THE GREY RIVER ARGUS FRIDAY, JUNE, 19th 1925. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF FRANKLIN VOTE.

Grey River Argus, 19 June 1925, Page 4

THE GREY RIVER ARGUS FRIDAY, JUNE, 19th 1925. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF FRANKLIN VOTE.

I ; JJI’ON THE VOTING FIGURES of i Hie Franklin bye-election interpretutions the most fanciful and farfetched ar,, at present being placed by . both the Reform ; , n ,l Liberal politicians and their Press; but there is one ' tact which stands out so salicntly that they cannot deny it, but merely ignorc it . That fact is that in so typically n rural constituency, where farmers are the great majoriy, no fewer than 2159 electors have voted Labour on the first occasion! that the electorate has had the opportunity to manifest its attitude towards the Labour I arty. Ihe next outstanding fact to consider is that the bye-election was held under the shadows of an impend mg fusion of the Liberal Partv with that of Deform, so that the Liberals did hint contest, the seat, but implicit'gave the benefit of whatever influence they possess in Franklin to the candidate who stood for Reform, and for Reform s project for a fusion. In such an atmosphere, the full leverage of the fusion manoeuvre was brought to bear us against Labour affording an excellent criterion of the degree to which the anti- Labour (loment can expect |o consolidate their position bv jojning forces. The net result goes to indicate that the gain to the Government from the Liberal merger in Franklin can be set down at about, four hundred votes. Over 200 more voted this time than in 1922, when the late Primo Alinister was opposed by a Liberal, who polled 2526 votes, so that. Labour since then has gained in Franklin the support of all but about 400 of 1h ( . votes which in 1922 went, to the Liberal candidate. If Air Coates and the Tory Press can draw comfort from such a change, they are welcome to it

all. If. on the other hand. Labour uUM count upon half as great an acquisition of strength in other rural or urban electorates in twice the time since the previous Franklin election, then Labour can draw from the Franklin voting far greater comfort indeed than its opponents. No doubt the Tory Party will realise this fad and therefore sedulously ignore the significance of such a remarkable turnover of rural voters to Labour. The Labour vote fully justifies the expenditure of energy which the Party has devoted to this bye-election. Nobody in any Party expected the scat of the late Air Massey to be lost to his Party, but the Prime Afi»nister went to the scene expressly to try and wean voters from Labour. The I’ress of the Auckland province co-operated with this endeavour by boycotting the Labour man and his campaign, but the fact still remains that more than two thousand ('lectors distributed evenly over the district came over in Labour and signified it by their votes. The result is a good augury for the working class. Labour’s policy has only to be known to be endorsed sustained by every democratic citizen who is not tied economically to the wheels of the Tory chariot. The Liberals have a very awkward question to answer. It is simply how much they reckon their support is worth to Reform. Judging by Franklin, they will not get any other terms from the Tory Party but those of surrender at discretion. They have anticipated this, but so have the electors. Franklin election will live in political annals as the milestone wdicre Labour has in th c country taken over the task which has long since fallen upon its shoulders in Parliament, namely, the sole responsibility of the Constitutional Opposition, and the heritage of defending alone against plutocracy the principles and ideals of democracy in our country.