THE PARNELL VACANCY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20537, 11 April 1930, Page 10

THE PARNELL VACANCY.

The banner of the Reform Party will be carried in the Parnell byelection by Mr. W. P. Endean, on whom the official seal of approval was set last evening. The three parlies have now made their choice, and the contest can soon be expected to commence in earnest. Though Mr.. Endean is new to the public as an aspirant to Parliament, that should prove no disqualification. He was born and educated in the Auckland Province, is young enough to have many years of useful service ahead of him in the event of succeeding in this attempt to enter public life, and offers himself to it after a successful professional career. The demand for new men, for fresh blood has been voiced often enough, and in Mr. Endean the Reform Party has selected a candidate who meets the demand. He can be expected to make a good fight to win Parnell back to the allegiance it gave so long to the party. Scene of the second by-election since this Parliament was returned, Parnell offers the Reform Party an excellent opportunity to begin making good the losses it suffered at the general election. That event, on the very face of it, could develop into an irreparable disaster, or could be made the starting point for a new effort to regain the place that had been lost. Though its long tenure of office tended to obscure the fact, the party in the past was no stranger to adversity. Even when the outlook appeared most hopeless it fought on, and by the experience it gained and the lessons it learned while facing overwhelming odds, it developed qualities which stood to it in the day of opportunity. The party today is in a far stronger position than it. was just before its previous climb to power began. It has shown an admirable front to defeat in Parliament, and in Opposition has proved that its spirit is far from broken. Parnell now offers the chance of showing that it has the will and the determination to set about regaining the ground captured from if in 1928. Much may turn on the fight, it puts up for this scat, both for itself and for the country. With a worthy candidate to offer, its part is to fight the Parnell election as though it believed in itself and meant to win.