ELECTION NOTES.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 48, 29 September 1911, Page 2

ELECTION NOTES.

ELECTION matters are beginning to straighten themselves out a little now Sir John Findlay has decided to contest the Parnell seat, and the Hon. T. Mackenzie is to put up a fight for Egmont. Both gentlemen are promising great things for the electorates in particular and the country in general, if they are fortunate enough to be returned. Whether they will fulfil these promises is another matter altogether. The main point seems to be that the Ministry is waking up, to the importance of the North Island, and evidently wants to regain something of its lost prestige among our people. For years back we have suffered in the North from the domination of a Southern Ministry,- who have continually and persistently ignored the claimant needs of the rapidly-developing and growing North. It is something to the good that such an awakening has taken place. What the electors need to do is to see that Ministers are kept alive to those needs, and made to realise that they can no longer be put off or evaded. We have come to the parting of the ways, there can be no doubt about that. And unless the question of Native Lands,Back-block Roads, the tenure of Native townships, loss of population, increased facilities for carriage of goods, etc., are dealt with in a satisfactory manner at once we must face the fact that our progress will and must be retarded, and probably a serious set-back take place. So that we are thankful to see an awakened interest in our welfare. We shall be more than thankful to see that interest take the form of an enlightened and statesmanlike effort to meet our needs. The drain upon the Dominion’s population must be stopped, and the only way to stop it, is to open the Native lands for settlement quickly and cheaply. Thousands of acres of good land are lying idle and harbouring all kinds of pests, and we are losing our settlers because they cannot get [and. This must come to an end. and if the Ministers or members of the Opposition will set themselves resolutely to grapple with this problem, it will soon be solved, and the party who does the work will get the support of the people.