THE CAMPAIGN.

Putaruru Press, Volume IX, Issue 417, 26 November 1931, Page 8

THE CAMPAIGN.

(By “ Serutare.”) Absence of Practical Politics. The four candidates having spoken at Putaruru it is now possible to give impressions. The official Labour Party candidate (Mr. A. F. Moncur) opened the campaign so far as Putaruru was concerned, and he had an excellent meeting. He impressed quite a few by the fact that he spdke Iris piece without once referring to notes. He outlined no policy, but that need not necessarily be held against him, for the, party that he supports has a well-known platform. It would be interesting to see the candidate in a meeting that was hostile, for that is the test of a speaker’s ability. The Country Party candidate (Mr. D. R. F. Campbell) followed, and he, too, created a first-class impression, but here again practical politics as they were likely to effect New Zealand were almost absent. To deal at I length with questions of currency and the gold standard, as did Messrs. Moncur and Campbell, is but to cloud the political issue, which after all is perfectly plain, viz., a stable Government or otherwise.

The Independent Reform candidate (Mr. E. E. Vaile) was frankly disappointing in his Putaruru speech. Admittedly an able man (sought after by two other parties as their candidate) he displayed weakness in attacking the other parties as he did, and then resuming his seat without giving any idea of what he really stood for. The Coalition Government candidate (Mr. C. H. Clinkard) completed the quartette, and he made what could rightly be termed a fighting speech. He had the able assistance of the Minister of Lands, Hon. E. A. Ransom, who created an excellent impression. Never once did he even become mildly abusive of other parties. He had only one interjector and he treated him as one being entirely sincere (as no doubt he was) in his counter contentions. Mr. Ransom’s speech was the closest approach to a real political speech that the Putaruru electors have listened to at the time of writing.

The winner? Well it bold man who would pfophe^^r’2 result. As was the case last efScWi, there are four candidates, but times have considerably altered. There were 10,038 names on the Rotorua roll then. The main roll of 1931 contains 9971 names, but the supplementary roll is bound to be a big one. United and Reform votes cast in 1928 totalled 7034, while Country Party and Labour Party totalled 1301. The 5733 votes to be swung about is a large number. As in all elections, it is the silent voter who counts.