The Grey River Argus MONDAY, July 21, 1941. ANOTHER LADY M.P.

Grey River Argus, 21 July 1941, Page 4

The Grey River Argus MONDAY, July 21, 1941. ANOTHER LADY M.P.

Tlic loss of Waileniata scat by the (lovormnent had been a possibility to which lhe National J’art.v had been looking forward up till Saturday. The leader. Air. S. (I. Holland, has since implied in his comment that the vote polled by Air. AV. B. Darlow, a manufacturer, who stood as an Jndependent, indicates that there is a swing- away from the Government. That is about the only way in which he sees opportunity of representing the voting unfavourably for the Government. He does not mention, however, that while Air. Darlow (who in all but merely his label, was the choice of the National Party), could poll no more than 3.6G9 voles; Hie second candidate al lhe lasi election polled 5,156 votes. The outstanding features of the by-election, however, arc unquestionably the drop in its aggregate vote from .13,000 in 1938 to about 9,300 this poll, and the splitting of votes which the National Party never has a hope of getting, by thd nominee of Air. J. A. Lee. Admittedly the latter’s candidate, as Air. Holland remarks, has by the loss of his deposit demonstrated once and for all the fact that the “future” of Air. Lee’s party “lies behind it,” although it is rather an unkind tactic on the part of Air. Holland to decry Air. Lee when everybody who knows anything about, lhe AVaitemata election knows that the National Parly built its hopes of a success for Air. Darlow entirely on the assumption that Air. Lee’s nominee would do far belter than 1o lose his deposit, ami would in fact enable (he Opposition to gain an additional supporter under another name. in this month’s National Party official organ. “The National Newsletter,” it is definitely proclaimed that, a surprise had been expected in the AVaitemata edntest as the result of the splitting of Labour votes, which expectation gave the clue to the action of the Auckland newspapers in boosting the leading Independent in a greater degree Hum if Jie had been branded with the official National label. The Nationalist organ did nothing if not sing the nraise?. of Air. Darlow on the eve of the election, saying be hafil begun politics as an Independent, whereas he first began to woo the AVaitemate electors ten

years ago as a United candidate, and on that occasion polled about half the number of votes he gained on Saturday. The “Newsletter” described the successful candidate as a lady of “no very distinguished intellectual qualities,” prompting the query as to what was the capacity of the “.Newsletter” to judge her abilities, and also what sort of a standard it used in judging the other candidates. Waitemata is a mixed type of electorate, partly urban and partly rural, and, allowing for everything, especially the disinclination of about four thousand electors to record their votes, the Government has every reason for complete satisfaction with the result of the by-elec-tion. There have been only three women so far elected to the New Zealand Parliament, and they significantly have all been returned in the cause of Labour. Most analyists of progressive legislation acknowledge that it has the best scope where the women have the vote, and it may be claimed that a better proportion of women legislators would widen that scope still more. Airs. Dreaver may have had some disadvantage in the fact that she was standing for the first time at Waitemata, whereas her real opponent has been an aspirant for the seat for the past decade. Air. Lee campaigned with his supporters to the utmost, not indeed in the hope that their own nominee had a chance of success, but that they might defeat the lady candidate as a Labour Party adherent. Air. Lee was challenged to verify certain of his assertions as against the Labour Party’s campaign in the election, hut did not respond, although had he been able .to make good those assertions he could have benefited any patriotic object he liked to nominate to the extent of £3OO. There is only one point in Air. S. (I. Holland’s comment which is worthy of note by the supporters of Labour throughout the Dominion, and it is that the foes of the workers will make no little capital out of divisions which may be allowed to exist in the ranks of-the workers and indeed all whose desire is progressive and humanitarian legislation. As in Waitemate, the newspapers will give all comers cheap advertisements so long as they are ready to enter Parliamentary contests with no other prospect than that of splitting the votes of Labour supporters. Air, Holland, for instance, claims that of every hundred votes cast on Saturday, there was not a majority for the Government. but he carefully torgets to mention the fact that, ostensibly) there was not a single vote at all cast for the National Parly, fie franklv assumes that now the public will regard the .second highest candidate’s poll as representing the Opposition vote, but cannot denv that his J’arty early in the war undertook not to having anything to do with the contesting of seats which then were represented by Parliamentarians who should go on war service. Hence, on the real day of reckoning, it will be quite a different story when the National Party is represented in its true colours, and the full Labour vote is polled in every district.