COMING ELECTIONS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 72, Issue 6240, 10 June 1946, Page 4

COMING ELECTIONS

VIEWS OF HON. MARY DREAVER POSITION OF MAORI VOTE . “We don’t want to depend on the Maori vote; we want to depend on our own vote,” said the Hon. Mary Dreaver, M.L.C., when she addressed a public meeting in Christchurch last week. “Wo have done a great deal for the Maoris, and we have some good Maori members in the House, but the workers are in the majority in New Zealand and could put all our members back.” She was urging supporters to ensure at the General Election not just the return of the Government but its return with a much bigger majority. “I would fine people who did not vote,” said Mrs Dreaver. “I hope the day will come when we put that through the Legislature. A person should be fined £2 if he does not vote.” The chairman (Mr F. L. Langley) assured Mrs Dreaver that Labour workers would go from house to house in Christchurch, and said he thought Labour would probably win all but one seat in the city. There was a class issue, and he did not know that Labour would want to represent the people of Fendalton. (Fendalton is the seat to be contested by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr S. G. Holland.) Mr A. G. Williams, who seconded a vote of thanks, said his experience in Canterbury was that Labour supporters were returning to the fold, which was characteristic of the swing towards Labour.