A SCOTTISH CAMPAIGN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2928, 27 April 1910, Page 14

A SCOTTISH CAMPAIGN.

DR CHAPPLE'S SUCCESS. IMPRESSIONS OF~THE CONTEST. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, February 4. STIRLINGSHIRE.—NO CHANGE. W.. A. Chappie (L.) 10,122 R. S. Home (U.) . ... 6,417

Liberal majority ... 3,705 This is the result of the polling in Stirlingshire. Nobody has had a better chance than Dr Chappie, formerly of Wellington, and member for Tuapeka for a portion of the last Parliament, of comparing the election methods of the Old Country with those of New Zealand. In New Zealand he fought three campaigns—two in city electorates and one in a scattered country constituency. Tn Scotland he has emerged triumphantly from a single campaign in a most important shire, and has since entered with enthusiasm into other contests both in city and country. Scotland lay white under a few inches of snow when I travelled north to congratulate the new member for Stirlingshire at the scene of his triumph. Scotland has not enjoyed nearly so mild a winter as London, where 10 days ago the precocious primrose was blooming; but the weather has not interfered with any of the campaigns, even in sub-arctic Orkney, where another ex-New Zealander is wrestling with the elements. It is only now, when most of the numbers are up, that we hear of a few of the ballot boxes being snowed up and the results delayed. For in the Old Country there is no decentralised count. All the boxes from the out-booths must go to the central counting station. IMPRESSIONS FROM THE FIGHT. " My leading impressions from the campaign?" Dr Chappie remarked. " Well, first and foremost there is the organisation. Both sides here are so thoroughly organised that the candidate becomes simply the embodiment of the principles that one or other is pledged to support. They make the most careful and searching inquiry into the antecedents and records of the persons who are put forward for the candidature. Not a stone is left unturned to ascertain whether he is a fit person for the support of the party. Then, when once he is selected, he becomes simply a part of the great machine, stepping into his place and working with the rest quite naturally and smoothly. There is absolute loyalty and no friction whatever. The candidate's meetings are arranged for him, his expenses are all paid by the legal agent, who has sub-agencies throughout the district. All the candidate has to do is to take his place as the figurehead of the campaign, to speak wherever and whenever meetings are arranged, and to foot the bill." THE GREAT DIVIDE. " My next impression is as to the great gulf that is fixed between the opposing parties. It is so wide that the issues are clearly cut and well defined, and there is no overlapping. In New Zealand, on the other hand, the line of demarcation is a sort of zig-zag one, which the candidate must define for himself, and across which the voters are constantly moving to and fro. " Then, again, I believe that the Scots, more than any other people, are actuated by deep-seated political convictions. They are not influenced by any passing phase of politics which may 'find their sympathies on one side of the gulf today and on the other uj-morrow. The very high general level of education and intelligence amongst the workers was manifested by the responsiveness of the meetings I addressed. They love arguments, and are always ready to pick up and even to anticipate points." Social problems. Dr Chappie remarked, are very much the same all the world over, and Liberalism stands for the same forces and is burdened with the same wrongs everywhere. Everywhere, too, its ultimate goal is the same humane purpose. It was only on matters of purely local interest, or possibly on some of the anomalies of the Scottish law, that he felt any anxiety. " Comparing our own politics in New Zealand with those of the Old Country, it is very soon obvious that arrears of wrongs have accumulated here, many of which have been redressed in New Zealand long since. These arrears are due chiefly to the influence in legislation of the land and and liquor monopolies and of the wealthy classes. The electoral law contains many grave injustices of a wealth-begotten nature. The ease with which one may get off the rolls, and the great difficulty of getting on again; the nolding of the elections on di|ferent days, so as to enable the wealthy to concentrate their expensive and unwearying effprts for the advantage of their side,

I and many other circumstances give the I wealthy in land and liquor a power which they have always used to curtail and limit that of the democracy. " If a man shifts from one constituency to another, though it may be just across the street, he has to qualify again as if he were a foreigner or a newcomer, and it takes from 18 months to two years to get on the roll again. If a man, qualified in all other respects, happens to have a mate sleeping in the same room with him, neither can be put on the roll. But the property qualification, which is distinctly the qualification of the wealthy, enables a man to vote in any constituency in which he happens to have property, and his name is practically permanently on the roll. " Some men qualify under acts passed 1 in the reigns of the Charleses, acts which have to be brought into requisition specially to put them on the roll. The idea of legislating here is something similar to that of building. They never pull down a house, but simply add to it. In New Zealand we repeal, re-enact, or consolidate laws. Here they never repeal, so that many of their laws have the aspect of a house that has been patched and repatched for generations." STIRLINGSHIRE AND TUAPEKA. Stirlingshire makes a very colourable ' claim to be the most important shire in Scotland. The roll of 20,000 voters represents a population of probably 150,000. The electorate stretches right across the country from the Firth of Forth to the environs of Glasgow. Its borders march with those of about a dozen other electorates. Within its confines are seven battlefields, including Stirling Bridge, Bannockburn, and the scene of the Covenanters battle at Kilsyth, Loch Lomond, Ben Lomond, and " the most beautiful and historic mile in Scotland." j As for the rigours of travel, StirlingI shire compares favourably with the scene I of Dr Chappie's .nost memorable contests in New Zealand, Tuapeka. Every spot which it was necessary to visit could be approached comfortably by railway or motor car. The campaign was thus not nearly so arduous as in Tuapeka. ■ " OH, THAT MINE ENEMY " The methods adopted by Dr Chappie's ■ opponents were of the ordinary type, involving several incidents which in the nature of things would have been impossible in New Zealand. The first main objection was that he was not a Scotchman by birth. His opponent, Mr R. S. Home, was the son of a parish clergyman in the district, and his chairman, a distinguished K.C., strongly admonished his hearers to stick to the home article '■ and avoid New Zealand mutton. | A wag in tne rear of the hall chipped i in : " We can bide the mutton. . It's the horns we dinna want." The investigations into the past of Dr Channle revealed to his enemies the fatal fact that he had written a book. There j was a sudden demand at the London office of the publishers for copies of "The Fertility of the Unfit," a volume which created interest beyond the bounds of New Zealand when it was published in 1903. Its object was to draw public attention to the danger caused to society by the propagation of imbeciles, mental inefficients, and criminals, and to suggest means of preventing it. In this . work Dr Chappie referred categorically ! to past attempts to deal with this socioj logical question, condemning most of ! them as inferior in efficiency and more 1 likely to have hurtful effects than the specific treatment he suggested. Some of the Opposition papers made long extracts 1 from the book to demonstrate the unfitness of the candidate to represent Stirlingshire. One of these extracts made it : appear that Dr Chappie favoured extinction by carbonic acid gas, an old-time j remedy, which he had distinctly disapproved. Using this as his text, a | clergyman in the important centre of i Kilsyth preached rather a vigorous ser- ; mon, in which the New Zealander was | represented as in favour of taking human : life—a suggestion which was utterly re- ; pugnant to both the Bible and religion. The misrepresentation, though uninten tional on the part of the clergyman, was so serious at this juncture that Dr Chappie has called for legal redress. Some days before the election, again, j Dr Chappie's principal agent showed him i a circular which was to be published I by his opponent on the eve of the election, containing quotations from a speech in the New Zealand House of Representatives, in which Dr Chappie was shown to have made some unflattering remarks about the British working man. It was the matter of a day or two to wire to London and receive back a full Hansard report of the speech. It was, in fact, a defence of the arbitration principle, and the comparison of the working man's attitude was softened and made quite kindly by the explanation, in the next few sentences, of the feeling of resentment under which the British j labourer toiled. The reply was published

before the Opposition candidate's leaflet!, and the position was saved. Dr Chappie has no complaint to make as to the reporting of his speeches. _ On. the whole, it has been done exceedingly well. The arrangements for polling are another tax on the candidate in the Old Country. All the returning officer's expenses have to be borne by the candidates in equal portions. Before the Stirlingshire poll could be arranged for the two candidates between them had to deposit £9OO for expenses. Dr Chappie is not yet certain as to his future plans. He will, of course, take up his residence on this side of the water, but exactly where he cannot say. At present he is speaking on behalf of Liberal candidates in constituencies which have not yet polled. A few days ago he spoke at Mr Winston Churchill's meeting at Glasgow. Mrs Chappie and hes daughters are at present in Stirling.