POLITICAL ARENA

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 13 October 1925, Page 9

POLITICAL ARENA

CAMPAIGN NOTES.

A BUSY MAN. PRIME MINISTER S PROGRAMME. (BY TELEGRAPH PRESS ASSOCIATION ) DARGAVILLE, Oct. 13. Aft. the first meeting of the election committee for Mr. Coates nearly one hundred were present, message was received from itiie Prime Minister regretting his absence from the electorate during the election campaign, owing to his ditties as leader of the uovernineat necessitating his presence in qthei parts of .the Dominion, 'the committee unanimously affirmej its continued confidence in Mr, Coatfes as member and their determination to re-elect him with a Dominion majority. Mi - . Coates arrives at Dargaville on the 17th and will be. accorded a civic welcome. He addresses .a meeting in the evening, the only one in the electorate, as he crosses the following Monday to Marisden and Bay of Islands, addressing one meeting in each. He then returns to the southern jiortion of the Kaipara electorate, addressing a meeting on Wednesday, October 21. The next day he departs for Waikato. It is nob expected that Mr. Coates will return to this electorate before election day.

IN HAWKE’S BAY. HASTINGS, Oet. 13. Mr. Gilbert McKay, sitting member for Hawke’s Bay, gave his first speech here last night as a Nationalist candidate. He rigorously attacked the Government on land ■settlement, soldiers settlement, the sending of the highly-paid farmers bank commission abroad, new railway tariff and increased expenditure on administration. lie also indulged in a personal criticism of Mr. Coates, .stating that a specific, advertisement was beneath the dignity of a Prime Minister, land that the moneybags of New r Zealand paid for it. He added: “If I am beaten this election, ’twill be by the money-bags of New Zealand.’’ He w.as given a good hearing and at the conclusion was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence.

ON THE WEST COAST. GREYMOUTH, Oct. 13. Mr Seddon, the Nationalist candidate, addressed the electors at Greymouth last night. He dealt with the Nationalist Party’s platform, and declared strongly in favour of fusion. He would not support a no-confidence motion moved by the Labour Party. He favoured small land holdings, and the breaking up of big freeholds by increasing the graduated land tax. He was opposed to the borrowing policy of the present Government. He disapproved of the removal of the railway offices from Greymouth, and condemned the cumberous method substituted as a result of the Railway Commission’s recommendations. At the conclusion of his address he received a vote of thanks and confidence.