RELIGIOUS ISSUES

Southland Times, Issue 19690, 24 October 1925, Page 7

RELIGIOUS ISSUES

LABOUR CANDIDATE’S VIEWS. DRAGGED IN THE MUD. MR MACKENZIE AT LUMSDEN. “I want to refer here to-night to an attempt which is being made to influence the electors of this constituency against Labour on religious grounds,” said the Labour candidate for Wallace (Mr J. M. Mackenzie) in the course of his address to some 70 or 80 electors at Lumsden. “Already,” continued Mr Mackenzie, “a certain person has been out in the western end of this electorate diligently endeavouring to fan the smouldering fires of religious feeling into a blaze —and that against Labour, which is childishly termed the ‘Red Peril.’ Now I say this: lam a Scotchman, and proud of it, but if religion is going to be dragged into the mud at. election time, then I say those responsible should be kicked out of the country. We don’t want any of this sort of thing in New Zealand. We’ve had too much of it already, more’s the pity. The old pioneers of this country came out here in the early days to carve out homes for themselves and their families in a new country, away from the unrest and turmoil of warring elements in the Old Lands, and I feel sure that the last thing they would have wished would have been that those who come after should be at loggerheads over religion. “To my mind,” went on the speaker, “religion is a very sacred thing, and, as I said before, we don’t want it dragged in the mud at election time. I feel sure that I can trust to the good sense of the people of this district not to be influenced against Labour on these grounds as I think I can all fairminded people in this electorate.” (Applause.)