The Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1911. CHRISTCHURCH NORTH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10233, 16 August 1911, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1911. CHRISTCHURCH NORTH.

To-morrow the electors of Christchurch North will have oil opportunity of giving a lead to the rest of the people of the dominion in anticipation of the general elections. It is perfectly understood that the issue in this by-election is between the policy of the progressive Government and the policy of the Opposition. We know that Mr Isitt is not pledged to the Government, and Mr Kail is not pledged to Mr Massey, but the essential difference between the candidates is that, while Mr Hal! I will not have the Government "at any price," Mr Isitt would not have Mr Massey in power at any price. lire practical meaning of the candidates' diffidence about supporting any party through thick and thin and their preference for being agin' something is that Mr Tsitt is definitely and decidedly on the side of progress in social and constitutional reform, and Mr Hall is just as definitely and decidedly on the side of Conservatism and reaction. With the idea of catching the votes of people who arc not very keen politicians, Mr Hall's friends aro telling us that if Mr Masseydid get into power he and his party would not attempt to repeal any of the legislation that has been passed during the past twenty years, with the exception of certain clauses of the Public Revenues Act. The Opposition is fond of this story. Its anxiety, it says, is to secure control of the administration. The people may laps© into political apathy at times, but we cannot conceive of them being taken in with a tale of this sort. It stands to reason that the best Government to administer the progressive laws is the Government which proposed them and carried them through Parliament. It would be a new departure in politics to leave tho administration of important reforms to people who had opposed them bitterly and persistently. The best administration is sympathetic administration, and the'people are not likely to be deceived into believing anything else. The workers have only to ask themselves where the sympathies of the political friends of Mr Hall would bo if, as frequently happens, the interests of the squatters and big land-own-ers came into conflict with those of the city workers and country workers. The workers have a hard enough row to hoe politically under present conditions, without adding to the strength of the other side in Parliament. They can trust Mr Isitt implicitly. Tho man's whole life has been devoted to the betterment of the social conditions, and he has a record of thirty earnest years of unselfish and persistent effort to commend him. Wo have been urged not to attach any weight to Mr Isitt's superior abilities as a speaker, because ho has had twenty or thirty years of experience on the platform, Avhile Mr Hall is only beginner. Why should we not attach weight to the proficiency that Mr Isitt has acquired as the result of his long years of labour for the public good? If Mr Hall had had a grain of earnestness in his politics, if his heart had been burning with indignation at the sufferings of the poor, if he had been anxious to see wrong 3 righted, surely he could have begun twenty years ago. It is his own fault that he is a novice in politics. Thero was nothing to stop him from devoting his life to the service of the people. We shall be accused of raising class prejudices, of course, but wo have not raised them. Mr Kail's friends have been at it ever since the campaign opened, and we should ho false to the truth and false to tho people, as well as unfair to Mr Isitt, if we let the sneers and tho jeers on this subject go unanswered. Moreover, a strong point is being ma do of the sacrifice that Mr Hall is making in offering his services to the people now. AVhat sacrifice is he making? What sacrifice is he making now that Mr Isitt did not make twenty years and more ago, and that .Mr Isitt is not doubling now? Mr Isitt is not a rich man. Of late ho has been building up a business for himself in tho city, and at the call of what he regarded as a stern duty lie has left the business to look after itself. So far as wo know he and his friends have never so much as mentioned that aspect of the matter. It is not polities, and it should not enter into the campaign at all. Presumably both candidates know their own business best, and talk of ibe sacrifices that they are or are not malting is beside■ the mark, i We should certainly not have mentioni od the matter but for the song that | file lories have been singing on the j subject, but we do not see why the Conservative candidate should be getI ting all the credit that is going on this score. North Christchurch is not going to break away from its progressive traditions to-morrow, but wo hope that the electors will realise the importance of the contest and make their verdict an emphatic one. They have the eyes of the whole dominion on them, and the result of their voting will be quoted from the North Cape to tho Bluff in

November. Happily the choice is an easy one. The strong man suit] effective sneaker is on "the right .side politically, so that both the personal vote ami. the political vote e/ught to go to swell Mr Tsitt-'s majority.