THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1935. COUNTING THE CHICKENS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22567, 10 May 1935, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1935. COUNTING THE CHICKENS

The spokesmen of the Labour Party at the declaration of the poll on Wednesday night may have cause on reflection to realise that their jubilations are less well founded than they imagined. In the flush of their excitement they were encouraged to flights of fancy which may not be justified. Admittedly their party gained ground in some places. Elsewhere it slipped. On the balance, throughout the Dominion, it cannot fairly claim to have made any such progress as should lead any of its members to jump to the conclusion that the Labour millennium is in sight. It is upon the Dominion stage that the results of the elections are to be surveyed. It was in a broadly political campaign rather than in a narrowly local campaign that the Labour Party engaged in each centre. Some of its candidates made no secret of this. Their public addresses were devoted iii large measure to attacks upon the Government. It was their aim to

capitalise the alleged misdeeds and shortcomings of the Coalition in the effort to secure control of the local

administrative bodies. The elections this week were to be a dress rehearsal for the spectacular drama which they hope triumphantly to present later in the year. The party was extremely anxious to create an atmosphere in which the public mind. might be induced to contemplate the possibility of its success at the general election. It was its feverish desire that the local elections should produce a psychological effect that would be powerfully helpful to it at that time. " Remember," it was said in a manifesto issued on behalf of the party in one of the northern cities, " a Labour Council is a forerunner of a Labour Government." When the results of the local elections are viewed in the light that they were expected to provide an index of public opinion on questions of national policy, the Labour Party has reason not to be elated so much as to be disappointed.

It was in Auckland and Dunedin that the Labour Party secured its principal success. But an analysis of the voting shows that its success in Dunedin, which was almost entirely obtained in the polling for the election of members of the City Council, was due to an electoral accident. The nominee of the Labour Party who was elected Mayor was returned on a minority vote. And there was a minority vote for the Labour candidates for the office of councillor. But for the splitting of votes between the nominees of the Citizens' Association and Mr Wilson, Labour would not have secured six seats on the Council. Actually, when the votes recorded in favour of Mr Wilson, which may reasonably be said to be anti-Labour votes, are added to those recorded in favour of the nominees of the Citizens' Association, they exceed those polled in favour of the nominees of the Labour Party. And it is not to be ignored—for it is as plain as a pikestaff—that many hundreds of electors who generally supported the nominees of the Citizens' Association gave stray votes in favour of the most successful of the Labour candidates. It is only necessary in proof of this to point to the result of the polling for the election of members of the Harbour Board and the Hospital Board. The Labour Party had its full " ticket" of candidates for election to these bodies. It managed to secure the return of two members out of five elected to the Harbour Board and of two out of seven elected to the Hospital Board. In two suburban boroughs, also, in which the electors were offered the privilege of being represented on the local authority by a complete set of Labour councillors, the party suffered distinct rebuffs. The Labour candidate for the mayoralty of St. Kilda was severely defeated, all the Labour members of the past Council were rejected, and the fresh aspirants for office under Labour auspices were routed. Again, the attempt by the party to capture control of the Green Island Borough Council failed, as it effected the election of four members only out of the nine who constitute the Council. When we look further afield, we are struck with a very significant occurrence in Christchurch. That city has been under . Labour domination for some years, and of this fact, coupled with a claim, which seemed to indicate a lack of appreciation of the actual conditions, that it has flourished as a consequence of this rule, a great deal was made by the party's candidates both in Dunedin and in Wellington. But Christchurch has evidently tired of the class of local administration to which it has been subjected. The Labour Mayor, who has in recent years always enjoyed the advantage of a considerable personal vote besides the purely party vote, has regained office after a tremendous struggle. His party is, however, outnumbered by three to one in the Council. A strong Labour candidate for the mayoralty of Wellington was soundly defeated, and his party has to be content with six seats on the City Council, of which there are fifteen members. On the other hand, it was highly successful in Auckland, for, while its candidate for the mayoralty was beaten, it has secured an overwhelming majority in the City Council. Auckland has always been a political stronghold of Labour, as great cities tend to become, and it is only the measure of the majority which the party obtained there that is arresting. Such minor successes as the Labour Party obtained—for example, in Wanganui, where a former occupant of the mayoral office recaptured it—do not affect the general conclusion that it has not so much real cause for the jubilation in which it is permitting itself to indulge as a superficial examination of the results might suggest.