THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1946 DEMOCRATIC LABOUR

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 55, Issue 32748, 7 August 1946, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1946 DEMOCRATIC LABOUR

The electoral review ,by the Dominion secretary of the" Democratic Labour Party suggests that the intervention of the party in. the 1946 .elections will be. far below the scale of the 1943 effort. That is scarcely surprising as the recent flirtation (resultless) with the Labour Party suggested that the Democratic Labour Party held few hop l es of recovering from its abysmal failure in 1943. Then its 51 candidates did not gain a seat, its leader, Mr Lee, and its sympathiser, Mr Barnard, were both' defeated, and the total votes cast for it, 37,0.00 out of about 840,000, represented less than 5 per cent. . The small part Democratic Labour will play in the coming election will permit voters to make their choice between Labour and National without extraneous and confusing side issues, and with vote-splitting at a minimum. That is just as it should be. The issues between the two main parties are clearcut and,the result also should be clear-cut. Mr Lee’s originality and eloquence would enliven Parliamentary debates but the Dominion showed quite clearly in 1943 that it 'has no room for a third party. There is less room in 1946.