THE MOUNT ALBERT BY-ELECTION

Wanganui Chronicle, 3 October 1947, Page 4

THE MOUNT ALBERT BY-ELECTION

'THE Mount Albert by-election which was concluded last week J caused little surprise in Auckland and apparently little interest was taken in the campaign. The reason for this it may be assumed is that nobody expected the Labour candidate to lose the seat. The majority at the general election was sufficiently large to make the by-election a certainty. But what is the significance of this easy acceptance of the result by the Nationalists? The polling at the booths showed that the National vote in the face of any prospect of a success for that Party’s candidate was remarkably strong. The Nationalist supporters went to the ballot box faithfully to register their disapproval of the Government, '/hat much is encouraging to the National Party. There is no falling away in the support this Party enjoys and the by-election may indicate. that there is a greater solidity in the electorate that votes the National way. Nevertheless there is no gainsaying that, the National Party has not improved its position on what might be termed the general body of support for the Labour Party. Notwithstanding .shortages and higher and higher prices the Government retains sufficient of its following in the urban areas to give its opponents cause to pause and think. Why is it that this solid block of workers’ votes goes solidly for the Labour Party? Why is it that there is no swingover of voting after some twelve years of office. On the whole country the movement away from the Government is to be discerned, but it is not to be discerned sufficiently in the urban seats electorates. Obviously the National Party cannot hope to secure a working majority unless it can appeal to the wage-earners to a greater degree than it is now doing. While the Labour Party has lost rural support the National Party has not gained to any marked degree in urban support. The National Party suffers from one serious handicap: its rural members of Parliament for rural seats confine them to themselves 100 closely with farmer taring interests and too little with urban interests and this is particularly true ol members of Parliament who have large areas of rural territory in their constituencies and small areas of urban population. If. the Nationalist members of Parliament could devote more of their time encouraging the urban population to see the-former as more the farmers’ advocates it is possible that more success would be registered in the urban areas. 1., the cause of the non-suecess in swinging support to the Nationalists due to an over-devotion to rural interests. A national party should be national in its appeal when it is national in name.