THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1908. GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14379, 24 November 1908, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1908. GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS.

The avalanche of words with which the l'rinio Minister has, on the eve of the second ballots, sought to overwhelm the Opposition party may be suffered to pass almost unheeded.." There is nothing in the appeal which it makes to the electors thai; is likely to impress those among thein whom the manifesto from Sir Joseph Ward eight or nine days previously left unmoved. And in so far as it consists of a. dreary repetition of the recriminatory statements that are utilised so largely by the Ministerialists as arguments it may be completely ignored.. The absolute audacity, however, of one assertion by which Sir Joseph Ward hopes to influence the votes' of country settlers in favour of the Government challenges

attention. In proof of his declaration that after all the Government has a policy, the Prime Minister points to the land settlement finance scheme, which will, ho say?, enable an unlimited number of persons to obtain freehold farms from the large owners by means of a State guarantee of the whole of the pur-, chase money. "Nothing so progressive and important as this," Sir Joseph Ward say?, " has yet been attempted in New 1 Zealand, ; and it is, except to adverso critics like Mr Mnssey, one of the'biggest things that have ever been proposed in the interests of future settlers of the Dominion." Adverse critics like Mr Massey! When the electors recall that it was an Opposition member in Mr Malcolm who first proposed this scheme, and when they recall that tho only complaint which Mr Massey and tho rest of the Opposition have had to make respecting the proposal is that the Government declined list session to pass the legislation that,is contemplated on the subject, the Ministers preferring to hold the Bill back in order that it might do duty for electioneering purposes in country districts, they will appreciate, the lack of fairness and the lack of generosity that mark Sir Joseph Ward's reference to Mr Massey in this connection.

An .amusing effort is made by the Prime Minister, to discount the acquisition of strength to the Opposition. As tho result of the first ballots the Opposition is numerically as strong as it was in tho last Parliament. Moreover ifc may count upon a fairly steady support from one of the Independent members and occasional support from two others of them. Nine Ministerialists in the last' Parliament have already suffered defeat: every member of the Opposition who sought re-election was returned by an absolute majority of votes. In the face of theso indisputable foots Sir Joseph Ward attempts to show that (he Government is supported" by a' larger number, and,the Opposition by a smaller number, pf electors than at the previous election. The Ministerial journal in Wellington had already 'endeavoured to establish this remarkable prpposition. By a deft handling of tho election figures it has convinced itself that the votes cast for the different parties at the elections last week were respectively :

Government 230,074 Opposition 126,733 Independent 33,5E0 Labour 14,651 Socialists ~ ... 2,40 i ' Prohibitionists ,„ .„ „. 797 If these figures were even approximately correct,, the-marvel would be that the Opposition has gained so many seats as have fallen to it.' But Sir Joseph Wnrfl hiis juggled wJth the figures to such purpose.'as actually to- be able to produce a result more favourable to the Government than that/presented by the .New. Zealand Times. He claims thnt the Government secured the votes of 2.34,952 electors and the Opposition those of 102,143 electors. To any person who is really desirous of ascertaining what the pplitieal feelings of the electors throughout the Dominion are it will be perfectly evident that these figures are entirely fallacious. It Is, indeed, by a grotesque method of calculation that the result? produced by both Sir Joseph Ward arid the New Zealand Times are obtained, In the three\Dunedin constituencies, for example, in which there was iio Opposition candidate, all the votes that were cast, by Opposition voters to assist, in promoting the return of Mr Millar, Mr Arnold, and Mr Sidey respectively are appropriated as votes in favour of the Government, and not only so but they are calmly docketed as votes against the Opposition! According to this method of reasoning, there is, excepting in Dunedin North, not a single Opposition voter between the Bruce ,'electomtQ in South Otago and the Waitaki electorate in North Otago! Yet it is—to mention a trivial circumstance —the electors with Opposition principles who, if a united vote could be expected from them, have the Chalmers seat wijthin their disposition* at the second ballot to-day! Under the Ministerial process of calculation, moreover, there is supposed to be not a solitary Opposition voter in any of the Auckland nrbnn constituencies, or in two, at least, of the Christohurch city electorates, since the Opposition was not directly represented by_ a candidate, in any of these cases and' the followers of the Opposition had either to give their votes to a Ministerialist, for lack of a more suitable candidate, or else to an Independent. Such important towns as Napier apd Invercargill, also, we treated under 'the Ministerial plan, of conjuring with election figures, as destitute of Opposition voters. The Government is assuredly welcome to sudj comfort as it may derive from the contemplation of results produced by this singular method of manipulation. And the only cause for disappointment the Opposition can have is in the serious wastage of votes which was involved in its omission to contest seriously the bulk of the elections. A comparison of the voting in the fortysix constituencies for which candidates opposed to the Government offered themselves affords a much better indication of the fooling of the electors than any such table as that presented by Sir Jc\seph Ward; aiid the analysis of the votes in tlieso districts shows that they were respectively cast in the following directions: — Government '• 122,705 Opposition 106,891 Independent 5,223 Labour and Socialists ... 11,987 Prohibitionists 156 These figures show that in the forty-six electorates in which it was directly opposed the Government was in a distinct minority. And they suggest that\ if the Opposition had possessed a little more confidence in its ability to carry the electors with it, and if it had been represented by candidates in seventy electorates, the second's ballots to-day would hn-ve been so numerous arid would have had so important an influence on tho position of parties in. Parliament that the interest in them would have' been nearly as great as the interest in the combined polls was last week..