6300 at the final issue, if Mr Webb receives 1078 Haniianitc votes he will be MP. for - Grey. Of the 6216 votes to hand on Thursday night ■Mr Webb polled just over one third.

MR MICHEL OR MR. WEBB. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF. * WHEN THE REFORMERS SUP " PORTED LABOUR. (By Telegraph—Special ta the Star.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day;' The Government newspaper organs; have worked themselves up into a very amusing state of agitation over the Grey election. It Juts dawned upon them ,says the “Lyttelton Times,”- that though .Mr Hannan’s supporters failed to get their candidate into the second ballot, it now remains with them to say which of the other two candidates shut Represent the constituency in Parliament. Your com temporary continues :—The Reform journals are tumbling over one anothet, so to speak, in their anxiety to settle this question for the Liberal electors. The Roman Catholic Liberals are being reminded of Archbishop Redwood's pastoral of several years ago against Socialism and of the obligation it places upon them to- vote against Mr Webb in the second ballot, and the Protestant Liberals are being urged' to strike a blow for “Light and Liberty” and for the “Clean Liberals,” of which Mr Michel is such a consistent exponent. We do not know how our Catholic friends will like being reminded of their religious duty in this fashion, but we should think the Archbishop would rather have his words interpreted by the members of his flock after their own conscience than by a party newspaper seeking only to use them for political purposes The pathetic appeals to the Liberal electors on behalf of the Reform candidate appear all the more entertaining when it is remembered what the Reform-, ers themselves did when they had to choose between a Liberal and a Labourite or a Socialist at the general election. The “Otago Daily Times” revives quite a flood of memories by the advice it is giving to Mr Hannan's supporters. “But it seems hardly conceivable,” it says, “tlult any large number of them will ad*" cord their support to a candidate who is the representative of a party with its political and industrial grotesque and'imoractii ■ hie programmes, or that t]io> T wo..id he content to he represented in Parliament by a political cypher as' Mr Webb would be, just another Payne and just another Robertson.” It would ho quite as just and quite as tactful to refer to any member of the rank and file of the Reform party as “a political cypher,” ns it is to apply this offensive term to Mr Payne and Mr Robertson. But the two Labour members having been mentioned by our contemporary, it is worth recalling the fact that they were both elected by the Reformers when they found themselves in the same jrosition as the Liberals of Grey arc now occupying. The party whose organs are now telling the Liberals of Grey that they should set aside their differences with the .Reformers- for the nonce and save the country from “just another Payne and just another Robertson,” deliberately chose Labour Socialists

Grey Lynn and Otaki two years ago, rather than return Liberals. At Grey Lynn, of the 1568 votes cast for the Reform candidate in the first ballot, leaving the small difference in the polling out of account, 315 were cast for Mr Fowlds and 1279 for Mr Payne in the second ballot. The position was a little different at Otaki on account of Mr Field’s “freehold attitude on the land question, but even here the direction c.f the party influence was plain for everyone to see. Of the 2183 votes cast for the two Reform candidates at the .first ballot 753 were given to Mr Field and 1227 to Mr Robertson, while a couple of hundred Reformers seem to have abstained from voting altogether. The Reformers’ example, as we said the other day, is not necessarily an admirable example for the Liberals to follow, but in ciew of what the Reformers did at Grey Lvnn and in Otaki in 1911, it surely is a little impertinent for their party organs to be instructing Mr Hannan’s supporters as to what they should do now. Happily the Liberals of Grey are quite capable of discharging the duty that/ lies before them without assistance from any one. Mb at they have to consider is not what the Re- j formers did when they were in a similar j position, but what they should do them- j selves now to best promote the interests | of their own district and the Dominion at \ large. It is scarcely necessary to remind them that jus now Mi’ Webb is much more in sympathy than Mr Michel is with Real Liberalism, whatever the Reform .candidate’s attitude may have been in the past "or may be in the near or distant future. The Labour candidate holds extreme views j on several questions, and expreses them in | a, manner which is frequently more force- > ful than politic, but his views on these questions are not likely to dominate Par- i liament for many a Jong year to come and j his method of expression is at least frank j and logical and honest. The electors.! know where ho stands on all the questions | of any importance with which the present j Parliament is likely to have to deal, and j it is for them to say whether he or his j opponent is the more likely to advance . the aspirations and ideals they have at j heart.