WELLINGTON NORTH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11752, 6 February 1918, Page 4

WELLINGTON NORTH.

There is likely to lie a keen contest for the Wellington North seat, which has been rendered vacant by the resignation of the Hon. A. .L. Herdman. Under the party truce arranged between the leaders of the Reform and Liberal parties, the right of nomination rests with the leader of the party to which the retiring member had previously .belonged. Under what authority this right was delegated to p. political leader, nobody appears to know. The system of nomination far from being democratic, is distinctly dictatorial;'' and is consequently repugnant to independent electors. The Prime Minister has exercised his self-assumed right, and has selected Mr J. P. Luke, Mayor of Wellington, as the nominee of the National Government. Sir Luke is a hard-working, industrious Mayor, with quite a lot of the average com-' inon-sense. But nature and environment never intended him for a politician. His circumscribed vision, and his narrow-mindedness on many public questions will not permit him to rise beyond the realm of political .mediocrity. ,Mr M. Myers the brilliant barrister, would be a much more fitting successor to the Hon. A. L. Herdman than would the honest hut negative, Mr J. P. Luke.