REFORM AND LABOUR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19433, 20 October 1925, Page 6

REFORM AND LABOUR

Casting around in its bewildered fashion for a fresh mop with which to continue its futile efforts to sweep back the flowing tide of Reform, the local organ of the National Party seizes upon what it describes as a significant paragraph in the Patea “Press.” That newspaper reports that it has been informed by the secretary of the Patea branch of the Labour Party that “the members of his party have been instructed to give their support to Mr. Dickie at the present election.” The Nationalist organ gleefully remarks that “although Reform emphatically and consistently denies that there is any alliance between Reform and the extreme Labour Party,” this statement is significant and “tells its own story.”

Taking the statement at its face value, what does it mean? If Labour in Patea supports Mr. Dickie will that support constitute an “alliance” between Reform and Labour? Surely a promise of support is not an alliance. There have been eases in which Labour voters, having no candidates of their own, have supported Liberal candidates. In Waitomo, where a Reformer is opposed by a Nationalist, the latter declares that he. will vote with Labour on a no-confidence motion. At Tauranga, where a similar straight-out contest is being fought, the Nationalist candidate has given a similar assurance. In these cases there certainly is an alliance between Nationalism and Labour.

Mr. Dickie, the Reform candidate for Patea, has made it plain, as every other Reform candidate has done, that on no account would he vote to put Labour into power. If Labour chooses to vote for Mr. Dickie that is Labour’s affair. It is hard on the Nationalists, we admit, that even Labour, in spite of all its hostility to Reform, would rather see Mr. Dickie represent Patea than Mr. Corrigan. Labour’s decision means, of course, not only that Mr. Dickie is regarded as the better man but also that Labour realises the hopelessness of the National Party’s outlook. It is a very safe conclusion that if Labour thought the National Party had any chance of becoming an effective force in Parliament Labour would vote to help Nationalism against Reform.