WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 November 1922, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE PARTY LEADERS. MR. MASSEY’S CHIEF ASSETS. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Nov. 20. Local interest in the election campaign centred last week chiefly around the speeches of the Prime Minister and the Reader of the Opposition at the Lower Hutt. Early in the week Mr. Wilford had addressed his constituents, strongly criticising the Government, and on Thursday evening Mr. Massey went out to reply. On Friday evening Mr. Wilford took the platform again and’ gave back as good as he had received. It cannot be said that either . of the party leaders was quite at his best. The Prime Minister, though his audience was good-humored enough, was subject to a considerable amount of heckling, and he has not Air. Seddon’s happy knack of turning this sort of thing to account. His arguments, too, were a little unconvincing. He would have it, for instance, that the fact of Labor members having voted with the Liberals when their views were, in harmony was proof of a conspiracy between the two sections of the Opposition to over-throw law and order, and bring about a political revolution. When his audience laughed at this far-fetched suggestion the Minister grew angry. DIVISIONS. Early in his speech Mr. Massey, by way of administering a “left-hand compliment” to the Liberal leader, had said that Mr. Wilford and Mr. Holland were the best assets he had in Parliament and in the cjjjntry. Returning to the subject after he had attempted to establish a connection between the rival Opposition leaders he declaimed loudly against any amendment in the electoral Jaws that would tend towards a democratic distribution of Parliamentary representation. Proportional representation, he said, would make it almost impossible to establish a strong and stable Government in New Zealand. It would do away with the country quota and it would split Parliament into groups. It would create confusion and cause loss, and he begged the people of the Dominion to have nothing to do with the system. Of course anyone unacquainted with the principle and operation of proportional representation could hold these views quite honestly, but it is unfortunate for the Prime Minister that (the figures of successive elections show that under any system that ensured Parliament accurately representing the will of a majority of the people he and his friends never would have reached office. LIBERAL AND LABOR. Mr. Wilford’s reply to the Prime Minister was a little disappointing to his friends. He made a vigorous fighting speech, which vastly entertained a crowded hall, but he dealt rather with the small things of the campaign than , with the great. The. electors are not greatly concerned over the monetary assistance given to Sir James Allen in furnishing his - London house, and they are a little weary of the stories of the Government’s waste and extravagance. One point, however, the Leader of the Opposition made very well. The persistent attemps of the Prime Minister to spread the idea that the Liberals were conspiring with extreme Labor against the best interests of the country were simply contemptible, he said. The Liberals, with much better reason, might say the Reformers were conspiring with Mr. Holland and his friends. Mr. Massey had acknowledged Mr. Holland as one of his best assets in Parliament. and had expressed a hope that the leader of the “Red-Feds” would be re-elected. Still more significant, the last general election the Reformers had openly aided with Labor as against Liberalism. It was to divert attention from his own attitude that Mr. Massey was raising the cry of conspiracy.

THE PROSPECTS. The prospects of the parties much more than their policies continue to engage the attention of the electors here. It still is the opinion of most observant people that the Reformers will come back with a good working majority, but not with so large a one as they had in the last Parliament. Mr. Massey is embarrassed not only by superfluity of candidates anxious to be on the winning side, but also by a number of candidates who served him well in the last Parliament, by voting unquestioningly at their party’s call, and cannot now be.cast adrift to make room for younger and more capable men. In this‘respect Mr. Wilford has fared much better than has the Prime Minister.. He has managed to inspire with enthusiasm for his cause a number of young men young that is as politicians go—who are putting up a rare good fight against the better organised forces of the Government. The outcome of it all may bo an access of strength to both Liberal and Labor, with Reform still holding a dear majority.