POLITICAL POINTS

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXII, Issue 48, 28 October 1925, Page 3

POLITICAL POINTS

GENERAL NOTES. WAIPAWA SEAT. The Nationalist candidate (Mr Chambers) is announced to address the electors at Onga Ouga to-night; Otawhao Cheese Factory, to-morrow morning at 9 o’clock; Takapau, at night; Waipawa, Friday evening; and Waipukurau, Monday, at 8 p.m. This will be the first meeting of the candi-' date in his home town, and it is expected that the Municipal Theatre will be fully filled by interested electors.

Sir George Hunter, M.P., is duo at Waimarama and Maraetotara this afternoon, and to-night at Havelock North, while to-morrow afternoon he will speak at Ruataniwha, and in the evening is to deliver the first Waipukurau address of the campaign, in the Municipal Theatre. Irrespective of the political outlook of an elector, it is desirable to "hear both sides,.” and all shades of political opinion are advised to attend the meeting in Waipukurau to-morrow night. NOT DISGRUNTLED. He (Mr Forbes) resented the statement by Mr Coates that the Liberals were disgruntled over the distribution of portfolios, and had run away. The Liberals had agreed unanimously that Mr Coates should have a free hand in the selection of his colleagues. Mr Forbes said he was sure Mr Massey would never have shown the spirit exemplified by Mr Coates at Palmerston North. At a subseqeunt meeting of the Liberal Party it was agreed to adopt the name of National Party. They had not given up any principles, and hoped to give the country a strong enough Government to run the country as it should be run. Throughout the world there was a challenge to constitutional Government, and New Zealand was fortunate in this respect, but if the time did come when the country

had to pass through a most difficult period, a Nationalist Government would be more necessary than ever. The Liberals were under no domination, and had no money for large newspaper advertisements. As in tho past, they had to fight the money of the country. New Zealand, at heart, was Liberal. —The Nationalist Leader, at Riccarton. HIGHWAYS AND OTHERWISE.

Air Forbes, at Riccarton, condemned the features of the Main Highways Act, and said the main roads were never worse than to-day. Mr Coates had treated it as a party question when the issue of giving the Highways Board power to make straight-out grants to local bodies was before Dealing with the appeal for “CoatCS men,” Mr Forbes said there were no "Forbes men.” He did not believe in men being tied hand and foot. Members of the Reform Party had supported Mr Atmore when he spoke in the House in favour of fusion, but Mr Coates treated the matter as one of no-confidence, and all Reformers had obediently followed him. The Government had written £3,000,000 off the value of ex-soldiers’ land, and it was extraordinary, in the fact of this, that the Hon. Mr McLeod was claiming that the scheme had been, and was, proving a success. He considered it one of the greatest blunders in land settlement in any country. The Auckland and Dunedin Reform newspapers had condemned the Government’s methods of settling soldiers. In regard to the statement that tho Liberals, through their association with the National Government in the war period, were partly responsible for some lanct purchases, Mr Forbes said members of his party had no voice in the matter. The compulsory clauses of the Land for Settlement Act must be put into effect in cases of large blocks of land. PARALYSING SOCIALISM. Both Mr Coates and Mr Forbes were pledged to fusion, and he believed them both to be honourable men, and in addition, the necessities of the position would force them together. He would not support any party held in office or position by the Socialists, as he believed the revolutionary movement to be antfBritish and one that paralysed output. He was pledged to the people of Nelson,’who would judge him on his serI vices to them, and who knew that no 1 vote of his had over been used against their best interests, and with their support he could laugh, at the carping criticism of those who attacked him anonymously or otheriwse. —Mr H. Atmore (I.), Nelson.

But when he started to read a fairly long statement of what Reform had done for the country, the people at the back became more articulate. One man protested that hie paid 2d a day

to read that in the newspapers, while others inquired where the candidate got those books he was heading, and when they were going to get a speech instead of a reading. "Is this the feudal system you are talking about?” asked another, w'hile yet another exhorted the class “to be good scholars and not make a noise.” Then, to the great enjoyment of those around her, a lady who was unlucky enough to hava got a scat among the dissenters, indignantly raised her voice and rebuked them: "If you don’t like it, get out!” —Mr John Massey (R.), Onehunga.— "N.Z. Times.” COUNTRY PARTY. “Why don’t the thirty-eight famers in the Reform Party fight for the farmers’ interests?” Mr F. Colbeck, Country Party candidate for Rotorua, was asked at a recent meeting. “Because they are Reformers first and farmers afterwards,” replied Mr Colbcck. “We are farmers first and Reformers afterwards, and there is a of a difference.” ONE "BOSS.”

At a public meeting in Inglewood, Mr Coates said: "I want to give it an absolute, definite denial again. It is untrue. • • I notice that Mr Holland asked what was the use of the Prime Minister denying this, when the Minister for Labour has not said a word about it. Well, the position is, there is going to be only one boss. There can be only one, and that is the Prime Minister. ’ ’