POLITICAL POINTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16904, 1 December 1922, Page 6

POLITICAL POINTS.

WHAT THE CANDIDATES ARE SAYING. It costs tho people 10s for every £1 collected on tli© tax on tea. I think such a tax could only have emanated in the brain of an imbecile. The national finances in New Zealand are rotten. —Mr Gilchrist, in Dunedin. Perhaps. —“ I am waiting the opportunity,” said Mr Ma-ssey at Masterton, “ to increase our share in the Bank of New Zealand from one-third to onehalf. I don’t expect to do it for a year or two, but I will be there anyhow when the time comes.” ‘‘ Mr Massey would have done better had he stuck to the lines of his speech,” said a prominent Christchurch Reformer this mojning. “ He spent too much time replying to interjectors. Still the meeting was much more successful than it might have been.” Two members of the Reform cabine: will lose their seats at the 1922 election, according to a well-informed North -Island business man who has just completed a tour of New Zealand They are Sir R H Rhodes, Minister of Defenoe, and the Hon D. H. Guthrie. Minister of Lands. Humorous questions bulked largely i’l proceedings at the close of a tamo Reform meeting held recently in Auckland. One man asked: 1 Is the can didate in favour of Chinamen being allowed to wear kilts? ” Another ask ed : “ Docs tho candidate agree to save tho ratepayers’ money hy advocating that water and gas should run through the same pipes? ” Since it has leaked out- that the folic wing resolution was carried at one of hi.-j West* Coast meetings, will Mr Holland continue to deny what the antiRussian revolutionists say against him ? ‘'That this meeting affirms its confidence in the New Zealand Labour Party, and its candidate. Mr H. E. Holland, and further conflargalu erafw srofwyp hrdlllik.'” These be dark sayings ! “ Let us have a Government in which the majority of the people is represented by its voting strength. That is the first great step. The next is to secure to the people control over its Parliament 365 days in the year, as against one day in three years—election day—by having the right to initiate legislation, and the right to veto reactionary legislation by the referendum. With control of Parliament in the hands of tho people, as it should all the time, we can expect the administration of the day to serve the majority of citizens, who in New Zealand as in other countries are the people who depend on their pay envelopes fee their menus to live.”—Mr H. E. Combs at the Town Hall. “ A man brought me a litter of pups the other night,” said Mr H. E. Combs, Labour candidate for Wellington North. “ Previously lie hod tried to sell them to the other two candidates for this seat. He had told Sir John Luke that they were good Reform pups, and Mr Young that they came of a lo\al Liberal family. But these wise men had refused to have anything to do with them. ‘l’ve got two hefty Labour pups here,’ he said to me. • Whatr’ I answered. ‘You told Sir John Luke that they were Reform, and Mrs Young that they ero of Liberal breed. ‘ Oh, I know,’ lie answered. 1 but they’ve opened their eyes since then.’ ” An over-enthusiastic supporter of Labour caused some embarrassment to one of the Labour candidates at the open-air meeting in Grey Lvnn the other evening. Mr Savage had been ridiculing the idea that there was not a leader in sight to take the place of M- Massey, and although the crowd suggested Mr Holland, Mr Savage went on to develop his argument. M hen we are gone.” said the candidate, '‘ some one will take our places and <lo tho job better than we are doing it. ’ The admirer who had been loud in his encouragement up to this point suddenly piped up: ” We hope Sl The crowd saw the humour of tho thing and was able to laugh with the candidate. An amusing incident enlivened the meeting addressed by Mr W. J. Holdsworth (candidate for Grey Lynn) at Kings land. When question time arrived a woman, well known in Labour circles, was proceeding to address the candidate j at some length on various topics, when the chairman, Air A. F. Bennett, said, j “ The young lady must not make a ! political speech; she must only ask ; questions.” “I am not a voting lady. I’m a grandmother,” retorted the woman, amid loud laughter. “ The moment 3011 mount a political platform you are a scoundrel.” was the pathetic utterance of Mr S. M. Wren, at St Aidan’s Hall, which evoked a sympathetic hear! hear! followed by laughter, when the candidate for political honours added: U I have learned so many things about myself since* the campaign started that 1 am really getting doubtful as to whether T have lived a good life.” Mr Massey’s pose that Labour is an evil-minded monster, pursuing him with slavering jaws and gnashing teeth, and from which he and. his faithful bench men must bo carefully protected, is on occasion rather humorously illustrated | (says the Auckland “ Star ”). On j Wednesday night Mr Massey spoke at .Dominion Road., and in the same thoroughfare Mr Bartram, the Labour candidate for Grev Lynn, has a committee room. Curiously enough just before the Prime Minister** car passed this committee room on its way to the Empire Theatre, two stalwart policemen took up their station immediately out side and remained there till the car containing the first gentleman in New Zealand had rolled by. As Mr Bartram put it afterwards, “Now, were those two policemen there to protect me against Mr Massey or to protect Mr Massey against me? ”

From 10 o’clock to 10.40 Mr Hall Skelton at Auckland on Monday was besieged by questions, while at one stage an individual, who was described as a hooligan, threw an egg into the crowd. It was, fortunately, a bad shot. The lady who sold 55 million feet of timber on a block of land in the Rotorua district to the Railway Department heckled the candidate on his statements about the transaction, and begged leave to say that Mr Hall Skelton had got everything wrong. He stood by his charges. There was a great deal of merriment toward the finish, an elector pressing a motion of thinks to thaw candidate with an addition that “he was much too modest for this electorate.” It was ruled out. Eventually a more favourable motion was declared carried, and there were both cheers and groans for the Massey Government. “It was a perfect night overhead, and the patience of the people was admirable.” concludes a report of the meeting.