SKIPTON BY-ELECTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25431, 12 January 1944, Page 4

SKIPTON BY-ELECTION

COMMENT ON RESULT WEAKNESS IN COALITION’S APPEAL RUGBY, Jan. 10. The Times, commenting on the result of the Skipton by-election, points out that the inclination to desert orthodox candidates is particularly strong in war-time, and the result affords no serious evidence that the Common Wealth Party has yet made appreciable progress towards realising its ambition to win every rural constituency. The newspaper observes, however, that prudent citizens are beginning to look beyond immediate exigencies and anxieties. and the Coalition will increasingly depend on the capacity of the present programme to inspire new confidence in its ability to meet emergencies already looming ahead. The Yorkshire Post says few people feel ’that the election reveals substantial support for the policy of common wealth ownership advocated by a small group of social theorists, but it may be taken to indicate that a considerable section of the voters felt that they might well use the occasion to prod the Government into showing greater energy and determination in its approach to the problems of post-war planning. The result indicates weaknesses in the appeal made by the present Coalition, which tends to blanket normal political discussion while the truce produces impatience and frustration among many electors. The Coalition should, therefore, not only be active in planning, but make its activity widely known.

The new Common Wealth Party gained its first success at the polls when Lieutenant H. Lawson won the SPcipton by-election by a narrow majority over the Conservative candidate.