REFORM TACTICS

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12075, 28 February 1925, Page 5

REFORM TACTICS

THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN “NO LABOUR CO-OPERATION”: PLEDGES DEMANDED. OFFICIAL STATEMENT. In view of the general election in December fiext—or earlier, as the Government may decide—-the Liberal-La-bour, Labour, and Reform parties are all busily engaged in organising their forces for the coming political battle. A statement as to what the Reform Party is doing wae made yesterday by the Hon. A. D. McLeod (chairman of tho organising executive of the Reform Party). The Minister for- Lands stated that, although his Ministerial duties left little time for organising or anything else, he was from time to time receiving reports from the organisers of the party as well as from electoral executives. The Reform Party had nothing to hide in the matter. Every legitimate effort was being made to maintain stable government. The party believed that this .could best be attained by preventing the extreme Labour Party reaching the Treasury benches; and. as a result of this no Reform support would go to any candidate who not only did not publicly pledge himself to vote against extreme Labour no-confidence motions, hut also gave a public pledge to dissociate himself with any party prepared to ao. cept extreme Labour assistance within the House for the purpose of forming a Government. The Liberals (either as a party or as individual candidates) were apparently not able or willing to give these pledges to the electors. The Reform Party was, and as a result it probably would he found necessary to run candidates prepared to give the above pleges in every electorate.

"OLD, WORN-OUT STUNT"

LIBERAL LEADER’S COMMENT. PARTY’S POLICY DEFINED. Mr 'T. M. Wilford, M.P. (Leader of the Liberal-Labour Party), to whom this statement; was submitted, commented upon* it as follows: “I have read the statement made by the Hon. Mr McLeod. I presume he is speaking for the Government. He revives an old ‘stunt’ which, like the Reform Party, is worn out. “The Liberal-Labour Party does not and will not associate itself with extreme Labour for the purpose of forming a Government, nor will the party accept the assistance' of extreme Labour in the formation of a Government, nor will the Liberal-Labour Party support a no-confidence motion, the result of which would place the extreme Labour Party on the Treasury benches. “Mr McLeod talks of stable government, . and say that this could best be attained by preventing the extreme Labour Party reaching the Treasury benches. He well knows that if the Government had kept its promise and had amended the electoral law of this country, the object he professes to desire would be attained. But the promise for electoral reform was broken, as many other Reform promises have been. A TEST FOR REFORM. “The indications are that the 'electors of Now Zealand realise this position, and that the country will return the Liberal-Labour Party to power, with a clear majority. We can test Reform out. We believe' that Reform and extreme Labour have a common object—the destruction of the Liberal-Labour Party, and we believe the electors realise this. Though this is an impossible task, the two parties referred to act together in their political strategy. La3t 'election in Auckland, Messrs Mackenzie, Farrell, and Holdsworth, three supporters of Reform, were allowed by the Liberal-Labour Party a free run against Messrs Lee, Savage, and Bartram, the extreme Labour representatives.- We stood on one side in those three contests, and gave Reform a clear run. The result was that Reform failed miserably. Now we have nominated Messrs Poole, Brown, and Morton to •win these three city seats from the extreme Labour candidates, Messrs Bartram, , Parry, and Lee, and we believe we can win those seats.

•“Let thb electors watch Reform and see whether they will give us a clear run, such as we gave them last election against extreme Labour, and the electors will be able to judge whether they are Sincere. “It i 3 about time that the country protested against the way Ministers are electioneering at the public expense; and the race for prospective leadership between Messrs McLeod and Coates is quite uninteresting to the taxpayers, who have to foot the hill.”