LYTTELTON BY-ELECTION

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1933, Page 7

LYTTELTON BY-ELECTION

CONTEST SEEMS VERY OPEN

POLITICAL TRIAL OF STRENGTH.

MANY SPEAKERS ON BOTH SIDES.

STRONGEST BID YET BY WOMAN.

(Daily News Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, Aug. 15.

Neither the Government nor the Opposition is making any secret of the fact that both sides regard the Lyttelton by-election as a trial of strength. The electorate is partly urban and partly rural, and as it was never regarded as a safe seat, even for so strong a personality as the late Mr. McCombs, the contest would appear to be a very open one. The late member held the seat for twenty years, but on one occasion the recount went to the Supreme Court before the issue was decided, and at last general election his majority over Mr. F. W. Freeman, the present Coalition candidate, was only 52 votes. The - Labour Party has already set its organisation in motion with the president of the party (Mr. F. Langstone) at the head of affairs, and it is expected that the whole of its oratorical forces will soon be concentrated in the electorate. The Coalition has not made any definite move yet, but it is expected that it too will soon have squadrons of speakers in the constituency. It is anticipated that several Ministers of the Crown will visit Lyttelton before the campaign closes. In fact it has been stated in political circles that owing to the by-election the date for the opening of Parliament has been set back a couple of weeks. The Legislature is now expected to assemble on September 21, three days after the arrival home of the Prime Minister, who will not be able to participate in the by-election. GUARANTEED PRICES ISSUE. One of the important issues at Lyttelton will be the Labour Party’s scheme of guaranteed prices. This was formulated at last annual conference of the party, and the proposals are no doubt designed to appeal to the farmer. It is the Labour Party’s contention? that prices can be fixed for commodities, irrespective of the prices for the same commodities on the overseas markets. This policy involves the control of overseas and internal marketing and the immediate control by the State' of the entire banking system. For the mortgaged farmer Labour offers “conservation of present holders’ interests in land and homes by readjustment of mortgages on a basis of the average prices for the past seven years.” To the unemployed Labour offers “guaranteed wages and salaries in accord with national production.”

The Government’s reply to this platform. is that it is purely inflationary and that it would bring financial and commercial chaos to every section of the community. Several Ministers of the Crown have turned down the guaranteed prices • scheme on the ground that it is impracticable owing to the fact that the bulls of New Zealand’s primary produce is disposed of overseas. No doubt both sides will quote facts and figures to support their contentions, and the poor elector will have plenty to bewilder him. The Government is definitely opposed to the State control of banking, and has practically committed itself to a central reserve bank which will be run free from political control. PERSONAL INTERESTS. The by-election, apart from party politics,. wilL have another interest. The Labour Party’s candidate is Mrs. E. R. McCombs, widow of the late member, and it is generally considered that she will be making the strongest bid a woman has so far made • to' enter the New Zealand Parliament. Like-Miss E. Melville, of Auckland, she is already an old but so far unsuccessful campaigner. Both have already faced the electors at least three times, and both have lengthy local body service to their credit. Miss Melville has stood for various seats at Auckland, both as a Reform nominee and as an Independent, while Mrs. McCombs has contested both Kaiapoi and Christchurch North tinder the auspices of the Labour Party.- Both are graduates of the New Zealand UniversityMiss Melville in law and Mrs. McCombs in arts.

In New Zealand women made their first appearance on the hustings in 1919, but unlike their English and Australian sisters they have so far been unable to woo a majority of the electors. In England one woman, Miss Margaret Bondfield, has achieved Cabinet rank, and the President of the United States of America has included a woman, Miss Perkins, in his Cabinet. Strangely enough in both cases the portfolio allotted has been that of Labour.