CLASHING REFORMERS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 114, 19 June 1914, Page 6

CLASHING REFORMERS.

SAD CASE OF MR REED.

BEER AND BROAD ACRES IN HAWKE'S BAY.

From Our Special Correspondent.

WELLINGTON, June 18

Several complications have occurred iii the Reform candidatures' of North Island scats, but of course there is plenty of time to smooth them out before the real campaigning begins. At Palmerston North, at Masterton, and at the Bay of Islands the Reform rep-, resentation is being competed for by two men, and in two cases at least the party seems to be bound to the sitting member. With the public career of Messrs Buick (Palmerston North) and Sykes (Masterton),-neither the Government nor the electors has any apparent cause to quarrel. ~ . .• - Bay of Islanfis Dfeadlock. Mr Vernon Reed,-fi" thef Bay of Islands, is in a different position. He crossed the iioor of the House during the term of ofiice of the Mackenzie. Ministry, and Mr G.. Wilkinson, who stood in the Reform interest in 1911, refuses to retire in favour of the quondam Liberal. Morebvtr, a large section' of the .Bay; or'.lslands' Reformers, who : with Mi' Wilkinson *have, borne the heat -and burden 'of the day; refuse to drop him. Mr Wilkinson placed himself unreservedly jn the hands of the local branches of the Reform League, the delegates of which gave him the .nomination by a six to One majority. This is.described by the correspondent Q.f the "New Zealand Herald" as "an open flouting: of the party executive,"' Who "see no reason for displacing" Mr Reed, who has been "a consistent arid loyal supporter of the present Government since it came into oflice."

As Mr Massey is not a Seddon, it seems unlikely that the party executive will treat the Bay of Islands League in any way that would amount to an interference with the principle of local autonomy in selection of candidates. At the last election Mr Wilkinson was beaten by only 183 votes, and if his name is finally presented for nomination there seems to be no reason why the party executive should not sanction it in 1.014 as in 1911., Morally (or ini- • moral lyj as some'.would have .it), the executive may dp,its best for Mr Reed,, but the majority of the Bay of.Jslands j Reform League delegates seem to be convinced that if lie had the nomination of the League'.he could not win. The ex-Liberal would be the Reform candidate in name but not in substance. Mr Reed appears to be. persisting in his candidature, and in that case the, result Would be a triangularity that might let in Dr Buck, who \ quits the Northern Maori constituency in order to. contest the European electorate of the Bay of j islands.

Mr Wilkinson, it is published, has fused to retire by the gilded stairway that leads, to the Legislative .Council. Would Mr Iteed refuse -a nominative ]*fissport to that Chamber? His chance in the other one seems to be very remote; feat woiild the Government be bravo enough to translate himf Such a choruß of Press derision would arise

that, in present circumstances, the Hon. Vernon Reed, M.L.C., items a most unlikely contingency. A Fisher Among Fishermen. Another member who is accused of crossing the House is Mr T. W. Rhodes, of Thames. He denies that he i'' ratted''' from the Liberals, maintainj ing, in controversy with his critics, that t he was'elected" not as a Liberal but as an Independent. Lately he had a hostile meetingin his constituency; the enemy, has shown aggressiveness; and Mr F„ M. B. Fisher, who is Minister of Marine, has visited Thames to talk to I the' Hauraki Gulf fishermen and also I to use..his undoubted gifts of oi"atory | on the electors in general. Pishing interests have become important in the ! Thames.electorate, and a judicious Ministerial handling of. the question of ! trawling-(to'which the smaller fisheri men are strongly opposed) may pro- J I duce good results. Mr Fisher is reported as telling the fishermen that "one trawler with twelve men could take away in-a short period the means of livelihood of two or three hundred fishermen." There are, however, two sides to the trawling question, especially from the- consumer 's point of view; and it is satisfactory to note that Professor Prince is to go to the Thames and give an .expert report. No , doubt the Government will do what is best for the general good. But the suggestion forces itself that the. Ministerial, interest in ; the Thames and its trawling, question would not have been so keen were it hot if>x the special position of Mr* 'Rhodes. ~";.!,. Eesurrecting, the Dead. Dr Robert M'Nab" has invaded the Hawke's Bay electorate, Avhicli • has been quoted for years past as the home of big estates. Recently Ministers have quoted, in reply, certain , subdivisional figures that will take some •answering. Mr Hugh Campbell, the sitting member,., is himself a big landowner. So is—or was—Dr- M 'Nab, though he was also.the author of the radical - land ' programme of 1907. Greek ''will therefore, in a' sense, meet Greek, though they have little else in common. The backer of Mr P. C. Webb and sender of the ''Go in and win" telegram to the Socialist champion in Grey last duly has shown some nerve in inviting the support of the Hawke ? s Bay farmers. Mr Campbell, however, has blundered at the start. He dragged up; the Mokau.affair that was heard.so much of in" 1911, and ..while he may not have intended to convey the idea that Dr, M'Nab used his influence with the Ward Government to secure the freehold of the Mokau block for a syndicate, the fact remains that Mr Campbell's remarks were ,so ~, interpreted, and their effect was such that his own chairman,'a big Hawke's Bay landowner, and .a Reformer,- Mr Mason Chambers, felt constrained to enter a repudiation on behalf of Dr. M'Nab. Mr Chambers was himself one of those largely and. directly interested in the Mokau ;blork transaction. Since then Mr Campbell has made a complete withdrawal.! Dry Hash Instead of Politics. The incident is chiefly valuable as showing the state of bankruptey-df -ideas to which our politicians as a whole are for the time being reduced.. With regard to-the Mokau block-—which, it is understood, has by no means proved a gold mine to its owners —surely that old story might now be relegated to the dust of the pigeon-holes. , Even the theory that the Dreadnought bought the Baronetcy might be given a rest. So might the half-a-erown a day that some

remote Conservative Government ia said to have paid out on relief works. Everything that the Oppositionists are talking is dry hash. Surely the state of the Treasury when Mr Allen found it has been done to death. Would it not be better to intelligently discuss what public works in this election year have a just claim on the present Treasury. Thousands of words are wasted on how the strike should have been settled, but there is no intelligent criticism of the great immediate proposal to create a second elective Chamber ' —a proposal on which events in Australia are every-day shedding new light. Stay, however, there is one exception. Mr C. A. Wilkinson, Reform M.P. for Egniont, says he has modified his opinions, and now has some doubts about the wisdom of two chambers based on direct election. Very many thoughtful men in the community have similar doubts, but how many of the chattering politicians offer any instructive analyses of the things that matter? Brewer and Squatter Mutually Shocked, To return to the electorates. .The death of Mr Kelly shortly after his nomination removed a dangerous" opponent to Mr Vigor Brown at Napier, and it is not clear : now who will, carry the Reform colours against the Liberal merchant-brewer. Mr Vigor Brown's attacks on "land monopoly" have encouraged the growth of a healthy antagonism to, "beer monopoly." . in a certain section of the "Reform Tarty. Estate-breaking and hotel-closing Have become party" clubs in Hawke 's Bay. • The rivals find it self-satisfying to Condone the sins they are inclined'to By damning those they have no mind To. Hence the shocked feeling with which one party views broad acres, and the state of horror which is inspired in the other party by tied hotels. E. V. HALL*