HOMELAND ELECTIONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 May 1929, Page 7

HOMELAND ELECTIONS

PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED

BANTER IN LOBBIES

(Australian Press Assn.—‘United’ Service.) |By Cable—Press Assn.—Copyright.) ’

LONDON, May 10.

(With Parliament prorogued, the election campaign begins in earnest throughout the country. The House could no longer be held together, as members for the past month have been stealing away to their constituencies in increasing numbers, and been making speeches and keying up local organisations. The Ministers have been more or less tied to the House, and Whitehall, but the Opposition leaders and many smaller fry have long since vanished into the wilderness. Those who remained separated goodhumouredly and banteringly, one Saying to another, “Well, I suppose I shan’t see you again,” and others offering to insure their rivals against the loss of deposits. This lobbyism recalls the saying of the late Sir Wilfred Lawson, the witty teetotaller: "It is : far easier ,to go to the country than to come back again.” Conservative members of the House realise that they are faced, with the stiffest election battle of modern times ; in which many a doughty champion must bite the dust. The Liberal employment scheme still holds the field as the chief topic of discussion. If the Liberal Party is dead it is a pretty lively corpse. There are now Liberal candidates for 498 seats. The total candidates number 1657. Mr Purbrick is contesting the Walton Division of Liverpool.

FIRST LORD’S FAREWELL. (Recd. May 11, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, May 10. There, was a large attendance of members of the Commons at the closing session, particularly those not seeking re-election, headed by Mr Bl'ridgeman (First Lord of the Admiralty), making his last appearance on the Front Bench. Three minutes sufficed to conclude the business, Black Tod leading the procession to the Lords to hear the King’s Speech.