THE LYTTELTON SEAT

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8608, 19 December 1913, Page 6

THE LYTTELTON SEAT

Tt© “Lyttelton Times.” which is in a position to speak with some degree of authority, does not share tho opinion expressed in some quarters that the victory of Mr McCombs in the contest for tho Lyttelton seat was a victory for tho cause of lawlessness. Our contemporary says:—“Even those timid Liberals who supported tho Reform candidate at tho second ballot for the Lyttelton seat yesterday may find some consolation for Mr McCombs’s success. In the first place it marks tho failure of one of tho most deliberate and persistent campaigns of misrepresentation that have ever been known, in the electioneering annals of the Dominion. Tho Labour candidate was denounced as the cham - pion of mob rule, as an enemy to law and order, as a tool of the Federation of Labour, and as an enemy to tho peace and well-being of the country. The electors were told that they were not asked to choose between ono political party and another, but between government by, tho riff-raff of the community and government by tried and trusted statesmen. Mr Miller, it is pleasant to he able to say, was not responsible for these 'tactics. So far as ho was concerned the contest was conducted with perfect propriety. It was his misfortune not his fault that ho was associated with methods owhich neither his judgment nor hjs conscience could approve. Of course tho government of tho country was never in question for a single moment,, and everyone who can divest himself of party prejudice will admit that Mr McCombs is just as staunch an advocate of law and order as Mr Miller is or even Mr Massey himself. Then. Liberals of all degrees of courage and timidity, even though they may not agree with every plank in the Labourplatform, should ho glad to see Mr McCombs in. Parliament on account of his devotion to proportional representation and his intimate acquaintance with this groat reform. We , feel so keenly on this subject ourselves that we should not think the change ini our electoral system too dearly bought even if it cost the country three more years of Reform rule. Proportional representation seems to us of more importance to the community as a whole than are all the other planks in the Labour platform or in any other platform put together. It is the key to so many other reforms that its value can hardly be over-estima-ted.”