ELECTION NOTES.

Grey River Argus, 14 November 1928, Page 8

ELECTION NOTES.

“The attitude of the Reform Part towards South Ishim, farmers -avou. of vo:e cha-ing, ” said Ah 1.. !■ Andrews, (Liiitjcd, Chri-tvliuicli;.

Scathing referenc tu the United Partyprogramme was made by Mr D. W. Coleman, the Labour candidate f«r Gisborne in a recent address. That Party was under a new mime, he said—and it had a new name for every election— and so far as its policy was concerned it did not know what, its policy was. In the House, Mr Wilford had claimed that the Nationalists stood in the middle of th qr*oad” with extremists on either side. .Mr P. Fraser had be, n unkind enough to remark that the party was like a cow in thei middle of the road, blocking progress, and this description fitted the pres; ait United Party, .it remiiidled him of the argument be tween the proverbial Englishman, Scotsman and Irishman 'on the state of a chicken which, had just been beheaded and was still making convulsive movements. Th* Engiishma:: held that the bird was dead, sine" nothing c add live without a head; The Scotsman declared that; nothing dead could move: and the Irishman opined that' actually the bird was dead but didn’t know it yer ’ This anecdote -was applicabl to th United 'Party, which Mr Coleman de ciared Was like the chicken, dead, hut still unaware 'of the fact. ! United Party candidates are still no l united by any means when it comes to defending their attitude on a want ;of confidence motion mowed by Air Holland against Mr Coates. Air Taverner (Dunedin South) replying to a question said he was standing in the interests juf the United Parly, aSd if the position arose—but he di«- nut think it wtould for a very good reason — the party would dai with. it. He could not say what the part\ would do in the circumstances. On the other hand Mr Walls (Chalmers) replied to a questioner that he would Vote with the Labour Party to unseat the present Government, but after that Tib would have to be guided by circumstances. In answer to a question, “How would the Labour Party borrow abroad, the necessary money for development,” Air Lei (Auckland East) said the Labour Party would ii'ot borrow it as the United Parly were suggesting they would borrow lias their p.oposal differed little from the Reform Party’s method. Labour would organise th finance and credit witkin- New Zealand and by ami through the operations of a State Ba»hk would increasingly decrease borrowing ajbroad. Ask'd why the Labour Government w nt to America for a loan when they talked of British pyetference, Mr Lee »aid. that the Queensland loan was one of the cheap aSit ever negotiated. Not only did the Queensland Labour GovernniQut go to America, but the Commonwealth Government which was a Conservative Government had also raised an en ormoufi loan in the United States. Que. nsland had gone to America for money when the hand of the British moneylender was raised agmiust her. Quoting Sir Joseph Ward: “Money knows no patriotism,” Air Lee said the British money-lenders would sewn er have 7 p.ecr cent in China than 5 per cent in NCw Zealand. He was not cadging votes, caf) w hand, declared Mr Coleniian (Labour, Gisborne) but if the people wanted a change of administration then thuy had no choice but to vot.j for the Labour Party. No doubt that Party would be misrepresented and called a party of Bolshevists and Communists. The latter classi of people were barred from the Labour Party, and debarred from readmission. The Labour party would be accused of having camouflaged their aims and policy, but this accusation was due to the realisation that the leaders of the Party in their tows of the country were making such sound impressions on the\erywhere. There was no cainou tiage about his party, stated Mr Coleman. Mr j. D. Hislop, United Party candidate for Patea claimed that the .United Party was the exponent of the spirit of Liberalism which influenced a man or piarty to deal with all in equable interests of the whole community and not of any particular section. “This is the spirit whiv.n has been absent from New Zealand politics since a party labelling itself Reform succeedoff do the Treasury Benches,” declar'd Mr Hislop. The United Party which aimed to remove an “efficient administration” from power was a combination of all forms er political faith's, and was truly United under the leadership of Sir .Joseph Ward. There had be n no need for any of the different sections to chang i their creed so long us they conformed to a policy to stand for the general interests of the whole of the people of the Dominion.