THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 26, 1908. THE GENERAL ELECTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14381, 26 November 1908, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 26, 1908. THE GENERAL ELECTION.

Tltg result of the general election is apparently to leave the leaders of both political parties in a contented frame of mind. The Prime Minister considers that the position of tho Government is one of which his party may justly be. proud. He claims for the Ministry a majority of a t least twentyfour.. As this estimate can only be arrived at, through the appropriation by the Government in its «de of all tho members who have, been .returned as Independent representnlives it would seem to he characteristically optimistic. But if it be assumed, for the/ sake of argument, that the Government will have a majority of twenty-four it will still be comparatively a great deal worse off than it was in the last Parliament. For its majority in the old House was fortyj two. And the roll-call of the Ministerial party when the members assemble in Wellington will show that there are many 'and serious gaps in the ranta. With certain exceptions, in Whose case a temporary extension of their lease of seats in Parliament has been granted, all the most servile of tho followers of the Government have " fallen by the w-y." To them the Prime Minister lias in pathetic terms extended his sympathy, which, it is to be feared, however, can hardly take a .practical form, since those who have thus, ns Sir Joseph Ward puts'it, "gone under m.the fight" form an altogether too numerous company to he conveniently provided with seats in the Legislative'. Council. The Prime Minister is, however, not unduly depressed over the fact, that seventeen Ministerialists, including .one. member of the Cabinet, failed to secure re-election, for, he says, tho Government still possesses "a solid majority which the Opposition will have a considerable- difficulty in shaking" If the results of the election may reasonably be viewed by the Government with satisfaction, then assuredly they should' be exceedingly gratifying > the Oppo-ition. For the strength of that party i„ Parliament has been increased by 50 ' per cent., and the aocessions to.it include several:members Who may he expected to increase »i a material degree its efficiency in debate. Mr Massey may well, therefore, congratulate himself upon bein<r the leader of a party of which every member in the last Parliament xwho offered himself for re-election wasre- , turned arid to which as many, as fifteen useful r ecn ,i ts have been added. ; Tho members'of the Government and the Ministerial organs which have displayed "a keen interest in the arithmetic of. the elections will require to; exercise; their ingenuity to explain' •way certain discrepancies between the figures of the original pollings and of the second ballots iir the districts that were the scones of contests on Tuesday last. The fact that the total number of votes that were east in the twenty-two districts fell from 125,022 on the 17th inst, to 121,493 a week later does not, of course, pall for explanation; For, although a few,of the supporters of the Second Ballot Act, in their endeavours .to justify their approval of the measure, expressed their confidence that the polling at the second ballots would exceed that at the first ballots, no one who had intelligently studied the question doubted that the number of voters ■at the .second ballot would be smaller than at the original election. The noteworthy circumstance is, however, that while tho total vote declined the Opposil tion vote in the districts affected by' the second ballots was higher than it was a week earlier. The rotes which were recorded on the general election day for the' Ministerial candidates in .•the twenty-two electorates totalled 71,455. Those that were registered: in favour of Oppositionists numbered 42,477, in favour of Labour candidates 850(5, and in favour of Independent candidates 258=1.- For the second foillots on Tuesday last there wore Labour candidates in two electorates only, and to this the fact that the vote of their party dropped from 8.506 to 5908 may be attributed. .And as there'was no anti-Ministerialist in the field at all in five of the constituencies, in three of which the Opposition was represented by a. candidate at the original ballots, it would not have been surprising if the Opposition vote had shown a shrinkage. Instead of this, however, it was increased from 42,477 to 40,325. In a few districts the growth of the Opposition vote in the short space of a week was striking. In Ohinemuri it swelled from 1252 to 2188; in Wanganui from 1882 to 28«0; in Hawke's Bay from 16115 to 24G2; i„ Wellington North, from 2824 to 3GDB; in WeHW'ton South, from 2362 to 33GG; and in Tnapeka, where the increase was most remarkable of all, from 1453 to 2477. While, however, the Opposition vote, though confined to seventeen candidates in an equal number of electorates, increased, as, we have shown, by 3848 votes over its total on general election day when the party was represented in twenty electorates,, the Ministerial vote declined from 71,455 to G9,2G0, spread over twenty-one electorates and twentyfive candidates. We shall be curious to see whether the Prime Minister will discover in these figures another " significant index," such as ho professed to find in the general results of the polling on the 17th inst,, " of the decline of, the confidence of tho people in the Opposition." One statement which the Prime Minister has made.on more than one occasion since the results of the polling on general election day were announced will probably have excited a good deal of interest throughout, the country. Ho has been representing that the Government was confronted with extraordinary difficulties at tho election. Apparently the decline in the values of some of the staple products of the country and the tightness in the money market are chief among the difficulties to which Sir Joseph Ward refers. But there is nothing extraordinary in these. There are constant fluctuations in the prices of commodities and, although Mr Seddon, when in power, eujoyecj exceptional good fortune in the longcontinued prosperity of the country, there are few Governments which are uot affected in one way or another by

movements in values of produce and -by tlie varying effects of natural conditions. The difficulties which beset the present Government in Nwv Zealand were, however, largely of its own creation, Sir Joseph Ward was afforded an unexampled opportunity when he bc-camo Prime .Minister. The great majority of the people of the Dominion were propared to give a fair trial to his Government', the more especially since it was a reconstructed Government which was in various respects an improvement on the Ministry it succeeded, No Government in New Zealand entered upon its career under more favourable auspices. It lias, however, succeeded in alienating the sympathies of one influential class after another. Its land legislation has aroused strong opposition in the rural districts. Its dallying with Socialism has caused dissatisfaction in the towns as well as in the country, without having had the effect of retaining for ifc the undivided allegiance of the Labour organisations. And its financial methods have not impressed tiie community as being us satisfactory as they niigbt be. Such difficnlties as it has had to encounter at. the election haye. in reality been largely manufactured by itself. Ant 1 , they arc difficulties which will probably not disappear as speedily as difficulties produced solely by com-