Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, NOV. 3, 1925. THE APPEAL TO THE CONSTITUENCIES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 283, 3 November 1925, Page 8

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, NOV. 3, 1925. THE APPEAL TO THE CONSTITUENCIES.

Although there are many conflicting interests upon which the electors are asked to decide at the polls to-morrow, the paramount issue so far as the nation is concerned is whether the safe and sound government of the country during the last few years is to be continued, or the destinies of the people arc to be handed over to the Labour Socialists who are assailing the citadel held by Mr Coates and his associates in the Reform Administration. Nothing else really counts in the struggle which has been waged witn ever increasing interest to the public, and, on one side at least, nas been characterised by a campaign of slander, as audacious as it lias been dishonest. -The New Zealand Labour Party has, through its official organ, the New Zealand Worker, and its candidates, published statements concerning the Government and its doings which not only misrepresent facts but actually read into its policy absolutely unjustifiable statements, which they have reiterated, again and again, in face of the explicit denials of the Prime Minister and his colleagues, one such being 1 the allegation that the Government was plotting a “cut” in the workers’ wages of 7s Gd per week. With a persistency worthy of a better cause they have iterated and reiterated the lie and, as recently as Saturday last, claimed to have proved the charge they brought against Mr Coates and the .Minister of Labour that they were plotting to make the alleged cut, by ostensibly quoting from the statutes to show that it is the duty of the Minister to prepare the report which is annually presented to Parliament covering the doings of the Labour Department during the year. It is, however, a well-established fact that the task of preparing that report is invariably left in the hands of the Secretary of the Department, who reports to the Minister, the duty of the latter being- to present the report to Parliament. That has been the practice in the several departments for years past. The" Minister in some cases makes a covering report, which serves by way of introduction to the departmental reports which follow ; but, in the case of this year’s Labour report, the document itself is, from first to lust, a review of the work of the department and of the Labour movement generally,

furnished by Mr P. W. Rowley, Secretary of Labour. Honourable men would have accepted the assurances given by Mr Coates and Mr Anderson that Mr, Piddington’s scheme, upon which Mr Rowley commented, had neyer been considered by Cabinet, nor had there been any intention on the part of Ministers to put such a scheme into operation. Mr Anderson had never accepted it, and Mr Coates’s idea of helping the married man with a family ran on entirely different lines. .But the lie went down with a good many people, and so it has been persisted in with others, in the hope tlnr. it will lead to the defeat of the Government at the polls. What could be expected Horn a body of men who base their claim for public support upon a wholesale misrepresentation of facts concerning their political opponents, and who are so lost to the common decencies of political life that they put forward, with unblushing eii'ronitery, statements which their own commonsense ought to tell them have no foundation in fact ?

ELECTION PROSPECTS.

Mr Coates, during the present election campaign, nas more than justified the confidence reposed in him by the members of the Reform Party, lie has travelled far and wide during his lightning-like campaign and everywnere he has gone lie has been well and even enthusiastically received, even in what are regarded as the strongholds of liberalism, winning golden opinions for himself, and we are safe in saying that, if the contest which is to be decided tomorrow were one in which Mr Coates had to meet his political opponents in the majority of the electorates he has visited, he would win every seat. Mr Coates has, however, to depend upon the candidates who are supporting him for the victory winch the “Standard” believes awaits him on the morrow, and the electors of this district and of the several electorates within its limits would do well to remember that, if they wish Mr Coates to remain at the head of the Government, they can only place him in that position by voting solidly for the candidates supporting him—that is the authorised Reform candidates. The Nationalists who are offering their services to the electors in some cases say that, if they are returned, they will accept Mr Coates as their leader, if fusion is brought about. But their support would at best be half-hearted, and we do not forget that the Nationalist candidate in a neighbouring constituency has declared that, if he is returned, he will vote the Reform Party out of office and that, in his desire to show his contempt for the party of which Mr Coates is the leader, he described them as “dogs” to ' tvhom lie would say, on a vote of no-confid-ence, no matter who moved it, “Get you gone, you dogs.” The Nationalists, or Liberal-Labour candidates, to give them their right name, have but the faintest idea of what Nationalism, means. It is to them merely a name by means of which they hope to gain votes which would not otherwise fall to them as the representatives of a decadent cause. Actually, they are acting the part of wouldbe wreckers of sane government, because they are standing for constituencies held by Reform Party members, whom they cannot hope to replace themselves though they may possibly, by splitting the moderate vote, let the Labour-So-cialist candidates in. We are satisfied that the last thing the country wants at this time is a Labour Government, and, although the hopes of the Labour Socialists are running high and they are talking of achieving a victory on the morrow, the indications are that they are more likely to suffer reverses than to make appreciable wins in the electorates they are contesting. Mr Coates has well said that those who are not for him are against him, no matter whether they call themselves Independents, Nationalists or Country Party men and at the same time intimate their willingness to accept him as the leader of the Government. In the Wellington district outside of the metropolitan area there are candidates standing as straight out supporters oj; Mr Coates —men who are loyal to the party lie leads and who have shown their capacity to represent the electors of their respective constituencies faithfully and well. Reform supporters, and those who desire to see Mr Coates at the head of the Government, should record their votes in favour of these gentlemen, viz.:— Mr J. A. Nash, for Palmerston ; Mr J. Linklater for Manawatu; Mr G. Eliott for Oroua ; Mr W. >S. Glenn, for Rangitikei: Mr A. McNicol for Pahiatua; Mr W. 11. Field for Otaki; Mr -J. Coull for Wanganui; Mr 11. G. Dickie for Patea; Mr E. Walter for Stratford; Mr 0. Ilnnvken for Egiuont; . Mr C. E. Bellringer for Taranaki ; Mr J. Mdson for Napier; •Mr 11. M. Campbell for Hawke’s Bay;

Sir George Hunter for Waipawa; Mr G. R. Sykes for Masterton ; Hon. A. D. McLeod for the Wairarapa. Voting for these gentlemen will strengthen Mr Coates’s position and help him to secure the majority he needs to carry on the government of the country. The prospects of a Reform majority appear good and we trust to see Mr Coates confirmed in office as the result of the elections to-morrow, for which there should be a record poll.