THE ELECTIONS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 252, 27 November 1914, Page 3

THE ELECTIONS.

DR THACKER'S POSITION. DISCUSSED BY AN OPPONENT. THE COUNTRY QUOTA. Speakiug in the Hibernian Hall, Barbadoes Street, last evening, Mr H. Hunter, Social-Democratic candidate for the Christchurch East seat, made several references to one of his opponents, Dr Thacker.

In introducing the subject, Mr Hunter discussed the voting in the Christchurch East electorate at the poll of 1911. He thought he could safely say that 90 per cent, of the voters in the electorate were wage-earners. It was, in his opinion, the most progressive constituency in New Zealand, so far. as politics were concerned. Labour had always been fighting land monopoly. It seemed to him to be strange that a candidate who claimed to be selected by what called itself the Liberal and Labour ' Association should be a large land-owner. It was anomalous that a man who was a large land-owner should be seeking the suffrage of such a constituency as Christchurch.East. A man whose interests were in direct opposition to those of the workers could not claim to be able to represent the workers in Parliament; he would not be.able to look at matters from their standpoint. (Applause.)

A little later Mr Hunter made some further references to Dr Thacker, while discussing the subject of proportional representation, and incidentally he broke some fre- u h ground on this subject. He pointed out that the question of the country quota was a very important one, affecting the whole of the electors of the towns. Yet they found a candidate, standing as the nominee of the so-cailed Liberal and Labour Association, who was in favour.of retaining the country quota. That position could be understood in the case of a candidate for a country seat or of the. leader of a party, who wished to conciliate both town and country. The very advantages which its quota gave to the country made the leader of a party respect the wishes of the country quota. The .position was different in the case of a candidate for a.town electorate.

At this point Mr Hunter diverged a little from the track,,and stated that he believed Sir Joseph Ward to be the most capable man, as a statesman, in the present House, of Representatives. He (Mr Hunter) '.had .given his pledge that if he were -returned as a he would support Sir Joseph Ward on a vote of no-confidence —because he wished to see the Massey Government out of office—and would also support him along progressive lines. The Liberal Party first got into power on a platform. As it continued in power, it gradually got away from its platform principles. : It began to select candidates for electorates without regard to their -political convictions, so long as they were pledged to support •the' Party on no-eonfidenee motions. It selected men ' simply because they were of good standing. It had made a mistake in that it had got ■'■■ me- who were really not sympathetic with its platform. Something more was required. Be the leader ever so capable, he was only human. If they selected a candidate who would not only support the leader on account of a pant political platform, but ah*o of a.pro- 7 ' gressive platform, he was going to be of some use to the leader'.and jilso to the country. Most of. ihe real work of- the House was done in Committee, and ,in Committee men-of progressive ideas could ■■mould, the legislation of the country. If ■they.selected a man who Would simply ad-; here to his party,- but was without -definite .principles, of his own, he would be of no use to them. They did not want a mere voting machine, but a man who j would - place his convictions before the electors at the hustings, so that they could know exactly what.he was going to vote for. Yet they found a candidate standing for Christchurch East- whose expressed convictions in the past had undergone considerable change from time to time. He (Mr Hunter) was never in that position.. His platform to-day was practically the. same as it was three years ago. The platform of his party was more progressive than any other party could-claim. The .first plank in the . Social-Demo-cratic platform, continued Mr Hunter, was proportional representation, a scientific system of political represen-; tatioii./ After explaining the system; the speaker. said that the proposal to add 28 per cent, of the voting of constituencies outside of towns having a population of 2000, or more, was a rank injustice to the town electorates. He proceeded to shqw/,how this worked out, by instancing country constituencies, near .Christclmrck— Kaiapoi, Selwyn,, .and The first argument used in favour of the country quota was that the electors in the 'country had greater difficulties in getting to the polling booths"than those, in the town, and therefore there was lower polling in the country. Taking Ivaiapoi first, it was found that at the elections of 1911 there were 5986 votes cast at the first ballot, out of 6915 electors on the roll, and a population —ac? cording to the census of 1911—of j 11,927. In Selwyn,' 5197 electors voted, j out of a roll number of 6283, and a population of 11,474. In< Ellesmere, I oiilO voted, out of a roll number of 6556, and a population of 11,822. Thus, in the three electorates, 16,493' people voted, out of 19,754 on the roll and a population of 35,223. Taking three city, electorates it was found that in Christ-j church East 7626 voted, out of a roll! number of 9155 and a population of i 15,189. In South, 7289; voted, out of a roll number of 8701 and a population of 15,172. In Christ- • church North, '8473 voted, out of a roll number of 990.7 and a population of 15,225. Thus, in these three city electorates, 23,388 people voted, out of a roll number of £7,763 and a population of 45*,586. Therefore, it took 6890 more voters in the three city electorates to elect three representatives , than it took in the three country electorates. Was that a fair deal to the city electorates? (Cries of ■" No.''), The party he represented stood firm on the point that one vote should, be Of equal value in town and country. He asked his hearers to consider again the figures he had quoted,'and to note that in the three county electorates, with a total of 19,754 voters on the roll, 326.1 did not vote, while in the three city electorates, with 27,763. on the roll, 4375 did not vote. Therefore, there was just as great a proportion - of electors on 'the-roll'-who did not vote in the city aa there was in the country. So he saw no justification for retaining the country quota. Any candidate who stood for a city electorate should be rejected if he was not prepared to do justice to the city in respect to the country quota. (Hear! Hear!) | Mr Hunter also made brief reference to Mr T. H. Davey 's retirement from the contest: He said that he had always found Mr Davey to be a courteous gentleman. He believed that Mr Davey had '& one really good service to the workers of New Zealand during his twelve years in Parliament. Mr

Davey had fought the election of 1911 with no personalities, but in a clean and straightforward manner. A vote of thanks and confidence was carried.

MR MACFARLANE AT SYDENHAM.

A HOSTILE AUDIENCE

The audience which gathered at St. Saviour's Schoolroom, Sydenham, last evening, to hear the address of Mr G. D. Macfarlane, Government candidate for Christchuvch East, seemed to be out for fun. The audience was not large —the hall was barely half-iilled — but it inade up in noise what it lacked in numbers. The very grave conscientiousness of the chairman (Mr 6. E. Good) also added to the hilarity of the evening. Mr Good opened the proceedings by exhorting every member of the audience to exercise the right to vote on polling day—"ladies as well as gents.'' Mr Macfarlane commenced by correcting a newspaper error to the effect that he favoured the 60 per. cent, vote on the liquor question. He was a supporter of the 55 per cent, majority. Referring to the retirement of Mr T. H. Davey, he said that he had a great deal of respect for the attitude Mr Davey had taken up, and admired him for his decision. Mr Davey's position of late had made it impossible for him to support the Ward party, but as ~this was no time for Independents, the best thing he could have done was to withdraw with honour. (Hear, hear.)

So far as he himself was concerned, Mr Macfarlane continued, he was a supporter of the Reform Party, but nevertheless he had always been a Liberal. A true Liberal could never support Sir Joseph Ward; that was why Mr Davey had., retired.*s- He had every sympathy with Labour, and he could not see why it should ally itself with the Ward party. (Loud laughter.) He was not one of those who thought that the Labour Party would be the ruin of the country. (Hear; hear.) .

The candidate then went on to read some figures, but the Speech was frequently interrupted by, cries of '' Speak.aip. '■' '' Gome from behind,the paper!'' and such, like. At one -stage; he was heard to plead that some Bill or other should be given a fair trial. '.'What Bill?" called a man at the back. ''Bill Massey;'' was the response, from another part of the hall, whereat the audience enjoyed itself hugely. Mr Macfarlane concluded by stating; that he was in favour "of the referendum j on the Bible-in-Schools question. His i speech waa concluded at ten minutes to nine, but'this the end ,of the | meeting by a. long. >vay, for lie was j simply bombarded with questions, most j of which came from obvious supporters ] of the Social-Democratic Party. This] was the part of the evening's enter:] tainmeni which the audience en joyed' most.

One of the first questions was whether or not. it was true that the present Go 1 verument had borrowed fourteen millions si nee., it had been in office. Mr Macfarlane said that this was true, but nine millions of it had been used; to pay off loans raised, by predecessors. .

A Voice: Where did the r?st go!

Another Voice: into the ostrich farm. (Loud laughter.) . c . The candidate was then asked why the Government, was withholding .the extra shilling a day ..-paid- to members of the' Expeditionary Force, and paying no interest on it. Did the Government want to " collar''-. the interest? Mr, Macfarlane refused to answer the question. His reason; for doing so—that he had a son in the Force—seemed -\ to cause his hearers' great-delight. * « In answer to a questiou regarding the, totalisator, the candidate, said that, he was against betting, in all forms. The Questioner: Well, you had better not bet on this election, (Hilarious laughter.) ' v Replying to the. Rev. T.yA. Williams, Mr Macfarlane repeated that he was in favour of the' referendum on the Bible-in-Schools question.

'Mr Williams: ' But are you not in favour of the scheme?

Mr Macfarlane: Yes; if the referendum were carried, I should support Mr Allen V Bill.' He went on' to say, in answer to further questions, it would not-be fair to ask teachers to teach Bible lessons without giving them the benefit of a conscience clause. '' The Bill is not passed yet,' ? he said, ' 'and you can depend upon it that when it is i>assed it will have a conscience clause if 1 have anything to do with it. '"■ Replying'"'to another interr'dgator, lie said that he was willing.-'-fro; adihitTthat there was something otit of in connection -with the f . appointment, and it have been better if the position 'liad.* beien advertised. At the same tiihe a committee of enquiry completely exonerated Mr Allen, who stood as one of the straightest and most honest men in the House.

He was In favour of increasing the poll-tax on Chinese, as this shoiiid be an Englishman's country., "Are you in favour of the country quota?" was the next question, to which the candidate replied that he did not believe in proportional representation at all. His reply was greeted with loud laughter, and a raucous-voiced young man at the back asked him to explain, what the country quota was. Mr Macfarlane said that he was not a walking encyclopaedia, - and could not be expected to explain every problem in politics. He had already said that he did/ not believe in. proportional representation, and that should be enough. (Laughter.) The young man at the back then asked the candidate whether he would support Mr Massey on a no-confidence motion.

A Voice: Does a duck swim? (Laughter.)

Mr Maefarlane said that he would certainly vote for the Reform Party. He woukl not support Sir Joseph Ward in anything. "You said you were a supporter of the Reform Party?" wa3 the next question.

Mr Maefarlane: Yes. The Questioner: And yet you say you are a Liberal. Mr Maefarlane: That is so. The Questioner: You can't be both. Mr Maefarlane's attempt to explain was drowned in derisive hilarity. The candidate was next asked why it was that he was in v favour of allowing borrowers from the State to insure in private offices whilst he did not object to auctioneers insisting on the right to sell the produce of persons to whom they lent money. Mr Maefarlane said that he was not aware that auctioneers did such a thing. He had never done so himself. Of course, if a man borrowed money from another he ought to give some security. In answer to further questions the icandidate said that Sir Joseph Ward's baby bonus proposal would be wiser if the money were to be handed to the mother. He could see no objections to women occupying seats in Parliament. At the conclusion of the meeting, the loud-voiced young man in the back of the hall—who preferred to be anony-

mous—moved, "Thai 'this intellectual meeting of electors of Christchurch East thanks Mr Macfarlane for his-address, but it has no confidence in him as a member of Parliament." An amend: ment to omit the- second part of the motion was defeated by.a large majority, and the motion was carried amidst tumultuous cheers.

DR. THACKER. Dr Thacker, Liberal candidate for Christchurch East, addressed a large audience, at the Addington Workshops, Clarence Road, yesterday. The candidate was well received, and was accorded hearty cheers.

In the evening Dr Thacker spoke at the corner of Andrew Street and Waltham Road, there being an attendance of about 300. A motion of thanks and confidence was carried unanimously, and the meeting concluded with enthusiastic cheers for the candidate, for ;Sir Joseph Ward, and for the chairman. Dr Thacker, Liberal candidate for Christchurch East, addressed a meeting of railway men in the Christchurch railway yards at midday to-day, and was given an enthusiastic reception. He said that hour-to-hour casuals on the railways should receive better consideration than was the case at present. He condemned the action of the Government in not offering facilities to the Civil Servants to go to the front, and instanced what was being done on the railways in England. The superannuation fund should be made available for the widows of deceased railwaymen whe died soon after their retirement. The Civil Servants should have full civil and political, rights, save that they should not stand for Parliament w-hife

Still in the employ of the State. Dr Thacker was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence, and the meeting terminated with cheers for the candidate and for Sir Joseph Ward.

MB HUNTER AT ADDINGTON. Mr Hiram Hunter, Social-Democratic candidate for Christchurch East, addressed a large meeting at the Addington railway workshops at noon to-day, Mr F. C. Ellis presiding. The candidate gave a vigorous address and was frequently applauded. On the motion of Mr V. Fraser, seconded by Mr H. W. McKeown, the candidate was thanked for his speech} and the meeting expressed confidence in him and the other Social-Democratic candidates. All present pledged themselves to do all in their power to secure their retur-n.