Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1919. DISCOUNTING A MAJORITY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1707, 23 December 1919, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1919. DISCOUNTING A MAJORITY.

Some of our Liberal contemporaries are consoling themselves for the (to'them) unlooked for defeat of their Party candidates at the elections last week, by alleging that the Reform Administration has been confirmed in office on a minority vote, and they contend, therefore, that Mr Massey and his colleagues do not represent the opinion of the country. The process of reasoning by which they arrive at such conclusions is not easily understandable bv those who, like ourselves, have watched, with amused interest, the policy adopted by tho Liberals towards tho rank and file .of the-so-called New, Zealand Labour Party during the election campaign. The country was solemnly warned by the Liberal press of the dangers that would attend the return of candidates endorsed by the wicked Reformers or by the extreme Labour Party. Both were regarded as the enemies of the country, and -Liberal candidates generally were at considerable pains to dissociate themselves from extremists of the Holland, Eraser and Semple type. The Ohristcnurch papers supporting the Liberal Party specially stressed the necessity and duty of all good Liberals combining to keep such men as Messrs Howard, Sullivan, Hunter and Robertson out of Parliament, and jibed at the Reformers for not nominating candidates against them. Their appeal was for the Liberals, and 'the Liberals only. Now that the issues have.,been decided against them, and the electors have so signally rejected their advice, they are calling out against the unfairness of the "first past the post" method of election, and pror fess to have discovered a natural affinity between the Liberals and the Labour extremists, whiclv. previously they'were •onlv too anxious to disclaim? They point with a certain amount of exultation to the. apparent decline in the Reform vote,, and, adding'the. Liberal and La-\ boiir yote together, profess to find in the total, as contrasted with that of the Reform*candidates, a;, sure proof that Mr Massey has been returned to office against the. wishes of tho majority. They lay particular stress' upon the falling off in the Reform vote as compared with that of 1914... Tha,t, how-' ever, is easily explainable. At the General Election in that year, the Reform 'Party,, for the first time in its history; contested each of the 7(5 European seats in the House of Representatives. Mr Massey-s supported throughout the'country were thus afforded the opportunity, of voting for their Party candidates. On thisjoccasion some fourteen seats were left"nmeontested * by Government candidates, and in other isCats Independents were left to contest Vth'e seats with either Liberal or Labour 'candidates. Votes that would, under other circumstances, have been cast for i'le Reform. Government - were given either to the Liberals or to the Independents. In spite of that fact, hower*T,! the Liberal vote shows a greater shrinkage than the Government vote, the ; ( fact being that the Liberal following.* is now-a-days so cut into by the Lariqur, ..vote' that it- must continue a dec' wing quantity. With the advancing thought of the age the old-time conservative feeling has so far that' Hthe Reform Party (whieh. the Liberpw v press continues to stupidly designate as "Tory") is more truly representative of Liberal ideals and practices then are the Liberals themselves. We hav^ 1 had ample evidence of that fact in Liberal legislation of the past sev» : n and a half years, during which Mf' ; Massey arid his colleagues have placVd-on the Statute Book a series of : measures worthy of the best

efforts'of Grey, Ballanceand' Seda on. And the natural alliance between the political parties of to-day is for men or moderate views 'arid opinions, who desire to see the country governed on sound lines of Liberal movement to uirlte against tho extremists —to place, as Mr Massey has done, the extremists of both schools—exploiters and money grabbers ’ and revolutionary Socialists outside of the ranks of their party, and to impartially "resist both in''their efforts to dominate the governing policy of the country. Until the official returns are completed, it is not possible to properly analyse the figures, nor are we in a position to correct some of the absurd statements that have been made by our Liberal contemporaries upon the results. But. so, far as we are able to judge the feeling of the country, it is one of profound satisfaction that a stable Government, and one that, on its past record, has been shown to have administered the affairs of the country ori sound and impartial lines, has been returned to oifice with a substantial majority at its back. Were it possible to take a referendum on the silbject ot whether Mr Massey should, or should not. continue in office, we are satisfied there would be an overwhelming consensus of opinion in his favour. The Liberal debacle last week was the direct outcome of the Liberal failure to recognise the logic of the position, which called upon the Parliamentary supporters of the Party to mute with the Reformers for the better government of the country, on lines making for t«* general safety and welfare of onr young nation duririg the critical days that are ahead of ns. It is, perhaps only natural that the much disgruntled. Liberal journals should (following their usual tactics) seek to disparage the Reform successes of last week, but they have really little or no cause for complaint. It was only after many years of - uninterrupted office enjoyment, when Labour first began to assert itself, as an independent force, that the Liberals began to talk of the iniquities of ‘ the first past the post” system of election. The Second Ballot system, introduced bv Sir Joseph Ward, lent itself to pecur liar abuses, and to unnatural alliances and unholy bargainings at the expense of the-electors generally. We are loth to believe onr contemporaries seriously favour an alliance between the Hollands .and Frasers of the extreme Labour Socialists and’ the Macdonalds, Wittys and Wil fords of the Liberal Party. But, from the way in which they have been handling the figures and balefully regarding the official returns, it would almost seem that they are. leaning heavily in that direction.