What Readers Think Letters to the Editor

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIV, Issue 22701, 30 September 1943, Page 6

What Readers Think Letters to the Editor

ELECTION RESULT Sir, —Your leading article on the election .shows clearly you are embittered by the results, which is greatly to the credit of the Government when it is remembered that the Press of New Zealand is behind the National Party. A very large percentage of the Democratic votes would have gone to Labour and it is just plainly ridiculous to say Labour had no policy. It is common knowledge that Mr Holland borrowed the Government’s policy, because he knew it was his only hope of getting any worthwhile result. You are definitely not adding to the prestige of your paper by adopting Mr Holland’s tactics, so why not state ths facts openly or avoid the subject altogether. Mr Holland’s unreliability has long since been his undoing.—l am, INDEPENDENT. Our bitterness, if any, is reserved exclusively for occasionally tiresome corresponSir,—Your leading article on the election result would, I believe, mislead the general public. You stated that Labour’s votes in this election were greatly reduced. So they were, but you never said anything about the National Party’s reduction. Only a very few of the votes that were taken away from Labour went to National. To be exact, the amount was one per cent. Here is the actual position taken from Monday’s issue of “The Timaru Herald”:— 1938 1943 Labour .. .. 539,173 412,155 National . . 385,770 364.640 Other .. .. 30,777 98,946 Percentage of Votes 1938 1943 Labour .. .. 56ft 47 National .. 40J 41 i Other .... 3 11J There were 79,919 fewer votes recorded this election than last. One can see from these figures that Labour’s lost votes went to Democratic Labour, Independent, and other parties.—l am, etc., FACTS. The provisional count for the European electorates shows that 93,000 fewer votes, were cast in the 1943 election than in 1938. tn 1938 Labour polled 55.56 per cent, of the total, while the National Party polled 41.05 per cent. In Saturday’s election Labour polled 47.36 per cent, of the total, while the National Party increased its 1938 percentage from 41.05 to 43.31. The combined Democratic Labour and other candidates received 9.33 of the poll. In totals the Labour vote in 1943 was 81,562 less than in 1938, whereas the National vote was 8621 larger. If Labour had received all votes cast for other candidates it. would still have been 17,000 votes worse off than in 1938. Sir, —In your leading article on the election you seem to brush aside the Democratic Labour Party as being of little account in the past election. On Saturday’s figures they caused the defeat of at least five Labour candidates. Further, you forgot to state a fact which should be known: although the National Party gained nine seats, it polled about 12,000 less votes than in the 1938 election. As there are hundreds of votes still to come in, would it not be wise to cease comment on the subject until the results are in final form. —I am, etc., ST. ANDREWS. See figures in footnote above. CORRESPONDENTS ANSWERED CONSUMER: The Egg Floor question has been thoroughly discussed and you have added nothing new to the controversy. It is now ended.