The Christchurch Star. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1929. WILL MR BRUCE GO BACK?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18889, 12 October 1929, Page 8

The Christchurch Star. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1929. WILL MR BRUCE GO BACK?

counter-charges, bitterness and fierce denunciation have been the outstanding features of tiie campaign preceding to-day’s Federal elections. The roar of battle has been heard in every corner of Australia, and sweeping, even startling changes may be expected. The prophets, however, are not bold enough to be definite. Naturally, the party leaders express confidence in their ch&nces, but hundreds of others anticipate nothing but a stalemate. The main issue is the future of industrial arbitration in the Commonwealth. Mr Bruce, despite heckling and interruption, has carefully explained to his audiences that previously he advocated complete Federal control, but since the States would not vacate the field of industrial arbitration his only alternative was for the Federal authorities to do the necessary vacating. Led by Mr ,T. H. Scullin and Mr E. G. Theodore, Labour took up the challenge with every speaker and every bit of propaganda it could lay hands on. It put more fight into the election than into any other since the notable conscription campaigns of the war period. It leased all the most expensive signs in Sydney and blazed forth the message day and night that the Federal Government was making an attack on wages and salaries. Over 6,000,000 pamphlets and leaflets were distributed in less than three weeks. Apart from the issue, there are the personalities of the campaign. Most picturesque undoubtedly is Mr W. M. Hughes, the famous ex-Prime Minister, who has once again been acclaimed by his friends as a hero and branded by his enemies—this time the Nationalists—as a traitor. In the remote event of Dr Nott defeating Mr Hughes for the North Sydney seat, it is safe to hazard a guess that Mr Bruce would count the day a signal triumph no matter what happened to his own hold on office. AN EXPLORER IN A NEW ROLE. IT IS A LITTLE bit disappointing to find that Sir Hubert Wilkins’s interest in the Antarctic has shifted from exploration for its own sake to exploration for the signalling of shoals of whales. It is “ coming it strong ” when aeroplanes are used for this purpose, because it is well known that from the air the movement of whales can be followed at a great depth, and the slaughter is heavy enough as it is without bringing more scientific methods to bear on the problem. However, the Antarctic has become the happy hunting ground for whalers of every nation, and as the Norwegians seem determined to make a special drive in that direction, and to hoist the flag on any uncharted lands that may be discovered, one cannot pretend to any marked hostility towards British expeditions in search of oil. However, this general activity gives greater point than ever to the necessity for protecting whales, and it is to be hoped that international action will be possible before the whale is “shot out” by the multiplicity of expeditions that have now shifted their operations from the depleted seas of the Arctic Circle. WHY NOT BORROW FROM THE STATE? ii /AWN YOUR OWN HOME ” is a slogan that ought to have a special appeal to the wage workers of any city. The man who has a home of his own, or is paying for the purchase of a home, is a more solid member of the community, and one with a keener interest in civic affairs, than the man who pays rent and develops a “ damn-the-rate-payers ” complex. Christchurch is really a city of home owners and home lovers, and that gives it a special charm in the eyes of outsiders, who genuinely appreciate the long succession of extensive gardens, and the generous encouragement of trees and shrubs, that mark the city and suburbs. In connection with the campaign that has been started to-day, we would sincerely recommend all those in the community who require financial assistance for the purchase of a home to apply to tiie State Advances Department for information as to the terms upon which they can obtain a loan. Not only has the Department overtaken enormous arrears left to it by the Reform Government, but it is granting fresh applications promptly at cheap rates of interest, and under the system of amortization on which the loans are repaid, the burden is lightened, and the borrower is saved the worry and expense of renewing mortgages. BILLIARDS AND BIAS. - • \ r T"'HE BROADENING influence of a game of billiards is said to have worked wonders in clearing away distrust and suspicion and softening party lines among Members of the New Zealand Parliament. Since the M.P.’s and M.L.C.’s have had their common billiards room, with its easy chairs and its air of comfortable and exclusive club life, they have spent less time in the whips’ rooms, and more time in the company of members of other parties. This contact on the social side has done for them what Mr MacDonald’s visit to America is doing to-day in a larger sense. When “Tim” Armstrong, the Labour member for Christchurch East, has to slip out of the House to meet a challenge from the Hon L. M. Isitt, who is playing wag from the Legislative Council for the occasion, it may truly be said, in a political sense, that the lion is lying down with the lamb. And these social amenities make for good government by creatin'' a spirit of greater tolerance for “ the other fellow’s point'd view.” Indeed, the spirit of good fellowship in Pai-liament is developed to such a happy degree, and is so well worth preserving, thgt the little lapse of the member for Riccarton last night calls for mild reproof. If any member of the House, and above all the Prime Minister, is absent owing to illness, the occasion does call for a little sympathy, despite Mr Kyle’s Spartan views to the contrary.