The Timaru Herald. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1910. MR KERR AT TEMUKA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CI, Issue 15506, 17 November 1914, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1910. MR KERR AT TEMUKA.

Judging from the address which he delivered before a largely attended meeting at Temuka last evening, and the reception given to it, Mr C. E. Kerr is going to prove an unusually strong candidate for the Temuka seat. Owing to a series of misfortunes. It seemed as if the Government party might lack a candidate for this electorate, but with the need an aspirant for political honours has come forward who gives every sign of making the contest aii extremely willing one. Until lastnight Mr Kerr was less known in Temuka than in other parts of the constituency, and the reception given to him must have been more gratifying on that account. Both the candidates for the Temuka seat are young men who have taken no part in politics before, though each has had some experience of the work of local bodies. Mr Kerr has done good service on the Levels County Council, and he is known in his own district as a public spirited farmer, who has always done his utmost to advance the interests of the district and assist those who have needed help of any kind. Last night he went much deeper into politics than his opponent did in his opening speech. Mr Kerr is a supporter of the Reform Government from conviction, and it is quite clear that he understands the reasons for the faith that is in him. He is quite satisfied that the Government has done well for the country since it came into office less than threo years ago, and has strength and will to carry out a progressive, truly liberal policy, the planks of which have been definitely announced, when it is returned to power again. What parties did twenty-five years ago, in the dim and misty period which diverts the thoughts of most official Liberals from the present, does not concern him in the least. Mr Kerr is a young New Zealander, who sees things as they are, not as they used to be, and has his own ideas of how they can be made still better in the future. " A very inspiring and creditable speech " was the verdict pronounced by the mover of a vote of thanks and confidence at its conclusion. It was certainly a very precise. clearly reasoned, definite speech. The work which the Reform Government has done for all classes .of' the community was set forth clearly, and moral sentiments, which are so easy to produce, were not allowed to take the place of tinners more tangible. The speeches of too many politicians and Would-be politicians remind us of the exclamation of Sir Peter Teazle: "Let me never hear a moral sentiment again." He supports the Reform Government for its acts, not for its professions. If professions and not acts were the test of merit the Government might indeed be hard put to it to compete with its opponents, but, unlike the official Liberal Party within recent years, deeds, noi words, have been its preference. Mr Kerr showed very clearly how the Government has'strengthened the finances since it came ' into office. The figures wear a different aspect from that given to them _ by Opposition candidates who include with the Government's borrowing s> and taxation those of its immediate predecessors, and discuss the financial position when it came into office as if the facts were all summed up in the condition of the Consolidated Fund three months bewas the desperate condition of the Public Works and Advances Funds which caused embarrassment to the Reform Administration, and Mr Kerr showed how those difficulties Wf*TO i overcome—luckily, since a world war was to break out not lon o, afterwards. Defence and other questions were fully and fairly dealt with by the candidate, whose answers to a sheaf of questions must have strengthened the conviction that i n the Reform candidate for Temuka the elector have an aspirant for politic* who knows his own mind decisively, and is not likely to trim and hedge or lose himself in ouagmires. If he had studied politics less closely or possessed

less cheerful "energy Lis late advent into the field would have been a disadvantage, but as things are we see no reason why it should be so.