MANUKAU POLL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 262, 3 October 1936, Page 7

MANUKAU POLL.

“THE SWING AWAY.” MR WESTON’S COMMENT. WELLINGTON, Oct. 3. Mr C. H. Weston, K.C., chairman of the Dominion Executive of the National Party, in a statement on the result of the Manukau by-election, said that in his view the figures of the voting showed the beginning of the swing away from the existing Government which seemed to be inevitable in New Zealand politics. This was the result of the system which had been more and more followed in the last 30 years of Governments talcing a hand in voters’ private affairs. “In consequence,” Mr Weston said, “a Minister spends most of his administrative day making semi-judicial decisions between two sets of opposing interests, one of which his decision will mortally offend because its pocket is affected. In a country with a small population this position is accentuated by the fact of our being so close to one another. The careers of New Zealand Ministers during the last 20 years bear out this opinion, as their lives do not seem to extend much beyond one Parliament.

“The election was very keenly fought and as far as the National Party is concerned its candidate was good, the organisation excellent and the cooperation between the Parliamentary Party and the Dominion and Auckland executives of the warmest character. "But we must take our hats off to the Labour organisation,” said Mr Weston. “I suppose the New Zealand Labour political machine to-day is probably the most perfect of its kind in the world. Everything was attended to down to the last detail. With contributions from compulsory unions its funds are ample and it can afford, including trade union organisers as distinct from secretaries, to have over 200 organisers working in New Zealand at the present time, keen, efficient and well paid. To the National Party it is an example and a warning.”