THE WAR AND ELECTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15931, 31 May 1915, Page 6

THE WAR AND ELECTIONS.

Supporters of the Opposition Party appear to have made up their minds that votes in the Bay of Islands and Taumarunui can be won if they can convince the electors that Sir Joseph Ward and his followers in Parliament favoured a postponement of the general elections until after the war. To this end selected passages from the speeches of the Leader of the Opposition, as reported in Hansard, are being liberally quoted. Another may appropriately be added to the list since it states precisely and in detail what Sir Joseph Ward proposed. During the debate on September 22, from which a great deal has been quoted, Mr. Massey asked Sir Joseph .Ward, whether, supposing the war lasted three years, he was willing for a postponement of the elections until the war had been settled. " I do not," said Mr. Massey, "suggest it, but ho must see that to be logical ho must go the whole length." To this Sir Joseph Ward replied: "The Prime Minister asked whether I thought the elections should be deferred for three years. I nave never made any such suggestion as that. I think it would be a very foolish thing to do. But at a time like this postponement for three months is quite a different proposition. . . . By agreeing to defer the elections until March there would be a strong probability of things having settled down." It will be noted that Sir Joseph Ward

here clearly refused to agree to the •proposal ho now professes to havo made, vi:?., to defer the elections till the end of the war, and that ho distinctly limited, the postponement he had in view to three months from the usual date or until March, 1915. No doubt columns of vague generalities might be quoted from the speeches of Sir Joseph Ward without giving a single indication of the limitation.he had in his mind, but these have no closer bearing on the point at issue than a quotation from one of the Kaiser's numerous speeches on the blessings of peace would have on the causes of the present war. The above extract shows that when taxed to say exactly what he meant the Leader of the Opposition made the same limitation on the floor of the House as he made when similarly taxed at a party conference, In all their discussions on the subject Oppositionists carefully avoid reference to this conference. It was held for the purpose of endeavouring to reduce to a binding agreement between the parties the loose political talk of which the Bay of Islands electors are now hearing so much, and it failed because Sir Joseph Ward and th'i other Opposition delegates refused to agree to any postponement beyond March or possibly April, 1915. It was not difficult to see why this short postponement was urged from the Opposition side of the House. The Opposition leaders believed that in March or April their party would have a better chance of securing, a majority than in December. This was a cute party move, interesting enough as part of the game of politics, but without the remotest connection with the unselfish patriotism which Oppositionists are now so loudly professing.